Having heard enthusiastic reports from friends who’ve walked or biked the Ashokan Rail Trail since the October 18 opening of the West Hurley trailhead, I was curious to get a look at the western section, which opened on Thanksgiving Day. I live in Phoenicia, so the trailhead on Route 28A near Boiceville is only eight minutes away.
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced its acquisition of two forested parcels of land adjacent to the Catskill Park’s Sundown Wild Forest in the Town of Olive. The properties, totaling 871 acres, have the potential to serve as an eastern access point to the 3000-foot-high Ashokan High Point hiking trail.
The western section of the Ashokan Reservoir rail-trail, northern Ulster County’s latest public recreation attraction, will formally open on Thanksgiving Day, according to a county government press release. It has been closed due to construction activities.
The 11.5-mile trail offers spectacular views of the Catskills.
Now, every town has its cool stuff, but some of these discoveries are mind-blowing. Did you know that the first stained-glass window commission undertaken by the William Morris Company for an American client, with panels designed by Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Morris himself, was the 1867 Vanderpoel Window that hangs in Saugerties’ Trinity Church?
The Mohonk Preserve Foothills Loop Trail is now open, expanding the Mohonk Preserve Foothills trail network and extending the River-to-Ridge Trail in New Paltz. The 2.2-mile loop trail, which is free and open to the public, begins near the intersection of Pine and Butterville Roads, follows the newly established Ridgeview Road to Lenape Lane and continues around the White Oak Bend Path to Pine Road.
The Ulster County-built Ashokan Rail-Trail, a long-awaited public recreational walkway (the county prefers the term “shared-use path”), will be opened to the public on Friday, October 18. First proposed in 2012, the 11.5-mile trail is ten to twelve feet in width, with a compacted crushed-stone surface that allows accessibility to persons with disabilities and limited mobility.
There’s a place where, as the Beatles once had it, “Your outside is in and your inside is out.” This place actually exists. It isn’t a metaphor, but a physical reality.
The Kingston Land Trust will celebrate the opening of the Kingston Point rail-trail’s first phase from Jansen Avenue to Garraghan Drive with a free community block party this Saturday, September 21 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Rondout Savings Bank parking lot at 300 Broadway in Kingston.
Now through November 3: Rail Explorers vehicles come in two-seater and four-seater models, and there are special Beer & Pretzels tours on Fridays.
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