Rochester Hollow

 Rochester Hollow

Rochester Hollow is a 3 1/2 mile loop following an old carriageway from a former estate carved out of Rose Mountain. The trails wind along a series of waterfalls and pass by a popular lean-to.

For more information see:
https://upstatedispatch.com/2018/07/rochester-hollow-shandaken-wild-forest/
http://www.watershedpost.com/2015/rochester-hollow-hidden-catskills-trail
https://sceniccatskills.com/map-location/rochester-hollow/?mpfy-pin=706
http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/22615.html

Autumn is short, so is summer

Autumn fades so quickly. The leaves are green well into October most years and then they turn brilliant colors and then quickly fade away.

The season with leaves on the trees is really quite short when you think about it. In most of the higher elevations the leaves aren’t really on the trees until early May and they fade by mid October. The woods is free of leaves nearly eight months a year – and certainly seven most years in our cold climate.

Coketon – Railroad Grade

A largely undeveloped gravel bike trail outside of Thomas and Hedricks.

Most of the descend occurs in the 5 1/2 miles from Douglas, roughly 900 feet drop which works out to be an over 3% average grade, with a maximum grade of 3.75%.

It's much steeper then locomotives are engineered to safely climb, which is 2% or less, preferably less then 1.5%. It took at least two locomotives paired together climb, and heavy riding of the brakes down it and at least once in 1910s an out of control train crashed into the gorge below.

While not steep compared to many mountain roads, it's still a fun ride down and a good climb back up. Probably best done on a mountain bike, as the railroad gravel is fairly course on it

Taken on Thursday October 26, 2023 at Monongahela National Forest.