The Kingston Daily Freeman from Kingston, New York • Page 53

PAGE 12 SUNDAY FREEMAN (TEMPO) Tromping the Tracks in Spring In some spots, the Esopus roils and tumbles over rocks, but at this particular spot bordered by the railroad tracks at left it flows placidly; lures those eager anglers who have already discovered it is a fine spot for trout fishing. By TOBIE GEERTSEMA Photographs by GENE DAUNER and BOB HAINES Now it becksons the sweet lure of spring outdoors. Oh, we Know it's traditional housecleaning time indoors for Mom, and yard work of staggering proportions for Dad winter's ravages. But there's also the fact that spring is an ideal time of year for long country walks providing the paths aren up to your knees in mud and too mountainous for those winter lethargized muscles. And providing, too, that among the modern highways, neons, filling stations and hamburger stands there are any country paths left to walk on.

Take heart, intrepid hiker explorer. There exists here in the Catskills a path more than 80 miles long. It is banked, well drained, cinder or stone covered, seldom steep enough to cause huffing and puffing, and sometimes so widly primitive you forget that civilization will intrude eventually into your solitary reveries again around the next curve. If it sounds romantic, it is. But this path is most unromantically named.

It is technically called the right of way of the Catskill Mountain Branch of the Penn Central Railroad. But it still means romance and nostalgia to some those who lemember it as the old Ulster Delaware Railroad. Once bustling with steam locomotives flashing by in plentiful supply, it now boasts few trains only enough to cater to the shipping and receiving needs of small companies in rural communities to the north. And these few trains go so slowly only 10 to 15 miles an hour that a hiker can return to his car and pace them, if a photography buff interested in shooting pictures of railroading scenes. Two experts on hiking this path are Gene Dauner, Port Fwen florist, and Bob Haines, a Freeman photographer.

And they've both been tromping the tracks far longer than those hikers and campers who were inspired by the John F. Kennedy era ciaze of several years back for 50 mile' hikes. Says Eugene Dauner: a lovely way to get away ind not exert yourself too can cover 14 miles 3 day without being overly tired." Dauner has hiked and rehiked the line; began taking hundreds of color slides in the last seven years. And, it it has been a long time since any passenger has ridden the rails, his slides prove that sometimes only a 60 feet wide piece of land less than 100 miles long is a hiker paradise. own personal favorite trek is the .6 miles from Boiceville to Aikville for him, the most scenic pait of tire Catskills section of the line.

Still, he does not minimize the glories of nature beyond Aikville and further into Delaware County. He often drives his car to the Ashokan Reservoir: hikes the line from there towards Aikville for as many miles as he has time for, keeping in mind that he ll have to traverse the same number of miles back to his car. Another day, drive to where he left off on the last trip; continue on in the same manner until he's hiked all sections. To him, this part of the line offers the wildest natural vistas: a long straight stretch of wide open land from the Mount Pleasant Flats on Route 28 to Phoenicia; following the path along the Esopus Creek to some of the finest trout fishing spots in the world; leaving the creek at Big Indian to take in stride the Pine Hill grade of 11 Ie For hikers and camera buffs, hiking the old U. D.

can become an obsession. That all American tradition the Sunday drive pales by comparison, when one can pull up the car and vanish olf into the woods somewhere. Once there, the rewards are many. Ghostly old stations loom up at Phoenicia, Cold Brook, Aikville; a picturesque freight house beckons at Fleischmanns wild llowers bloom in profusion everywhere along the tracks, the Rock Cut in Esopus Creek between Cold Brook and Big Indian is known internationally for its fishing, far and wide locally as the best swimming hole in the whole creek and it is only accessible because ol posted signs on Route 28 to those who hike the tracks. it bridges intrigue you, the U.

D. has these, too. Beneath the Boiceville bridge, the longest on the line, fish abound in what is known as the Chimney Hole. The high bridge east of Arkville is interesting in that it is the only overhead truss bridge on the. railroad's stretch above Boiceville.

Just beyond the old iron bridge at Cold Brook, an incredibly beautiful curve in the creek again superlative fishing and, again, the only way to get there, to avoid crossing private land is by hiking the tracks. As their photographs with this article show, both Dauner and Haines have found the scenery incredible all along the line, and both are immovable in their opinion that this is the most scenic railroad east of the Rockies, in all four seasons of the year. Since trains only run twice a week on the average (up on Monday and Thursday, down on Tuesday and Friday), the hiker usually has the tracks to himself. But if the occasional train is a. unique sight, overly lovely spots, are not.

Mountains tower everwhere, an old sawmill Is an invitation to explore, Pine beautiful Horseshoe Curve is breathtakingly gorgeous, the curve east of Big Indian almost competes with Horseshoe for grandeur. Hiking the U. say Dauner and Haines, Is as enjoyable for the novice as the professional. isolated and easy quick walking, especially if beginners start by walking two miles west and two miles back," they insist. And they feel that its present state is the "ideal" state for hiking far better than the 2,600 miles of abandoned right of ways in New York State where tracks, have been tom up, leaving hikers with only a trail of cinders to walk upon.

"What we have now is they say, "for those who do not like to hike steep mountain trails. Hiking the U. D. gets you into the outdoois and gets you away from it all. There is no other place today locally that offers both." And now, with spring in the air and buds on the trees, is the best time to see it all.

So, why not try it and see if you, too, find yourself enjoying the solitude as much as those who have bred it before you? (NEX1 WEEK; the second and final article in this series) The Phoenicia station, a remnant of the old U. D. on the new Catskill Mountain branch of the Penn Central Railroad. va The high bridge east of Arkville, the only overhead truss bridge on the stretch above Boiceville. Cold Brook station, one of the picturesque passenger stops along the former U.

Occasionally, the intrepid hiker actually sees a train go by on the little-used line. Here, one rumbles across the Boiceville bridge..