Two Days on the Trail in Harriman SP

Two Days on the Trail in Harriman State Park

I was able to go hiking and camping in Harriman State Park from Sunday afternoon thru Tuesday morning, May 31-June 2.

There were thousands of people out enjoying the park on a very fine Sunday afternoon, which caused a considerable change in my hiking plan.  The police had closed the road to my intended starting point, the Elk Pen parking lot, which presumably was full.  I backtracked south on Rte 17 to another road into the park, and that also was closed.  I continued back south all the way to Sloatsburg and started northeastward on 7 Lakes Drive.  As I expected, the Reeves Meadow parking lot (which is small) was full, and hundreds of cars lined the highway with Tuxedo Town police monitoring all the parking.  I had to traverse the entire park; lots (and adjacent roads) were closed at Sebago Lake, Lake Tiorati, and Lake Skannatati; finally, I found a parking lot with space at Silvermine Lake (about 2 miles from 7 Lakes Drive’s intersection with the Palisades Pkwy).

There were hundreds of people there, sunning, picnicking, fishing, and hiking.  I estimate that about 30% of the hikers were using required face masks!).  I informed Fr. Bill (my local superior) of the compulsory change in my plans and updated him periodically during the whole hike.  Since I don’t think he’s terribly familiar with Harriman SP, I copied Fr. Jim Mulloy, my erstwhile hiking companion.

With about 35 pounds on my back, I hiked south up the Menomine Trail 1.35 miles to its intersection with the Appalachian and Ramapo-Dunderberg Trails, at 4:00 p.m.  The Brien Memorial Shelter is located there,

A couple of day hikers in front of the Brien Shelter

and there’s also a spring that supplies fresh water (water always to be filtered or treated, however!). 

What weighs 35 pounds?  The backpack itself of course, plus tent, sleeping bag, my 2 sleeping pads (my old body has its demands), food, stove, fuel, canteen with water, first aid kit, rope, hatchet, poncho, some extra clothes, fire-starting tinder, flashlights.

I continued as the Menomine descended from the shelter .85 mile to its end at the Red Cross Trail, following Stillwater Creek with nicely flowing water.  I looked unsuccessfully for a likely camping place.  At the Red Cross I crossed a bridge over the creek, going east, and soon found a usable camping place off the trail; there was even an old fire ring there (and no litter, which unfortunately isn’t always the case).  By then it was getting close to 6:00 p.m.  After pitching my tent 

and fetching (filtered) water,

I made supper by grilling 2 burgers over a small fire (+ Crystal Lite, some trail mix, and an orange).  It took me almost half an hour to get my bear bag up—it’s surprisingly hard to chuck a rock with a rope tied to it over a sufficiently high tree limb. 

Fr. Jim M.’s weekend experience demonstrates why you have to bear-bag.  He emailed me on Sunday a.m. in response to my invitation to join me that he’d just gotten home from a hike of his own:  “I went to the area around Bowling Rocks and found a nice spot with a fire ring. I forgot my ground pad for the hammock and had a 55-degree bag. (cold night) What I did I cleaned out my backpack and used it as insulation, it worked well so it may be my new system.  Now for the big news, I was in my hammock watching the hills to the East meet the sun when I saw these two bear cubs climbing a tree near me. I look down and there are three of them and mom! they come over to me and tear down my food bag [which he’d hung on his hammock strap] and start eating! I say a few Hail Marys and hope they eat and leave. Momma bear looks me right in the face, nose to nose and walks off with the cubs, what a way to start your day!”

So it was 8:30 p.m. before I could pull out the Divine Office (photocopied); then I was too tired to sit up and read by flashlight, so to bed.

This was my 1st used of a 2-man tent that I purchased last summer for backpacking.  (I did practice setting it up after it arrived.)  It weighs about twice as much as my old 1-man tent in which I could just about turn over, and is so much more comfortable.  I could stretch out, sit up, touch my toes (handy for getting your socks on), and bring my pack into the tent too.  The temps probably went into the mid-40s, but I was snug—and even slept decently with 2 pads under me (I’m not a really rugged camper like Fr. Jim). There were critters in the vicinity, one of them padding around the camp around midnite, and some dogs (or coyotes) howling off in the distance later than that.  I, too, said a couple of Hail Marys.

Thus Sunday.  I slept late on Monday; got up at 6:15.  Celebrated Mass (no decent rock to set up on, so just used the ground), fetched my food, made breakfast (oatmeal, nuts, apricots, and of course coffee), prayed the Office, and packed everything up (see another pic).  I was on the trail westward at 9:00 a.m.  I met 1 backpacker coming east; he wasn’t masked and I didn’t want to engage in conversation at close quarters.

An obstacle on the Red Cross Trail

that hasn't been removed

The NY/NJ Trail Conference had cleared and widened a long section of the trail recently.  After about 1.4 miles (a little more than an hour), I came to the place where an unmarked trail called Bockey Swamp Trail starts north.  Evidently it was once a vehicular woods road, but now it’s pretty overgrown.  There’s still a frail-looking wooden bridge (photo) crossing a brook at one point maybe ½ mile up.

The dotted red lines on the trail map show the trail running unimpeded for 1¼ miles up to the AT/RD, but somewhere on the way, after an hour, the trail just petered out.  I backtracked a bit, but that didn’t help.  So I bushwhacked northward, eventually stopping for lunch in a shady spot (PB on crackers, trail mix, orange, water).  I checked my compass to make sure I was really going north (yes)—and in about 15 minutes after lunch, or around 12:50, had the welcome sight of a Ramapo-Dunderberg trail blaze.

On the tree to the left of the trail is a blaze (red dot on white hash mark)

for the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail

The AT runs with the RD from there more than 3 miles to the base of West Mountain (behind Anthony Wayne Rec Area).

From there, it was almost an hour’s hike (.8 mile) to the Brien Shelter.  I’d gone only a hundred yards eastward when I came to a small cairn (pile of stones--here, where the AT/RD makes a left turn)

marking a trail going south off the AT/RD, apparently marking the Bockey Swamp Trail!  I reached the shelter at 1:45 and settled in.  It was a real surprise that in that stretch of the AT and the whole time I stayed at the shelter, not a single AT thru hiker came by.  That’s the corona effect!  Numerous day hikers came by, tho.  I chatted a bit with some of them, from a distance (except for showing my map to one party of 4 ladies who weren’t sure where they wanted to go).  Mostly I enjoyed a cup of coffee, read, prayed, fetched some water, napped a little bit.  Supper:  freeze-dried 3-cheese pasta,

Crystal Lite, and later a luscious pre-bed dessert (chocolate mousse—hey, I burned a lot of calories!), then more reading, Rosary, till a 9:00 p.m. retirement.  It was easier getting the bear bag up this time—only a dozen casts of the rock.

I stayed at the Brien Shelter once with Jim M., and it leaked.  I stayed once by myself (during a very heavy, nite-long rain), and it still leaked.  About that hike, see the latter part of https://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/hiking-vacation-in-new-rochelle.html.  This time it appeared that the NY-NJ Trail Conference has done some good repairs.  A hearty 3 cheers for the Conference!

In any case, it didn’t rain, and there were no leaks.  This shelter is unique among the approx. 10 shelters in Harriman-Bear Mt. in that it has 2 bunk beds built in, 1 on each side.  Regardless, you’re still sleeping on boards covered by your sleeping pad(s) and sleeping bag.  But I slept decently—without any wildlife interruptions except for some birds that kept flitting around inside because they had a nest in the rafters.

On Tuesday, up at 5:50 for Mass (on a large, flat rock this time), breakfast (oatmeal, coffee, orange, trail mix), Divine Office, packing up, and out at 8:00, back to the car at 9:00.  So that’s the story, which will help you interpret some of the photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/MWd0dxqU16