Harriman State Park - Pine Meadow Lake

I took the week off work and decided to head to Harriman for a quick day hike around Pine Meadow Lake from the visitor center on Seven Lakes Drive.  I took the Kakiat trail and took a detour to the Raccoon Hills trail to add some miles.  Round trip the hike was a little less than nine miles (I tracked it with an iPhone app, Map My Hike).

The weather was very hot and muggy and the bugs were out in full force.  The Kakiat trail is very heavily worn from years of use.  The photo below is the start of the trail which has a very moderate uphill grade.  Overall, the trail is relatively flat with a couple uphill sections.  The most difficult aspect of the trail is the hopping on mossy rocks and roots.  There are a couple sections where a small stream runs right down the trail.

The volunteer trail crew does a fantastic job maintaining this and other trails in Harriman State Park.

The first intersection in the trail.  Bear left and continue on the yellow blazes.  This takes you along the creek for the majority of the hike with a couple areas where the trail climbs above the creek.

View of the creek

This bridge was recently rebuilt - http://www.nynjtc.org/news/bridge-kakiat-trail-rebuilt

View of Pine Meadow Lake

Hanging out along the shore I see this guy

The view of the lake was beautiful.

Harriman State Park - Northwest Section (Rt 106 to Bear Mountain)

I decided to do a solo hike in Harriman State Park.  I had initially thought of doing the Ramapo Dunderberg but decided to get a little creative and string together some independent trails covering the north west section of the park.  

Day 1

Start at the first trailhead on RT 106 entering the park from the west.  Take the White Bar trail and make the first right turn for the Nurian Trail.  Continue on the Nurian trail until the intersection with the Rampo Dunderberg trail.  Continue on the Ramapo Dunderberg To Lake Tiorati.  Make a left on Arden Valley road and make a right turn on the Long Path.  Continue on the Long Path until arriving at the Stockbridge Shelter.

Day 2

Depart the Stockbridge Shelter and head north on the Long Path.  Continue to the 1779 trail and pick up Hell Hole trail eventually arriving at Bear Mountain State Park.

Highlights

This hike offered many different opportunities including ridge line views, sections of exposed rock, canopy covered forest, lakes, gorges, creek crossings, etc.  My highlights of the trail are listed below:

• Ramapo Dunderberg section along the Bald Rocks and Surebridge ridge line - this is a great section of hiking and relatively close to the road.  I enjoy camping that the Bald Rocks Shelter and consider this to be one of Harriman State Park's most beautiful areas.

• Stockbridge Shelter - this was a great place to camp and the views from the shelter are superb.  I am planning to come back in the winter to take in the views sans tree cover.  The only down side of this shelter is there was limited water close by,

• Turkey Hill Lake - what a great place to take a dip!  I think you need to get there early to avoid the crowds.  I saw some unofficial campsite on the way to the lake from the Long Path.  I don't think I would camp at one of these sites but it definitely looked like some folks have spent a night or two out here.

• Long Path - marvelous, relaxing section of hiking.  This was not the most difficult section of trail but was beautiful and very refreshing.  I think a lot of this section of trail was made up of old mountain roads as the path was cut pretty wide and the terrain was very moderate.  I think this is a good place to trail run.

Overall

This was a great trip.  Towards the end of day two my legs were cooking.  This was one of the more ambitious solo hikes I have done but worth every second of it.  The day time temperatures were in the 90s and a little uncomfortable but bearable.  Being able to take a dip in Turkey Hill Lake was refreshing.  I would do this hike again in a heartbeat and would highly consider doing this hike in the winter.

Day 1

Trail view from the start of the Ramapo Dunderberg - this is some of my favorite hiking in Harriman State Park.  There is a lot of exposed rock and signs of fire damage which opened the hill tops with expansive views.

More views from the Ramapo Dunderberg Trail.  This is typical of the short section of the Ramapo Dunderberg from RT 106 to the Litchen Trail.

Ramapo Dunderberg trail views continued.  I have hiked this section of trail many times before; if you catch this section of trail at sun up, there are great chances to run into White Tail Deer.

More Ramapo Dunderberg trail views

View from the Ramapo Dunderberg looking west

Cool tree growing in the rock

More views along the trail

Exposed rock section that defines the Ramapo Dunderberg in this part of the park

Exposed rock along the Ramapo Dunderberg looking north

USGS survey marker from the summit of Bald Rocks

View of the ridge line along the Ramapo Dunderberg trail.  Awesome glacial cuts in the rock.

Great hiking!

Not exactly glacial erratic but pretty cool boulders dropped by glaciers along the ridge line

Ridge line view of Bald Rocks

Steeper than it looks

Ship Rock

Ship Rock

Views from Surebridge Mountain

View from Surebridge looking south

More boulders dropped by glacial movement

Blow down - there were several sections along the trail where the impact of Hurricane Sandy was very noticeable.

More blow down

Tree growing through an open fissure in the rock

Shrooms

The Ramapo Dunderberg can be surprisingly nasty and rocky

Intersection with the Appalachian Trail

The trail opened up a bit and was a nice break from the steeper sections encountered earlier

Blue skies and clean air made for a great day!

Fingerboard Shelter - this is a very heavily used shelter not too far from the Appalachian Trail

Fingerboard Shelter

Ramapo Dunderberg / Appalachian Trail

Ramapo Dunderberg / Appalachian Trail

Ramapo Dunderberg / Appalachian Trail

Nice open clearing along the trail

Long Path blaze

Long Path trail view - looks like a good amount of this trail are old mountain roads

Hippo Rock on the Long Path.  There are many boulders and large rocks dropped off by glacier movement in this section of the park.

Long Path trail view - this was a very serene section of the hike with open views under the canopy.

Trail along the way to the Stockbridge Shelter

The Stockbridge Shelter is built right into the rock band

View from the front of Stockbridge Shelter

Stockbridge Shelter

Stockbridge Shelter (Gear and kitchen are set up for the night).  There were some field mice in the shelter but all in all it was an uneventful night.

Look down on Long Path trail north of the Stockbridge Shelter

Cave Shelter on the Long Path

Rocky Section on the Long Path.  There were section of trail that were steep and rocky which kept things interesting.

Long Path view - a good amount of the trail was in new growth forest with a nice canopy cover.  There was decent shade and a nice breeze despite the high temperature and high humidity.

Ran into a good amount of mud.  Was happy to wear my high top boots, it felt like a good chunk of the trail in this area was a creek bed that was not diverted and very mucky.

Turkey Hill Lake

Turkey Hill Lake - this was a great section of the hike.  I don't think this section of the park sees a lot of traffic.  I saw a woman swimming in the lake and it looked like it was here weekend tradition.

Beaver activity (I saw one in the water when I was swimming)

Turkey Hill Lake

Getting down into the water wasn't easy.  Most of the shore was thick mud and dense with brush and finding an area suitable for entry/exit took some looking.

Bridge along Popolopen Creek (don't grab the garden hose!)

Trail Markers

The view looking down into Popolopen Gorge from Hell Hole trail

A sample of the terrain along the Hell Hole trail

View of Bear Mountain bridge and Anthony's Nose from the traffic Circle

After arriving at Bear Mountain State Park, I walked around Hessian Lake taking in the beautiful weather