The day after arriving in Poughkeepsie my host and I went for a hike and a swim in the Shawangunks. We entered the Mohonk Preserve at West Trapps and scrambled up to a peak on the Shawangunk Ridge providing great views of the the preserve and the Catskills in the distance.
There is a benchmark at this point, placed in 1976 although we were confused why it is a National Ocean Survey marker, which tends to track tides rather than a National Ocean and Geodetic Marker which are used for spatial mapping.
On carefully scrambling down this ‘path’ again
we took a leisurely walk along the Undercliff Road. We saw many climbers climbing the cliff the road is named after. I feel my fingernails are too important to me to risk them climbing up a cliff – specially when there are leisurely walks available instead! The walk brought us to a bathing spot in the Coxing Kill (stream) where it has split a rock to form this lovely gully ending in a nice clear pool.
The water is very cold but it was nice to rest and cool off.
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