Another meetup.com event that caught my eye! This time, I got off Cold Spring station in New York. So I went to – Three Lakes Trail? Blue Trail? Canopus Lake? Fahnestock State Park? I’m not sure about you but I’m pretty confused myself. Anyway, here is another meetup.com adventure of mine and my adventures are usually quite entertaining.

Canopus Lake

I did my homework and here is what I found but correct me if I’m wrong. Fahnestock State Park is located in Putnam and Dutchess counties, New York. The park has various hiking trails, ponds, lakes, and even a beach. I’ve only managed to partially explore Canopus Lake beach and Three Lakes Trail in the park. As the Three Lakes Trail is marked with blue discs, it’s also known as the blue trail.

Related post: Beaches In New York

Just want to share a little about this meetup.com’s experience (pretty interesting, I must say). Storytime:

Original Plan

After getting off Cold Spring station with a dozen people, we were to catch the trolley to the start of the Three Lakes Trail which will be about a 20 mins ride.

However, we missed the 11 am trolley. For the next 30 mins, I was so confused with the organizer’s suggestions. Initially, I was thinking, is there only ONE trolley? Did some online search, seems like there was another trolley at 1 pm.

So, the suggestion was:

1. Uber to Canopus Lake Beach Complex and relax there until 530pm to catch the trolley back to Cold Spring station
   Thought: Why would I pay $29 to chill at the beach by the lake? Rockaway Beach is basically free for me (I have the Metrocard)
2. “Hike” to the Beach Complex
   Thought: Hike..? 20 min car ride.. how long will that take to “hike”? And on the side of the road.. I’m not going to do that..
3. My friends suggested – we’ll follow the original group plan and do it on our own.
   Took this suggestion 3, of course.

Getting there

Now, this was a mess and a real pain. We got to know a couple of people were heading the same direction so we hitched a ride. Turns out we didn’t have the same destination in mind and ended up at the beach complex instead of the boat dock.

Damn. What do we do now??

It will take 20 mins to get an Uber ride to the Beach Complex and the ride to the boat dock is 5 mins. Walk, it is.

Then we started our hike

We did only 2 miles of the trail as we were running out of time and had to catch the 530pm trolley back to the train station.

And now, it’s time to relax

It’s not a large beach but getting to relax by the water and go for a dip, it makes up for the exhausting day. Getting to enjoy the sun, the breeze, and being away from the city is what makes a summer weekend great.

I’ve always loved looking at the sky at the end of the day. This image is a perfect end to the day, any day.

Each of my meetup.com experience has been unique and this just adds on to the growing list. At least this time, our Canopus Lake plan pivoted a little but it ended up great, we were at the beach and it was lovely. Nevertheless, I’ll still be looking up interesting meetups, hopefully, I’ll be making new friends soon!

Tags: beach, hiking, new york, summer