28. June 2010 by Kevin.

06-25-10

June 2010 - the Hudson Valley RT is just feet away from the Walkway OTH

the new side trail at rt 9W

  When I had gotten to the west end of the Walkway,I had seen that the barricade had been moved to the side.There was a mound of fill dirt and gravel just feet away from the very west end of the WOTH state park.I had seen that there is no bridge yet over the ROW / RT-yet-to-be at Mile Hill Road. There is still that pre-fab tunnel. There was a bit of some additional concrete retaining wall / portal form and re-bar work.There was no activity at Vineyard Ave. There was quite a bit of activity at Commercial Ave., though.A worker waved me past so that I could continue on to the old, partialy open, section of the RT. They were clearing an area much wider than the paved path part of the RT. The Hudson Valley Rt is a double wide RT. Half is paved and is  a 12 foot wide bike-pedestrian path The other half is not paved, and is intended for Equestrain use.

  As I was about to leave the east end area of the (open phase 1) RT,I saw a box truck aproaching from the Commercial Ave. end through the construction area. I had seen an explosives sign on the front of the truck. A BMW with the custom liscense plates “PYRO PRO” followed behind the truck. I had thought,briefly at first,that this truck might be going to the construction area on the old - phase 1 section of the RT where there is an old tunnel being removed. A bit of wishful thinking on my part to speed up the process so that the existing RT would not be split in 2 sections, and that New Paltz Rd. - the Atlantic Coast Route - would be open. I had thought it odd though, that if this were true,why were they driving the truck all the way from the very east end and not access the RT from New Paltz Rd. near to the construction area on the RT? After the truck passed, I began to ride west to the aforementioned construction area on the RT. I shortly came upon an area of the RT with yellow caution tape across the whole width of the RT. A worker pulled back a section of the caution tape to let the truck into the area. I would find out the truck was carying fireworks, and a fireworks shell launching area was being set up. As it was a week before the big day for such pyrotechnics,this must be for a church carnival fireworks show. The RT, more or less,passes behind the Catholic church’s athletic field and school where the carnival would be.

fireworks displayed during the Walkway grand opening ceremony - 10/02/09

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20. June 2010 by Kevin.

06-17-10

town of LaGrange CR49 crossing - the main construction staging area at the
north end of this new section being built

  Phase 3 construction is underway When I had checked the Dutchess trails website last year during the phase 2 construction,I aparently had gotten the start and completion dates reversed.I had thought phase 3 construction would start in the Fall of this year,2010,but as per the website,phase 3 is to be completed in the Fall,and would start this Spring.I had seen on the website that phase 3 construction was underway.This bit-more-than 4 mile section,will go south from CR 49 - Titusville Rd.,in the town of LaGrange,to the north end of the previously completed and open phase 1 section in the town of East Fishkill.This will be the longest section to be built. Once phase 3 is complete,the combined sections will make a bit-more-than 6 miles of RT between Hopewell Jct. and CR 49 in LaGrange.
This will be the middle of the RT. As per the website, phase 4 would be the “biggie”,the new $6M bridge over SR 55.This wil be the final section of the 12 miles total RT.There are plans for a future phase 5 to replace the bridge over SR 115 - Salt Point Tpk. Most noteably,there are no future plans,by the county of Dutchess,for a phase 6 to extend the RT from the north-west end of the open phase 2 section to the east end of the Walkway. With the Dutchess RT phase 3 project,and the Hudson Valley RT phase 2 project,(Ulster county - town of Lloyd)) there are now 2 RT projects,of 2 different rail trails, along the same ROW, on both sides of the Hudson river. I would ride out CR 49 to where the ROW crosses the road,at grade,to see if there was any construction activity at this end. It had seemed that the construction would be mostly from the north to the south. There was a main “staging” area and construction trailer on the north side of the road.

  In the late 1990’s,I had mapped out a parallel route along the abandoned Maybrook line ROW. It was to become a rail trail.I had thought,at the time, this would happen in a few short years,and as the RT was built,I would have a route to ride to the sections that are open. At the time I had ridden south into the town of Wappingers,and the town highway department were removing one of the bridge-tunnels (a “brunnel”) over several of the town roads that the ROW passed over. A “mere” 13 years latter,riding a different bycycle,I was at the same location,where there was a construction crew working on the latest section of the Dutchess Rail Trail. They were building the foundation/support for … you guessed it,a NEW BRIDGE! for the RT over Maloney Rd. near the intersection with Daley Rd. I then rode another town road to where the ROW crossed over Diddell Rd. There was no work yet for the new RT bridge over this road.

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16. June 2010 by Kevin.

The weather forcast for the month of May should have been - summer with brief periods of spring.  Preceding this weekend it had been very summer like with tempatures in the mid 90’s (F) and afternoon thunderstorms. Indeed March had been unusualy warm as well. My first ride of the year I was wearing my summer touring shorts and a T shirt.I also had to apply sunscreen. I have already gone through an entire bottle of sunscreen which would almost last a normal entire season.

Fri. 5/28

  Originaly the forecast was for rain / thunderstorms today,but was OK.Today would prove to be quite nice with relatively low humidity and temps in the 80’s.I would go for a short ride across the river (via the Walkway OTH state park of course) to do a bit of shopping and to check on the status of the Hudson Valley RT “phase 2″ extension project at the start of the holiday weekend. (see seperate blog report below)

Sat. 5/29

  Today would have the weather that Friday was suposed to have.With high humidity and a threat of thunderstorms,I did not ride today. I would,instead,set up my window unit air conditioner for the season.

Sun. 5/30

  I had wanted to return to the Roosevelt Farm Lane - Hyde Park Trail.I had planed on riding this trail from rt 9G across from Val Kill - Elanor’s home - to US rt. 9 and the FDR home NHS during this weekend. The FDR Home traditionaly has had a WWII encampment on the grounds during this weekend,and other Memorial day related events and programs.The 1.7 mile ride through the woods would provide me with cool releif from the blazing sun.

SLIDE SHOW VIDEO (MS Windows Media .wmv)

  Once at the south end of the trail,at US rt9,I was able to easily find the Tulip leaf blaze for the Hyde Park Trail on the other side of the highway, on the FDR home grounds. The trail went up,the wrong way,on a paved service road.I ended up near Belafield “cottage”. This so called “cottage” would be quite a respectful home by any standard. With all the traffic,and my focusing on getting to the military encampment and the Wallace visitor center,I had lost the trail markers.I would first ride to the visitor center to get a cold soda to wash down the sandwich I had brought with me. I had previously known that the new captain, Cmndr. Robert Chadwick, of the USS Roosevelt - DDG 80, was going to be in Hyde Park for various Memorial Day activities and celebrations. I would find out he would be giving a presentation in the auditorium of the visitor center at 15:00 hrs. (3:00 PM to the non-military) As a former member of the ”Tonkin Gulf Yatch Club” - USS Coral Sea CVA 43,this would be of special interest to myself.This would provide me with enough time to take a walking tour of the military encampment spread out in the field across from the FDR presidential library. The Memorial day weekend encampment was primarily WW II, but other military wars and or periods were represented as well.There was representation of WW I,WW II,Vietnam,and Desert Storm and the present.The Korean war period may have been represented,but the vehicles etc. are so close to WW II,I may have thought what I was looking at was of WW II.The very first military camp I had seen was in fact a WW I era Army camp with a period vehicle,a person (who looked old enough to be a Korean war vet) dressed in the typical WW I era “doughboy” uniform of a “non com” (non-commisioned officer - pvt.,corpral etc - to the non military) ,a dashing looking fellow dressed in a typical period officers uniform (weraing decidedly non WW I era wrap around sunglases) and a fully restored 1918 Vicker Mk 1 machine gun.There are typicaly foreign army camps represented at these Memorial Day weekend encampments.The red star on the sign of one camp clearly identified this to be a Soviet Russian army camp. The Vietnam era camp was identified not only by the equipment or the
 or the M16 weapon most associated with this war, but by the late 1960’s newspapers,and a Life magazine, of the period. I heard some gunfire. A re-enacted “battle” had begun.

USS Roosevelt DDG 80

   After the re-enacted battle I returned to the Wallace visitor center for the presentation by the new captain, Cmndr. Robert Chadwick II, of the USS Roosevelt DDG 80.The Roosevelt is named for both Franklin and Eleanor. The ship was oficialy adopted by Hyde Park and the county of Dutchess. The Roosevelt is an Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class of modern guided missile destroyers.Thus the “G” designation.The Roosevelt is of the variant with a small helicopter flight deck, and hangers,
 at the aft end. (the rear of the ship to the non-nautical) She is 510 feet long and 10,000 tons displacement and has 4 GE gas turbines, or as her captain put it it “four DC 10 jet engines”, for a total of 100,000 HP to the 2 shafts.The propellers,or “screws”,are variable pitch to allow for foward and reverse. Like a ferry boat,but much bigger. When the captain began to talk about the more technical aspects of the ship it sounded like an episode of “Star Trek”,with phrases like “phased array” - “Aegis” and techno-mil acronyms like AN/SPY 1D - MK 99 - ATWCS - MK 41 VLS - AAW - ASW.

Mon. 5/31 Memorial Day

  I had wanted to see just how far it was from Morgan Lake,the northern terminus of the Dutchess rail trail, to the east end of the Walkway via the old ROW,and if indeed I could actualy ride it,at least in part. It would seem that this section of abandoned ROW,which technicaly is still owned by CSX, has become a public use trail. After tip-toeing across the rotting RR ties on a small bridge at the north end of Morgan Lake,I was able to ride to the SR 9G underpass tunnel.This proved to be the most dificult section as there was a debris and dirt berm blocking access.I had to walk around the obstruction via a well worn,very narrow,footpath to the other side under the highway.After negotiating several other bridges,I arrived at the east end of the Walkway exactly 1 mile from the end of the Dutchess RT at Morgan Lake.

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14. June 2010 by Kevin.

  I have noted some confusion in regrads to the area trailways near the Walkway Over The Hudson.There are information kiosks for the Walkway Loop Trail at either end of the WOTH.These kiosks have a large map of the “trail”,which is actualy a street and public road loop route. This map depicts a future time when all of the area trailways connect with the WOTH and are fully completed To add to all of  this confusion, Google Maps seems to think the WOTH is the Hudson Valley RT.I have created an annotated version of the WLT map, as a PDF format document that should help to clear the confusion.Here are some important points that should help:
 

  The Walkway Over The Hudson,the Hudson Valley RT and the Dutchess RT,are all different sections of the same RR ROW - the old “Maybrook Line”.The Maybrook Line went from Maybrook in Orange county NY to Hopewell Jct.,both the RR reference and the village with the same name, in Dutchess County

  The Walkway Over The Hudson is a seperate entity from the Hudson Valley RT and the Dutchess RT.The WOTH is a state park. It is the repurposed 122 year old RR bridge/trestle that spaned the Hudson river between Poughkeepsie and Highland.It is now a pedestrian / bicycle bridge and linear state park.The Walkway became a state park October 3,2009.Prior to this,it was under the ownership of the Walkway OverThe Hudson organization. This organization are now “friends” of the Walkway.The WOTH is part of Adventure Cycling’s Atlantic Coast Route.This route will be part of the US bicycle route system - the route number will be USBR 1

  The rail trail on the west side of the Hudson,Ulster county,in the town of Lloyd and the village of Highland, is named the “Hudson Valley Rail Trail”.This RT is under the jurisdiction of / ownership by the town of Lloyd.Therefore it is a linear town park. Currently,as of 06-09-10, this paved 2 1/4 mile RT goes from the Tony Williams town park on (Ulster) CR15 to near Commercial Ave. in the village of Highland.There is a short 1/4 mile unpaved section to an un-named paved semi private side road to Commercial Ave. FYI: this side road is a very steep 15% grade.There is ongoing construction to extend this RT east from this point to the west end of the Walkway. (not to confuse you but,the very east end of this RT will also be the very west end of the Walkway) The expected completion of this project was originaly to be late Fall of this year, 2010,but as per the recent newsletter available on the HudVal RT website,the work is ahead of schedule and the new phase 2 section may be open in October of this year.

annotated map of the Hudson Valley RT - as of 06-14-10

  The Dutchess rail trail will,when finaly complete - 2011?… 2012? - will be 12 miles in length.The northern terminus is (and will be) the Morgan Lake park in the city of Poughkeepsie.The southern terminus is Hopewell Jct.This RT is under the jurisdiction of / ownership by the county of Dutchess.Therfore it is
 a linear county park. When the RT was planed,Dutchess county was not able to obtain ownership at the time, of the ROW from what is now the east end
 of the Walkway,and so Morgan Lake became the northern terminus of the RT as per the 2006 plans.The 1 mile section of undeveloped ROW from Morgan Lake to the east end of the Walkway is curently, as of 06-09-10, still owned by the RR - CSX.

  In 2025??? there may or will?? be 19 miles (maybe a bit more) of paved (well.. technicaly 17 3/4 miles of paved asphalt and 1 1/4 miles of concrete decking on the Walkway) contiguous rail trail from Hopewell Jct. in Dutchess county to (near) SR 299 in the town of Lloyd in Ulster county.

annotated Walkway Loop Trail map

HUDSON VALLEY RAIL TRAIL

06-11-10

  The new section of the RT is taking shape. I had thought the “bridge” that was to be put in place, at Mile Hill Rd,would well… be a BRIDGE - a new span over the ROW,as there was, and will be once again,over Vineyard Ave. Therfore what a surprise it was to see,on this day,a prefab concrete tunnel in place over the ROW / not-yet-a-RT.I had seen several men,one of whom seemed to be the project engineer, I had told him I had thought there was to be a bridge He told me there is.          I looked down at the ROW and told him,”well… down there it’s a tunnel” Aparently Mile Hill road used to,and now once again,crossed over the ROW,as does rt 9W and SR 9G in the city of Poughkeepsie,via a bridge-tunnel - a “brunnel”.From the perspective of the road it is a bridge,but down on the ROW it is a tunnel.The portals for the sectional pre-fab tunnel part had a faux ”stone” block face and a spot for the keystone,that presumeably will have the year (2010) carved in it. I rode over to the RT access at Commercial Ave.There was no activity in this area. Where the ROW used to, and once again will,goes over Vineayard Ave., I had noted construction activity on the east side in the Vintage Village area. I had found out from the spring 2010 newsletter of the Hudson Valley RT,that this area was the Pratt lumber yard. I had also found out that the RT is split in two as an old bridge - one of those “brunnels” - where (Ulster) CR12 New Paltz Rd. went over the RT,is replaced.This would mean that CR 12 - New Paltz road would be closed in this area.This road is part of ACA’s Atlantic Coast Route and future USBR1.There was no activity in the Commercail Ave. area. I would ride to the pavilion and then on CR 12 to confirm that it is closed.It was.I rode back to the pavilion.I then turned left off the county highway onto a town road, So. Chodike Lake Rd.There was a red and black bike route sign with an arrow pointing in this direction.This was presumeably for a bike-a-thon ride.I knew this town road went to SR 299.I had seen the official highway department orange detour sign for New Paltz Rd. - CR12 on this road.I then returned to the RT and rode to the Commercial Ave. area and then Vineyard Ave. and Tilson Ave. to US rt 9W.I rode up the sidewalk on the west side to see what,if any, progress had been made. I had seen that there had been quite a bit of work done where the ROW goes under the highway.I had noted that there seemed to be a more substantial grade,for a RR, than the original ROW had.There was perhaps a 5% grade from the tunnel. Only in NY (or PA) could there be a hill on an otherwise nearly dead flat RT! I had seen what may be the begining of the side trail to the highway. This would explain the grade on the main ROW,the main ROW is to meet the side trail half way up.

05-28-10

  At Mile Hill road,on the Haviland Rd. side there was a newley poured new concrete bridge abutment / retaining wall on the south side.The forms were still in place.The big pipe was still exposed.I rode over to the Commercial Ave. area in the village of Highland.I had seen an Adesta work truck.
Adesta is the fiber optic company that had paid $400,000 to the town of Lloyd for the right to use the ROW to route their cable.I had talked briefly to a worker,with a cable locater,placing flags marking the FO cable route.He had told me that the new bridges will be put in place in late June.

DUTCHESS RAIL TRAIL

05-31-10

the old RR signal at Grand Ave. - as it apeared June 25,2009

The old RR signal at Grand Ave. ,town of Poughkeepsie, (phase 2 section) has been removed,presumeably for restoration.On the DRT phase
II map,it was noted that the old signal is slated for restoration.

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