Cold Day at Big Hill
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| Big Hill Shelter with Hudson River in the distance (photo from March 2022) |
Friday, Nov. 28, to Saturday, Nov. 29: Fr. Yesu Kolhandai, Indian SDB studying and ministering in NYC, and your humble blogger hiked to Big Hill Shelter in Harriman State Park and camped overnite. He'd never camped before and had asked me a couple of months back whether he could join me sometime. I lent him a backpack, winter sleeping bag, mess kit, and other gear.
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| Fr Mike crossing Beaver Pond Brook (taken by Fr Yesu) |
The shelter is about a 45-minute hike, mostly on the Long Path, from the hiker’s parking lot on St. John’s Rd, near the Episcopal church St. John in the Wilderness (the only private land still within the boundaries of Harriman).
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| Section of NY-NJ Trail Conference map |
I’ve camped at Big Hill perhaps a dozen times since the mid-’90s, having started with Troop 40. But this was my 1st campout there since March 2022. I day-hiked there with the SLMs in August 2023.
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| Heading east after a turn in the Long Path (Fr Yesu photo) |
Fr. Yesu and I were pleased that there were no other cars in the parking lot, but we did note a couple of cars in the St. John’s parking lot. Those evidently belonged to some of the 10 day hikers we found at the shelter, enjoying libations and preparing to BBQ burgers and sausages.
They were from Long Island, New Jersey, and possibly Connecticut, and all knew one another for a long time. A friendly bunch, they stayed on site for about 6 hours. They had 3 dogs with them, 2 just as friendly, 1 a little skittish—and all looking for handouts. They were careful to collect all their trash and haul it out.
A party of 3 guys and a gal came by but didn’t stay. Later, 1 woman came along and pitched her tent about 100 feet from the shelter and kept to herself. She left pretty early on Saturday morning, probably heading west on the Suffern-Bear Mt Trail.
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| Manhattan skyline at dusk (36 miles south of Big Hill) |
Fr. Yesu and I collected and cut up loads of firewood
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| Fr. Yesu bringing in a long piece of firewood |
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| Fire dying in the outside fire pit, late afternoon (photo by Fr Yesu) |
Ere long a couple of middle-aged women showed up with full packs. They, too, pitched a tent near the big boulder to the shelter’s left (west).
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| The big boulder (photo from April 2015) |
They were friendly, introduced themselves as Heather and Andrea, had come down from Albany to hike outside snow up north, and were doing a 33-mile loop hike starting and finishing at the Elk Pen, by way of Big Hill, the Timp, and Stockbridge shelter. They’d come 9 miles on Friday. They got good fire going in the pit outside the shelter, which they used to toast their burritos and to keep warm while they talked for hours. They gathered their own tinder but had free use of what we had in the shelter.
After we’d eaten supper (hamburgers grilled in our fireplace),
Fr. Yesu felt the cold and snuggled into his sleeping bag about 7 o’clock. He seemed to sleep well thru the nite (judging from his snores). I stayed up to read for an hour or so, now and then chatting with the ladies. I went to bed about 9 o’clock and was comfortably warm in my bag—with multiple layers of shirts. A new air mattress worked much better for me than my 2 older sleeping pads (which Yesu used); so I slept fitfully.
We got up at dawn. It was 31º. The ladies had already restarted their fire outside for warmth and breakfast. We ate our breakfast, packed up, prayed, and after the ladies left (intending 15 miles on Saturday), celebrated Mass.
We packed out at 9:15 and got back to the car about 10:00—still the only car in the lot. We collected some of the litter that some gavones had left around the lot, then headed home.
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