Up Long Mountain and into Deep Hollow

Up Long Mountain and into Deep Hollow

Tuesday-Wednesday (Aug. 1-2) camping trip up in Harriman State Park: up Long Mountain (1,291 ft) and down into Deep Hollow (611 ft) amid a large brook, a couple of little creeks, and lots of mosquitoes:  https://link.shutterfly.com/BA5i7MBiXBb

Last December some hiking friends made a long trek from Silvermine Lake to the general area of Lake Massawippa in Harriman State Park, mostly via the Long Path.  I was told they’d found a good place to camp off the Long Path.

So after my return from Edmonton, when I finally had some time to camp, I thought I’d go out there myself.  On Tuesday, Aug. 1, I parked in the lot off Long Mountain Pkwy a little after 10:00 a.m., did some “policing” of the parking lot (a lot of gavones leave all manner of trash there), and at 10:30 set out for Long Mt. and beyond.

It’s ¾ of a mile, half of it pretty steep, up to the summit (1,291 feet), where a memorial to Raymond Torrey, an early trailblazer in Harriman, is carved into the rock.  

From the summit 

there’s a spectacular view east to Popolopen Torne, Bear Mt., and the Dunderberg, and down to Turkey Hill Lake.

Popolopen Torne

Bear Mountain

Turkey Hill Lake

I crossed the brook and proceeded along the trail, ever searching for a place to pitch a tent.  The boundary of the U.S. Military Academy was clearly posted to my right and precluded any search in that direction.  Coming to a feeble creek about a ¼ mile along that flows into Deep Hollow Brook, I found a little spot with enuf flat ground to pitch my tent.  The entire area had obviously been deeply flooded—lots of snagged debris.  I wouldn’t have dared use it had there been any rain in the forecast.

But there wasn’t.  So I set my tent in a narrow slot between a rock and a little shrub, backed up almost to the creek.  I found a boulder with a bit of more or less flat surface where I could set up my stove.  I fetched a pot of water from the creek and boiled it for 15 minutes to make my freeze-dried chicken teriyaki supper, washed down with a variety of Crystal Lite and followed by some dried apricots and a little trail mix.  While the water was going, I prayed.

There certainly was enuf wood around to make a fire, but I had no wish to do so.  I hung my bear bag, 

then explored a little further up the trail, crossing the creek again farther up.  I stopped at the foot of Howell Mt.  I never came close to wherever it was that my friends had ended up in December, at least 1½ miles farther, up and down a mountain.  I did notice a couple of interesting sights:

As it grew, this tree carried a good-sized rock along with it.

Fungi galore at the base of a dead tree.

Returning to my camp, I sat and read—and swished at mosquitoes and mashed a few when they dared to land on me—until dark.  Around 8:00 p.m. I retired to my tent and read a little longer, effectively finishing the current issue of Smithsonian.  It wasn’t long before I regretted having packed only my sleeping bag liner instead of an actual bag.  It got pretty chilly overnite, and eventually I had to put on a bit more clothing.  Altho the 2 pads under me were comfortable enuf, I didn’t really get sufficiently warm, and I tossed and turned most of the nite.

But I wasn’t in a hurry to rise when daylight came.  I emerged around 6:30 a.m. (almost 2 hours later than a typical weekday at home), set up another pot of water to boil, prayed, retrieved my bear bag, and made my oatmeal and coffee (followed by more apricots and some almonds).  I took my time to break camp, having planned to be out thru lunch.  And I wasn’t looking forward to climbing back up to the top of Long Mt.

I'd found my campsite clean except for a half-buried beer bottle.  I dug that up and carried it out with my own little bit of trash.

On 1st coming to Deep Hollow Brook, I’d noticed and followed for a short distance a well used path (part of my search for a campsite).  On recrossing the brook, I checked my map to see where that path led.  Lo and behold, it led back to the Long Path by skirting the mountain.  In fact, the Harriman Trails book speaks of it:  Deep Hollow Road, “an ‘ankle breaker’ stone road, paved with broken stones in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps” (2010 ed., p. 60).  So that way I went, with the mountain to my left and for a good distance the brook to my right.  I didn’t find it bad at all as long as I was careful about where I set my feet; the Timp Pass Rd. down from the Timp Pass toward Bear Mt. is worse.  Besides the 600-foot climb, I figured that this short cut saved me about an hour.

On my way into my hike on Tuesday morning, I’d met one chap coming back toward the parking lot.  He warned me about the mosquitoes.  Once I was back on the Long Path on Wednesday morning, I encountered a woman hiking in from the lot.  Evidently it was her 1st time on this trail; she asked me where it went.  I advised her of the Popolopen Trail’s split-off a little farther along and its descent to Turkey Hill Lake, and the Long Path’s climb to the mountaintop and its great vistas.  She liked the latter option.  And we went our separate ways.  I was back to the car by 10:15 and did a little more “policing” of the grounds—my little contribution to the work of the NY-NJ Trail Conference and to the upkeep of this beautiful state park—before heading home.