Section 8: 9.2 Miles

Alright well I finally filled in the holes and have officially hiked the entire "Hudson Palisades" section of the Long Path.  I really thought I'd be farther along by this time and this may be the 2013-14 project instead of just 2013, but I've really enjoyed doing it and am happy that I've gotten this far.

We brought the dog this time - he had a good time and thankfully didn't get any raw spots on his feet.  He also got to try out his new backpack.  It held two water bottles, some snacks, his leash, and his water bowl.  It also rub Riley raw like his last pack which I'm sure he was really grateful for.

Me and Riley at the top of High Knob in our matching gear.  

We hiked North to South, starting at a commuter lot.  The trail heads away from the lot on a short road walk.  Later, it cuts into the woods by a lake and the rest of the trail is off the road.  It's great that the Long Path organizers are working to move it off the roads as much as possible.  There are some cool buildings in Gonzaga Park that are left from when the property was a Jesuit retreat.

The stone wall around the retreat plus some cool old buildings.

Almost the whole trail is co-aligned with the Highlands Trail (light blue) and inside the park, it's also co-aligned with the Jessup Trail (yellow).  This makes for a lot of blazes, and the trail is not always marked with all of them, sometimes just yellow, so it's important to pay attention to where you're going.  The Highlands and Jessup trails split from the Long Path about 3 miles from the Woodbury trail head, so looking for that turn off is key.  The views from the top of High Knob are fantastic.  There are a whole bunch of overlooks in a row.  I do caution that there are some steep climbs and descents getting there.  We had to do some scrambling and had to grab Riley's harness and lift him down at times to keep him from going flying down the side of the mountain.

View from High Knob.

Beautiful hike with some great views.  I'm hoping to get up to the Catskills for this (Thank you Rosh Hashanah) 4 day weekend and cross over the 100 mile mark.  :-)