Escape NYC: Cold Spring Hike

After so much hiking on vacation in Canada, I think I caught the hiking “bug.” I’ve been feeling really eager to #getoutside. Luckily my friend Claire (the one I made a pie with!) also wanted to find some cool hikes near the city.

My friend Liz had invited me to hike near Cold Spring before (but the timing had never worked out) so I figured I’d start there. Naturally, I turned to google (my life coach) and started looking for blogs that described hikes that were easy to get to from public transportation. I found this great description to Bull Hill:

Take Metro North to Cold Spring ($14 each way for an off-peak fare). Walk north on the platform until you reach Main Street. (There are public bathrooms at the end of the platform, but they were out of order so we walked down Main Street to a coffee shop where Claire got an iced tea and we used their bathroom. I believe there were also porta-potties right near the entrance to the trails.) Walk two blocks to Fair Street, then take a left. Follow Fair Street to the end and take a left on Route 9. Walk on Route 9 until you reach a small parking lot where you’ll see the entrance to the trails.

It was a very easy walk (maybe 15 minutes total) and the trail was well marked. There was even a table set up with two people who were giving out maps and advice on what trails to take. We asked for a suggestion for a 2-3 hour hike. They sent us on a loop from the trailhead that went from white to yellow to red and looped back to the trailhead on blue. Map credit:

The hike took about two hours. The first hour was the hard part with steeper trails and a couple of places you might call a “rock scramble.” But it was relatively easy overall. And the views were beautiful:

I love finding bridges in the woods so when we reached this point (where we connected to the blue trail from the yellow trail and thus didn’t actually cross the bridge), we stopped for a snack break.

In Canada, my sister and I snacked on a lot of Clif Bars because they were easy and convenient. I’m a big fan of Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch and Oatmeal Raisin Walnut!

But on this hike, I brought homemade muffins to snack on! This recipe for Nutella Stuffed Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana and Zucchini Muffins from Half Baked Harvest is awesome! I omitted the chocolate chips (because I wanted Nutella to be the main event here!) and I also skipped the Nutella swirl on top (just to make them slightly less messy for traveling and also to save a little on sugar/calories!), but they were still absolutely delicious whether eaten while reading the Times on Saturday or next to a lovely little bridge in the woods on Sunday.

After the hike, we still had plenty of time for lunch in town. Jackpot! Claire did a quick search and found that the highest rated restaurant in town was Hudson Hil’s Cafe. And I definitely would have given it the highest rating, too…even without visiting anywhere else! I wanted just about everything on the menu, but I decided on the grilled cheese. It had apples, fig jam, gouda, and bacon on it and it was TO DIE FOR. When the waitress took my plate, I said “I am going to take an hour and a half train ride again just to eat that grilled cheese!”

After lunch, we walked the short walk down main street back to the train and managed to get on an express back to Manhattan. We sat next to a really nice girl and her dog who snuggled right up to Claire for the whole ride back. It was just about the perfect day! I can’t wait to escape NYC again soon! And if you have recommendations for other day-long escapes from NYC, please share!