Sponsored by the NY/NJ Trail Conference, the New York Hiking Trails Finder focuses mainly on downstate trails.

1. Sprain Ridge in Yonkers
2. Mianus State Park in Greenwich
3. Blue Mountain in Peekskill
4. Graham Hills (scroll down on the page this links to)

Saugerties Walking Trails: 4 Day Hikes

by Ralph Ferrusi • poughkeepsiejournal.com, link to original post

Hike name: Leatherman’s Cave ramble, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.
Location: Cross River, Westchester County.
Length: About 2 hours.
Rating: Wide, smooth, mostly gently graded trails.
Photo gallery: www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/photos

Dogs: Fido will love it.

Maps: A really good light-blue 11×17-inch map, with 10-foot contour intervals, is available at the park tollbooth. “50 Hikes In the Lower Hudson Valley,” page 35.

Features: 4,700-acre Ward Pound Ridge Reservation is the largest park in Westchester County’s park system. 27.55 trail miles, nicely marked by 4×4-inch metal markers.

Watch out for: Big-game season is in progress, Saturday, Nov. 21, through Sunday, Dec.-, and we’ll try to find the safest possible places to walk for this period. Some areas that do not allow hunting may border land where hunting is permitted, so be cautious and dig out your day-glo orange hats, etc. The $8-per-car entry fee seemed a bit stiff — paying to hike, in an area abounding with free trails, just didn’t seem right — but it supports the parks and included the soon-to-be indispensable blue map. I would not recommend venturing into this 6 square miles of woods, laced with dozens of marked and unmarked trails and woods roads, without a map.

Background: We’re always looking for different places to walk and explore. This hike in Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, described in Stella Green and H. Neil Zimmerman’s “50 Hikes In the Lower Hudson Valley,” which was reviewed in Hike of the Week on May 15, 2008, intrigued us. Many of the trails and buildings in the Reservation were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C). The C.C.C. was part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Work Progress Administration (W.P.A.) program, which put 8 million American men to work from’35 to’43.