GTFO of NYC 003: Breakneck Ridge in Cold Spring, NY

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When good weather hits NYC (sunshine, above 65), everyone is deliriously happy. Surviving a NYC winter feels like an accomplishment — granted, it’s not Minnesota — but the streets get slushy, subways are tighter because everyone is bundled up, and we trudge from home to work to meeting to event to bar to restaurant and back to home freezing the whole way through.

So, when Memorial Weekend hit this year and the weather was pretty close to perfect, I wanted to GTFO of the city with my girl. I thought aboutWoodstock or Philly, but ultimately landed on Cold Spring, to hike Breakneck Ridge.

No car, no problem.

Metro North travel-time: 86 minutes on weekends

Take the Metro North Train to Breakneck Ridge, and follow the horde of other NYC hikers and their tiny backpacks once you disembark. Being amidst all those hikers, you might feel nervous that the trail will be crowded, but don’t worry — it’s fine.

We paid $2 for this little map. Total waste of money considering they had free black and white ones there too, so now I feel I should frame it just because.

Scramble up those rocks

I love the trail at Breakneck Ridge because the first 1.5 hours is a rock scramble. It is FUN. Unless you are my girlfriend who felt her short(er) legs impeded her progress.

We did the White — Blue — Red — Blue route to Cold Spring. Those first 1.5 hours are tiring. Bring water, and food (my personal favorite: turkey sandwiches). The last 2–3 hours are cake in comparison. Gentle uphills, some flat terrain and everything in between. The trails are really well marked so it’s easy to figure out which direction to go.

There are a few summits. Enjoy them. Rest. Stare at the beautiful scenery. Chat with strangers. Basically, pretend you aren’t a NYer.

Beer and Burgers

Once you finish and enter back into civilization, you’ll see a main road. About an 11 minute walk from the end of the trail, reward yourself with a cold brew at Doug’s Pretty Good Pub. Doug’s Pretty Good Pub is not pretty good, it’s REALLY good.

It has that homey wooden pub atmosphere perfect for a post-hike beer and burger. I even felt comfortable enough to take off my hiking boots — maybe that’s not kosher but it felt good.

There were a couple of IPAs on tap. The Belgium Ranger IPA and Catskills IPA. Both delicious — we preferred the Ranger IPA (“light amber color bursts of citrus and fruit hop flavors with caramel malts. Finishing with an intense dry hop finish”).

While sipping on our IPAs, we nodded with appreciation as fellow hikers entered and struck up a conversation with the friendly bartender. She asked us where we were coming from and my girlfriend told her “we just did bareback and it was amazing”. If you don’t know what that is (like my innocent girlfriend), here you go.

After a beer (or two), we got hungry. Doug’s Pretty Good Pub has 10 types of burgers. I devoured the black bean burger and my woman enjoyed their traditional “Pretty Damn Good Burger”. For a hot second, I was sad that I didn’t eat beef.

I scream for ice cream

Beer. Check. Burgers. Check. Next-up: Dessert.

There are a few great options in Cold Spring; this popsicle place serves fresh fruit pops and looks incredible. But, I’m a loyal ice cream woman, so we headed to Moo Moo’s Creamery. This line was insane. I’ve lived in NYC too long to stand in line for clubs, cronuts or ramen burgers, but when you trek yourself all the way out to Cold Spring, just suck it up (or, in my case, I made my girlfriend wait in line for 20 minutes while I sat in the shade).

They change their menu everyday. The Walnutella was insanely good. The cookie dough was creamy and delicious, but in my humble opinion needed more cookie dough. Still, I’d 100% go back.

We sat on the grass to eat, overlooking the Hudson River. Beautiful.

Heading back to the city

Full of beer, burgers, ice cream and a sense of accomplishment, we began our journey back to NYC. Trains run every hour or so from Cold Spring, and the train back was easy peasy.

TL;DR: get the f**k out of the concrete jungle and go to Cold Spring. It’s worth it, I promise.