~*~ Harriman State Park,
NY ~*~
“The Quest for Water Amongst Rocks”
Date: September
16-18, 2005
Hikers: Green
Monkee & I
Mileage: 20’ish
Elevation
Gain/Loss:
Friday
A
late start leaving NJ set us back a little bit. We finally made it to the
trailhead off of 7 Lakes Drive around 11:30pm and still had some hiking to do.
Thankfully, finding the trail was easy (compared to the BFT debacle). It was
dark and it was very foggy. The first several hundred yards weren’t so bad on
an old fire road but once we turned off of that, we were in for it. The fog was
so thick that we couldn’t see from on blaze to the next. Finding each one was
like a reconnaissance mission. One person stand at the blaze, the other goes
and scouts and then alerts when it is found. We had planned to only hike about
a mile in but it was taking us forever. As we came up a climb, GM suddenly
yelped and stopped immediately. When I looked up, all I could see through the
fog was giant white writing gleaming on something. Well…he yelped because he
walked right into a spider web but that graffiti scared the crap out of me in
the setting.
It
turned out to be a giant rock: Irish Potato. GM insisted on climbing it so
while he did that I checked for a possible campsite. We decided to camp there
for the evening but it was probably 2am before we got to sleep.
Saturday
Since
we didn’t get to sleep until after 2am, we didn’t exactly get up early either. It
was 10:00am before we hit the trail finally. So much easier in the light of
day, BTW. The terrain was moderate, some small climbs and descents most of the
morning. A lot to look at and explore with old ruins and giant boulders all
over the place.
There
was a steep descent that took us down to the Palisades Parkway. After fighting
our way through some really obnoxious thorns, we stopped at the creek and
filtered some water. Little did we know this would be the only water we would
see all day. :| After crossing the Palisades (an adventure in itself), we began
an immediate vertical climb. Whoa baby! There were large boulders to navigate
and even more to play on. We definitely were in no hurry so we took our time on
the rocks. GM insisted on climbing pretty much every boulder we passed. Pingyp
Mountain had some nice scrambles and within a short time, we found ourselves at
the summit where we rested briefly. After our break, we discovered we hadn’t
really reached the summit as we continued on up the Suffern Bear Mountain
Trail. The descent and ascent to The Pines wasn’t nearly as steep and soon
enough we made it to the Red Cross Trail. I expected medics to be running
around? LPNs? RNs? Anyone? Nada.
We discovered a nice rock where we ended
up stopping for lunch. As we sat quietly, birds of all kinds came out of
nowhere…flying and chirping and not minding our presence. The forest smelled of
autumn and it appeared that the leaves were beginning to change. Acorns were
falling from trees like rain ~ I kept waiting to get whacked in the head with
one.
After
our (late) lunch, we set out for The Timp. It was only another couple of miles
with one steep climb. In Timp Pass, there were several giant boulders which GM
immediately decided he needed to scale. Good Lord…monkey doesn’t even come
close to being accurate. Once again, we spent a fair amount of time just
playing on the rocks. Another 20 minutes or so and we reached the summit of The
Timp. Amazing views in three directions. You could see the Hudson River, the NYC
skyline and rolling mountains ~ just depended on which way you looked. We
decided this would be the perfect place to camp.
But
there was no water. We checked the map and the nearest source was ¾ mile from
The Timp, and that was assuming it wasn’t dry. GM offered to “run” for the
water while I set up camp. What a debacle…he ran off and I 
braved the whipping wind on the open
summit to set up the tent. Sunset would be in less than an hour. I finally got
the tent up and decided to read for awhile. So I read and waited…watched the
sunset, read some more and waited some more. Walked back and forth to the woods
edge, waited, got nervous, read, listened to distant thunder, waited, et
cetera. It was almost 2 ½ hours before he came back and he’d been probably 5 miles
total. None of the water sources were flowing so he had gone nearly to the
Hudson. I was SO happy to see him since the sun had long been down and I knew
finding the right blazes in the dark was a challenge…even with the headlamp.
Needless
to say, we cooked dinner and swallowed it whole. Had some hot cocoa, decided
against a fire and crashed for the evening.
Sunday
I
awoke to cool breezes and the moon setting. Beautiful skies and breathtaking
views again. Coming off The Timp, we decided to take a route up West Mountain.
Within 30 minutes of leaving camp, we were already standing at 
the West Mountain Shelter and looking at
the spot we had camped the night before. The shelter was very nice and at the
moment, occupied by a family who was having lunch.
The
trail is well maintained, though there were a lot of dead trees littering the
forest. I couldn’t figure out if they were from storms or fires ~ though they
didn’t appear to be burned. The downed trees were not obstructing the trail in
any way but they were all over the place.
Coming
down Cat’s Elbow, a fun little scramble, we passed a couple. The woman appeared
to be enjoying the boulders but the man that was with her looked downright
miserable. I felt bad for the guy and assured him it was only about ½ mile to
the shelter. He didn’t even smile. Poor man.
We
descended back into the valley, opted for a bit of a roadwalk (grass, actually)
to avoid repeating some of yesterdays hike. We got off at Exit 16 and for the
first time since yesterday morning, saw water. We filtered and drank and drank
and filtered before our final 3 miles out. I didn’t remember the descent from
Pound 
Swamp Mountain being so bloody long
yesterday but it was! Up and up and up and up…mostly well graded with scattered
rocks here and there. We breezed by Irish Potato and headed on out, checking
out what we missed in the pitch black Friday night hike. The blazes were screwy
even in daylight on this portion.
Back
at the car, we took off the boots, changed our clothes and headed home.
Harriman is a great place to go and not have a plan. There is a lot to see and
a lot to explore. We spent most of the time playing on rocks and checking out
ruins and other historical features. I can’t wait to go back up there and do
some more exploring!!!
What I Learned:
~ Any rock that
looks like it can not be climbed, will be climbed.
~ How to hike for
2 days and only see water once.
~ There is no
wildlife beyond newts, frogs and birds.
~ Quiet lunches
lead to bird invasions.
~ Don’t let your
hiking partner go get water without you.
~ Chocolate
brownies make for a nice treat after dinner.
~ On downhills, move to the side and just let
GreenMonkee pass. Don’t ask. Just move.
~ When you climb
rocks, make sure you know how to get back down. Skimpy little tree branches are
not meant for stabilizing.
~ Frogger ain’t
got nuttin’ on us!
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