Walk - Long Path to High Point Cliff

Today, we were expecting a warm, windy, and wet Halloween Day. What we got was 70 and windy, but the rain got postponed until later in the afternoon. After some household chores and fall yard work, I headed off to John Boyd Thacher State Park for a short walk before the deluge. As I got closer to the park, atop the Helderberg Escarpment, I noticed a trailhead I'd never seen before, listing the Long Path to High Point Cliff, about 1.1 miles. This looked about right, so off I went. It turns out that the Open Space Institute just recently acquired another 188 acres here to be added to the park, and that's where I was now walking.

I kept watching the sky to the west, and maintained a fairly brisk pace, not wanting to get wet in the next hour or so. By the time I got to the overlook, the sky had mostly clouded over, but the views were still spectacular. The escarpment in the main part of the park was visible to the southeast.



Fourteen miles to the ESE was the Empire State Plaza in downtown Albany.



And just below me to the north was the tiny village of Altamont, at the base of the escarpment.



The sky was getting noticeably darker now, so I didn't tarry long here, walking quickly back to the car. It had not rained by the time I drove home, but it still looks like it will be a wet evening for trick-or-treating ;-)