LP Sect 27: West Conesville to Doney Hollow

On Tuesday November 4th, Kathy and I met at 0800 and caravaned south on Rt 30 to drop my car at the Doney Hollow end of the day's section. This is on West Kill Rd, off of Rt 30 just outside of North Blenheim. We loaded up into Kathy's car and headed south again, turning off of Rt 30 onto Rt 13 and into Gilboa and Conesville. We found a great place to park and we were on the trail by 0910. The 1st part of the trail is on the road and goes by the Gilboa Dam, and a little bit later down the road, a display of petrified trees, found in the 1800's.

We stayed on the road for a little over a mile then the trail turned onto an abandoned road running along Schoharie Creek. Note that while this body of water is named a creek, it is really a fair sized river. This part was about a mile then the trail again becomes a road walk on Rt 13 (Stryker Rd) for about a mile. Here we passed a rock overhanging the creek and we took some pictures here too. When we got to the Nickerson Park Campground, we continued past on the road as the guide book indicated. We had gone to the club website to check for any trail updates or reroute info as the guidebook indicated that something was being worked on. We found no update information. As the guidebook said, we climbed the hill and at the top, sure enough, great views of the whole valley. We started down the other side and near the bottom, I saw a painted over blaze on a tree. We consulted the guide book but sure enough, the blaze was painted over. We've been thru this before. So we trek back up the hill and now see on this side of the road(we had been walking facing traffic), lots of painted over blazes. So we hike all the way back to the Nickerson Campground where we finally spot the new blazes leading into the campground. We missed them the 1st time as they were on the opposite side of the road from where we were walking. Total distance on the road past the campground and back was probably a mile.

So we go into the campground and it turns out this is a huge place. The Schoharie creek runs right along the campground and the trail follows the creek.
We stopped, still in the campground about 1130 for a short break in a juniper wooded area on a slate outcropping of rock overlooking the river. Nice rest area for us and a really nice camping spot in the campground.

Once we get to the campground border, we seem to be on NYS land. There was a sign posted that the Mine Kill Falls was about 2 miles away and the trail time would be 2 hours. That seemed excessive to us but we proceeded. Sure enough, the trail meanders through the woods but along the steep hillsides with lots of gully crossing required. We also had to go out of our way (still on the trail) to get up streams far enough to have the streams crossable. It was a long 2 miles and it took us a little less than 2 hours but we did have another short rest at Mine Kill Falls once we got there. This is a really pretty water fall.


So we climb up out of the gorge and back to Rt 30 where we walk across the bridge (currently under construction) and find where the trail goes back down and follows the gorge again for awhile, just on the other side from where we had been. Now we're in the Mine Kill Falls park. We hike along, still doing a bit of gully crossing and another small water fall appears along the path.

We get up to the park entrance and at a maintenance building, about 2pm, we decide to take a break and eat our lunch. This should be the halfway point but the trail reroute thru the woods has added milage. After half an hour and some food, we feel better and start out again. This part of the trail is level and field-like. Well maintained so we are able to go at a good pace. The trail eventually passes by the Lansing Manor. I'll have to go back sometime for the tour. Since it's getting late and sundown is coming fast, we keep moving. We pass by the smaller, Blenheim-Gilboa dam and follow the trail thru a pine woods to the creek side again where the summer's growth of grass and river bottom weeds have fallen over and make the hiking a little hard. Eventually we reach Rt 30 again at the edge of North Blenheim. The trail takes a reroute again and takes us past the water fall and up the street toward an old cemetary. Here the trail turns into the woods again, straight up a steep slope. Once at the top, we cross some fields and eventually come out onto West Kill Rd.

We hike up West Kill Rd and realize the trail goes into the woods again on our left. We declined to participate as sundown is nearly upon us. Continuing our hike on the road, we see the painted over blazes. At another point, we see the trail come out from the left and cross over into the woods on the right. Again, we declined to participate. Eventually, passing a beaver pond on the right, we come to my car about 4:30pm, where the trail comes out of the woods on the right and crosses again into the woods on the left. We were checking out the terrain on the left and the trail looked like it did quite a bit of running along a steep hillside. We don't know how much more milage the woods walk would have beenor even if we would have made it to the car before it got dark.

Kathy checked our milage from her GPS when she got home. The hike was supposed to be 10.75 miles, we did 14.2 miles. Given we did an extra mile on the road near the campground, we figure we covered the woods walk we missed at the end. At any rate, it was a good hike, even with the extra milage. Lots of pretty spots along the trail.