Ridgefielder wrote:CPSK wrote:I hiked that trail; the Camp Smith trail, from Anthony's Nose to the parking lot on route 6 (actually, there are two parking lots on route 6 - one is about halfway down the mountain, the other is at the trailhead, also on US 6). I somehow came to believe that there was a bike/walking path along US 6 from that th to the city of Peekskill, so I figured it would be fine. But when I arrived at the th - after dark - there was no bike path. I walked along the road on the wide shoulder for a few hundred yards, only to be confronted with a narrowing shoulder. I crossed the highway to get into the weeds and be on the safe side of the barrier, but could only get a few hundred feet farther.
That's really unpleasant, and I'm sorry as I think I'm one of the sources of bad information. I was planning on hiking the Camp Smith trail myself as a day hike, and getting there on MNRR to Peekskill. Google Maps shows a bike path that crosses Annsville Creek on the US6 bridge, and since the official map of the Hudson Highlands state park showed a parking area off 6 just north of the creek, I figured it was possible to walk along the road up the mountain to the trail head.
I don't think you were the source of bad info; I assumed that the bike path continued all the way to the trailhead because a running group I belong to has done several 60 mile runs from Bryant park in Manhattan (behind the main library) to Bear Mtn via the Old Croton Aqueduct trail (OCA), starting out on Broadway, then cutting onto the Hudson River Greenway and back to B'way at Dykman st, then up Broadway into Van Cortlandt Park, and onto the OCA trail from there.
The OCA ends at the Croton Reservoir dam, which is an easy hike on secondary roads to the Croton/Harmon MNCR station. I have done that part of the route a couple times - but instead of from Bryant Park, I start at my home in Teaneck NJ - which is just about the same distance from Van Cortlandt park that Bryant park is. I enjoy the run, and the train ride heading home.
There is another pathway that starts near the Croton dam, and continues - more or less - to Peekskill. The guys must have run along US 6 from the end of the bike path to the trailhead. By the time many of the runners reach that point, it is already dark - or nearly - and dangerous to run along the road.
I suppose that running on route 6 is much safer in daylight, and when traffic is at a minimum. When I reached that point, it was Saturday evening - full dark. It was pretty stupid of me to be hiking along the road like that.
I would expect that if you take the train to Peekskill, you could get a local taxi to take you to the TH. I know that Uber and Lyft don't (aren't permitted to) work in upstate NY, so it would need to be a licensed taxi service, or a friend. I don't believe hitchiking is permitted in NY, but I don't think I would go that route anyway.
Getting back to trains; I notice that some of the Amtrak Empire service trains make stops at Yonkers, and Croton-Harmon. I would have assumed that Amtrak would not service local passengers (from Croton to NYP), but when I set up an itinerary for that trip, I got results. The cost is almost double what an MNCR off-peak ticket purchased at the station is, and it looks like the time to destination is about the same to NYP as it is to GCT on MNCR. In addition, Amtrak is reserved only, and being that I will be running to Croton, I don't know when I will be arriving there. It's a bit silly to take Amtrak for such a short distance. Maybe if I were traveling to/from Poughkeepsie I would consider it.
I took the Adirondack from Port Kent NY in 2005, and I don't recall making stops at Croton-Harmon or Yonkers - but that was a while ago, and I could easily have forgotten that small detail. The train was completely full after we stopped at Poughkeepsie. Lots of college kids boarding there.
Amtrak has a notice up for up to 20 minute delays on Empire service trains between Schenectady and Poughkeepsie due to "significant track and infrastructure improvements" effective through December 2015.