Triangle Loop – Week 11 (Finishing The Hudson River)

July 6th to July 12th

Day 70 – Sunday, July 6th, 2025 – In: Croton-on-Hudson, NY

On our last day in Half Moon Bay, we just hung out on the boat. It was hot, humid, and bouncy, with all the boats going back and forth to the park in the bay. I worked on the blogs for a while, and Brenda made a fresh batch of docking cookies. In the afternoon, I tried to take a nap, but it was so bouncy that after about an hour, I gave up.

In the evening, we loaded the bikes back onto the boat, I performed my engine checks, and we prepared for departure the following morning. For dinner, we had the roasted chicken and another Caprese salad.

Day 71 – Monday, July 7th, 2025 – To: Poughkeepsie, NY
Shadows Marina

We dropped our lines and left the dock just after 8:00. Our first stop was just across the river at PANCO Fuel to top off our tanks. It was only about 10 minutes to cross, and we pulled in. I love boaters, but some are, well, not that bright. There is a saying that to own a boat, all you need is money, not brains. On the PANCO website, their directions say…. “Look for the large white fuel tanks with a sixty-foot long, sixteen-foot high red ‘Panco’ sign on the side. The fuel dock is just past the bow of the Fireboat John D McKean.” The dock hand said that they constantly get people who say they can’t find it!

Steve from Half Moon Bay Marina mentioned to say that we’d stayed there and we would receive a discount. When we got there and started filling up, I mentioned that Steve sent us, and they said that gave us a 50% increase in the price! Just kidding, we got a 10-cent-a-gallon discount. It took us about 20 minutes to take on 170 gallons, and then we continued north up the Hudson River.

As we’ve mentioned, the Hudson is one of our favorite sections of the Loop, with rolling hills, cliffs, and quaint towns. After fueling up, we passed the Stony Point Lighthouse and then the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. From there, both sides of the river start to rise as the Hudson runs through Bear Mountain. There are roads cut into the hillsides on both banks, and the rail lines also run along both sides, passengers on the East and freight on the West.

We passed under the Bear Mountain Bridge, the West Point Military Academy came into view on the west bank of the river. On our last trip through the area, we took the tour and learned some of the history of the facility; if you get a chance, it’s a great experience. The buildings at West Point cover over 230 years of history, and you can see the progression of construction as you cruise along the river.

Next we cruised by Magazine Point, where George Washington had huge chains strung across the Hudson River to block British Ships. Next was Pollepel Island (also known as Bannerman’s Island) and the remains of Bannerman’s Castle. Francis Bannerman built a replica of a Scottish Castle in 1901 to store ammunition and explosives for his business. In 1967, the property was donated to the Taconic Park Commission, and two years later, a fire destroyed a significant portion of the structure. Today, preservation and restoration efforts are underway, and you can tour Francis Bannerman’s house and the ruins of the castle.

Beyond the castle on the east bank lies the huge Tilcon stone quarry, featuring a massive stone sorting and loading structure along the river.

Next, the Mid-Hudson Bridge and the Walkway Over the Hudson Bridge came into view, with Shadows Marina at the base of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. The Mid-Hudson Bridge is also known as the “Musical Bridge“. Joseph Bertolozzi, a musician and composer, created musical arrangements by hammering on the bridge structure with hammers and recording different vehicles going over the expanded steel decking, then combined them into musical arrangements. If you walk across the bridge, you can stop at push-button stations where you can play his music. On our previous visits, we rode our bikes across and experienced it firsthand. Very cool!

The Walkway Over the Hudson is a former railroad bridge. The wooden ties of the bridge caught fire and burned in 1974. In 2009, it was reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, part of the Empire State Trail that runs from Manhattan in New York City north to the Canadian Border. It is the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge. On both our first and second Loops, we rode our bikes across and also rode part of the Empire State Trail.

We arrived at Shadows Marina at 12:30. Shadows Marina, which is in the “shadow” (pun intended) of Shadows Restaurant, which is in turn in the Shadow of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. We’ve stayed here on both of our prior Loop trips. Shadows Restaurant is excellent and offers great views of the bridge and the Hudson. The marina provides convenient access to the two Bridges for sightseeing, as well as the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), the FDR Presidential Library, and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site. On our previous visits, we dined at the very elegant, student-run restaurants at the CIA. If you want to dine at one of the three restaurants, be sure to book your reservations well in advance, as they fill up several weeks ahead. On this trip, we missed out on CIA reservations, but we plan to visit the FDR Library and the Vanderbilt Mansion.

For dinner, we went to the Shadows restaurant. They have an excellent menu, and the food is 5-star! We started with Korean BBQ Kabobs with Shishito Peppers. For dinner, Brenda had the salmon with asparagus risotto. I had the NY Strip steak with mushrooms, and parmesan smashed Yukon Gold potatoes, and we shared a curry cauliflower with chickpeas, coconut milk, and pita bread. The food was excellent!

For dessert, Brenda had the Brownie Sundae with salted caramel cremeux, cherry compote, caramel corn, candied walnuts, and Jane’s banana cookie ice cream. I had a Mid-Hudson Old Fashioned. Both were excellent!

As we were finishing dessert, we saw a large tanker approaching from the river and went out onto the bar deck to take some photos as it passed the boat in the marina below. Just as we were walking back to the boat, it started to rain (we brought our umbrellas just in case), and we made it back just before it started to rain heavily. The heavy rain only lasted about 30 minutes, but it continued to drizzle until about midnight.

At night, they light up the two bridges with red and green lights. It’s very pretty! You can also see the night passenger trains passing by the marina.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 72 – Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 – In Poughkeepsie, NY

Tuesday morning was cloudy, but it burned off quickly. Our plan for the day was to visit the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, NY. We took an Uber to the visitor center. Again, the driver was watching a video while driving! What’s up with that!

Hyde Park, New York, was the home to Fredrick Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both the Vanderbilt Mansion and FDR’s Home and Library are National Historic Sites and open to the public for tours. Both homes were sold to the National Park Service for $1, with the forgiveness of all past and future taxes.

The property started as an arboretum developed in the late 18th century by Drs. John and Samuel Bard, of Bard College fame. In the early 19th century, Dr. David Hosack, the second owner, further developed the property. When the Vanderbilts bought the property, it was primarily for the gardens. The existing house was torn down, and the stone mansion was built on the site. The mansion cost $600,000. The decorating cost $1.8 million. (in 1896) All of the stone was imported from European castles, even though much of it was originally quarried in the United States. Mrs Vanderbilt was fascinated by all things French, so most of the decoration has French influences.

The Vanderbilts only used the house for 6 weeks in the spring and 6 weeks in the fall. The rest of the time, they were at their other mansions in the Adirondacks, Rhode Island, and Manhattan or traveling overseas. The house and tour were fascinating, and it is well worth a visit! Another noteworthy point was the generosity of the Vanderbilts, in a time when most jobs paid $0.10 per day, the Vanderbilts paid $2.00 per day. They also paid for health care for the staff, and the staff ate the same meals as the Vanderbilts. In contrast, FDR was only paying $0.75 per day.

After the Vanderbilt Mansion, we were considering going to the FDR Home & Library, but after walking around the grounds of the Vanderbilt in 92° heat, we were too hot. Also, Uber availability was limited in the area, and the 1.5-mile ride to the FDR Library would have been $28! So, we took the Uber back to downtown Poughkeepsie (which is 3 miles, and only cost $24). When we got there, we went to Mahoney’s Irish Pub for something cool to drink and a snack. It was just under a mile walk back to the marina, mostly along the tree-lined river walk, and refreshed from our visit to Mahoney’s, we walked back to the boat.

On the way, we were able to find a Geocache (#526), a mushroom stuck up in the limbs of a tree. When we got back and cooled off, I got out the drone and took it for a fly. It has been too windy to fly for most of the trip, and I’m out of practice (after crashing my last drone into the water at our home marina), so I’ve been waiting for a good day. I flew it up the river to the Walkway Over The Hudson bridge, then back. I was hoping to catch a freight train along the west bank of the river, but none came by.

For dinner, we had leftovers, and watched the colored lights on the bridge.

Day 73 – Wednesday, July 9th, 2025 – To: New Baltimore, NY
Donovan’s Shady Harbor

We waited for Keith, the Dockmaster at Shadows, to arrive in the morning so that we could pay him for our stay. We were going to settle up yesterday, but he had the day off as there was no one scheduled to arrive. After paying, we dropped our lines at 8:30 and started our trip up the river to Donovan’s Shady Harbor.

We went under the two Poughkeepsie Bridges and were followed by a freight train with 196 tanker cars. On the west bank of the Hudson River, there are some fantastic homes perched high on the cliffs that line the bank. On the east bank of the river, which rises more gently but still has high bluffs, are mostly institutions and mansions. We cruised past the Marist University, the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), the FDR Home, and the Vanderbilt Mansion. Across the river from the Vanderbilt Mansion is the impressive building of The Mount Academy.

This section of the Hudson has a lot of large barges and ship traffic, mainly bringing fuel to the Albany, NY terminal, and aggregate and asphalt to the large plant there. The Hudson has been a major shipping route since the 1800s, and there are a number of beautiful classic lighthouses along the route.

Our first lighthouse of the day was Esopus Meadows, where a large water weed mower was chewing up the water lilies that were clogging a channel. Next was the Rondout Lighthouse, which is at the entrance to Rondout Creek that leads to Kingston, NY. Kingston has been a stop for us on our two prior trips, but we decided to skip it this time. Maybe we will visit on our trip back down the Hudson. Just after the Rondout Lighthouse, there is a complex of old mill buildings right along the river. I believe they are cement plants for the lime kilns in Kingston.

The weather was fantastic, not too hot, and the water was flat calm. There’s not much to do at Donovan’s, so we were taking our time and saving on fuel. We were also going with the incoming tide, which was giving us about a 2 knot push. The Hudson River is tidal for 163 miles, from New York Harbor all the way to Troy, NY, where there is a Dam and Lock.

A pontoon boat had been slowly gaining on us, and it caught up with us around Glasco, NY. It was Darren Hayes on Makin’ Wake. Daren is doing the Great Loop on his pontoon boat to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. He started in Tampa, FL. Good luck, Darren!

Next, we went past the Saugerties Lighthouse, one of the prettiest on the trip so far, followed by the Rip Van Winkle bridge. As we approached Hudson, NY, we passed the Hudson-Athens lighthouse, which is being restored. Hudson is another of the many towns along the Hudson that used to be industrial in the 1900s but have slowly faded. All along the river, you can see the remains of the industry lining the banks. There is a good-sized marina in Hudson, and there were two larger sailboats docked. The crew was pulling water out of the river to swab the decks.

At 1:30, we pulled into Donovan’s Shady Harbor. We stopped at the fuel dock to pump out our black water tanks, then went to our slip. It was overcast and not too hot, so I decided that I had procrastinated long enough on washing the boat. I got out my boat washing tools and spent the next 3 hours washing the boat. Brenda took advantage of the washers and did two loads of laundry.

At 5:30, the Harbor Host at Donovans organized Docktails for the visiting Loopers. As we were getting ready to go, we heard a buzzing sound outside the boat and looked out to see a paraglider flying around the marina. The Docktails were great as always, and we exchanged lots of great information on the Erie Canal. Around 6:30, the group started to break up, and we walked next door to the Boathouse Grille for dinner.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 74 – Thursday, July 10th, 2024 – In New Baltimore, NY

Thursday, we just took it easy. Brenda did another load of wash, and I spent most of the day route planning and making reservations for the next leg of our trip through the Erie Canal, and into Canada.

We watched the ships going past, and for dinner, we again went to the Boathouse Grille at the marina, which has an excellent view of the river.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 75 – Friday, July 11th, 2025 – To: Troy, NY
Troy Downtown Marina

Our trip to Troy, NY, our next stop, was just 21 miles. Check-in time is usually 1:00, so we didn’t want to leave too early. We planned to pull out at 10:00, but as we were preping lines, we saw a large bulk carrier come around the corner headed our way. These ships normally go pretty slow and passing can be tricky, so we hurried up and got out in front of it.

As we neared Albany, New York, the shores became more industrial with a large shipyard and an energy construction company on the west shore. We kept looking behind us to make sure that the ship wasn’t gaining on us, but we were both going against the current, so we managed about two mph faster than they were going. When we reached Albany, there was a tugboat waiting for the ship behind us, and next to it was a mother deer and her new fawn. It looked like it was only a few days old, not yet steady on its legs.

A tank barge and tug were heading north slowly, and we moved over to get around them. Albany had lots of fuel depots, and most of the barges transport fuel up from New York Harbor to the distribution depots. South Albany also has a few industrial complexes, including a large asphalt plant and scrap metal operation.

We went through downtown Albany with the large SUNY (State University of New York) administration building that looks like a European castle. Troy is just 5 miles north of Albany, and just after noon, we rounded a corner in the river and saw the “Green Island Bridge”, locally known as the “Transformer Bridge” due to its unique design.

When we made this trip in 2023, the Hudson River was in flood, and we were dodging trees and debris the entire trip; this time, the river was nice and clear. Also, during our stay in Troy in 2023, three bodies were pulled from the river in the area. Hopefully, things will be much calmer this visit.

We stopped in Troy to visit the Troy Farmers Market. This Saturday market is one of the largest we’ve seen, covering six city blocks! Once we were settled in, we took an Uber to a local Walgreens to pick up our prescriptions before crossing into Canada, and then went to Walmart for some supplies.

When we got back to the boat and started to put things away, we noticed that while we were away, we had been boarded! In the sink was a 2-inch Dark Fishing Spider! Very ugly! The sink drain goes down a pipe and out the side of the boat, so we assume that it crawled up through the drain. Disturbing! “🎶The great big hairy spider climbed up the water spout…🎶” We’re glad the toilets are a closed system!

In the evening, we went to Ryan’s Wake Pub, which is right beside the marina, for dinner. For dessert, I had a glass of Writers Tears Irish Whiskey (very tasty), and Brenda ordered the Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. It was basically one of her blondies made in a huge muffin tin! I volunteered to help her eat it so that she didn’t get sick😜.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 76 – July 12th, 2025 – In: Troy, NY

Saturday was Farmers Market Day! When we got up, some thunderstorms were rolling through the area, but by 8:00, they had passed. The market opens at 9:00, so after breakfast (so we were not hungry while shopping), we walked to downtown. Downtown is only a short walk (300 yards) from the marina, so it’s very convenient.

The market was as large as we remember it. Being very close to Vermont, there is a mix of upstate New York and downstate Vermont vendors. Lots of organic farms, bakeries, and a host of food vendors. We walked all the way around the market picking up a few items as we went, then circled back for a few things we saw, but waited to see if there were other choices we liked better. We picked up some scones, Danish, and a loaf of freshly baked rye bread at one stall, fresh waffles at another, a few veggies, some Spätzle (German noodles), fresh-picked blueberries, and a couple of knick-knacks. In all, we spent about 2 hours walking around before going back to the boat.

Yesterday, I had ordered some engine oil for the boat from Walmart, and my plan was to pick it up this afternoon. We will be due for an oil change in about 30 hours, which will bring us to around Brewerton, NY, where there is a boat yard I can dispose of the used oil. When I got back to the boat, I had an email from Walmart, saying that of the 8 gallons I had ordered, which they said were in stock, they could only fulfill two. Cancel! I spent the next hour searching around at Advanced Auto Parts and Walmart’s along our route to see if I could find eight gallons. We use a special oil (to keep Michael, our Chief Mechanic’s, engines running smoothly), and it can be hard to find eight gallons in one place. At home, I order it and have it delivered, but when moving, it’s hard to coordinate a place for that large a package.

The Walmart in Albany claimed they had six on hand for pickup today; however, when I started to place the order, they would only let me order four. However, the site said that they could deliver eight of them tomorrow, Sunday, for Free! That would save me an Uber charge to pick them up. So, I ordered them, and we’ll update you on whether we got them or not next week.

For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on the blogs and fixed a toilet (again!), the filter for the flush water intake had clogged up. There were grass, acorns, and small shells stuck in the intake pipe.

In the evening, we walked next door to Dinosaur BBQ, a great BBQ place right next to the dock. We ate there on our last visit and loved it! Tonight, we both had the pick two combo, ribs and pork belly. Brenda had whipped sweet potatoes and mac & cheese sides, I had the coleslaw and chili. It was all very tasty. We were both still recovering from last night’s dessert, so we skipped it tonight.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

---

Recap of the week

We traveled 117 miles this week, for a total of 1,476 miles so far. We have made it to Troy, NY, just south of the entrance to the Erie Canal, where we leave the Hudson until our trip down the Champlain Canal in September.

Next week, we travel through the Erie Canal, heading toward Lake Ontario and our Canadian Crossing.