02-09-2019: Cunningham Road

On February 6th, the midwinter heat wave broke and temperatures plummeted back to a more seasonable 10-20 F. Nonetheless, I took some time out on a windy Saturday to walk the majority of Cunningham Road, a steep road in the Cornwallville hamlet which I had walked part of in the summer. With a temperature of about 16 F and very strong winds I believe this was the coldest weather I have yet walked in. I parked about half a mile from the road's highest point, and even there where I started I was faced with tremendous beauty, with wide views in every direction from the lofty slopes of Mount Nebo.

Sloping hayfields high up Mount Hayden.

Looking southwest up the road, the sun lit a repurposed school bus below Mount Pisgah.

As I was partway up the Catskill Escarpment, Mount Pisgah was the only mountain clearly visible.

The ridge seen here is traversed by CR-20; many of the fields on it I've taken pictures from.

View of the upper Hudson Valley, looking northeast. Unfortunately I couldn't keep my shadow out of this one.

Despite the fantastically beautiful views, the high elevation and clear fields meant the already powerful wind was absolutely brutal. My eyes were constantly watering, my gloves blew away whenever I took them off to take pictures, and my asthma started giving me trouble, even though I was headed downhill. I headed downhill quickly, wanting to get out of the open as soon as possible.

The hayfield from above, seen from farther down the mountain.

After being melted and refrozen dozens of times over the winter, this snowfield below Mount Pisgah took on an almost glacial appearance.

View of farms along Cochrane Road and the Catskill Valley from just above the edge of the field.

Finally I plunged down into the forested portion of the road and headed back towards the valley. Cunningham Road meets up with Cochrane Road not far from the farm in the above picture, so this was some distance to walk, and almost all of it was forested. Although I prefer to park at the low-elevation end of my walks, the topography of Cunningham Road prevented that, so this day I walked downhill first, then up.

This former spruce plantation is maintained as a hunting preserve by nearby Hull-O-Farms.

View of the valley near the road's eastern terminus with Cochrane Road.

Two horses stand atop an otherwise barren field.

The lack of views or much of anything requiring me to stop made the uphill hike from Cochrane Road back to my car seem to pass more quickly than it actually did. The forest broke the wind for much of the journey, and when I did re-emerge into the open portion of road, the wind was at my back now, making it far more tolerable than it had been before.

Most road signs in this area are bullet-scarred like this one.

Tiny frozen waterfalls clung to the edge of the roadside ditch.

Looking south up the road into the sunset.

Fields near the parking area, now late in the evening.

It was dusk by the time I returned to the car, later than I had expected but then again I did get a late start. I'm going to be honest, I don't have any more roadwalking segments backlogged. However, for my next two posts I'm going to be something very different, something I hope will be a bit more interesting.