Fishkill Ridge to Lambs Hill, Beacon

I had half a day to spare for hiking and it was beautiful out – ingredients were ripe for an adventure. The plan was to head down south to Beacon to take a little hike on the Fishkill Ridge [End of Sunnyside Road off of Old Town Road, Beacon NY].

fishkill_ridge_beaconWhile there are plenty of trails to explore, the four and half mile round trip (out and back) jaunt to Lamb’s Hill seemed ideal. Up the red trail till it dead ends at the white trail, make a left and take it to summit of the hill.

fishkill_ridge_beacon_Simple enough. So we began to climb, passed a sign for Malouf’s camping, crossed a stream and made a bit of a descent…and then really started to head up! It was a first real hot buggy hike of the season, invest in some good bugspray. Good thing was, the mountain laurel was beginning to bloom, bedazzling the trail.

fishkill_ridge_beacon_5The path is pretty obvious, but there is one spot where it turns sharp to the left. There is even a big log almost saying ‘don’t go this way!’ However, if you’re not paying attention you could veer off into an unmarked sea of rocks. Don’t do that.

fishkill_ridge_beacon_8Keep heading up and you’ll catch you’re first view…

fishkill_ridge_beacon_9Keep going, there’s more where that came from. When you get to the junction with the white trail you aren’t far off, remember to head left.

fishkill_ridge_beacon_6Just under a half mile to the top, where bright pink flowers led us along.

fishkill_ridge_beacon_7There was no sign alerting us we were there, but the splendid views told all!

fishkill_ridge_beacon_4The summit of Lamb’s Hill was lush and lovely on a hazy June morning. You could go on further and create a loop, but we made this our turn around spot. Warning. You should stop reading here if you aren’t a fan of creepy crawly things. We’ll start small. On the way down we saw lots of excellent critters. Many fuzzy caterpillars,

fishkill_ridge_beacon_3a spider laying an egg sac,

fishkill_ridge_beacon_2a million millipedes I didn’t care to photograph, but most impressive of all – the biggest snake I have ever seen in the wild!

fishkill_ridge_beacon_1This black rat snake, probably about four feet long, slithered across the trail and then made its way up the branch of a tree effortlessly. It was such a rewarding and exciting sight. We waited till it made it’s way well off the trail and I had ‘trust in me….jussst in me’ playing in my head all the way down back to the car.

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