Yesterday was a fine weather day in the Hudson Valley of NY, so I got out along the CSX River Sub in the Hudson Valley once again…I started out the day by driving up to Garrison NY (across the Hudson from West Point) and shot a Southbound CSX autorack before driving back down to Bear Mountain and hiking out to the South ledges overlooking Iona Island…there is a hiking trail that runs along Rte 9W followed by a hike through the woods that leads to those ledges…(some railfans choose to hike down the railroad right of way from Iona Island, which is not necessary with the trail route available) After shooting a few trains there, I relocated to Fort Montgomery where I caught a lull…I then relocated to the railroad overlook atop Bear Mountain for late afternoon where the lull continued on CSX…though I was able to shoot some Hudson Line East Shore action. I added 22 pictures to the beginning of my flickr page with some highlights of Sunday’s action. Link here: www.flickr.com/photos/30144616@N04/
Some great shots! I hiked that 9W trail many times, in all kinds of weather. On a crystal clear day like the one in your photos, being there is just fantastic.
Matt Van Hattem
Thanks…I’ll be meeting up with a friend from Connecticut later this week and we’ll spend a full day trackside in the Iona area…weather promises to be nice…hopefully the forecast will hold true…
That old 9W trail is interesting…one can get a first hand comparison between the original relatively level grade that 9W once ran between Doodletown and Jones Point, compared to the modern day wider roadway that climbs up and over Dunderberg Mountain…My reference point for departing the trail to hike down through the woods toward the ledges is an old creek bed that the trail crosses…I then hike down through the woods along the creek bed until I reach a huge boulder in the woods that ended up in that position from either construction of Rte 9w years ago, or by an ancient glacier. After reaching that boulder, I bear right and hike uphill until I reach the South ledges that look North toward Iona…There is some sort of old earthen dam in the woods near the marshland where the creekbed reaches river level…I haven’t figured out exactly what that dam-like structure actually was, but it was definitely manmade many years ago.