New York's Long Path concerns

[Jay Laveroni]

Looking to thru hike New York's Long Path from Fort Lee all the way to Albany. I cannot find many logs or group discussions on the path. I do check the NY/NJ trail conference frequently but not much is there. Any help would be appreciated. Ie. precautions, problem areas, resupply, camping.

[Starchild]

I sectioned the entire LP about 10 yrs ago, it is quite the adventure and I was IIRC the 96th person to get the LP patch, so not many people do it.

There was a book that the NYNJTC put out, It may have went out of print, was essential to hiking this trail back then. It was not well marked, sometimes it was not maintained (mainly north of the Cats). It also back then would change color from it's aqua blaze color to the local trail color. So many times I needed to read the book to find out where the trail goes.

If you can get a new version then mine I would recommend it, but if you have to get it used or old stock due to out of print, get the 'Fifth Edition - Completely Revised' (or later). The 4th edition was sort of a sloppy put together which had hard to read maps.

The book does mention thru hiking the trail and provides brief info on Leanto, camping, lodging, PO, food, laundry and other services in the back of the book. It does mention that, at the time of printing of my edition, that camping on/near the trail may not be possible in sections.

Also you will most likely want to chose the alternate route of the LP on it's southern end which breaks off the AT and Highpoint NJ. This avoided something like a 20 mile road walk. To backpack it from the GWB you will need to take the LP to Harriman and then go SoBo on the AT till Highpoint NJ, then get on the Alt LP till it rejoins the LP near Sam's Point.

[Blissful]

There is an online 5th edition version I see
http://www.nynjtc.org/book/long-path-guide-softcopy

[Starchild]

There is an online 5th edition version I see
http://www.nynjtc.org/book/long-path-guide-softcopy

That's basically what is in the book I mentioned but updated, it appears they took it online and out of print. Is has the backpacking info the OP requested.

[Another Kevin]

The online book is about the best reference there is at the moment, but it's very much a moving target.

As Starchild mentioned, you can get credit for the patch by turning west in Harriman and hiking the A-T over to High Point, then heading north on the Shawangunk Ridge Trail to where it rejoins the NY LP. Otherwise, you'll have about a hundred miles of what amounts to a roadwalk through suburbia. (The Orange County Problem: there just isn't any place to clear a trail corridor any more.) The best they've been able to do with the Orange County route is to put a lot of it on paved rail-trails.

On the other hand, the Catskill sections are much improved in recent years. It's become a terrific trail from Riggsville nearly to the Schoharie Reservoir. Several long roadwalks have been eliminated, and the trails that replace them (Cross Mountain-Romer Mountain, Phoenicia-Warner Creek) are wonderful. It's a hundred miles that any hiker will love, particularly if they like tough trails. Burroughs Range, Devil's Path, and the north side of Blackhead all have rock scrambles comparable with anything you'll find on any of the 'big name' trails. But the last time I checked, even the online book is out of date with respect to those sections.

A few recent relocations (hastily edited in the online book, but not all the descriptions seem to hook up correctly):



Section 19 (Wittenberg-Phoenicia) is totally different. Once you've summitted Witttenberg and are on your way down to Woodland Valley on the red-blazed Burroughs Range trail, look for a blue-blazed trail (the Cross Mountain-Romer Mountain trail heading to your right (trail north is compass south at that point!) It will take you about nine miles over Cross Mountain (2500'), just west of Mount Pleasant (2800') and over Romer Mountain (2240'), with many excellent views of the Esopus valley, bringing you out on Lane Street in Phoenicia. Turn right on Main Street, roadwalk County Road 40 for about 1.5 miles, and turn-left on the red-blazed Phoenicia trail up to the Mount Tremper fire tower, passing two lean-tos on the way. From the fire tower, blue-blazed Warner Creek trail continues north, making its way up Daley Ridge to the flat summit of Plateau Mountain. The trail there rejoins the former Long Path route, which is following the red-blazed Devil's Path. This change, which was made in two phases, cuts off a long roadwalk between Woodland Valley and the Devil's Tombstone campground. Phoenicia is a full-service trail town (several restaurants and inns, an outfitter, a supermarket, a pharmacy, a laundromat, ...) and very hiker-friendly. This is a good thing, because it will be 40 miles (and only two road crossings) before any other services. Neither of the two intervening road crossings (Platte Clove Road and NY 214) has any stores within about five miles of the crossings. The most recent (2014) phase of this relocation is documented on the NYNJTC web site (http://www.nynjtc.org/files/Catskills_LongPathRelocation-SlideMountainWilderness_TrailMap2014b.pdf). A loop hike involving the 2007 phase (http://www.nynjtc.org/hike/plateau-mountain-warner-creek-trail) is also there.
There are various mistakes (look like incomplete edits) in the page for Section 20 (Phoenicia-Sliver Hollow Notch). And the page links are all wrong, just go up to the table of contents to get to the pages in sequence. The ford of Warner Creek (expect wet feet at the very least, and a dangerous crossing at high water) is at mile 8.25, not 6.95.
In Section 27, be careful at mile 5.7, approaching Ashland Pinnacle from Richmond Mountain. The Long Path turns right on a maintained dirt road. The aqua blazes of the former Long Path route are still visible going forward, and will lead you about five miles across Huntersfield Mountain to a private property line where the landowner revoked a trail easement. (The 'General Description' of this section still has the trail going there!) While that section is a nice hike (http://dftscript.blogspot.com/2014/04/saturday-walk-2014-04-26-huntersfield.html), it won't help you in your goal of thru-hiking the Long Path!


There are current plans to move virtually the entirety of Section 15 off the road and have it head directly through the woods to Vernooy Kill Falls. This trail is awaiting approval of a new Unit Management plan for the Sundown State Forest, which is supposed to be imminent.

The end of the Northern Excursion is the start of the Northville-Placid Trail, so it's possible (and has been done) to thru-hike both trails in a single long trip. If your ambition includes this, note that the southern terminus of the Northville-Placid Trail has also been relocated. It's now on Benson Road about milepost 7.5, cutting off about four miles of roadwalk. (There are plans, with trail construction under way, to move the terminus even closer to Northville. The route is mostly flagged and hikable by those with good bushwhack skills.

Overall, sections 5-6 are quite nice, and the 110 or so miles in Sections 16-28 are just gorgeous. The rest of the trail is considerably less impressive, but considerably improved in recent years. Expect a lot of roadwalking and rail-trals outside the above sections, although there are nice woods sections here and there.

Watch the guidebook descriptions closely, and carry maps in the Catskills (the NYNJTC set is quite good). In the Catskills at least, aqua blazes are few and far between, because the trail is mostly sharing treadway with other trails (Peekamoose-Table, Curtiss-Ormsbee, Burroughs Range, Cross Mountain-Romer Mountain, Warner Creek, Devil's Path, Platte Clove Preserve, Kaaterskill High Peak, Harding, Escarpment) and following their blazes.

For the middle sections, you might want to call or email Jeff Senterman ([email protected], PM me for the phone number). He's Catskill Region Program Coordinator for NYNJTC. He's very knowledgeable about the trail. I've done some trail construction work under his supervision. (He'd also have contacts with the people on the other sections, where I'm less familiar.)

[Long Path Curator]

A few facts about the the Long Path south of the Catskill's.

The Long Path now starts at the 175th Street Subway Station in NYC. It's an easy 14.1 mile hike to the NY/ NJ border. At that point you can contact Jakob Franke who is listed in the online guide. Jakob allows people to camp in his yard. Some folks have managed to spend the night at Camp Alpine, a Boy Scout Camp near the trail. I day hiked from Fort Lee to Nyack with my 10 year old son in 2005, that's 23 miles. We day hiked the next day from Nyack to Call Hollow Road in section 5, that's 19.3 miles. A semi fit backpacker could get through sections 1-4 in two days. Ed Walsh is also listed in the online guide. He too allows hikers to camp in his yard. Between Jakob and Ed anyone planning a thru-hike of the LP can get through the first 4 sections spending a night at each of them.

Sections 5, 6 and part of 7 are all within Harriman State Park and all very nice. Legal camping can be found in sections 5 and 6. Section 7 has a 2.9 mile road walk immediately after Harriman State Park. Things are currently in the works to eliminate most of that road walk. After the road walk in section 7 the trail follows the Woodbury Creek on a gas pipeline through the woods. Prior to 2012 the Long Path next climbed over Schunemunk Mountain, not far after that were the long road walks. Beyond Schunemunk to the Shawangunk Ridge was 35 miles, 28 miles were on public roads. That all changed in 2012. The Long Path still climbs Schunemunk but turns to the west and follows the ridgeline with numerous spectacular views.

After already being in Orange County for 30.65 miles the trail reaches a paved rail trail. Although paved the trail passes through plenty of farmland and wetlands. After 8.3 miles the paved rail trail ends in the heart of the Village of Goshen. It's a full service village including a motel. After 89 miles some may even want a motel. It just so happens that a bike rental shop has locations at both ends of the paved rail trail. Beyond Goshen the rail trail is not paved but currently ends after another 2.5 miles. This is where the current 14 mile road walk begins, it's section 10. As time permits some of this will slowly be moved into the woods. Currently the priorities are eliminating the 10 mile road walk in the southern Catskill's and the road walks in southern Schoharie County. The road walk ends at the Shawangunk Ridge and enters a 450 acre preserve with four small lakes. This preserve will soon be state forest land. Sections 11 through 14 are on the Shawangunk Ridge for the next 40.55 miles with the exception of passing through the Bashakill. Leaving the preserve the Long Path joins the Shawangunk Ridge Trail. A lot of state forest land has been added to the southern Shawangunk Ridge in the past ten years. Once the road walk ends plenty of legal camping is available all of the way to route 443 in Albany County. Most people I know find the Shawangunk Ridge and Bashakill Wildlife Management Area to be very nice places. The Long Path passes through Sam's Point and Minnewaska on the Shawangunk Ridge, both are simply spectacular.