Day hikes/trips from NYC without a car - Part II - Breakneck Ridge

This is the second blog in the series. The first one was Arden Point and Glenclyffe  

Breackneck Ridge is easily the most intense day hike in upstate NY. It is a steep ~3-4 mile round trip hike. It is strenuous and I would not recommend this one for first time hikers. Also, this trail is not pet friendly, please try yourself before taking your pet. 

 

THE COMMUTE

 1. Get to Penn Station in NYC

From Jersey city / rest of New Jersey 

• Path takes you to 33rd street, from where Penn Station is a few minutes walk.
• NJ Transit takes you to Penn Station. 

From NYC, you know how. Take any of the subways that leads you to Penn. 

 

Of course, if you have more dollars to spare, use Lyft or Uber to get to Penn. 

2. Take Metro North, Hudson Line (Green Line) from Penn to Breakneck Ridge. 

Please note that the train schedule is different for weekdays and weekends, when you have more trains stopping at Breakneck Ridge. Please check Metro North schedule before you plan.

• You can buy tickets at Penn station or
• Use the MTA eTix Mobile App (most convenient) or
• Buy ticket on the train with cash (more expensive than station and app). I haven't seen card machines with ticket collectors, so please ensure that you have sufficient cash and change, if you choose this option.

        I always use the MTA eTix app - It is very convenient. You can book the ticket whenever you want (I do it when I am on the way to Penn). Activate the ticket after boarding the train - DO NOT activate before boarding. Once you activate your ticket, there is no way to reverse the action and the ticket is valid for the time period of the journey. You have to present the app if demanded by the ticket collector, so ensure that you have enough battery before you activate. I have seen an example where someone's battery ran out and had to buy a new ticket from the collector.

3. Once you reach Breakneck Ridge, walk to the trailhead

• Facing the direction of the train (i.e. North), get to the right side platform. I have been dropped on the right platform on the 2 trips I made. 
• Once you are on the right platform, walk through the the only exit to route 9D 
• Without crossing 9D, turn to the right and walk for a few minutes along 9D. 
• Just before the tunnel, you will notice a small registration center (during summer). Even if you don't see it, the trailhead can be easily seen before the tunnel. DO NOT cross the tunnel - The trail will take you over the tunnel. 

THE HIKE

The trail begins on route 9D before the tunnel and gradually takes you over the tunnel on to the rocky sections ahead. The incline increases gradually as you move forward. Once you enter the rocky section, please be careful of rock falls initiated by fellow hikers ahead of you. You have to scramble through vertical rock sections on this hike, please wear appropriate clothing. 

This hike is immensely popular and gets really crowded on summer weekends. And, the crowds come here for a reason - Breakneck Ridge offers stellar views of the Hudson river. 

The first view point offers a beautiful view. Don't mistake it for the summit, there is more to go. The views get better as you go higher. 

       

On an average, it takes about 4 hours for the round trip back to the station - Please plan accordingly. You could do much more depending on how much energy you have left. 

In the trail above, I have marked the starting point (i.e. breakneck train station) in a red circle. A few trail options are marked in blue: 

Option 1: Easier, shorter - BR-UC-BK

Option 2 : A little longer but ideal for a day hike : BR-BB-WM

[BR, UC, BK, BB and WM are trail IDs. Details are in the link here)

Of course, you can always continue on to Beacon towards the North or Cold Spring to the South (not marked by me, there are multiple options). On one of my trips, I took Option #2 above and then took a cab to Beacon - you can enjoy a drink in this historical city and then take the train back to NYC.

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Earlier blogs in this car-less, NYC day hike series :

Part I : Arden Poing and Glenclyffe

Day hikes/trips from NYC without a car - Part I - Arden Point and Glenclyffe

I don't own a car. I don't know how to drive one. 

These constraints make me evaluate car-less hiking alternatives wherever I live. As my current stint in NYC comes to an end, I thought, this might be a good time to document the trips I made. 

This blog is the first in the series. 

So, why Arden point and Glenclyffe? 

• This is a good start for anyone who wishes to start exploring the region around NYC. 
• Easy trails - if you can walk, you can do this one.
• Reasonably well marked trails - A couple of areas are not very well marked but you would never get lost. 
• Less than a couple of hours by train from NYC

THE COMMUTE

1. Get to Penn Station in NYC

• From Jersey city / rest of New Jersey 
• Path takes you to 33rd street, from where Penn Station is a few minutes walk.
• NJ Transit takes you to Penn Station. 
• From NYC, you know how. Take any of the subways that leads you to Penn. 

Of course, if you have more dollars to spare, use Lyft or Uber to get to Penn. 

2. Take Metro North, Hudson Line (Green Line) from Penn to Garrison. 

• You can buy tickets at Penn station or
• Use the MTA eTix Mobile App (most convenient) or
• Buy ticket on the train with cash (more expensive than station and app). I haven't seen card machines with ticket collectors, so please ensure that you have sufficient cash and change, if you choose this option.

        I always use the MTA eTix app - It is very convenient. You can book the ticket whenever you want (I do it when I am on the way to Penn). Activate the ticket after boarding the train - DO NOT activate before boarding. Once you activate your ticket, there is no way to reverse the action and the ticket is valid for the time period of the journey. You have to present the app if demanded by the ticket collector, so ensure that you have enough battery before you activate. I have seen an example where someone's battery ran out and had to buy a new ticket from the collector.

3. Once you reach Garrison, walk to the trailhead 

• Facing the direction of the train (i.e. North), get to the right side platform. I have been dropped on the right platform on the 2 trips I made. 
• Once you are on the right platform, with the railroad behind you, walk towards the right on the road in front of you. It is not more than a 2-3 min walk. So if you have walked longer, you have missed it. 
• Look for this sign - this is the trailhead. The trail begins to the left of this sign board. 

THE HIKE

It is a fairly easy hike with some good views of the Hudson river. You could literally walk anywhere there is a trail and not get lost. Even if you go off the trail, it is very difficult to get lost. There are some key landmarks :

The first one is a bridge that takes you over the railroad. 

The next one is the river. 

Between these 2 landmarks, even if you get lost, you could find yourself !!

On my first trip, I tried completing the Glenclyffe loop, but could not complete as the trail was blocked with very dense vegetation after this lookout / dilapidated camping spot. I scrambled my way to a private property and then back to the main road that leads to the station.

This place is not that crowded - I have visited on weekends and have found just a few people. If you would like some solitude without straining yourself that much, Arden Point and Glenclyffe is a very good option. 

Up next : Breakneck Ridge.

To go or to not go

"To go or to not go" is a frequently occurring question in our lives. Could be in the context of going to office on a beautiful, bright sunny day or trying to push for the next camp, on an already long day of hiking or waking up early for that early morning run or for that matter, contemplating having a kid. 

On a hot summer day in May, I was sitting (and sweating) in our home in Pune (India) wondering if I was to start a company of my own. It was not an easy question to answer. The probability of finding a business in my family hierarchy is almost equal to finding a polar bear on the streets of Mumbai. There was no precedent in the family and nobody to guide. My earlier half-hearted, part-time attempt a few years ago did not end well. 

I was anxious to trace the origin of this question. 

The Origin

My exile in the Himalayas made me learn a few things. One key learning was persistence, the drive to keep going beyond what would have normally been a time to stop. There have been excruciatingly long days high up on the mountain (15,000 ft+) when I have been tempted to stop but kept going because it was the right thing to do. Everything in real life seems a breeze when I compare these situations to "those" days. 

Post my return, after giving away my life savings to a family emergency, I was on the lookout for a job. This was my first time in the open job market - my earlier jobs have been fairly easy to get on college campuses. I was soon going to figure out how privileged my life was. The jog hunting approach was wrong, the types of jobs I applied to were wrong (hiking guide being one of them) and the entire process backfired. I must have applied for a couple of hundred jobs and was not able to land a single interview. Indian companies, at that time, were not ready for the transparent disclosure of a voluntary, 4 month break in career.  

There are times when, unbeknownst to you, life is planning its own vicious plot. One of my close friends reached out to me with an assignment and gave me an option to help him fix his business. Of course, he wanted me to do this in my free time which, at that time, included every degree of the clock that the hour and minute hand can cover. 

    

This project set in motion a detailed review of off-the-shelf products for enterprise resource planning for small businesses. When I couldn't find anything that met the requirements, I turned to customization of open source alternatives. I found one of them to be very promising - OpenErp (Now called Odoo). customizing this Open Source product meant that I had to learn Python. I spent the next 3 months learning its syntax and the code structure of OpenErp. In the next few months, step by step, I customized this open source to meet the requirements of my friend. 

I felt a tremendous uplift from this creation (I was tempted to call it "customization", but that didn't fit the feeling I am trying to describe here). I was able to solve a problem and that made me happy. It was natural to think of extending this effort to make it a commercial venture. That, right there, gave birth to my company called Monakus. 

 
"Monachus" is the Latin name for a monk. This company's sole purpose was to provide direction to companies just like a monk. I was tempted to use the name "Monachus" but dropped the idea after a few friends apprised me of the negative connotations in Hindi when you break it into two. It would have translated to "Mona suck" and that would have been a tremendous distraction throughout the life of the company!

The Struggle and the end

With no prior experience in sales, I resorted to tried and tested approaches like cold calling, attending exhibitions, etc. to score customers. There were days when I made 100+ calls in a day and then, there were other days, when I would spend the entire day in industrial complexes knocking the doors of small businesses. I was given the same treatment that other cold callers receive, ranging from polite declines to extremely uncivil responses. I did not take any of this personally but the whole process was taking a toll on me. With each passing day, I was running the risk of running out of money and nearing my breaking point. 

I kept going. 

Six months passed by with not much progress. I did not have a sustainable sales pipeline and was beginning to question the viability of the venture. Just then, on one of those blind pitches, I met my partner. He had a very strong network due to his real estate background, and I was good at managing everything else. We clicked instantly and, after a few conversations, converted the company into a Private limited entity.   

We did well for about a year. And by "well", I mean visibility into the next 2-3 months and a consistent cash flow to manage our expenses. We had one or more 6+ month assignments with recurring monthly billing. We grew from just us to a team of 6. Things were looking up despite the fact that we running on thin margins. Basic technology based projects like websites were proving to be bread and butter. High value consulting work, though, was proving to be elusive.  

And, in a desperate attempt to raise money, we digressed. Side projects started to consume more time. Fondofood.com (home cooked food delivered from centralized kitchens), Ghartak.com (Grocery delivery), Monakus realty (real estate) folded up after pilots and did not even take off to a real commercial launch. We spent time pitching these ideas to investors in the hope that we would land seed capital to launch one of these. Our travel schedule was becoming hectic with these frequent trips to Mumbai to meet potential investors. 

The grand idea was to make Monakus an incubator where these new ideas and businesses would be born. The dream was big, time was running out and cash was running out faster. 

After a few desperate attempts, we had to acknowledge the fact that we were on a downward spiral. We started trimming down our expenses and tried to get back to our bread and butter website projects. Unfortunately, it was too late. We had lost time, opportunities, employees and leads. By May 2015, I took the call to end the venture. My partner wanted to continue using the name and trademarks. He pivoted back to his real estate business and I turned back to corporate life. 

Both of us are doing well and often wonder where we would have been, had one of those ideas grown into a real company. 

And for me, the monthly (or bi-weekly) paycheck has a new meaning now - I now know how difficult it is to earn that by yourself!

Catching up on life

Well, it has been an eventful last few years since the Grand Himalayan Exile. Here are a few events that have transpired and I would love to throw some light on each one of these in separate posts to give them the importance they deserve.

-  A failed startup experience. Lots of learning without any earning - Nevertheless, now I know what it means.

- Marrying a Japanese. I prefer to avoid personal topics but this one might actually help those in interracial relationships or plan to be in one or are curious about one. The actual signing event was so bizarre that even the Indian registrar couldn't believe - he, in fact, asked my to-be wife if she was being forced into this marriage because she couldn't pronounce my full name!. Well, if pronouncing my full name was the bar, it is too high for anyone to cross it.

- Life in Mumbai. In my earlier Mumbai stint (2008-09), working from home was decided by how much water there is on the street outside my house - Ankle deep, and you know that Kurla is under water and trains are not operating. Well, working from home has a new meaning with the current pandemic. All this and more on witnessing the life of an expat in Mumbai, what it takes to live in Mumbai if you are not from "here".

- Jersey City - the only thing that stops it from being a part of India is entry visa for Americans. It is a beautiful, diverse oasis where almost every culture can find something to call its own.

- Hikes around New York City - There are abundant "things to do" websites for NYC. I will talking about day hikes around NYC that can be accessed without a car. Not that I am against owning a car, I just don't happen to know how to drive one! 

- Canada - In a few months, I will be starting my second episode in Canada, a beautiful country with awesome people. I will provide a laundry list of items for first time movers to Canada. I have found a few blogs and articles that cover bits and pieces but haven't seen anyone documenting it well.

I hope I can turn these around in days rather than months...