{"id":11217,"date":"2021-11-13T17:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T22:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=11217"},"modified":"2021-11-13T17:11:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T22:11:32","slug":"breakneck-loop-11-13-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=11217","title":{"rendered":"Breakneck Loop, 11\/13\/21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday evening, on impulse, my brother-in-law Bill called me and asked me if I wanted to go hiking. And on impulse I said yes. He wanted to hike the Breakneck Ridge, Breakneck Bypass, Wilkinson Trail Loop in Beacon, New York; a friend of his had highly recommended it. He texted me a link via the AllTrails<\/a> app; it was rated as difficult and I began to wonder what I had signed up for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~This was my view from where I parked my car, looking across the river at Storm King Mountain. Breakneck Loop 11\/13\/21.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the morning, at the trail head, Bill and I read the sign which read: “WARNING: This is not just a walk in the park! Breakneck Ridge is a steep rock scramble that is for experienced hikers in excellent physical condition only”. Experienced hikers? Check. Excellent physical condition? Ummm, that might be a problem. In the first 3\/4 of a mile we climbed 1,250 feet! But, we took it slowly and rested when we need to; doing it that way made it not too difficult for us. It was pretty exhilarating to reach the flags and check out the views at that point. It was a bonus to have a Peregrin Falcon hanging around the area. My camera was in my bag, so unfortunately not shots of that bird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Breakneck Loop 11\/13\/21.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the way was less challenging than the first 3\/4 mile. The loop in its entirety is listed as 2.8 miles, but for us, including getting to and from our cars it was just over three and a half miles. And it took over three hours to complete, lol. The signage indicates that it’s approximately a 3 hour loop, so I guess we weren’t moving too terribly slowly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Photo by Bill Barrett. Smile through the pain! Breakneck Loop 11\/13\/21.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The descent was of course much more gradual; which was relaxing and allowed for Bill and I to catch up and talk more as we hiked. As for birds, it was typical hiking birding with not many species seen or heard. The list is short: Peregrine Falcon, Common Raven, Turkey Vulture, Ring-billed Gull, Eastern Bluebird, Black-capped Chickadee, and Dark-eyed Junco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Breakneck Loop; the view looking south down the Hudson River, 11\/13\/21. Photo by Bill Barrett.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I got my best bird of the day on my way home – I stopped at the Beacon waterfront and found a single Bonaparte’s Gull out on the Hudson River. I waited the bird out and it eventually flew and I was able to get salvageable shot, in spite of screwing up my settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Bonaparte’s Gull at Long Dock Park at the Beacon waterfront, 11\/13\/21.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~A Common Raven plays with a stick over the Hudson River. Breakneck Loop, 11\/13\/21.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yesterday evening, on impulse, my brother-in-law Bill called me and asked me if I wanted to go hiking. And on impulse I said yes. He wanted to hike the Breakneck Ridge, Breakneck Bypass, Wilkinson Trail Loop in Beacon, New York; a friend of his had highly recommended it. He texted me a link via the … Continue reading “Breakneck Loop, 11\/13\/21”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-2UV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11217"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11235,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217\/revisions\/11235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}