Major Welch Series #3: Hudson View Traditional Geocache
Walkin' Ed: The State permit has expired so its time to pull these.
Major Welch Series #3: Hudson View
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The Major Welch trail is named for Major William A. Welch, the first General Manager of the Palisades Interstate Park. He helped found the Palisades Interstate Trail Conference (which later became the NY-NJ Trail Conference) and served as the chair of the Appalachian Trail Conference.
The trail begins behind the Bear Mountain Inn on the western side of Hessian Lake (red circle on white blaze). It follows the western shore of the lake along a paved path for almost .5 miles then turns uphill on a rocky trail. It climbs steeply to the summit of Bear Mountain, and then descends to Perkins Drive where it meets the Appalachian Trail. The best way to complete this series is to start at the Inn and follow the Major Welch trail to the Appalachian Trail then follow the AT back up and over the summit to return to the Inn. If you have two cars and Perkins Drive is open, you can leave one car at the Perkins Tower and shorten your hike.
If you are hiking the whole Major Welch series, this is a good place to stop and take a rest. You’ve deserved it! This is an excellent viewpoint. Don’t linger too long because there is still some climbing to do before reaching the summit, but the hardest part is behind you. You can also get to this cache by parking at the summit and walking down, but its still a 300-foot climb back to your car. Do not park along Perkins Drive, its illegal and you will probably get a ticket.
The cache is an ammo can. Due to NYS Park regulations it is only a few feet off the trail. Please take care to rehide it well. The coordinates were obtained by averaging over 200 readings on a Garmin 76Cx.
Park at the Bear Mountain Inn (fee on weekends and in the summer) N 41 18.747 W 073 59.341 or at the Perkins Tower (open seasonally, but no fee) N 41 18.721 W 074 00.419.
NYS Parks Permit # BM07-01
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre gur zvqqyr bs guerr ebpxf, pbirerq jvgu onex.