A Hike w/ Skippy up Mt. Taurus

[beanbag]

I got out last weekend with my good hiking buddy Skippy. We hiked Mt. Taurus. It's part of Hudson Highlands State Park, which is about 15 miles upstream from Harriman State Park, and on the east side of the Hudson.

Like most Hudson hikes, this one starts steeply uphill and stays that way for a while.

About a half mile in I came to this abandoned quarry site which is overgrown with trees.

There were long sections of rusted pipes along the trail, obviously remnants of the former quarrying operations.

Skippy:

After a while we got to our first view point. A storm system was pulling out, and the views were hazy with some low clouds. This is looking south over the town of Cold Spring, NY. Just north of the sharp bend in the river is Constitution Island, and beyond the bend is the United States Military Academy at West Point. This was a dangerous place for British ships during the revolutionary war.

Crows Nest Mountain is directly across the river:

The Metro North Railroad shares tracks with Amtrak and there are several stops along this section for Hikers. They run "hiker's specials" on the weekend to ferry city folk to the trails, with two trains in the morning and two coming back in the evening.

More Skip. Don't worry he was off leash 95% of the hike.

Further up the trail I was able to get a glimpse of Storm King across the river.

After a bit more climbing, we got to the top and had views of Mt. Beacon with it's two fire towers. Still the low clouds obscured the panorama.

The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.

The mighty Breakneck Ridge, the steepest hike in the whole Hudson Highlands area:

On the way down the hiking was sloppy and wet due to the rainiest month in southern NY's history. All the streams were swollen and quite muddy:

This was a section of woods that was kind of strange. It had a thin canopy, but almost no under-growth:

About a half mile from the end of our day, we came to the ruins of what was clearly once a very lavish estate in the middle of the woods. It was owned by some guy named Cornish. The historical significance of this place is that even in the olden days, some people had obscene amounts of $$$!! The place was cool and quite spooky:

All in all, a great time out with man's best friend.

Thanks for for looking.:thumbup:

BEAN

 

[Grateful]

Really beautiful pictures. How could you not have a good time there? What breed of dog is Skippy?
Jim

 

[pitdog]

Great pics buddy, Skippy is my kind of hiking companion !

That old estate looks really cool, wonder what happened to the family ?

 

[beanbag]

Really beautiful pictures. How could you not have a good time there? What breed of dog is Skippy?
Jim

Skip is a purebred mutt. When people ask, we just tell them he's a Skipperdoodle!

Great pics buddy, Skippy is my kind of hiking companion !

That old estate looks really cool, wonder what happened to the family ?

I posted this up on another forum, and someone researched the estate and posted this:

Some info on the Ruins:

Northgate
(Edward J. Cornish Estate)
COLD SPRING, N.Y.

One of the great collections of ruins in the Hudson Valley lies on publicly-accessible land in Putnam County. Although the layout of property is well-known to hikers, the early history of the estate is nearly unknown to historians. In 1917, Edward Joel Cornish and his wife Selina Bliss Carter Cornish acquired 650 acres (which they called Northgate) in Cold Spring from a diamond merchant named Sigmund Stern, who built the estate over the previous decade. What is known is that the mansion, garage, swimming pool, gardens and other outbuildings existed at the time of purchase by Cornish. Who designed them remains a mystery, and until photographs appeared in April 2010, the public at large did not know the original appearance of the mansion and grounds.

Edward Cornish (1861-1938) was President of the National Lead Company from 1916 to 1933 and lived in New York to be near the company offices. Cornish and his wife Selina, formerly of Omaha, NB, died within two weeks of each other in May of 1938, and the estate seems to have lain abandoned more or less since then. Edward Cornish, perhaps desiring to protect the estate in perpetuity against the nearby rock blasting on Mt. Taurus, wished to donate his Cold Spring property to New York State upon his death. State parks commissioners rejected his offer, claiming the mountainous terrain was not suitable for a public park, and that it was already protected by restrictions against quarrying..

A few decades later, the estate became a focal point of conservation efforts yet again, when the Cornish heirs sold the estate in 1963 to Central Hudson Gas and Electric. The regional utility giant briefly contemplated building a power plant on Breakneck Ridge, a fact largely forgotten by historians as this effort was overshadowed by Con Ed's prolonged and publicly-waged effort to build a similar plant across the Hudson River at Storm King. By the end of the 1960s however, the ruins of Cornish estate became part of the newly formed Hudson Highlands State Park and the plans for the power plant was dropped by Central Hudson G & E..

All that remains of the structures on the estate are their stone walls. The building interiors are completely gutted and window frames and woodwork have all been destroyed. According to a local newspaper article, Cold Spring Fire Department records show that there was a fire in the fall of 1956, which destroyed the interiors of the mansion.

In addition to the mansion, other surviving structures include the swimming pool, the greenhouse, and the pump house below to two picturesque waterfalls. At the north end of the 650-acre estate stands a large stone cattle barn. Another large building, possibly a garage, and another small farm building stand in ruins there as well. Even an old wagon rusts away between the barn and the reservoir. Cornish raised prized Jersey cows here and. newspaper articles of the 1920s chronicled the record-setting milk producing efforts of Cornish's dairy cows, including one named "Fon Owlet."

Further past the reservoir is Lake Surprise, site of an old but still active summer camp. Also, the Catskill Aqueduct slices through the Cornish property, separating the farm parcel from the residential section, and an early 20th-century pump-house can be seen along that trail.

Here is is a picture of the inside of the greenhouse:

 

[uyotg]

Nice pictures! Beautiful.
With that long hair, I wonder how Skippy managed to stay so clean. I can't bring my dog Badger out for a few seconds without at least his paws picking up dirt.

 

[the rat]

Nice hike, I just love exploring old home places and outbuildings. It makes you stop and wonder what kind of life it's inhabitants lived.

 

[beanbag]

Nice pictures! Beautiful.
With that long hair, I wonder how Skippy managed to stay so clean.

He didn't for long.

 

[TheGame]

Thanks for the pics. Love the old estate pics. Good looking dog, too. Best kind of companion.. :thumbup:

 

[sicily02]

That looks like a awesome place to hike in.

Very cool pics,

Bryan

 

[dboles]

Nice pictures and story .Enjoyed the history.Like reading your posts
Thanks for taking the time!
How wide is that Hudson River at that point
I remember a post of your about climbing the Storm King.(That was yours right?)
Dan'l

 

[WILLIAM.M]

Great Photos

Please keep posting your trips!!!

 

[mtwarden]

thanks for thread! I really enjoy seeing different country from around the US (around the world for that matter )

 

[Mistwalker]

Great shots Reuben as always. Thanks for the post and the interesting read and history. I'd love to spend some time in those ruins checking out the architecture of those stone walls. In the pics of the views of the river is the stain of the water due to the recent storms?

 

[beanbag]

Thanks for the pics. Love the old estate pics. Good looking dog, too. Best kind of companion.. :thumbup:

Yeah, that place was cool. I knew there was going to be some kind of ruins, but nothing that extensive. We like the Skipster too.:thumbup:

That looks like a awesome place to hike in.

Very cool pics,

Bryan

Thanks.

Nice pictures and story .Enjoyed the history.Like reading your posts
Thanks for taking the time!
How wide is that Hudson River at that point
I remember a post of your about climbing the Storm King.(That was yours right?)
Dan'l

Thanks. I did do a Storm King post last summer.

I'm not sure how wide it is there, but I found a couple of old drawings that show the Hudson River Chain:

and the Fields of Fire from the forts at Constitution Island and West Point:

Great Photos

Please keep posting your trips!!!

Thanks, and will do. I'm heading out for an overnighter with my son tomorrow into Monday, I'm sure I'll be taking pics.

thanks for thread! I really enjoy seeing different country from around the US (around the world for that matter )

Your very welcome!!

Great shots Reuben as always. Thanks for the post and the interesting read and history. I'd love to spend some time in those ruins checking out the architecture of those stone walls. In the pics of the views of the river is the stain of the water due to the recent storms?

I'm glad you like them Mist, but I wish I was 1/2 the photographer Bearthedog is.

 

[kgd]

Nice - love those watershots and the ruins are very cool!