Don’t make the mistake my mom and I made and KNOW YOUR TRAILS, before heading out to Cold Spring. The trails and difficulty level vary drastically. Here’s my experience taking on Breakneck Ridge Trail…with my 50 year old mom.
When the weather is that perfect 70 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, there’s one thing everyone in the Tri-state area does. Run for the beach and the mountains. Hiking in the summer is brutal. I can barely make it across Central Park in Manhattan because of the heat and humidity. But Spring time brings the temperature to a sweet spot. It’s by far the best time to go hiking in New York State. Never having explored the areas near me, my mom and I decided to take a trip out to Cold Spring, NY on Memorial Day Weekend.
I spent the long weekend at my parents house in Greenwich, Connecticut (CT). I woke up early Monday morning at 8AM to enjoy a nice coffee and croissant by the water, before gearing up for our hike. For the hike, I wore my red Nike sports bra, black Nike spandex shorts, black Nike sneakers, and my pink Mason DIFF Eyewear. We hopped in the car and drove one hour to Cold Spring. Our objective was to hike Breakneck Ridge Trail.
We started at Breakneck Bypass Trail [Red Trail – Medium level]
Having done ZERO research before our hike, we assumed it would be just uphill and foresty. Please do not come with that assumption in mind! We avoided the crowds parking the car at the entrance near Little Stony Point and drove a few minutes down and parked the car on the side of the road near Sugarloaf Mountain Trailhead. Again, not knowing what the trails looked like my mother and I started up walking up the Breakneck Bypass Trail (from Point A to B on the map). It is considered a red trail, which means steep, medium in difficulty, and uphill for a good hour. We were entrenched in the forest and there were a few beautiful overlooks as we reached closer to the top. Honestly, there wasn’t much aside from that. As we reached the top, we had the option to continue along Breakneck Ridge Trail and reach Cold Spring, but that was a tough and far hike. So we decided to go back down.
The view of Bannerman Castle The view from the intersection between Breackneck Bypass Trail and Breackneck Ridge Trail
Descent down Breakneck Ridge Trail [White Trail – Very Difficult level]
Rather than go back down the way we came, we stopped a man coming up from the other side of the trail Breakneck Ridge Trail. We asked him if it was doable to go back down on that side. He told us it was very steep, but doable. People usually climb up from Breakneck Ridge Trail and come back down from Breakneck Bypass Trail (the opposite of what we did). We thought to ourselves…the trail can’t be much steeper than what we just did. We were VERY wrong. IMPORTANT: One HUGE differentiator that no one explains to you between Breakeck Bypass and Breakneck Ridge, is that the Ridge is literally just a vertical rock climbing experience. If you have no experience rock climbing then I do not recommend this. Although dear god…during Memorial Day Weekend we saw people and animal of all types doing the dangerous and insane rock climbing up to the top. From small dogs to big dogs, to five and eight year olds, to people dressed in jeans, and people dressed in business pants, button downs shirts, and work shoes. Maybe they had no idea that Breackneck Bridge was going to be like this either? Either way, we saw a ton of ill prepared people doing a very dangerous trek.
Breakneck Ridge Trail starts off fine. It’s woodsy and less steep than Breakneck Bypass. We thought we were off to a good start. We stopped for a view of the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve. I mean the view is quite incredible. The huge mountain that looks like a bubble is Storm King Mountain. This view was much prettier than the Breakneck Bypass Trail views.
We did not expect what was coming up next…vertical drops and steep rocks. The last hour and a half of our descent was spent trying to figure out how to get down from mountainous rocks without injuring ourselves. A Eureka moment came upon me—that’s why it’s called Breakneck Ridge Trail, you can literally break your neck. In my opinion, although it was dangerous climbing down was much easier than the trek I saw everyone do climbing UP. I ran into a park ranger that told me to avoid going “against the grain” on busy weekends and holidays. But there was no way I was going to climb all the way back up these boulders after having just climbed down them for an hour. To give you an idea…yes—the second half looks like the below if not worst.
At one point, a woman and her family flipped out and said they saw a 6 foot black snake and to avoid going towards a specific rock. NOPE – not happening and not today. I was wearing spandex shorts and had no intention of seeing a 6 foot snake. I knew that they were on the trail, I mean heck, we were hiking in New York, it was nature after all. But after all the hikes I’ve done in my life, believe it or not, I’ve seen black bears, eagles, and vultures, but never snakes. I wanted to keep it that way. Unfortunately for me, about 30 minutes later I stepped my foot down and jolted back as I was a foot away from a 2 foot garden snake. My first encounter with a snake in the wild, great, I had jinxed it! So come prepared my friends and keep your eyes open while hiking. After an hour and 30 minutes of finding the safest and best way to get to the bottom, my mother and I made it! It was fun, but never again. Rock climbing just isn’t for us and props to my mom for not complaining once and taking charge on getting us down the mountain. I guess her motherly fight or flight instincts kicked in and she forgot about how sore she was and just wanted to get us off that darn mountain!
How long does it take to hike Breakneck Ridge Trail?
We hopped into the car and headed back into the town of Cold Spring in search of a juice or water and some ice cream. The hike up and down Breakneck Ridge Trail took us 4 hours. We had hiked from 11:30AM to 3:30PM and my Apple Watch had told me we had burned 650 calories and hiked 4 miles with a 1,260 foot elevation change. Props to us!
The Safer Trails
If you want to visit Cold Spring and go hiking in New York, don’t let my story deter you. There are much easier blue trails right along the side like Wilkinson Trail and Little Stony Point. But avoid what we did. Come prepared and know that red and white trails are the HARD and sometimes dangerous trails and the blue trails are the friendly trails you need to follow when hiking in New York.
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