Jenny Lane

Basic category for information pertaining to Lake Minnewaska's history.
me
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Jenny Lane

Post by me »

hello,
i am interested if anyone has any info regarding Jenny Lane(now the start of the trail to Lake Awostning(sp). My family was one of four original homes that were there. if u have any pictures or would like to share any memories of that area i would love to see/hear them.
thx,
me
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Mark
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Post by Mark »

Hi me,

Is Jenny Lane the road past the entrance to where Ski Minnie was? I think I remember Jenny Lane from hiking the Long Path.

You'd probably have to catch Ken for the info. He'd probably know something about the area, having grown up at the Lake.

Cheers,

Mark
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Post by Guest »

hi Mark,
Jenny Lane is a few 10ths of a mile from the entrance to Lake Minnewaska (going toward Kerhonkson). its a really small turn in, if you didnt know it you would definitly miss it. but as i mentioned, it is the start to the other path to Lake Awastning. (the other path we would call the sunny trail, starting inside the gates of Lake Minnewaska.)
thanks for your reply and hoping to read others :)
-me
me
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Post by me »

http://newpaltz.hvnet.com/hikeclimb/minnhike.htm
i found mention of jenny lane trail under peters kill carrigeway-side trips. still wondering if anyone has explored this area.[/url]
Nff314
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Nff314 »

me wrote:hello,
i am interested if anyone has any info regarding Jenny Lane(now the start of the trail to Lake Awostning(sp). My family was one of four original homes that were there. if u have any pictures or would like to share any memories of that area i would love to see/hear them.
thx,
me
Barbie

Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Barbie »

The Jenny Lane trail is beautiful, especially in the beginning of June when the Mountain Laurel blooms. I have pictures if anyone is still interested. My great grandfather and cousin were involved in a summer camp at Lake Awosting. I have some very old pictures from that era.

I fear that a forest fire last year burned this area. It may be a while before it regains it's previous beauty.

Barbie
fatjohn
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by fatjohn »

Yes, I walked down Jenny Lane (NorthEast) along the Sanderskill. There are no houses, just some foundations. There is a large foundation on the left at the end of the maintained portion of the road. A driveway marker still stands. Further down the lane on the left were a collection of 3 foot tall cement pilings arranged in a 30'x20' grid with a cement pit at one end. We were scratching our heads to decide if this was a barn or some other farming structure. After this the road degrades into an overgrown, barely visible, series of stone walls.
Jenny Lane
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Jenny Lane »

Hi John
There were three houses on the left side along the road and one more behind the first at the other end of the field. Across the road from the first was a barn. Behind the barn is a stream at the bottom of a ravine. It was the best playground a kid could have had! I wonder if you can tell me if I can overnight park there and camp where my house used to be? Who could I contact about that? I would hate to wake up and find my car towed.
JohnandSue
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by JohnandSue »

I was a Park Ranger during the first years of the area being a State Park. We would use Jenny Lane as a Deer Check Station during hunting season. I spent many days parked in Jenny Lane waiting to regrister Deer Hunters and thier catch. The long hours would allow me to watch deer skirt around hunters, sometimes with a few feet of them. I don't remember the people in the houses, but I met some of them. According to the Park, they had a 99 year lease. Is anyone still living there? I also would park there in Jenny Lane and I would start my foot patrol from there. In the old parking lot was a large tree. If it ever gets cut down they will find several arrow points in it.
Another memory is that another Ranger (Bobby) was able to sneak up on a 4 point buck during hunting season in the field between the parking area and the road and slap its butt. Several hunters who watched, lost the bet.
Nff314
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Nff314 »

[quote="Jenny Lane"]Hi John
There were three houses on the left side along the road and one more behind the first at the other end of the field. Across the road from the first was a barn. Behind the barn is a stream at the bottom of a ravine. It was the best playground a kid could have had! I wonder if you can tell me if I can overnight park there and camp where my house used to be? Who could I contact about that? I would hate to wake up and find my car towed.[/quote

Hi do you still have pictures from Jenny Lane that you can share? My name is nick and email is nff314@aol.com
TDEE

Re: Jenny Lane

Post by TDEE »

Camping and overnight parking are not permitted. But you are unlikely to be towed, in my opinion, and if you don't light a campfire you are unlikely to be kicked out. During hunting season it's another story. It's a fairly popular trailhead for hunters. The lot fills up most nice weekends too.
Nff314
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Nff314 »

Barbie wrote:The Jenny Lane trail is beautiful, especially in the beginning of June when the Mountain Laurel blooms. I have pictures if anyone is still interested. My great grandfather and cousin were involved in a summer camp at Lake Awosting. I have some very old pictures from that era.

I fear that a forest fire last year burned this area. It may be a while before it regains it's previous beauty.

Barbie

Hi Barbie. Can you post your pictures I would love to see them
Howard Black [temp]

Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Howard Black [temp] »

I don't have any photos, but I spent many a happy visit there during my childhood in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The three houses were owned by my late mother's best friend from her childhood on the Lower East Side during the "settlement house" days in the 1920s and 30s.

We always called it "Gloria's place" and on the way up (from the Bronx), there was the famous (to us, at least :) "hairpin turn" and just past that, the cliff, which would occasionally have a truck fly over (if you stopped there, you "could see for miles, and miles, and miles, and miles, and..." as the song goes; I never saw anything like it, other than in photos in textbooks, until I grew up and had my first airplane flight -- the squares of fields in a checkerboard pattern, I was really wowed by it back then).

Some "verbal map" to try to make sense of that: On the way up the side of the mountain, the road would zigzag. There was a turn to the right, with a moderate incline, then a sharp "hairpin turn"to the left. The road would reverse its direction, and we'd now be driving to the left, still with a moderate incline. Shortly thereafter there was a sharp turn to the right (90 deg?), and the road continued uphill.

The trucks that went over the edge were ones that were coming down that hill, and missed that 90 degree left turn.

From that point, it was a couple/few miles of winding road (one time there was a sinkhole -- rectangular shaped, the size of a car -- with a car at the bottom! The road just dropped out from beneath that car and it went straight down, fairly deep. Scared me!)

Then, an easy to miss "two track" dirt road entrance to the right, "Jenny Lane" -- and then, perhaps a mile or so down that road, with two or three sharp turns, one or two old farmhouses that looked abandoned, and finally, we'd come out of the thicket and arrive at "Gloria's place."

I'm not mentioning her last name for the same reason I'm using a nom de guerre for my own name: privacy. Anyone who knew Gloria (or knows, if she's still (hopefully) alive) will know here last name. And anyone from her family will know who my mother was, and thus, most likely know who I am. For anyone else, they have no need to know more than "Gloria's place."

Gloria had a fairly new barn across from the first house, which she used for storage. There was a gravel parking area on that side of the road, and, about 1/4 mile or so down the hill on that side of the road was an ancient barn that was a shambles. There was an old (Model T or Model A) Ford sitting in that barn, on an upper floor, as I recall. The wall was fallen down, so it was visible. Then, one year, it wasn't there. Someone stole it.

I have no idea who, if anyone, owned that barn, I suspect it had most likely escheated to the state.

The "road" (as it were) continued for a short stretch past the last of the three houses, and then continued as a trail. I remember walking down the trail ("against orders" -- my mother was obsessed with thee idea that I'd get mauled by a bear or bitten by a copperhead). I eventually came to the remains of a very old house. Just the foundation, and I think chimney. I scrounged around in the dirt and found some "potsherds" -- broken pieces of dinner plates with patterns on them -- which i excitedly gathered up and brought back with me. Some bona fide bits of history from the early 1800s or older.

They were promptly decreed to be "garbage" and I was relieved of them.

Sigh...

Oh, well. C'est la vie. So, moving along...

One time, when exploring down that trail, I walked down the hill to the right, and the ground was mostly exposed bedrock, and there was a very small creek running over the rock. I now know that it was probably infested with native brookies (based on my experience with similar waters here in Michigan). Had I known it then, I'd doubtless have taken hook and worm down there and brought back some delicious trout.

OK, back to the three houses...

There was a field behind them. One of Gloria's relatives decided to build a cabin for himself, but, seeing as he had no idea as to how to build a cabin, the result was somewhat comical. There were cinderblocks laid down in a square (or rectangle? can't remember). He started with one, then kept laying them down, and as he came around to the beginning, they didn't match up. I think that was the end of his cabin building endeavors.

There were no utilities. We used kerosene lamps for lighting at night. I remember the hissing and the smell. Ah, nostalgia, even back then. There was a hand pump behind the first house, which was the water supply for all three.

And, the first house had a refrigerator. But I said there were no utilities, so how ws that possible?

As a child, I was incredulous at the sight of the "lighting of the refrigerator" if we happened to arrive at the same time as Gloria. It was a propane powered refrigerator! They are still made. For years, the main supplier was Lehman's, who catered to the Amish, but now they're more widely available and used by many others besides the Amish.

We would always go berry picking -- black raspberries aqnd wild blueberries (tiny little bushes with small, but tasty blueberries), and my father would pick some "wild pears" (in reality survivors from when it was farmed well over a century ago). They were small and hard -- possibly because they were picked too soon, possibly because they're a long-forgotten heirloom variety. I wish I could go and take some cuttings, but, I'm now up in years myself, cannot endure the travel, and, I'm almost certain they've been removed (along with the houses) as part of the "improvement" of the area.

When it was necessary to go shopping, it was a short drive to Kerhonksen, or a longer drive to Ellenville.

Well, there are my memories of the place, in lieu of photos (which I wish I had, and would gladly post if I did). Sorry for being so prolix. I'm a retired writer, it's an occupational hazard.:)
Howard Black [temp]

Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Howard Black [temp] »

Nff314 wrote:
me wrote:hello,
i am interested if anyone has any info regarding Jenny Lane(now the start of the trail to Lake Awostning(sp). My family was one of four original homes that were there. if u have any pictures or would like to share any memories of that area i would love to see/hear them.
thx,
me


I realize I'm a bit late to the game, seeing as how you posted that 15 years ago, but on the off chance that you do see this, I'm wondering if you were related to Gloria? (her last name withheld for privacv)
Nff314
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Re: Jenny Lane

Post by Nff314 »

Wow. That was a great story and I throughly enjoy red reading it. So yes. We are related to the owners of the first house right across from the red barn. The two other houses were sisters of the first house. In essence related to the other two through marriage.
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