Cold Spring: Evening Hike

The morning proved unexpectedly productive, so my anticipated early departure for a long Columbus Day hike was postponed until 1:20 p.m.  (I thought about skipping it entirely, but I figured with a 6:18 sunset, I'd be OK - and this way I had a good excuse not to tackle the mess at home.  Plus - the train ride is a great opportunity to review the draft and do some brainstorming.)  I had an LED headlamp and a cell phone with me, but I was pretty sure I'd make the 6-something train back to NYC, in any event - after all, I ended up running a fair bit of the trail yesterday, and it only took 2 hours.  So no problem.

I decided to head north to Nelsonville from the train station so I could go east to west, and maximize sunlight.  As it unfolded, my route was: Undercliff (yellow) to Washburn (white) over Mount Taurus, to Notch (blue) to Brook (red) to Cornish (blue).  [The only overlap with yesterday's hike was perhaps a mile of Brook/Cornish.]

It was already a little dark as I began in the shadow of the hills.  I saw one young man walking a dog - he was heading toward the exit.  It suddenly occurred to me, with a pang, that maybe it wasn't super-smart to start a hike so late in the afternoon, solo.  Who knows what individuals might be wandering around in the woods in the dusk.  That thought creeped me out a bit at first, so even though I was playing some of the Ratocination lectures on my iPod, I kept one ear free to listen for danger.  

But I also figured that this is a rather well-traveled set of paths -- and often people are starting their hikes when my friends and I are hastening to get off the trails before sundown.  Surely I'd run into the occasional hikers.  Safety in numbers, and all that.

As it turns out, I had the paths entirely to myself. 

After one of the early hills...

In person, this rock formation reminded me of a dog. But now it looks more like a croc.  Or a hand puppet.

Cairns, paint, and blazes: They really don't want you to miss the intersection of Undercliff and Washburn.

There was nice light on the ridge -- the yellow sunshine greatly improved the appearance of the foliage.  As I re-descended into the woods, it got darker and more eerie.  But I liked the light in this section, especially the green glow of the grass:

I saw the white flash of a deer sprinting away in the distance at one point - brown deer with white tail raised in alarm, as best I could discern.  

Otherwise, I saw no animals but ticks (or possibly very weird flat spiders) - I picked 4 or 5 off my shirt and neck.  None on my legs, pants, socks, or shoes.  And no bites.  Strangely, I haven't really run into ticks before in this area.  Is it possible they get more active at dusk???

I started running more as it got darker, watching the path carefully for rocks and other trip hazards.  Once I reached the paved section, I jogged the rest of the way down.  I reached the gate at the bottom - I always walk the Cornish trail down to the end, rather than going around the gate to 9D for a bunch of extra road walking.  But I checked the time, and it was already 6:46.  Sunset was long gone.  I'd missed my train, and I wasn't even back in town yet.  (Next one was at 7:22.)  Oh well!  The shoulder suddenly seemed a lot more appealing than clambering around and over rocks and logs.  

It was a good hike though, took me about 3 hours to and from the train station.