Scenic Hudson trail plan gets boost from town

The town of Esopus will apply for a grant from Hudson River Valley Greenway to help pay for an 11-mile Scenic Hudson trail near John Burroughs’ Slabsides cabin.

Scenic Hudson planner Peter Bernard told the Town Board this week that the trail would connect existing trails from Illinois Mountain in Highland to the Black Creek Preserve in Esopus.

“We we’re looking to do ... is apply for funds to do an environmental study of the key lands in the corridor,” Bernard said. “Basically, what this will allow us to do is understand where parking lots will go, where we can put signs, where we can put improved infrastructure without ... negative environmental consequences on the property.”

Information about the size of the grant being sought was not immediately available. It would require a 50 percent match from Scenic Hudson.

Bernard said efforts will be made to design the trail so emergency services can find someone in distress.

“It’s going to be coordinated ... so they are able to, especially on this trail, find somebody quickly and re-

spond safely to emergency situations,” he said.

“The southern portion of Black Creek State Forest ... doesn’t have any trails on it,” Bernard said. “There’s technically no access into it, so in terms of emergency response, that is ... part of the improvement plan that we’re doing.”

One idea to have mile markers on the trail to help emergency responders identify locations.

“We’re thinking, at very least, geo-locating the mile markers so that ... when

emergency services pulls up, their maps they can clearly see where that person is,” Bernard said.

Esopus Councilman Wayne Freer suggested the signs include QR codes that could be scanned by cell phones and sent to police, fire and rescue personnel. He said that would be helpful because phone signals in Esopus sometimes are picked up by towers on the east side of the Hudson River, causing 911 calls to be routed to Dutchess County.

“It would give them a GPS location,” he said. “That’s something to explore ... because people sometimes have no idea where they are on a trail.”