Quadricentennial
Challenge
Catskills Live! Trails & Wilderness Association
issues a challenge to all — venture forth and seek all 15
Quadricentennial Challenge geocaches. Go to many great places
throughout Ulster County — visit the shores of the Hudson,
feel the cool air in an historic cement mine, enjoy our small
parks, ride on our rail trails, summit two Catskill peaks, and
savor the breath-taking view from Gertrude's Nose in Minnewaska
State Park Preserve. Bask in our county's treasures with family and
friends, exercise your body, and build lasting memories. Over 100
specially minted commemorative Quadricentennial geocoins were
released from 15 Challenge geocaches set up in 2009 in celebration
of the 400th anniversary of the exploration of New York State by
Henry Hudson. Congratulations to Joe The Mailman, the first person
to complete all 15 caches! Funding for the Challenge was provided
by Ulster County and the Hudson River Valley
Greenway.
Gertrudes Nose — Isle in the
Sky
Gertrude's Nose may be the singular most spectacular hiking
destination in Ulster County. Gertrude's Nose is located within the
Minnewaska State Park Preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains. Its
namesake, Gertrude Esselsteyn, was married around 1677 to Jacobus
Bruyn. She was a woman of much ability and distinction who held
large land grants in the Town of Shawangunk.
Gertrude's Nose is a prominent cliff escarpment that projects
outward like a nose high above the Palmaghattkill Ravine to the
north, northwest, and west and to the Wallkill Valley to the south.
While not technically an island, this lofty piece of heaven is like
an "isle in the sky."
Shawangunk
Mountains
Explorers following in the footsteps of Henry Hudson discovered the
magnificent Shawangunk Mountains, eventually settling in the rugged
mountains and making a living through farming, selling fish,
quarrying the hard Shawangunk conglomerate for grindstones and
building stones, and harvesting the bountiful blueberries.
Today, much of the Shawangunk Ridge is preserved for hiking,
biking, skiing, rock climbing, and other recreational activities.
These activities compliment important habitat preservation and
educational goals. Together, these factors provide important
economic stimulus for regional businesses, including the nearby
Mohonk Mountain House.
Gertrudes Nose's
Trail
Much of the Gertrude's Nose Trail follows close to a rugged cliff
edge, often with deep crevasses nearby. Care should be taken to
keep children away from the cliff edge. Large expanses of
glistening white bare bedrock ledge interspersed with clusters of
dwarf pitch pines, mountain laurel, and blueberries offset sweeping
panoramic views of the Palmaghatt Kill Valley, northwestern cliff
lines, and the Wallkill Valley once Gertrude's Nose is reached. The
majestic views along this trail are will make your heart sing.
As
you walk, stop and focus closer to your feet. Notice the smoothly
polished white sandstone conglomerate, sometimes revealing sheared
off, formerly rounded, pebbles. Look at the parallel grooves etched
in the bedrock, left from rocks dragged along at the base of an ice
sheet. Imagine the power of a mile-high ice sheet slowly grinding
against the bedrock, overflowing and filling the nearby valleys,
removing almost all the soil cover. Imagine ice frozen against
steep cliffs, slowly ripping and plucking off huge blocks of
bedrock. In time, the ice slowly melted away — leaving behind
huge boulders at the base of the cliffs and some along the trail
standing as sentinel soldiers greeting us from the past. 
These clues of bygone glaciers also tell the story of the deepening
of the Hudson River channel. When ice sheets covered Gertrude's
Nose, the ocean levels were much lower than today. Then, as the ice
sheets melted, surging rivers deeply carved the Hudson channel.
Without these ice sheets and glacial meltwaters, the Hudson
River would not have been deep enough for Hudson to complete his
1609 voyage.
Stand near the tip of Gertrude's Nose and imagine for a moment that
the bedrock escarpment nose is the bow of a special ship, sailing
southwestward high atop a towering jagged ice sheet riddled with
deep crevasses. As you sail back in time, steer southward far
beyond the coastline of today until you eventually reach the
ancestral outlet of the Hudson far out at sea.
The Cache
Access to the cache is from Minnewaska Lake along red and yellow
marked carriageways and then along a red marked footpath. The round
trip hike is about 6 miles in length. Bicycles may be ridden on the
carriageway portion of the access route. An easy few mile addition
continuing east from Gertrude's Nose to the Millbrook Mountain
scenic vista makes for a spectacular loop. The cache is a 2-liter
cylindrical poly bottle hidden close to and southeast of the red
trail (away from the cliff line).
The cache is hidden about 1,000 feet from Gertrude's Nose under a
low overhang about 8 feet from the trail. For safety reasons, the
cache was not placed near or in deep bedrock crevasses closer to
the Nose itself. The cache is filled with kid-friendly items and,
initially, three NYS Quadricentennial Challenge geocoins designed
to travel throughout the world. This cache was approved by the Park
Service on 6-2-09 (Permit #: MSPP09-01).
Parking
Minnewaska State Park Preserve is west of New Paltz, NY along
Rt. 44/55. The 2008 NY-NJ Trail Conference Map 104 (Shawangunk
Trails - South) illustrates access routes well. Parking for this
cache is available at either the Minnewaska Lake parking area next
to Minnewaska Lake or at the Lake Awosting parking area. The upper
lakeside parking area is much closer to the cache and avoids a
lengthy uphill trek. The park opens at 9 am and there is a $6
parking fee.
Please Cache In, Trash Out!