“BUTTER HILL RESET”, LY2493

Complete survey mark log »

… Looking NE toward Fishkill.

Butter Hill South, by jonboy

Hi, JB!

Our trip to Storm King was the second in our late-Summer series of day trips to the Hudson Valley region. Tuesday night I had a terrible time deciding where I most wanted to go. Even a few hours spent sitting on the porch going over maps didn’t solve our problem, though by the end of the night I did finally narrow it down to two spots—Storm King and an area of the Catskills we visited last year. By morning, my mind was made up, and I think Rich was also pleased that we’d be visiting someplace new.

My first surprise of the day was our unanticipated stop at Plum Point. We decided not to worry about the cache today, but rather to just explore and enjoy the hazy sunshine. Immediately we identified Storm King Mountain in the distance, a profile we’d become very familiar with over the next few weeks. After a few moments spent relaxing by the shore, we headed to our main destination.

Following a hike description that Rich had found online, after a brief mistaken detour into the woods on an unmarked trail, we set out from the parking area “along the grassy shoulder of the road”. Seeing not a single yellow blaze, we kept walking and walking. When we hit Mountain Road we knew we’d gone way too far and turned back. The hike back up that hill wore us out prematurely! Finally back at the little patch of woods near the parking area, we spotted the yellow (actually orange) blazes. Oops. Apparently on our little detour into the woods we’d walked behind the blazed tree, come out on the west side and, not seeing anything, continued even further west. Don’t make this mistake! We returned to the car for a drink and to start over as if nothing had gone wrong.

The yellow trail climbs very steeply and took us to a rock ledge overlooking Route 9W. From there we headed steeply upward again and soon came across three stone pillars and part of a granite foundation—ruins of Spy Rock House, according to our hike description. What a place for a Summer home!

Our next stop was the summit of Butter Hill. I wasn’t prepared for the sight. Not only do the 360° views make this a perfect spot for a triangulation station (BUTTER HILL RESET, LY2493, which we recovered), but it’s also one of the most inspiring geocache locations I’ve visited. We gathered our documentation for the station first, and then searched for your cache. It was well hidden, but the coordinates took us right to the spot. Everything was in fine shape inside. Back at the tri-station we spread everything out in the sunshine, looking leisurely through the contents and writing our logs. I left a small Lego set and took a plastic cow from the bag of barnyard critters.

We continued along the trail looping up to the summit of Storm King Mountain itself and then down to the blue-blazed Howell Trail, stopping at each overlook along the way (each seemed better than the last—really!). Rich pointed out the easily recognizable features of the Shawangunks which we could see about 25 miles distant, and I told him what I knew of Bannerman’s Castle, situated beneath us in the river on Pollopel Island. Binoculars are a must!

The Howell Trail took us south to the Stillman Spring Trail, which we began following northeast. This is where our mile-long walk along Route 9W caught up with us. We were worn out, hot, sweaty and our knees were killing us. We turned around and instead took the Howell Trail up to North Point. That’s as far as we got. Time to turn around for good, but not before finding a slanting slab overlooking the river where we could rest for a while in the sun—a rewarding end to an exciting hike. Our return trip had us briefly confused about the location of Clove Road, which we finally found and followed out toward the parking area—emerging from the woods on the unmarked trail we’d seen on our accidental “detour” into the woods upon our arrival.

Your cache served as a fine introduction to Storm King. We both loved the trails and the views and plan to return soon. Thanks for maintaining your cache here and seeing it through all the park’s troubles!

Zhanna

… Gorgeous view … but we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

… Zhanna points out RM2, with RM1 in the foreground.

… The view is grand no matter which way you look.

… Storm King Mountain as seen from Plum Point: Intimidating even from a distance. Thanks, R, for these photos!

… Umm … the “Storm King” himself??? (Ha!)

… Zhanna indicates the station mark, seen from RM 1.