http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091008/SPORTS06/910080303/Hike-of-the-Week--Cornish-Estate-ruins-offer-glimpse-of-the-past
Hike of the Week: Cornish Estate ruins offer glimpse of the past
RALPH FERRUSI
Hike of the Week: Cornish Estate ruins offer glimpse of the past
Hike name: Cornish Trail to the former Cornish Estate
Location: Just north of Cold Spring
Length: 2 miles round trip, plus exploring
Rating: Easy. Irresistible to natural-born explorers
Accessible: The old cement roads were well-built and are in remarkable condition - 99.99 percent of them could be accessible with a strong, determined companion.
Dogs: Three good old dogs (and their owners) were loving it.
Photo gallery:www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/photos
Maps: NYNJTC East Hudson Trails mapset, Map 102, Hudson Highlands State Park. New York Walk Book, Map 2, Breakneck Ridge.
Features: An easy walk on a wide, smooth old cement road, to the ruins of a once-glorious 1920s estate.
Watch out for: Deer ticks shouldn't be a problem (the nymphs are still out there - I picked No. 3 for 2009 off myself recently) if you stick to the middle of the wide road.
I subconsciously scan for poison ivy as I walk, and didn't see any along the road, but as I was framing a photograph on the front patio of the ruins, bobbing and weaving, distracted, I brushed against the leaves of a huge poison ivy vine hanging from the wall above me. If you explore, be alert. And just be careful in general.
Background: I first explored the Cornish Estate ruins back in the 1970s when I first began hiking, "learning the ropes" in the Hudson Highlands, before the Catskills and Appalachian Trail began to beckon.
Built in the 1920s by James W. Eaton, using rocks from nearby Breakneck Ridge, the estate consisted of a large mansion and several outbuildings, and was home to Edward G. Cornish, chairman of the board of the National Lead Company. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1956.
The ruins were pretty much open in the '70s, and much easier to explore; I returned often, always trying to imagine what the mansion, with all its arches, chimneys and fireplaces, looked like in its heyday. It's badly overgrown now, not quite as bad as Machu Picchu must have been when Hiram Bingham discovered it in 1911, but substantially more daunting than it was 30 years ago. But, for Indiana Jones types, still a rare delight.
Hike description: The Cornish Trail is marked with dark blue DEC disks, but they are pretty much irrelevant as you walk up the gently sloping 80-year-old road that could have been paved just years ago.
You'll soon pass a huge stone retaining wall on the right, with the massive western rock face of Taurus towering high above, and the Hudson and Storm King visible through the foliage on the left.
After swinging right, then left, the blue blazes will head to the right, and an overgrown road will swing left a short distance to the ruins of the mansion, my primary goal for the day. I followed the blue trail to its intersection with the red-marked Brook Trail, just past the Catskill Aqueduct, then went back down to the estate, where I explored several other paved roads passing the ruins of many outbuildings, big and small.
Finally, I explored the still-intriguing mansion, wishing I had a machete, or maybe a weed-whacker; something to clean it up and restore a bit of its former glory.
How to get there: Route 9D south through the Breakneck tunnel. The road to the ruins is on the left, where 9D swings left. There is room for a car or two here. About a quarter-mile on the left, across from Little Stony Point, is a big trail parking area.
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