Breakneck Ridge

Hike Name: Breakneck Ridge Location: southeast NY Length: 5 Submitted by: John Graham Date Submitted: 0/0/00 Rating:	more New York trail reviews New York national parks New York state parks
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Description
This trail starts from the Hudson River, up a ridge which the highway underpasses in a tunnel. The trail gains 800 feet in the first half mile, but your effort is paid off by views up and down the Hudson Valley. The trail is steep and requires the use of hand holds in a few sections, but these sections all have bypasses, marked with X's that follow less exposed routes. It is this frequent exposure that makes the hike so exhilerating, as you climb alongside a 200 foot cliff while views of West Point Military Academy open up down the Hudson Highland Gorge. After the initial climb, the trail continues from exposed knob to exposed knob along the ridge, revealing the river as far south as the Bear Mountain Bridge and the surrounding series of parallel ridges. The finale of the hike is a climb up Mt Beacon to the fire tower, where the skyscrapers of Manhattan poke out over a ridge where the river bends. The Shawangunk cliffs shine to the north, while the purple Catskills loom behind them.
Other trails can be used to loop back to the start, over Taurus, via the undercliff trail if you're really ambitious. Most people loop back via the Wilkinson Trail over Sugarloaf, for one more panaroma of the river, before returning to earth.

Directions to Hike
By car, the trailhead is on Route 9D, a mile and a half north of Cold Spring. Cold Spring is about ten miles north of the Bear Mountain Bridge on Route 9D or about ten miles west on Route 301 from the Taconic State Parkway.
The trail is also easily accessible by train from the Hudson River Line, with stops just north of the trailhead on weekends and a short walk from Cold Spring the rest of the time.

Contact Information
The New York- New Jersey trail Conference publishes a map set, "East Hudson Trails" which shows the routes discussed or a more detailed description can be found in "The New York Walk Book", also published by the NY-NJ Trail Conference, (212) 685-9699 or www.nynjtc.org.

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