Mine Hole Trail to Connect Shawangunks to Catskills

May 10, 2012
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference

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Mine Hole Trail to Connect Shawangunks to Catskills

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Volunteers clear new treadway for the Mine Hole Trail. Photo by Georgette Weir

Cutting the ribbon on the Mine Hole Trail June 2, 2012

Flagging ribbons became opening ribbons on Minnewaska's Mine Hole Trail on June 2, National Trails Day.

June 2, 2012 Update: Mine Hole Trail and Long Path Reroute Now Open at Minnewaska State Park 

On National Trails Day, the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference will joined with Minnewaska State Park Preserve and the Mid-Hudson Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club to celebrate the opening of the new Mine Hole Trail in the northernmost part of the park. This 3.5-mile trail links the Berrypicker Trail to Berme Road and provides most of the long-sought green link to connect the Shawangunks to the Catskills.

The event will begin at 10 am at Soyuzivka, the Ukranian Heritage Foundation Center at 216 Foordmore Road in Kerhonkson, NY. Park officials and Trail Conference volunteers who have planned and built the trail connection will be introduced. Maps of the new trail links will be available.  The opening remarks will be followed by a guided hike on the newly opened Mine Hole Trail led by Jean-Claude Fouere of the Mid-Hudson Adirondack Mountain Club. The club has volunteered to maintain the new trail.

For event details, contact Larry Wheelock, [email protected] or 201.512.9348.

Trail Description

The LP will follow its current course through Sam’s Point Preserve to, heading northbound, the Verkeerder Kill Falls area (private land). There, instead of continuing on along the Scenic Trail past Mud Pond, Lake Awosting and along the Rainbow Falls Trail, Jenny Lane, and Old Minnewaska Trail to Rt. 44/55, the LP will turn north to co-align with the High Point Trail, continue on the Berrypicker Trail in Minnewaska, follow Smiley Carriage Road for a short distance, then turn onto the new Mine Hole Trail to Berme Road in Wawarsing. (See map 104, Shawangunk Trails, 2011 edition.)

From Berme Road, it is a 2-mile road walk as the route follows Port Ben Road, crosses Rt. 209 and continues on Lundy Road to to Vernooy State Forest. One last regulatory hurdle remains to be crossed in order to blaze a route for the LP through that forest and the adjacent Sundown Wild Forest. Once the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) completes the Unit Management Plans for the these two state forests, the trail will follow the west bank of the Vernooy Kill to Vernooy Falls, to rejoin the current route. (See map 146, Catskills Trails, 2010 edition.) Until that time, the trail will follow Rogue Harbor Road to Upper Cherrytown Road, part of the current route from the Shawangunks to the Catskills.