2023-12-26: Old Quarry Hill

Old Quarry Hill, elevation 615'. Highest point in Bethlehem NY. Solo bushwhack ascent via Hollyhock Hollow; 3.22 mi, 361' gain, 1h RT. Albany County municipal highpoints 4/13.

Old Quarry Hill is the scariest of the Albany County highpoints. It's not scary due to dangerous mountaineering or extreme weather. It's scary because it involves a 3+ mi bushwhack on private land and, until now, zero information about the informally-named peak was available online. As the scariest of the highpoints, I put it as a top priority, since all the others would seem less scary once I had climbed this one.

A surprisingly straightforward ascent of the Coeymans town highpoint had emboldened me to continue highpointing on a warm, foggy December afternoon. Due to its scariness, I had studied the Bethlehem town highpoint in detail. Its summit is only a thousand feet west of Old Quarry Road, but those thousand feet involved sheer cliffs and an active quarry, so that approach wasn't doable. I wanted to avoid walking through people's yards as much as possible because that tends to upset people, which limited my options significantly.

About a mile south of the highpoint is a park called the Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary. Bethlehem, a suburb of Albany, is a very built-up area, consisting mainly of residential developments, industrial parks, and an enormous CSX yard. However, a small section of woods in its southwest corner has been preserved for the public, and a long stretch north of the sanctuary remains forested all the way to the summit. This seemed like the safest approach to me.

My route seen on OpenStreetMap, USGS topos, and satellite. Overlay courtesy of CalTopo.

I arrived at the hollow in the early afternoon and hoped that I would have both the time and stamina to complete the hike (I was just recovering from a bad cold, and the fog isn't great for my asthma). The trails in Hollyhock Hollow are well-maintained and clearly marked, and I followed the Red Trail north until its split with the Yellow Trail, which I followed to its terminus. They Yellow Trail meets the White Trail near the northern end of the park. I stopped here for awhile as some hikers came by with a dog, and I waited until they were out of sight to leave the sanctuary grounds.

One of the markers at the end of the trail.

Vestigial leaves on a beech tree made for a nice photo.

Upon leaving the main trail, I found myself walking through what seemed like a brush and rubble pile off the edge of a farm to my east. This was pretty difficult to hike and was somewhat visible, so I moved a little bit to the west, where I ran into a very clear 4x4 trail. This trail seemed like it was heavily trafficked, with marks in the mud indicating four wheelers had already been here today. This made it a little risky to follow, but it also seemed to run in exactly the right direction, so for now, it was my best bet.

An old deer skull in the woods.

Looking down the 4x4 trail. Note the upturned leaves, evidence of very recent use.

As I headed north, this trail started leaning too far to the west of my destination, so I took an overgrown trail to the right and hopped over a small ridge to the east. In the little valley here was a lush hemlock forest, quite unlike the surrounding woods or anything else you'd expect to find in Bethlehem. Just above this spot, on the ridge to the east, is the Albany filtration plant. I followed this green, mossy valley north until I ran into another 4x4 trail, this one at an intermediate level of use.

The hemlock grove beneath the filtration plant.

The second trail led beneath some high power lines and made a close pass to a hunting stand, thankfully unoccupied at the time. The area under the power lines was mostly just rock with some brush growing up in some areas, allowing me to check out the geology here, which was much different from that of the Catskills just to the south. Old Quarry Hill is just one of several scoured bedrock formations in the area left behind by receding glaciers, much like nearby Blodget Hill. 

Looking down the power lines over terraced rock outcrops.

East of the power lines, I picked up the 4x4 trail again, following it until it diverged from another ridge to the east. This is the summit ridge, and the highpoint is about a thousand feet northeast of where I left the trail. While the woods here seem fairly open, the summit ridge was covered in thornbushes that were a bit of a pain to trudge through, growing thicker near the very top. The clear highpoint is slightly to the south of the callout on the topo maps, with a convenient overlook at the edge of the quarry wall.

The view from the summit of Bethlehem on a cloudy day. Note the large CSX station at upper left.

From here, I could hear the squeal of trains at the CSK station a mile to the east. I could peer down into the quarry, which wasn't in use today, but the drop was steep and the wall seemed fairly unstable so I didn't look too much. After a few minutes enjoying the summit, I turned around and began the trek back to the car.

I followed pretty much the same route on descent that I had on ascent. The 4x4 trails criss-crossing the forests here make this ascent very convenient. I left the trail to check out a communications tower near the power lines, and I briefly lost the trail at the power lines, using the GPS to find my way back. I saw some trail cams on the way out as well, presumably to catch illegal hunters. I wasn't hunting, so I wasn't too worried.

A guyed communications tower just off the trail.

After another stroll through Hollyhock Hollow and stopping to say hello to at least two dogs on my way, I was back at the car. Bethlehem, arguably the most challenging of the Albany County highpoints, was done.