Camping at Lake Skenonto

Camping at Lake Skenonto

On Labor Day weekend, I hiked to Lake Skenonto in Harriman State Park. Specifically, I went out on Sunday, Sept. 1, after my 2 parish Masses and came home on Monday afternoon. I asked my longtime camping partner Fr. Jim about coming, but he’s still having a bad time with one ankle and regretted he couldn't come.

View of the lake from my campsite

There are 2 routes to Lake Skenonto; we usually use the shorter one, the Victory Trail southward from Kanawauke Rd. (Rte 106). That’s 2.15 miles, then another ¼ mile to where I wanted to camp at the south end of the lake. Desiring a little more hiking/exercise, I opted for the longer one from Johnsontown Rd. in Sloatsburg.  That follows the White Bar Trail 1.75 miles past the Dutch Doctor Shelter to the Triangle Trail trailhead, where it makes a sharp left turn and goes about .1 mile to an unmarked short cut directly to the lake (about .7 mile), on which you cross from Rockland into Orange County.  Otherwise one would pick up the longer Triangle Trail (1.15 miles) past Lake Sebago with some ascents and descents besides more trail.  My route was 3 miles and took 2 hours with a gain in elevation from 535' at the parking lot to 912' at the lake.

There were a lot of cars in the parking lot; some of the hikers might have been going elsewhere, e.g., to Almost Perpendicular on the Blue Disc Trail.  I hiked a short distance apart from a family of 4 who must have stopped at Dutch Doctor.  There were people already at the shelter.  One woman was solo camping a little before the shelter, where the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail crosses the White Bar.  After early afternoon rain, the sky gradually cleared to make a fine evening.

At the lake, the only people I saw were camped on the eastern shore.  

In the center, campers on the eastern shore

At the south end, there’s a little, secluded spot close by a creek flowing into the lake--thus, a water supply.  I got there at 5 o’clock, set up camp, fetched some water, and went down the lake till I found a spot from which I could get into the lake for a short swim.  Then back to camp for supper, Evening Prayer, hanging my bear bag, making a fire, swatting at mosquitoes (I used plenty of repellant and a head net), and relaxing till about 9:30.  Supper was freeze-dried spaghetti and meat sauce, trail mix, and dried apricots, with Crystal Lite. I was missing steaks off the grill at home, which would have been better, of course.

The evening dew was quite heavy, compelling me to put the rainfly onto my tent.  It was good I did, because the nite got pretty chilly.  I felt the chill because I’d brought only a bag liner to sleep in, not a regular sleeping bag (figuring it would be a warmish nite--but it wasn’t).  As usual, I tossed and turned a lot.  When Mother Nature got me up at 3 o’clock, the stars were impressive.

I got up for real shortly after dawn broke, got my bear bag, and made breakfast:  oatmeal, coffee, a granola bar, some mixed nuts.  After breviary and some reading, I offered Mass on a small, flat rock.  More reading, then down the length of the lake for another swim.  Meanwhile, a lot of day hikers had wandered by my camp without discerning it thru the underbrush.  On the trail up the lake, I met a young couple departing from their camp, heading home to Brooklyn.  Maybe theirs was one of those cars at Johnsontown Rd.  There was a party of 5 day hikers and a dog at the lake access at the north end; the dog was enjoying some swims, chasing a stick thrown in for her.

The lake from its north end

It's not easy to see, but there's a beaver lodge
in the middle of the photo.

Back to camp for lunch (tuna sandwich, Crystal Lite, another granola bar), then packing up.  Packing’s always a harder chore than setting up, and it usually takes me a good hour to do it in orderly fashion (more or less), and to double-check the area lest anything be forgotten.  

A visitor at my camp--a blue-tailed skink.

I left camp around 1:30 and got back to the car just before 3:00.  Google Maps told me the way home via I-287 was mostly clear, and home I was at 4:20.  Then I got a leftover steak as part of my supper.

Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/fDiRfbwFAMb

Five-Trail Solo Hike in Harriman

Five-Trail Solo Hike in Harriman

On Sunday-Monday of the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-2, went hiking and camping in Harriman State Park. I asked 7 guys at different times whether they'd like to come along, but they either had prior commitments or didn't reply (and one had a funeral). I figured there'd be plenty of other hikers out, which turned out to be not entirely the case.

I got to the parking circle at the end of Johnsontown Rd. in Sloatsburg at 10 o'clock and was surprised there were only 2 cars there; all other times I've been there it's much busier. The other time I did the Blue Disc Trail (with Fr. Jim Mulloy almost exactly 4 years ago--see Blue Dot Special), the hike up Almost Perpendicular was pretty crowded, even with young families. Not so this Sunday morn. Totally deserted.

Maybe it was because of the weather, which was overcast, and in fact it started to rain 5 minutes into my hike; but that lasted only about 10 minutes. The sky remained overcast, tho, until late in the afternoon.

Toting my usual 35 pounds of backpack (gear), I took my time huffing and puffing my way up aptly named Almost Perpendicular (above), and at the top enjoyed the great views from southeast to southwest (below); munched on a breakfast bar and took some water.

The line running across the center of the landscape is Seven Lakes Drive;
Reeves Meadow visitors center and parking lot is just to the right of center.

The Blue Disc runs mostly along the ridge of Pound Mountain from there and is fairly easy hiking; there are a few nice camping spots but no water.

Two miles from Johnsontown Rd. you come to Claudius Smith Den and the crossing with the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail. The Den is a big, big mass of rock, atop which there are some excellent views to the west and north, and it's a popular spot for hikers. (The name comes from an 18th-century outlaw whose lair was there. He was hanged at Goshen, the county seat, in 1779.)

Where the Blue Disc starts to ascend Claudius Smith Den--note trail blazes on the edge of the large rock in the foreground--a cairn also helps mark the upward trail.

Sure enuf, while I was there more than a dozen guys and gals passed thru, or showed up down below.  I scoped out my route and ate my lunch (tuna sandwich and orange with water) before enjoying the views, then did a little reading while I digested.

My lunch spot behind Claudius Smith; the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail passes just to the right,
and the White Cross Trail begins about 100' up the TMI from here.

Looking north from Claudius Smith, toward Harriman and Woodbury

Below Claudius Smith, four and a half hikers--one guy's toting an infant in a carrier--have come up the TMI and seem to be debating their next move. As far as I could tell, they didn't ascend the rocks. One guy and I waved to each other.

The Blue Disc Trail is heavily trafficked, even if I didn't meet anyone this particular morning for the 2 miles from the road to Claudius Smith Den. Behind CSD I picked up the White Cross Trail, which starts (or ends) off the TMI a couple of hundred feet behind the BDT. That proved to be more lightly used and in a couple of places was hard to pick out. It descended into boggy ground around the edge of Black Ash Swamp--

and would have been nasty hiking had there been any water where, evidently, there very often is lots of water. The trail skirts around Blauvelt Mountain to cross the Victory Trail about a mile and a half from Claudius Smith.

A bit of the White Cross Trail between Black Ash Swamp on the left and Blauvelt Mt.
on the right as one hikes northward

I turned right onto the Victory, which is an old woods road, wide and easy. A half mile brought me to the Triangle Trail and Lake Skenonto--4 miles and 4 hours, more or less, from my start.

Previous trips to Lake Skenonto have usually found a good number of campers along both the western and the northeast shores of the lake. Not so this time; there was one couple on the northeast.

Looking north from my camp

Far south end of the lake, from my camp

I picked a secluded site near the south end that Fr. Jim and I have used a couple of times--flat and open with a fire ring and easy access to the lake for water. There I pitched my tent, explored the terrain briefly, gathered a modest amount of firewood, finished reading the issue of America that I'd begun at lunch, prayed Evening Prayer, and also skimmed thru an issue of Columbia. The sun came out somewhat for a while, and I took a few photos.

A good number of hikers passed by, and a foursome off-trail appeared to have enjoyed the benefits of the lake. I too enjoyed the benefit of the lake.  Whether any hikers detected my site is hard to say; the tent could be seen from one vantage point on the trail above if one looked in the right direction.

For supper I boiled lake water for my freeze-dried chicken and rice supper (not the tastiest, but acceptable and filling), which was followed by freeze-dried ice cream (OK), and I washed it all down with Crystal Lite.

As the sun lowered, I went up to the trail and met a couple of young ladies who told me they'd started from Bear Mt. Inn on Saturday and stopped overnite at (but not in) Brien Memorial Shelter; that's 8.35 miles of hiking on the Appalachian Trail, including 3 mountains, as I recall. Now they were making for the Dutch Doctor Shelter--already 10 miles on the trail this day if they followed the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail to the Triangle Trail, with another 1.2 miles to the DDS. They didn't seem to be suffering from all that hiking, God bless them! Nor did they seem to be carrying huge packs like me.

At dusk I lit my fire (one match) and burned 2 sacred objects—some old blessed palm and a flag that I picked out of the Main St. gutter, courtesy of one of our local car dealers. I fed it for about half an hour, reading for a while, then just sitting and doing a little meditation while it burned down to embers.

In the distance there was a lot of lightning and thunder, so I was afraid there would be rain overnite. At least there wasn't any wind. But as it happened, not only wasn't there any rain, but some stars even came out, late.

I rose at 7:00, the sky low and gray, not very promising.

This is at 8:12 a.m.

After washing my hands, I celebrated Mass, boiled water for oatmeal and coffee, and started breaking camp. The oatmeal and coffee were topped off with an orange. By now I'd used up almost all the 3 quarts of water I'd lugged in with me; like a good Boy Scout, I was prepared in case I didn't make it to the lake. There wasn't much water to be found at all along the trails, but I had sufficient water to camp anywhere if I was careful with it. As it was, I used my 3 quarts for either drinking or washing, saving about a pint for the 1.8-mile hike out and lightening my backpack considerably.

I intended to pray Readings and Morning Prayer while letting breakfast settle a little, but just as I was rolling up my tent it began to rain.  So I finished packing up, canvased the site (I didn't leave anything, and in fact I brought out a little more trash than I brought in), and headed down the Triangle Trail.

I made the mistake of leaving my map in a pocket in my pack, which was now ensconced, with me, under my poncho in the rain shower.  Had I stayed on the Triangle, that wouldn't have mattered.  But I saw a woods road that looked like it was going more directly toward the White Bar Trail and Dutch Doctor, so I got on it, mostly easy hiking, and my hunch proved to be correct. My downfall, however, came at the White Bar intersection.  I know full well that one can lose one's sense of direction in the woods, and I did. Instead of turning left, just .2 mile from Dutch Doctor, I turned right and hiked on--along a fine trail--for about half a mile before deciding I'd really better sling off the poncho (the rain had stopped quite a bit earlier), take off the pack, and look at the map. Oops!  Obviously, whatever ground I'd saved by taking the woods road I'd lost on my wrong turn. 

So I backtracked, more hastily than I'd gone before, and in 20 minutes came to the shelter, which was occupied by a crowd of older teens, one of whom was showing some of the others how to sling a rope over an upper tree branch, presumably for a bear bag. I stopped near the shelter for a granola bar and water, then continued the remaining mile and a half along the White Bar Trail to the car; the trail follows an old road for the most part--probably the extension of Johnsontown Rd.--and is very easy going. I reached the circle about 10:45 and found 10 other cars this time; and I'd met some hikers coming in as I went out.

Thanks be to God for a safe, mostly dry, and pleasant trip (except for the mosquitoes).

Blue Dot Special

Blue Dot Special
On Sunday afternoon Fr. Jim Mulloy and I undertook an overnite backpacking trip into Harriman State Park. Since it was Labor Day weekend, we knew there wasn't any chance of landing one of the dozen hikers' shelters scattered thru the park, and even finding a place to park a car overnite would be a challenge. I suggested the parking area at the end of Johnsontown Rd. in Sloatsburg, and he agreed.

Then we picked out route: the Blue Disc Trail (white blaze with blue dot), which starts there and goes 2.8 miles up a couple of strenuous climbs and then down to an end at Tri-Trail Corner, where it runs into the the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (at 21 miles, the 2d-longest in the park, I think) and the trailhead for the Victory Trail. There's water there, running out of Black Ash Swamp into a creek, and I remembered some likely camping spots around there. (My memory was better than the reality in this case. But at least we had no competition for a site.)

As it turned out, there were exactly 2 parking spots available when we got there, and about 20 cars parked. We ran into lots and lots of day hikers on our route, and other trails (e.g., the White Bar and the Kakiat) are easily accessed from Johnsontown Rd. This morning, as we drove by the Reeves Meadow Visitors Center on our way home--it's on Seven Lakes Dr. not far from where we parked--cars lined the highway for at least a quarter mile on either side of the visitors center, indicating what the main parking lots were like, just for hiking areas (not to mention those that also serve picnickers).

There are a lot of things to remember about hiking, some of them essential to your safety, others just to your convenience. One that falls in between is "pay attention to the trail blazes" on your chosen route. In the photo above, the Blue Disc Trail (bet you can figure out which one that is!) is turning right, indicated by a double blaze with the top one to the right of the lower. The Kakiat Trail, which had joined the Blue Disc for a very short distance, is forking off to the left. In Harriman there are numerous unmarked side trails and woods roads. Miss a trail marker, and you'll soon get lost!


The trail map indicates a spot called "Almost Perpendicular." That sounds not just challenging but a little scary. (Someone I was backpacking with once let it scare him, and therefore me, from attempting it.) The Harriman Trails guidebook (very valuable) gives a fair description of a pretty steep climb--that's it in the photo above, which doesn't quite do justice to it, but it is manageable. In fact, we encountered several dogs along the route, a mom and dad each toting a tot (on their way down the climb pictured), one or two bigger kids, and many other hikers. The views make it worthwhile.

From the top of Almost Perpendicular, this is one view: that's the Reeves Meadow Visitors Center parking lot and Seven Lakes Dr. If you're able to enlarge the photo, you'll see what I meant above about parking. This shot gives you an idea of how much climbing we'd done just to get to this point.

When we got back into some woods, Fr. Jim saw this orange fungus growing at the base of a large tree and got excited. He called it "sulphur shelf" and said it was edible. For a minute I thought he was going to grab a handful and eat it, but he didn't. I sure wasn't going to!

Eventually, after some hard hiking we got to the large cliff where Claudius Smith Den is located (he was a notorious outlaw in the 1770s). The Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail crosses the Blue Disc here, and we considered cutting short our original design and heading along the TMI to the Dutch Doctor shelter, where there's usually water in a nearby creek and quite a few camping spots if the shelter's already taken. But Fr. Jim wanted to check out the view from the cliffs, which we found at least 7 hikers and a dog already doing: grand westward views toward Tuxedo.

Once up that high, on top of Claudius Smith Rock, we decided we might as well continue on the Blue Disc (not having noted that there was still one big climb to come). There's nice woods up on that ridge, including a lot of birch.

When we reached Big Pine Hill, the highest point on the trail, we had a fine view to the north. Here you see Black Ash Mt., and in the center, Black Ash Swamp, whose west end was our destination.

It took us almost 3 hours to do the 2.8 miles of the Blue Disc Trail, with several pauses to enjoy views or catch our breath.

The available water at Tri-Trails Corner was less than we'd expected, but it was usable (with a water filter). We found 2 camp sites flanking the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail just above the "corner," with existing fire rings; neither had been used for a while. I picked the slightly larger of the two and set up my little home for the nite:

This, with the rain fly, weighs just over 2 pounds and is roomy enuf for me and a tiny bit of gear (mainly whatever nite wear plus the change of clothes for the morrow). This shot was before I put in 2 sleeping pads (which still leaves quite a hard bed to sleep on, but not as hard as bare ground!) and my sleeping bag. The sleeping bag's stuff sack plus some extra clothing, e.g. a quilted jacket, makes for an adequate pillow.

Fr. Jim and I have a nice arrangement: he fetches the water, I fetch the firewood. That wasn't hard here: there was a superabundance of it, almost all very dry. After we ate our freeze-dried suppers (beef teriyaki and chicken teriyaki) plus a few other morsels, we got a little fire going around 8:00 p.m.--one match required, plus a bit of paper and one of Fr. Jim's unpatented firestarters (lint and parafin in a section of egg carton) and the ample kindling wood. We kept the fire going for an hour while we talked or listened to a radio (Fr. Jim) or read (me). He was disappointed there weren't many stars out--lots of clouds instead. We could just barely hear traffic from the Thruway, there were lots of cicadas, and otherwise it was very, very quiet. We turned in at 9:00 p.m., Fr. Jim in sleeping bag under what stars there were, I in my tent.

Monday morning, after rising between 6:45 (me) and 7:15 (Fr. Jim), we prayed and celebrated Mass. Fr. Jim's a light breakfast eater--a little bit of bread and cheese. I went for a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (see above, with water almost boiling on my Pocket Rocket stove), plus some bread and cheese.

At 9:00 we got onto the trail. With no desire for serious climbing, we took a longer--3.7 miles--but easier route: the Victory Trail toward Lake Skenonto, but picking up the White Bar Trail about halfway to the lake and following that south to the Dutch Doctor shelter, thence west back to Johnsontown Rd.

Along the White Bar Trail we had a little bit of uphill, especially as we went over a shoulder of Blauvelt Mt., and a lot of downhill. There were already signs of autumn. If you look behind me in the photo above, you'll see a tree already turned red. Most of the trail is quite pretty with fairly open woods. There was one vista with a good view toward Tuxedo.

When we got to Dutch Doctor, we took a good rest. The shelter had indeed been used Sunday nite; in fact, the users had left their campfire still smouldering in the fire ring! That's a big no-no! We didn't have enuf water to douse it well, but we at least made sure all the remaining wood was removed. From there the White Bar Trail pursues pretty much a straight run down a woods road to within a quarter mile of the Johnsontown Rd. parking area; that last stretch is a narrow footpath.

This morning at first we met almost no one: a trio of hikers going up the RD Trail before we left our camp, another trio on the Victory Trail coming, apparently, from overnite camping at Lake Skenonto. But there was more traffic once we got to Dutch Doctor, two pairs of day hikers and a trio of overnite backpackers (one a small lad) heading toward Tuxedo's train station.

We got back to our pickup truck about 11:15: a longer route in mileage, but a shorter one in time and energy expended. The parking area was nearly full. Since we hadn't seen that many people, I guess a lot of hikers were heading up the Blue Disc Trail....