Breakneck Ridge, Again

Went to Breakneck Ridge to hike again this Saturday with lots of friends (7 people in total). It’s almost an exact replicate of my one-man hike 1.5 years ago: Breakneck Ridge loop => Little Stony Point => Cold Spring. The difference is we took a smaller loop this time, and had some drinks in Cold Spring.

The fun part of Breakneck Ridge is at the beginning. The first 0.5~1 hours, depending on how fast you hike, can be pretty challenging for people who don’t hike often. After that there are many trail choices, and you can plan a loop of almost any length. This time the 7 of us split to 3 groups: riki couple was really fast and went ahead a lot; Jack/Sharon/Xiang took photos and fell in the middle; xw and I were really slow and took the shortest possible loop…

Little Stony Point park has small beaches. It’s warmer this time so we hang out there for a while. Most of my photos on Instagram of this trip were from here.

The whole team rendezvoused at a French restaurant in Cold Spring. It’s an interesting feeling to walk into this beautiful town after 1.5 years. I saw those nice buildings, yards, bench by the river which had been so clear in my memory stayed exactly the same, only the season changed. Such a quite and timeless town.

It was actually my dream to revisit all these beautiful places I had been in US with xw again. Breakneck Ridge and Cold Spring are the first step!

Hiking by Myself – Little Stony Point & Cold Spring Village

从Breakneck下来之后,发现路对面有个叫Little Stony Point Park的小公园。看起来非常的小,于是也就进去转了转。

这其实是在Hudson河里面的一个小岛,里面的路线也就是简单的一个绕岛一周的圈儿。先看到一片树林后面有片小沙滩,有根浮木搁浅在沙滩上,感觉这个地方是个很不错的野餐场所,可以看到Breakneck Ridge和Storm King Hill隔河相望。可惜我得相机没广角,照不到两个山……这儿还有个介绍的牌子,一面是说这儿夏天的时候有水上的trail,就是划个筏子沿着hudson河走,另一面是说这个地方原来是个采石场,包括Breakneck Ridge也是,后来在环保人士的努力下,洛克菲勒家族把这两个地方捐献出来作为公园了。

继续走下去会看到岛中央还有个小石头山,不过貌似没有路上去。在这个石头山下面有一个看起来很神奇的洞窟!只有半人高,深不可测,洞口还滴滴答答的往下滴水,洞口还有点骷髅头之类的涂鸦。看起来是个采石的洞。我犹豫了数分钟之后,拿出手机开始google “little stony point cavern”……确认里面不会闹鬼之后毅然拿着手机照明,猫腰钻进去了!里面倒也还好,没有什么太奇怪的气味,走个七八米之后就只能靠照明了,大概往里走十几米之后分成左右两岔。我往右边的岔走了几步,模模糊糊看到是个死胡同,于是掉头回到分岔路口。话说猫腰在这个小洞里钻来钻去还真是很累的,而且说实话也有点怕,于是左边的路我就随便按了几张照片就急急忙忙逃出去了,还碰了下头。。

从Little Stony Point出来之后继续向南走,来到Cold Spring村。这个村从山上俯瞰的时候就能看到是个很nice的村子,有整洁的小房子,道路和球场。到了近处就发现这儿真的是breath-taking beautiful。先是看到河边柳树下面草地上一条长椅,很不真实的那种感觉。然后是看到一个小红房子,大院子里一地黄叶,靠着篱笆停了一辆汽车一辆小自行车,院子中央从树上垂下来一个秋千。我走过去之后又专门回头去拍了几张照片,但还是拍不出来什么。继续走下去发现这小镇也算是美国的“古镇”了,有150年历史,hoho。到了等车的站台上我已经累得不行了,正好那儿一片红红黄黄的树很漂亮,就坐在那儿等着了。等车的时候一度站台上有三拨人,全都是中国人,哈哈。