Trailhead
Little Stony Point
Main entry point · Town of Philipstown, Putnam County
- Status
- Planned — not built yet
- Today
- Open — Open now until 8:01 pm (sunset).
Event
Guided climb: Washburn Trail to the Cornish ruins
Four hours and about 1,000 feet of climbing on a state-park trail where roughly 90% of the route is steeper than a 5% grade. This one is hard, and we are not going to soften that.
- When
- , 9:00 AM–1:00 PM Eastern
- Where
- Little Stony Point — Meet at the Little Stony Point parking area on Route 9D. Coming from Cold Spring station, allow 25 minutes for the mile walk along the road shoulder — there is no separated footway for part of it.
- Who it is for
- Adults and accompanied over-14s with hill-walking experience.
- Cost
- Free · booking required · 15 places
Demonstration content. This event was written for the prototype to exercise the calendar, its filters and its accessibility fields. It is not a scheduled HHFT event.
A guided walk up the Washburn Trail from Little Stony Point onto the ridge, returning past the Cornish estate ruins. Big views, a real climb, and a good illustration of why the Fjord Trail is being built at river level.
We publish the numbers rather than a difficulty label: of the 3.44 miles of the Washburn Trail inside our study corridor, 9.9% of its length is at or below a 5% running slope — modelled from USGS elevation data. Nine tenths of this walk is steeper than that. There is loose rock, there are steps built into the trail, and there is no shortcut back once you are on the ridge.
Please do not join this walk on a day when the forecast is hot; check Conditions.
Getting in, and getting around
- Step-free route
- No
- Somewhere to sit
- No
- ASL interpreted
- No
- Assistive listening
- No
- Terrain
- Sustained climbing on natural rocky tread with loose stone, built stone steps, exposed roots and sections requiring a hand for balance. About 1,000 feet of ascent over roughly two miles. This route is not usable with a wheelchair, a walker or a buggy, and it has no accessible alternative.
No toilets on the route at all; the nearest are in Cold Spring village before you start. No drinking water. Phone signal is unreliable on the ridge. If a four-hour climb is not for you, the bird walk at Long Dock Park on 3 October covers the same ecology on level ground.
Every heading above appears on every event, including the ones where the answer is no. A missing heading is ambiguous; “ASL interpreted: No” is information.
Where it meets
Other events
-
Mid-week planting morning
Little Stony Point — Meet at the Little Stony Point parking area on Route 9D.
A short weekday session for volunteers who cannot make a Saturday. Shoreline planting near Little Stony Point.
-
Eco-Steward work day
Little Stony Point — Meet at the Little Stony Point parking area on Route 9D. Look for the HHFT banner. Parking there is limited and fills early on summer weekends; the walk from Cold Spring station is about a mile along the road shoulder, so arriving by train means allowing 25 minutes on foot.
Volunteer habitat work with HHFT staff along the corridor: invasive removal, planting and site care. No experience needed; tools and gloves provided.
-
Tide talk at Dockside Park
Dockside Park — Meet at the Dockside Park waterfront, about a five-minute walk from Cold Spring Metro-North station.
Forty-five minutes at the water's edge on what it means that the Hudson here is a tidal estuary — timed to low water so there is something to look at.
-
Eco-Steward work day
Little Stony Point — Meet at the Little Stony Point parking area on Route 9D. Look for the HHFT banner.
The September work day: autumn planting and invasive removal along the corridor, with HHFT staff. No experience needed.