Long Path and Shawangunk Ridge Trail, NY - Gobbler's Knob to Graham Mountain

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Long Path Section 11 - NYNJ Trail Conference

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates:  41.50250, -74.54907

Bashakill Parking Lot (to pick up where I left off the week before)

TRAIL MAPS: 

Shawangunk Ridge Trail Map 1 - NYNJ Trail Conference

Shawangunk Ridge Trail Map 2 - NYNJ Trail Conference

HIKE DISTANCE:  11.2 miles

THE HIKE: 

I needed to connect the Long Path/Shawangunk Trail section between Bashakill Wildlife Management Area where I had hiked the weekend before and Graham Mountain State Forest where I left off three years ago.

Turning left on the abandoned rail bed in Bashakill.

The trail leaves to the left but also continues straight so I went straight first to see how far it went.

In just a short distance it ends at the Basha Kill.

Heading back and ...

... turning right back on the Long Path.

The trail reaches Indian Orchard Road and turns left.

In a very short distance the trail turns right and begins to climb into Gobbler's Knob State Forest.  This is a new reroute as of October 2021 eliminating the longer road walk that existed when the trail turned right on Indian Orchard Road.

There were still some marking ribbons and Brodie had a very hard time staying on the trail, I would guess because it has hardly been used and there was not enough scent for him to follow, which is how he follows the trail.  

Meeting up with where the trail used to come up from the road walk (the orange line), now blazed yellow with New York DEC markers.

When the trail turns sharply right, a side trail on the left leads to Gobbler's Knob Viewpoint.

It is, however, very overgrown with just little snippets of views.  Continuing on the trail the views are actually better from the trail.

The trail now descends towards Otisville Road.

Found a pair of glasses along the way.

Coming up on Otisville Road.

A left on the road after descending the stone steps.

It's not as bad of a road walk as I expected it would be and it's not all that long.

At the point where we cross Route 211 I ran into Nicholas who is thru-hiking the Long Path which is 358 miles long from the 175th Street Subway Station in New York City to John Boyd Thacher State Park near Albany in New York.  He was two weeks into the hike at this point.  We chatted for a bit before continuing on our ways.  He is the only other person I saw the entire hike.

After crossing Route 211 diagonally to the left, the trail turns right onto a rail bed.

I have seen old cars, boats, snowmobiles, and tractors in the woods but this treadmill is a first.

The trail was nice and breezy and shaded until ...

... it reached the power lines where there is full exposure.

Fortunately it was not too hot yet but it would be much warmer on the return route.

This is a pretty long stretch, the longest of a total of three power cut sections.

There are some views along the way.  There are live train tracks at a much lower level to the right.  I could hear trains go by but could never see them.

Some ruins to the left off the trail.

Some views to the right off the trail.

Coming up on Graham Mountain State Forest there are white and red trails but they are very hard to see as the markers start a distance into the woods.  I had hiked both trails previously but decided to hike the bottom loop instead of the full figure eight loop before heading back.

The white Ravine Trail starts out calm enough.

But it become rougher and rougher and true to it's name ...

... climbs up a ravine full of boulders.  There is no path but the markers are sufficient to follow up.

Nearing the top things become smoother ...

... and eventually there is a trail.

We turned right on the red Fire Tower Trail which descends much more gently on a woods road.

Back on the Long Path and retracing.

At the last pylon I decided to take a break in the shade before entering the shaded woods area which had not become too buggy to stop to rest.  I felt bad thinking Brodie was too hot from the longest full exposure section when he went off trail into the tall grass but turns out that was not the reason.  He was actually in hiding from someone shooting off fireworks in the distance. Sigh.

Fortunately the fireworks stopped and I was able to coax Brodie out of hiding to continue on.

Crossing Route 211 back to Otisville Road.

Right to the rock steps back up Gobbler's Knob.

All the way back to Indian Orchard Road where the trail turns left but since the car was just a short distance to the right, we turned right and road walked back to the parking lot.

Wildflowers seen on the hike: