A castle, a meadow, a brook, a river ....

All in a day's hike :)..

If there is one thing positive about the incomprehensible early onset of Summer here, it is that I get to kick start the hiking season early! Last weekend, we packed our sandwiches and apples and set off on a short hike to flex the lazy leg muscles and test the winter-pampered body.

About 50 miles North of New York city around the town of Phillipstown, there are many trails of varying difficulty that can keep a hiker quite busy for the entire season. For our inauguratory hike, we chose a moderate one (we wanted to ease into the season ..slow and steady!) with a good view from the peak and varying landscape - Sugarloaf Hill trail, in the Hudson Highlands State Park.

The trail takes you through the unique Castle Rock area which gets its name from the imposing castle owned by Henry W. Osborn's family high atop the hill that we summit. The castle was built in 1881 and looks rather fairy tale-ish. Pretty impressive and imposing it is. It even has a tall tower reminiscent of Rapunzel :). Unfortunately, our curiosity had to made do with gaping from afar as the castle itself is private property and trespassers were promised prosecution (so we kept well away..).

We started off by fortifying ourselves with roasted vegetable sandwiches we had carried from home (+ apple). The trail starts across a rather nice meadow which was perfect for playing frisbee (we did!) and eating our homemade sandwiches. Although it was wee bit too hot to gander there for long...

The hike (marked by red trail markers) officially began when we entered the woods. We were reasonably shaded (the leaves were not fully out yet) from the sun and there was a light breeze cooling us off as we sweated our way up. The trail was marked moderate and over the course of the 3.2 miles (one way) we trekked up a couple of steep ascents, a few gradual climbs and a couple of flat crossings. We passed a running stream of fresh water that was refreshingly cool and tasted heavenly (things in the wild always taste good, don't they?!). There were restored gazebos sprinkled along the way, to let the weary hiker rest a few moments and take in the surroundings.

The highest point on the trail offered views of the Hudson River, Bear Mountain Bridge and Anthony’s Nose. The expansive mountain vista on our left was dotted with a couple of large mansions, one of which was built by the Colt (firearms) family.

We descended by the same route (not a loop trail). This trail did not take us close to the Hudson. So on our way back we made a small detour to walk Marcia's mile across from the castle area. At the end of the mile is a beautiful gazebo with gorgeous views of the Hudson.

Our entire expedition took us about two and half hours and left us pretty well exercised. We made a short stop at Coldspring for some refreshing ice cream and made our way back to city to revel in our outing and rest our tired feet.

Not a bad start to the season, I must say! :)