Long Path Section 8, NY - Route 32 to Schunemunk Mountain with Ridge Loop

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Schunemunk State Park - New York State Parks

Long Path Section 8 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 41.36085, -74.10773

Parking at the intersection of Evans Drive and NY Route 32, about 0.2 mile south of the railroad trestle.

TRAIL MAP: 

Schunnemunk State Park Trail Map - New York State Parks

West Hudson Trails Map 114 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

HIKE DISTANCE: 8.4 miles

THE HIKE: 

This is a challenging hike with many (often vertical) rock scrambles.

Walk north on Route 32 to just under the railroad trestle.

Left into a driveway just past the trestle.

Then left again up and under the trestle.

The path follows along a fence ...

... then the trail follows a berm along the tracks until it veers away into the woods.

The trail follows an old woods road and starts to ascend.

Picked up a worm-eating warbler on the Merlin sound ID app and a few minutes later saw a bird in the treetop.  Thought I got that worm-eating warbler ...

... but it turned out to be a black-and-white warbler.  Welcome from migration!

Getting steeper.

The rock scramble up begins.

Views from Little Knob.

Continuing straight up.  I have a fear of heights and I have to say my knees almost started knocking along this stretch.

But I made it to High Knob with views of the Hudson Valley.

I was a bit worried about how I would get back down so I spent most of the rest of the hike formulating a plan in my head.  It's the "in my head" part that is the problem.  Sigh.

The trail follows a narrow path along the edge of the ridge for a while.

Just a rocky area, nothing crazy.

I was being serenaded by a chipping sparrow while I sat to take a break.

A rock hop over Dark Hollow Brook but there aren't enough rocks to hop.  The log to the left worked well.

Here I met up with where I left off in August 2020 when I hiked section 8 to this point on the Long Path from Gonzaga Park.

I continued straight on the orange Western Ridge Trail to loop around two ridges.

Just a bit ahead, views of the Gunks with the Catskills beyond.

Then, oh my, a drop straight down, much farther down than it looks in the picture.  I tied a leash to my backpack to lower it down so I could concentrate on getting myself down.  I didn't take my shoes off - I was wearing new hiking shoes for the first time so I always take my old ones along just in case there is a problem.

The orange trail descends more then veers right and ascends to a rocky ridge that it follows for quite some time.

Coming off the ridge, a hard right on red dot.

A nice reprieve on a smooth, flat trail for a little while.

Right on the blue Ridge-to-Ridge Trail.

This switchbacks up steeply ...

... then becomes straight up rock scrambles.

At the top of the ridge.

Right on the yellow Jessup Trail.

Nice views along the way but there is more scrambling up and down.

This is also the route of the Highlands Trail.

Did I mention there were more steep up and down scrambles?

Back at the intersection where I started the loop, left on the Long Path to retrace.

Back over Dark Hollow Brook.

This part seems really easy after that ridge to ridge loop.

Back at the views from High Knob.

And now the dreaded descent that looks like it drops right over the edge.

It pretty much does but after all of the challenging scrambles on the ridge to ridge loop, this descent was actually pretty easy.  See, it was all in my head.

Coming out from under the trestle I was surprised to see cars parked here.  I don't think that is allowed - I am pretty sure that is a private driveway.

Back along Route 32 to where you are supposed to park.