Six-Trail Hike in Harriman State Park
I
went hiking in Harriman State Park for 5 hours on Oct. 29, a gorgeous fall day.
I covered 4½ miles spread over parts of 6 trails. I noticed full parking areas where the
Suffern-Bear Mt. Trail crosses Gate Hill Rd. (one of the ways to get to Big
Hill, where in fact Fr. Paul and about 20 of his Frassati Group friends were
hiking) and at the St. John’s parking lot (access to the Long Path, including
another way to reach Big Hill). When I
got to my intended destination, the parking lot at Lake Skannatati, the lot was
full. I backtracked to Lake Kanawauke, where there was plenty of
parking—probably because no trails pass thru there.
You may find a map helpful; this is part of the “Northern Harriman Bear Mountain” trail map.
Leaving the parking lot at 10:50 a.m., I walked half a mile west on Kanawauke Rd., past part of Lake Kanawauke and Little Long Pond,
to a gate at the start of an unmarked trail
leading north.[1]
I followed that trail half a mile, with a couple of little side explorations, to its end at the Dunning Trail. Along the way I saw the only 4-footed wildlife of the hike (well camouflaged on the trail in the center of this picture):
At the Dunning intersection,[2] I sat down on a rock to
eat part of my lunch around 11:35 a.m. A
few hikers and a 3-legged dog passed by.
No more conversation than “Good morning!”
After lunch and a little reading while digesting, I headed west on the Dunning Trail at 12:05 p.m.
toward Bowling Rocks and a junction with the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.[3] Hikers became much more frequent and a mite conversational. A couple of little camps were off the trail to the south with a fine view down toward Little Long Pond.
Bowling Rocks is a flat, rocky area with a lot of boulders strewn about—not as obvious now as they once were; a lot of trees and shrubs have grown up since the last burn-over. (This is the area where Fr. Jim had his face-to-face encounter with a mama bear a few months ago.)
I and some other hikers reached the intersection with the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail around 12:45. The others went south toward Bald Rocks Shelter. I went north toward the major intersection called Times Square. I was passed by some faster-moving hikers, and I met many southbound hikers. Hikers sometimes were by themselves, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in large groups. I stopped several times along all the various trails to take photos (as if you couldn’t tell).
A .45-mile trail called the Lichen Trail splits from the R-D way up on a ridge (great views, where a couple were enjoying their lunch). I had never been on this trail and followed it northwest toward its other end at the Arden-Surebridge Trail and Long Path (running together).[4] The Lichen Trail turned out to be a lot of rock and boulders with some descents requiring careful negotiation or some walk-arounds. The trail guide alleges that it “levels out over rocky ledges.” It offers a grand view of Island Pond off to the west:
There were a lot of hikers on it (dogs too),
including one party costumed for Halloween.
Hiking eastward on the joint A-SB/Long Path was
a bit lonely till I got close to Times Square, which I reached around 2:00
p.m.
The trail was much easier going, mostly kind of level, than the Lichen Trail or even the R-D. In addition to the A-SB/Long Path, the R-D passes thru Times Square—truly a major intersection.
While I had the rest of my lunch, many hikers and more dogs came thru, including another party costumed for Halloween—asking whether I’d seen their friends, with whom they were supposed to rendezvous somewhere. A great many of these hikers had parked at Lake Skannatati, coming up from there via the A-SB.
I headed south around 2:20 on the Long Path (to right in photo, with aqua blaze), which split from the eastbound A-SB (to the left, with red triangle on white) leaving Times Square.
This was a pleasant, relatively level trail
thru woods with cliffs and ravines off to the side here and there. While I made a necessary diversion on a side
path with my trowel and TP, a few other hikers passed by out of sight. Digging a cathole in Harriman is nigh
impossible because of rocky soil and especially a thorough mat of grass roots
just below the ground surface. You do
your best to scrape away a little dirt and a lot of leaves, and then to cover
up after.)
Around 3:00, I reached the Dunning Trail once again. There were more hikers going either west or east—including the couple with the 3-legged dog, heading back to Lake Skannatati. There was supposed to a branch of the unmarked trail going south to Kanawauke Rd., but it was either well hidden or overgrown. So I went west a quarter mile to find the branch of the trail on which I’d come up in the morning. Thence a half mile south to the road and Little Long Pond,
and a half mile along the road (with little
shoulder in some places) back to the parking lot. A few hikers and a big group of runners
passed by in the other direction.
I was carrying a plastic bag with a bit of
litter from the trail—very little to be seen, which isn’t always the case—and I
picked up a little more along the road.
One fellow passing the other way asked whether I was looking for
something. Just 100 yards or so from the
parking lot, I waved a trekking pole in that direction and responded, “Yeah—my
car!” And he called back, “I hope you
find it.”
I was back at the Kanawauke parking lot at 3:45
and of course found the car just where I’d left it. The lot had filled up quite a bit since I’d
left in the morning—lots of people using the grills and picnic tables, besides
those who’d gone out running or were walking around the lake. By 3:55 I was heading for home.
All
19 photos (in chronological order, I hope): https://link.shutterfly.com/wYmljvXryub
[1]
“Unmarked” means it has no trail blazes and isn’t necessarily maintained by the
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.
Some of these unmarked trails were once roads connecting farms or iron mines
to the main roads crossing the area.
[2] The Dunning, 3¾ miles, runs from near Arden (at Green Pond, a favorite camping place of Fr. Jim Mulloy and me) to a junction with the Arden-Surebridge Trail in the heights west of 7 Lakes Drive.
[3]
The R-D begins in Tuxedo and ends 23 miles later on 9W at the base of the
Dunderberg.
[4]
The A-SB starts in Arden near Rte. 17 and runs 6¼ miles to Lake
Skannatati. The Long Path starts in NYC
near the GWB and extends 358 miles to the Albany area; 25 miles of it passes
thru Harriman from Mt. Ivy to Central Valley.
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