Storm King Mountain Hike in the Hudson Valley (NY)

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! I hope that you are having a great weekend and a Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. As I mentioned in my last post, I came across some adventure photos while looking for my art for my last post and wanted to share them with you. These are NY adventures and were some of my favorite experiences while I was still living in NY. Today's post will be the hardest hike I've ever done. Maybe others wouldn't find it as difficult but it was pretty rough.

In June of 2022 my friend invited me and one other friend to join her pupper sitting for her daughter while she was out of town. This would be upstate in the Hudson Valley area and I was all on board for it. It would be a nice girls weekend with a sweet pup and there would definitely be some hiking involved. The Hudson Valley area is absolutely stunning and this was the second time I had been there that year (I'll share the other adventure with you too).

I do regret not taking more pictures that weekend in general but I have a few to share from the hike. My friend suggested Storm King Mountain and said the trail was 2-4 miles with a little rock scrambling. I had never been on trails with scrambling and was excited to try it!

We started pretty early because it was June and it was going to be 90+ degrees that day. That was red flag number one of the day. I brought my water bottle that I was using at the moment which was 32 oz. I thought it would be fine for the 2-4 anticipated miles but oh boy was I wrong.

I will start off by saying the hike was BEAUTIFUL and it was really fun until the end 😅 I was not in my peak physical condition so I figured it would be challenging but I don't think any of us were expecting for it to be as difficult as it was.

We followed the trail for miles and it was almost all incline and it was more than just a little bit of scrambling. I don't know what we did differently because the description that we had read was not what we experienced. Despite the consistent climb up the incline, we were rewarded with the most stunning views.

After several miles our trail markers disappeared as we approached some high grass and it was completely overgrown. We didn't even see a trail. We were not interested in going through the high grass because there are TONS of ticks in the area. We connected to another trail and holy shit it was HARD. The scrambling was much more intense including a steep decline while scrambling. 

That was the point I started kind of panicking. It was HOT at that point, I had grossly underestimated how much water I needed and I was absolutely severely dehydrated. I was tired, we had already gone more than 4 miles and most of it was incline. I was stressed that my body physically would not let me finish that hike because at that point we had no idea where we were going and where that trail would leave us.

We ended up meeting up with a really sweet woman who had started at the trailhead so she knew how to get back. She let us follow her and we finally made it to the road. Unfortunately, it was not the same trailhead where we parked so we had to walk along the road to get back to our trailhead. By the end of the hike we had gone 7.5 miles and I was exhausted and feeling really sick from being so dehydrated. 

On the way back to the apartment my friends were a little worried since I was feeling so sick so I asked if we could stop for some Gatorade. I hobbled into a gas station and grabbed the biggest bottle of Gatorade that I could find and proceeded to drink the entire thing. Gatorade is gross but let me tell you that brought me back to life. I felt so much better within an hour after drinking it. I now keep a Gatorade in my fridge at all times in case I need it after a hike.

While I struggled with the last part of that hike, I really enjoyed it because we earned those stunning views. It also showed me that my body is capable of so much more than I thought and I was so proud of myself for finishing it. Sure, I panicked but I got through it. I do recommend the trail, I would just recommend navigating on the All Trails app and be prepared for incline, scrambling and bring plenty of water if you are going in the summer.

So that was the most difficult hike I've ever done! It wasn't necessarily the mileage that was difficult because I've done 6.5 miles on a relatively flat trail with no issues. It was the steady incline and steep decline and the heat which I did not prepare for appropriately (and that is totally on me). I learned a lot on this hike and it has definitely helped on hikes I've gone on since.

That's all I've got for you today! I hope that you enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday 💜