South Beacon Mountain and Scofield Ridge

Beacon, Newburgh, and the bridge from the fire tower.
(All pictures mine)

South Beacon Mountain may be one of the most underrated hikes in New York. The trailhead is within the city limits of Beacon, but there are tons of ruins (including an abandoned incline railway), a fire tower, and the high point of Putnam County. If you look carefully, you can see the fire tower and ruins from the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the route of the incline railway is impossible to miss. Really easy to get all of these in a hike of around 6 miles (with most of the ascent being in the first mile out of the trailhead). That being said, it's a climb. From the trailhead to the summit of South Beacon Mountain and the fire tower is a vertical ascent of over 1,400 feet. Need to lose and regain a little bit to get over to the summit of Putnam County on Scofield Ridge. But definitely a climb I'd recommend making, as the views are stunning and there's quite a bit of history on this mountain.

The parking area at the corner of Wolcott Avenue (NY Route 9D) and Howland Avenue can hold a few dozen cars and contains portable toilets and a kiosk with trail maps. If the lot is full (likely on weekends when the weather is nice), ample parking is available on the side streets. But parking wasn't an issue when I showed up around 10:00 on a Thursday morning (yes, I did plan my class schedule so I'd have a day open to hike every week). The first 0.2 miles or so is a wide gravel path with a slight upgrade. Trail markers are RED. Soon, the ruins of the old Mount Beacon Incline Railway come into view.

Former incline railway station

Looking up the incline railway

When constructed, the Mount Beacon Incline Railway was the steepest incline railway in the world. It was abandoned in 1978 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Groups are fundraising to rebuild the railway.

Oh, right, the trail

The trail begins to parallel what was the world's steepest incline railway with a long metal staircase. 100+ feet further above the Hudson River Estuary, the staircase ends and there's a sharp left turn away from the railway around an elevation of 400 feet.

The views start near the top of the stairs

A short distance and 100 vertical feet later, you're faced with a decision. Continue straight onto the yellow trail, or take a hairpin turn to the right and continue climbing on the red trail. You want the red trail, as yellow takes you around the mountain.

Yeah, it's steep. Keep climbing. It's worth it.

Getting closer...

If you keep climbing along the red trail, you'll reach the ruins of the Mount Beacon Casino and Incline Railway at around 1,200 feet, approximately 1 mile from the parking lot. There's roughly 1000 feet of vertical ascent from the parking lot to this point.

First, we reach the former powerhouse for the incline railway.

The powerhouse

Hoist mechanism 

Looking down at where people boarded/alighted

Continue a short distance further to reach the ruins of the Mount Beacon Casino.The Casino was once a major tourist attraction, with panoramic views of the Hudson Valley and Hudson Highlands. While the building is gone save its foundation, the view remains.

View of Beacon, Newburgh, and the bridge connecting them.
The Shawangunk Ridge is in the background.

Looking southwest

Looking south toward Storm King Mountain

Old steps

The casino once stood here

South corner of the foundation. Fire tower is at the top left.

View south toward the Hudson Highlands

If you want, you could turn back here, which is what most people do. I'm going to tell you to continue along the red trail, as the hardest part of the hike is over and the rest is a cakewalk. The first part of this trail is along an old road, but the trail diverges as the road heads north to the Beacon Reservoir. There's a slight descent into the col between North and South Beacon Mountains, but the climb soon resumes. Just under 2 miles from the parking lot is the junction with the white trail. You want to turn onto the white trail to get to the fire tower. It's really hard to miss the junction.

That's the junction, white trail diverges to the right.
I counted no fewer than 7 white trail markers here.

The white trail climbs moderately, but it's a short climb.

Compass painted near the summit

The fire tower

Soon you're standing on the summit of South Beacon Mountain, not even 1/4 mile from the red trail. The summit and fire tower are a short distance off of the main trail, but very east to find. South Beacon (elevation 1,610 feet) is the highest peak in the Hudson Highlands and far above the Hudson River less than 2 miles to your west. 

Looking toward Beacon

Looking toward Storm King

As if the view from the ground isn't good enough, the fire tower gets you higher.

Beacon, Newburgh, and the bridge from the fire tower

Looking south

Looking east

Looking north at the Beacon Reservoir

I would not be surprised if you could see the Manhattan skyline from up here on a clear day. Sadly, the day of my hike was not clear.

Once I was done bracing myself against the day's high winds, I made my way down the tower and retraced my steps to the red trail. Unless you want to do a long loop or are a county highpointer, you'll probably turn left to return to the trailhead. Not much interesting stuff beyond this other than the high point of Putnam County. turning right at the junction to continue on. The red trail ends shortly later, and I turned right on the yellow trail to continue to the Putnam high point. Some minor scrambling awaited me on the yellow trail as I neared my destination about half a mile from the end of the red trail. The high point of Scofield Ridge (elevation 1,540 feet) is pretty darn easy to find because there's a giant yellow X on the exposed rock.

X marks the spot

To make your life easier if you're a highpointer, it is where the trail has a 90 degree turn, the trail going NE and SE from the point, approximately 1,500 feet due east of the South Beacon fire tower. 

Looking west toward the fire tower

View east from Scofield Ridge

Scofield Ridge isn't a "liner" (high point on a county line", but it's darn close, being less than 200 feet inside Putnam County.

From here, I could have continued around to make a loop, but I had other plans for the day, so I retraced my steps back to the red trail and down to my car. Aren't a ton of amazing hikes within the limits of a city in New York, but trust me, this one is worth it, even if there are crowds.

Getting Here

This is one of the easier trails in the region to get to. NY Route 9D is a relatively major road and it's not too far from Interstate 84 and the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. Plenty of services nearby if you need a last-minute snack or the like. The popular Breakneck Ridge trailhead is a few miles south along 9D, but that trailhead will be closed until mid-2019 for improvements.

Resources

• Hudson Highlands State Park. The majority of the trail lies within this park.
• Avenza Maps Navigation App. The NY Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation makes all of their maps available for free using this app. The maps have GPS tracking and I make use of them when hiking in a state park.
• Hike the Hudson Valley's Mount Beacon Page. This is the main hiking resource I used to find out what I was getting into.

Ghosts on the Quabbin: The Abandoned Town of Dana, Massachusetts

The now-abandoned town common in Dana
(All pictures mine unless otherwise noted)

The Quabbin Reservoir, located in a rural area of eastern Franklin and Hampshire Counties and western Worcester County, supplies much of the water used in Greater Boston. When the decision was made to flood the Swift River valley and create the reservoir, the State condemned and purchased most land in the watershed above the planned dam site in order to protect the quality of the water. Much of the watershed land, with the notable exception of the large peninsula south of New Salem, is open to the public. This makes for some unique hiking opportunities.

Four towns were dissolved on April 28, 1938 due to reservoir construction. Enfield and Greenwich were mostly low-lying and are thus mostly submerged.

The destruction of Enfield Center. Town hall in center.
The town center is now underwater.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FarewellEnfieldTownHall.png

Prescott is mostly above water, but largely inaccessible, as most of the above-water land is on the restricted peninsula south of New Salem. And then you have Dana. Unlike the others, the former town center, Dana Common, remains accessible to the public. That is, if you're willing to park at Gate 40 and walk 1.8 miles along a long-abandoned road now used only by foot traffic, bicycles, and service vehicles.

Map of the area. Parking is at Gate 40.
Dana Common is at the intersection under the "North" arrow. (Massachusetts DCR)
Source: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/public-access-maps

January 27 was an unseasonably-warm day, so I decided to do my planned hike to Dana. Gate 40, along Massachusetts Route 32A in Petersham, has parking for 6-7 cars, but it is NOT marked. Strongly recommend using a navigation app or GPS to get here. If you insist on going in without assistance, Gate 40 is a driveway leading to the small parking lot.

The parking lot. MA Route 32A is in the background.

Don't block the gate, as it is the emergency vehicle access point for the trail and you will get towed.

The gate, kiosk in background. Sign says what is prohibited. 

Leave Fido at home. Dogs are not allowed on watershed land.

A short distance past the gate is a kiosk, providing a wealth of historical information and a map of the area.

History, map, and regulations kiosk at trailhead

The Town of Dana was settled in 1763 and incorporated in 1801. Due to water power and rail access, it became a manufacturing center, eventually becoming the first town in the Swift River Valley to have electricity and the only town in the valley to have a motorized fire truck. The town common was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Asphalt is in acceptable condition and the road is relatively clear

Uh, oh, looks like ice ahead

The "trail" is the old road to Dana, still with its asphalt that likely predates the 1930s. It appears to be plowed in the winter and, while I had poles, I only used them for assistance on ice.

Yup, a thick sheet of ice across the entire road for about 200 feet

It generally looks and feels like a rural road in this part of the country, minus the vehicle traffic. There's a small hut of some sort past the icy patch.

The trail was pretty lonely, and I only passed one walker and one bicyclist before I started returning to the car. About a mile in, we start seeing real signs of former residents. Cleared fields appear, along with our first house foundation on the right.

A former orchard?

Foundation of an old farmhouse?

Cleared field

Old wall

Another old wall

On the right (north) side of the road, there appears to be an old alignment of this road. It too appears to have been paved at one point, at least partially.

The old, old road

Just past the old road, evidence of habitation increases significantly, with more foundations. Around a bend is the former town center.

Another field

And just like that, we're at the town.

Text: "To all those who sacrificed their homes and way of life,
erected by Dana Reunion 1996" 

An old sidewalk on the north side of the road leads away from the common to the former town hall.

The former Dana Town Hall

Same view as above

The foundation of town hall

Another foundation is to the left of the town hall. Given the old fence nearby, I would not be shocked if this was a church.

The town common itself looks very similar to how it did when Dana was a town, minus the cannon.

Old image of Dana Common 

Cannon was in the center of those trees

Walking along the north side of the common, there are some road signs. Abandoned roads, but new signs to help people navigate.

Road to the west 

Common from the west corner

Greenwich-Dana Rd is the road you hike in on

The road continues south to Gate 43

Some ruins along the southeast side of the common

Current site of the Johnson House

There's a small road leading southeast from the common. Some more stuff is down that road. 

Such as this cool wall. Stones are much smaller than usually seen in stone walls.

Leftover junk on top of the wall

The Cooley House, before and after 

Back to the main road, there are some leftover sidewalks and more foundations.

Guess it's time to head back to the car.

But one last look at the common

And I chose the right time to return, as I passed 6 groups on the 35 minute walk back to the car.

Didn't notice the old wire fence on the SE side of the road when hiking out

Near the shack

Overall, I spent about 1:45 walking to/from and exploring the ruins, but I'm accustomed to walking on rough terrain. Even though the walk was flat, it was definitely a unique experience and a place you should visit.

Red Tape

Being as this is a public water supply, there is some red tape associated with this hike.

• Parking is extremely limited. Not many places to park on the road nearby, either. If you show up at a busy time, good luck finding parking. You may be able to park at Gate 43 on Greenwich Rd, but it is a much longer walk and a bicycle may be useful.
• Dogs are explicitly prohibited, as mentioned above. This is almost certainly to protect water quality. I did see one person with a dog when I was there, but I expect that the area is patrolled during nicer weather.
• There are supposedly portable toilet facilities during the main season, but there definitely were NOT when I was here. Nearest reliable public restrooms are in Ware, Barre, and Athol.

Getting Here

While not particularly far from either Worcester or Springfield, this is a relatively remote area that gets little traffic. Cell service is limited and I did not have reception at any point during the hike. Do NOT rely on being able to find the location online if you are near the trailhead.