Approaching and walking through the property, its name seems to manifest everywhere. Coming from the village, 9W, usually a sprawling super-slab, narrows and makes several bends before and after the bridge over the creek. Little streams crisscross the path at multiple points, winding and looping like the creek in miniature. Large vines, several inches in diameter, wreathe trees living and dead. In addition to diving and climbing, the trail also twists and turns.
One can’t help but think of the trail’s origin as a farmer’s path: back then, the notion of needing to inject extra physical activity into one’s day would have struck people as madness; like a Nantucket fisherman spending his free time on the water or a chain-gang prisoner hustling home to squeeze in some landscaping work before sunset.
Were our ancestors who once traipsed this land daily heartier than us? Probably, but of course they were not healthier. Though Ulster County’s health stats are middling when compared to those of some other parts of the state, we are at least thankfully spared of the whooping cough, scurvy, polio, high-infant mortality, death-in-childbirth and countless other afflictions that plagued our forbearers. In a way, we can count ourselves lucky that advanced-age arterial sclerosis is our most lethal problem.
Though it had been raining intermittently for weeks, the trail last week was not muddy or slippery. Its sloping pitch and numerous streams seem to prevent the kind of vast puddles that can make spring hikes miserable. Still, parts of the preserve are wetlands and water is everywhere. You see the Hudson from 9W on the way in, and you realize why people decided to settle here in the first place: the confluence of water and a good harbor to bring people in and natural resources, like bluestone, out.
The Esopus Creek dam is a testament to this. Now in the process of being resurrected as a source of hydroelectric power, it was first constructed to provide power for the great 19th-century mills arrayed on opposite banks at the part of the creek. That the preserve land was spared the subjugation of industrious settlers was mainly a consequence of pitch: it’s just too steep to build on.
From a health perspective, being surrounded by natural beauty is a good incentive to get out and walk. A deeper appreciation and understanding for local flora and fauna can also enrich that prospect, so taking one of the free guided walks with Esopus Creek resident naturalist Steve Chorvas is a good idea. As writer Lynn Woods noted in a recent profile of Chorvas, “On a butterfly walk, for example, besides identifying the species of the various pairs of brightly colored wings fluttering around, he will point out how the females of some species are larger the males. He’ll distinguish individuals freshly emerged from the chrysalis, unfurling and drying out their dewy wings, from the specimens with tattered wings of advanced old age. And he’ll identify every bird song and flight within range of your eyes and ears; and explain why the stinging nettle is not a noisome weed, but a plant vital to the ecosystem.”
There are a few guided tours coming up, including a wildlife walk on May 7 and a breeding birds and butterfly walk June 18. Go to www.esopuscreekconservancy.org for directions, a trail map and info on upcoming events.
Lighthouse Trail
The lighthouse trail is easy to find: just take Lighthouse Drive until you come to a dead-end, where a large parking area and conspicuous signage greet you. The half-mile trail starts out as a gravel path before giving way to sandy spots and boardwalks over wetlands. (Some of the walks are solid, others are loose wooden pallets: watch your step!) Trail conditions vary: you can be marooned if you get caught at the Lighthouse during high-tide. Helpfully, saugertieslighthouse.org provides links to tide charts for planning purposes. According to the site, tides rise and fall at a rate of nearly a half a foot per hour. For example, a high tide of five feet will cover the trail for two hours before the time of high tide and remain for two hours afterwards.
The environment is that of a tidal marsh. The lighthouse sits at the tip of a precarious peninsula with the Hudson on one side, the Esopus Creek on the other. It is very wet here. Reeds, cattails, purple loosestrife are abundant, as are broadleaf marsh plants like spatterdock, pickerelweed, golden club and arrowhead. This little of sliver of land also plays host to a diverse array of birds; I saw dozens of redwing blackbirds and a very enthusiastic woodpecker, and heard an aviary’s worth more.
At about the half-way point, the trail splits off to a picnic area, where a few wooden picnic tables sit on sand. Here, you gaze out over a vast cul-de-sac of the Hudson, with the main shore on your left and the tip of the peninsula on your right. In the winter, huge blocks of ice pile up here. (There are some excellent old photographs, taken in the days before refrigeration, of Saugertiesians collecting ice here.)
A good hike is all about the payoff, and you can’ do much better than the stately Saugerties Lighthouse, built in 1869. Originally owned by the Coast Guard, the lighthouse came into the possession of the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy for a dollar’s consideration in 1986. Thanks to the efforts of that group, it’s been saved from the ravages of time and today serves as a bed and breakfast.
According to the conservancy, tours are available on Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day from 2 to 5 p.m., as well as at other times during the year by appointment.
