Times Union, September 12, 2025: “Out with the Jolly Rovers, the volunteer crew hewing Hudson Valley trails”
It’s easy to take for granted the perfectly placed stone steps at hiking spots in upstate New York. But the effort that goes into them is often unseen.
Around 8 a.m. on a recent summer morning, about 15 people gathered at the Anthony’s Nose trailhead in the Hudson Highlands. These were volunteers with the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew, which creates accessible pathways at Hudson Valley hiking spots by splitting, shaping and installing stones. This year, their main project is at Anthony’s Nose, in collaboration with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.
After brief hellos, the crew hikes about 1.5 miles up to the worksite at the top of a steep rock scramble. The crew lead, Artie Hidalgo, pulls out gloves, hard hats, dust masks, ear protection and safety glasses from a supply box that stays on site for the season, for whoever needs them. Brief introductions follow. Some volunteers are here for their first season; others have been part of the crew for over a decade.
The Jolly Rovers’ season began on March 29 with a tool maintenance celebration. Since then, for one weekend a month, they’ve reported to Anthony’s Nose. That will continue until Nov. 15. It’s similar to their operations for the last few years, but the Jolly Rovers have come a long way…
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Ten YEARS of Partnership at Manitoga
The Jolly Rovers and the Killalemy Trail
In 2015, Manitoga was introduced to The Jolly Rovers Trail Crew, a nonprofit whose mission is to improve recreational access to trails in public parks, to provide and apply education of the stonework craft and to foster an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect. Landscape Manager Emily Phillips has been working with them to apply their stone working skills to the restoration of the Russel Wright designed stone stairs and stepping stones within Manitoga's trail system.
After a trial project on the Killalemy Trail in the Fall of 2015, Jolly Rovers Co-Founder and Executive Director Chris Ingui proposed adopting Manitoga as the organization's first participant in their Stewards of Stone Work program dedicated to restoring historic pathways and improve access to historic sites. Manitoga has accepted the invitation, allowing the Rovers to improve the entirety of the Killalemy Trail-resetting stone steps and repairing treadways in areas where there has been severe erosion and degradation of the path over the years. This project is funded in part through a grant from Open Space Institute's Malcolm Gordon Charitable Fund to support the ongoing Killalemy Trail work.
https://www.visitmanitoga.org/jolly-rovers
Ninham Trail opens on Breakneck Ridge
Ninham Trail opens on Breakneck Ridge
https://nystateparks.blog/2021/07/20/ninhams-journey-hard-tale-and-a-mountain-trail-in-the-hudson-valley/
“With each stone step weighing an average of about 500 pounds, that’s more than a quarter-million pounds of stone, cut in place from boulders near the trail, and moved through muscle power aided by block and tackle, come-alongs and highlines, and set into place, with much of the work done by hand. The steps are a legacy as durable as the mountain itself.”