The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-09
IN THE HUDSON HIGHLANDS
EXPLORING in A WILDERNESS
NEAR TOWN AT ITS BEST NOW.
For walking and Climbing Trips the High
lands Of the Hudson Now In Their Finest
Condition. "A sample Rsmble Marks
OF the Glaciers Field for the BOtanlst.

The Highlands Of the Hudson are now
in their finest condition Of the year for
walking and climbing trips. The vegeta-
ton Ia fresh and green and the brooke and
waterfalls are plehtifully supplied. 1t 10
In May and June along these wAteroourses
that the wealth OF plant life OF the region
is best displayed.
! Too many New Workers. who 20 up tho
river every summer see only the outside
Of the Highlands, the steep faces Of the
hills that shut out the wilder country Ave
or six miles back, on either side OF the
( Hudson. Yet In q single days trip one
may explore ten. fifteen or even twenty
, miles Of the region and get back to New
York In the evening easily enough.
To the New Yorker, native or adopted,
who seeks n real holiday, without the crowds
and hustle and unpleasant features OF
most resorts in the metropolitan district.
the Highlands are full Of attraction. One
can reach any Of the stations on landings
on this side Of the river by noon easily
and have six hours or more before IL lie
time for the return boat or train.
Striking directly back. east or west from
these stations, IL In best to leave the travelled
roads and take to the wood paths, grown
UP with underbrush, or leave any sort Of
path and follow a brook as a guide as soon
as possible. This Is the only way to find
out the secrets OF the region.
The best equipment for a beginner at
exploring the secluded parts OF the High
lands lie several of the typographical sheets
OF the United States Geological Survey.
They cost only five cents apiece and are
obtainable by writing to the Director Of
the Survey in Washington. They show
plainly every natural feature OF the country,
as we'll as the cultural features, the works
OF man., roads, houses, villages, DC. With
the exercise OF ordinary intelligence 1t Is
impossible TO get lost with these maps,
however far back from the river one goes.
The West Point and Schunemunk sheets
cover the best Of the Highlands. the dividing
line between these two nearly following
the river. On the Schunemunk sheet, the
brown contour lines. showing the altitude
for every twenty feet, are the predominant
feature, indicating the wilderness Of hills
and valleys over nearly all that section.
In the southeast quarter Of this quadrangle
are the highest submits Of the Highlands
west Of the Hudson, Schunemunk and
Black Rock mountains reaching nearly
LOO feet.
These steep hillsides. with their fast
falling brooks. are everywhere cut with
wooded ravines where are shy delicate
flowers and ferns, and where the amateur
botanist may find genera and species that
he has never known before outside the
descriptions in his Gray's Manual. For
the amateur geologist the Hudson schist,
the prevailing formation OF the region,
will be found varied everywhere into in
terestinR forms. And ancient glacial action,
which was very busy here ages ago, will
show him who has eyes to see many OF
its autographs, in the little lakes, perched
sometimes on the very tops OF the hills,
he swamps and boys that show where
ancient lakes once where, the parallel
scratches on the great bare rocks. and
the scattered boulders. Of material ~strikingly
unlike their surroundings, brought from a
hundred miles or more further north.
Around these glacial lakes and bogs.
too, will sometimes be found odd plants,
particularly grasses and sedges. that can
not be found in lower ground unless one
goes to Newfoundland or Labrador. These
little colonies Of rare g~enera>and species
show how through multitudes Of genera
ions the individuals that grew all over
the country when the Joe was here nave
reiterated up to these submits before the
advance Of the plants Of a warmer CLINE.
Here is a sample tramp that the writer
took a few Sundays ago: Going up to the
Hudson by steamboat he landed at Fishkill
Landing and took q trolley to a point near
the foot Of the northern spur OF Mount
Beacon, on the summit OF which great
bonfres, in Revolutionary times, told the
Continental army. enoamped back OF New
burgh, what the British were doing on the
river below.
In a horseshoe shaped depression on
top OF the mountain is a pretty artificial
lake, used as a reservoir for Fishkill's water
supply. The surplus from it and springs
along the m~ountainside make a brook
that leaps swiftly down to the level Of the
village. In places the brook dropA YER
tioally twenty or thirty feet over Ihossy
rocks, and on these lodges may be found
wild flower gardens Of a dozen species.
On the top Of a fat boulder covered q
few inches with earth and moss and moist
ened by the brook along one edge were
found hepaticas, yellow dogtooth violete,
mitrewort with it's feathered petals, the
red oolumbine. and half q dozen species
OF violets, blue, white and yellow. A faint
path runs up this brook and disappears
completely a few hundred feet below the
sources Of the stream. The amateur /
naturalist who wants to see what the brook
and the mountain offer to the discerning
eye will take this steep and briary way
rather than the easier road graded for
carriages that goes up to the reservoir by
q gentler slope.
4 few hundred feet from the summit Of
the northern spur Of Mount Beacon the
brook forks. The south fork may be fol-
lowed to the reservoir lake, and thence
the explorer may climb to the South Beacon,
the southern spur, whose bare, w~indswept
top rises 1856 feet. the highest point OF
the Highlands east Of the river.
From that summit one may descend the
steep southern face Of the Fishkill Noun.
tains and 60 down the narrow and beautiful
B~reakneck Valley between Breakneck Noun
tain and Bull Hill. and. reaching the Hud-
son, walk down to Cold Spring. for the
train or steamboat back to New York In
the evening. Two little lakes and o leapinR
brook that empties them into the Hudson
make this valley q delight.
But on this walk the writer took the
north fork OF the mountain brook, which
led him away from the northern spur and
up through a cleft opening on to the fine,
level farming country. southeast Of the
range OF hills in the eastern part OF the
township OF Phillipstown.
Where the southern slope begins the
mountainside In deeply cut In q steep,
heavily timbered ravine. whose gloomy
craq a have cnlRa1 the natiVea to name n