7/13/17 Harriman Lake Skanattati Loop with Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Edward DiSalvo, Jessica Anne, and Veena
This next hike would be a great loop within Harriman State Park, New York. I had just come off of ten days straight working, along with two night hikes during that course, so I was pretty tired. Still, my first day off, Thursday, I posted a hike in Harriman State Park.
Lake Skanattati
My purpose of doing this hike was to cover one of the few missing pieces of the Long Path I needed to hike within Harriman State Park.
The Long Path was proposed by Raymond H. Torrey, founding member of the NY/NJ Trail Conference. He helped to develop both the Appalachian Trail and the Long Path. He felt the Long Path should be a simple path, without even blazes, like an orienteering course, connecting New York City with the Adirondacks.
The Long Path logo
I had been working on hiking sections of the Long Path for years. The official first blaze is in Fort Lee Historic Park in New Jersey, though the Hudson River walkway/Riverside Park in Manhattan can be taken to connect it with the city. I’ve done all of that, and I’ve hiked all of the Long Path into Harriman State Park from the south.
For whatever reason, I never got around to following the path all the way across Harriman. Instead, I had followed other routes. I’d hiked the section in the north of Harriman to Schunemunk Mountain, and then again I have not done any of it from there to the Shawangunk Ridge. From the Gunks, I’ve done it to the valley before the Catskills, and then I’ve done all of it from Peekamoose Mountain up through the Burroughs Range to Phoenicia.
I had done one of the missing sections earlier in the year, so I figured this was a good opportunity to knock out the remainder of it in Harriman State Park.
I made the meeting point Lake Skanattati, thinking of swimming spots and such. It was a brutally hot day. From there, we could take the Long Path north, in sections I had never followed to where I’d done the rest in Harriman, at Bradley Mine.
We started off walking from the lot, past the intersection with the Arden-Surebridge Trail, and along the north edge of Lake Skanattati. Lake Askoti is just across Seven Lakes Drive from the lot. Lake Askoti was created in 1935, and Skanattati in 1938. The lakes were named by early park developer Major Welch. Askoti in the Algonquin language means “This Side” and Skanattati means “The other side”.
It was a really pretty section, and we started to ascend away. This section of trail was first cleared around 1942 from mines up hill down to the lake. William Hoeferlin extended the trail south to Big Hill Shelter, and it was named Skanattati Trail. The Long Path originally followed some of the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy Trail, but there was a two mile road walk between Mt. Ivy and Ladentown, so it was rerouted. Most of the original Skanattati Trail became the Long Path.
Part of Hogencamp Mine
The Long Path crossed the Dunning Trail after ascending a bit. I noticed something to the right of the trail that looked like a building foundation. It was sort of questionable, but then I saw what was most certainly some kind of foundation to the left, and the trail took on a woods road like feel.
Cape Horn
It turned out this was because we were approaching the old Hogencamp Mine. There is a main mine I understand to the west of where we were, but the area just below the Long Path had a steep drop to an old shaft. We went off trail and down to it to have a closer look. There were some masonry ruins along a small brook below that had something to do with the mine. There are no old photos I know of showing the area or what was there. The trail went up hill from the mine, so we climbed back to it. Ed and Uncle Soup went off trail slightly to reach the trail a different way.
Cat's Den
A large boulder above the mine area is known as Cape Horn. To the right, there was another rock formation with a little cave in it known as Cat’s Den. We ascended a bit above here to where the Dunning Trail at one time used to go to the west I think it was, and we went right.
Blueberries!
In this section it was the first we came across ripe blueberries and spent a bit of time eating them. They were plentiful but small. These small blueberries seem always to be packed with taste, which is awesome.
We continued around some outcropped hillsides with rocks and such, and the trail picked up another section of what used to be the Surebridge Mine Road. We continued on this to the north for a ways, and eventually came to the major intersection of trails known as Times Square. Here, the Arden Surebridge Trail, Long Path, and Ramapo Dunderberg Trail all come together.
Along the Long Path on Surebridge Mountain
Supposedly at any time you get to Times Square, you’ll always find another hiker passing through on one of these popular trails. I had heard about the spot for years, but had never visited it.
The Long Path continued co-aligned with the Arden-Surebridge Trail for a bit from this point, heading slightly to the west.
It’s amazing to me that these hiking trails through Harriman are historic themselves. They date back to as far as the twenties as “hiking trails” and many of them earlier through previous industry. The Harriman book says the section of the Surebridge Mine Road we walked from Times Square was referred to as “The Lost Road” by trail blazers when they chose it’s route way back.
Times Square
We passed through the Rhododendrons, which we chose the right time for because they were blooming very nicely. The Lichen Trail joined from the left, and we went gradually up and down between areas with swamps and hills, with beautiful different shades of green over everything. “
After a little bit further, the Bottle Cap Trail started to the right. This well known connecting trail is rather popular among hikers, and was always an unofficial trail. In recent years, if someone posted a hike on “The Bottle Cap”, park rangers would wait at one side of it for people to come through to ticket them. I think this has since ended because the trail was added to the maps.
Rhododendrons
The trail is actually marked with bottle cats, hammered into the trees, still using triple blazing for the end of trail, and doubles for turns. A rather interesting method.
White Bar Trail turns away to the left, and then the Arden-Surebridge Trail left eventually turns away to the left as well, while the Long Path continues to the right on a bit of a slope, which at times looks like an old woods road, along the edge of Dismal Swamp, which is actually rather prettier than it is dismal.
Uncle Soup on the Long Path
I was getting very limited cell phone service, which is pretty much how it goes in Harriman. Veena was trying to get a hold of me along the way to meet late, because she’d got stuck in traffic earlier on. I was able to direct her to a spot to meet, which would be the Appalachian Trail junction.
Long Path near Dismal Swamp
I directed her to park at Lake Tiorati, which is relatively close to the Appalachian Trail by way of a connector. She was able to find that, and turned left on the AT southbound, which would eventually lead her to an intersection with the Long Path.
Dismal Swamp
We continued beyond Dismal Swamp and soon came to the intersection with the Appalachian Trail. This was the first time on this hike we reached a spot I had been on a previous hike. I had just enough cell service that I was able to get in touch with Veena, and it seemed like she was very close by. We figured we would wait.
After we had waited a long while, Ed walked way ahead on the AT northbound to see if he could catch up with her. She should have already met up with us at this point. When I finally got her on the phone again, it turned out she had taken a side road from the AT that connected with the Long Path.
AT and LP intersection
We had waited almost an hour, but now were hurrying along the Long Path north from the Appalachian Trail. We gradually ascended part of Echo Mountain, and there was a limited view from the top of it to the north.
Girls camp shelter
Just below the top of Echo Mountain was a shelter built in 1937 for the girls camps on Cohasset Lake below. I wasn’t expecting to see a shelter up there, and it was kind of surprising that it was still standing. It far from being a really nice shelter, but if I had been backpacking I would have loved to find anything like this.
We continued down hill from here and picked up a bit of a faint old woods road again. Veena was waiting for us along a slope next to a lovely swamp. Somewhere in this area is Paradise Rock, and the trail is part of an abandoned older trail that was known as the Hurst Trail.
Lots of pipes
We followed the flank of Fingerboard Mountain in this area for a bit, and headed through a very rocky section. The trail crossed over multiple pipes that were going off to the left, I am assuming to Lake Cohasset, and we continued to the north.
It wasn’t much longer before we reached the crossing of Arden Valley Road. We crossed and then immediately turned to the left off of the trail. Our next destination would be the Bradley Mine.
The area of the Bradley Mine doesn’t have many trails today, but is of particular interest historically. The area was first mined by a man by the name of Bradley during the American Revolution. He sold to James Cunningham, who constructed the Greenwood Furnace.
Bradley Mine
The Greenwood Furnace, built in 1811, provided munitions for the US Army during the War of 1812, and some of the raw material probably came from this very mine.
Greenwood Furnace remained in operation until 1871, and it was the last of the charcoal fired iron furnaces in this part of the Hudson Valley. The nearby Clove Furnace was coal powered, and took it’s place. It can be seen from the through way today.
There were several changes in ownership of the Bradley Mine, but it finally closed in 1874. All of the lands including the old mine were purchased by Edward Harriman in 1885.
Historic view of Greenwood Furnace NY
The area around Bradley Mine I believe once used to be part of the Long Path, and it was more so a part of the Fingerboard-Storm King Trail from 1922 until 1949. The trail no longer goes through due to the closure of the West Point military lands.
Bradley Mine
We walked along parallel with Arden Valley Road below until I saw the tailings piles that helped me to identify where the opening to the mine would be. We came to where it was a steep drop off to the mine, and we walked around to go on in.
The mine is about 150 feet long, and is a long narrow cut through rock, which then goes underground into a sort of pod of iron ore with two shafts. At least one of these two shafts is at least two hundred feet deep, but both are now totally full of water. The inside of the mine is an absolutely stunning place to see, and it was so much cooler.
Bradley Mine
The water inside felt freezing cold, but it was great for me. I was sweating so bad that nothing was going to keep me out of it, so I went for a swim in the blue water of the mine. It felt absolutely awesome, but it was so cold it was literally a shock to the system. One couldn’t survive without getting hypothermia in that, even in the Summer time.
We soon headed out of the mine, and Veena opted to make the hike a short loop and headed back to her car from here, because it wasn’t too far down the road for her. The rest of us descended from the mine to an old woods road that is the route of the Long Path.
Old Hasenclever Road
This old road is actually one of the oldest routes in the entire park. It was originally the Hasenclever Road, built in 1760 from Stony Point to Central Valley. The road ascends between a saddle of Bradley Mountain and goes onto the private Harriman estate property to Forest Lake. It was at one point known as the Forest Lake trail. The road was once the main entrance to the area prior to the construction of the present Arden Valley Road to Tiorati Circle, which was built in 1917 by the park.
We resumed walking the Long Path to the north. We had now connected to where I had been before through previous hikes on this side. The only part of the Long Path in Harriman I had not down was to the south side of the park, which I’d attempt ot make part of the loop.
We continued only as far as an unblazed trail that leads to the right, down to the Appalachian Trail a short distance away.
At the intersection, the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail, which followed the AT from the south, turned off and headed to the east here further along the woods road. We turned to follow this. It was a section of that trail I had never done as well, in a weird swath that I don’t know when I’d get to any other way.
We followed Ramapot-Dunderberg to the east in it’s weaving route until it finally rejoined with the Appalachian Trail just north of Bockey Swamp, at a triple intersection with Menomine Trail. From here, I planned to follow Bockey Swamp Trail.
Timber Rattlesnake
Bockey Swamp is one of the unofficial, vaguely marked trails that still makes a really good connection. I made a wrong turn at first on what I thought was the unofficial trail, and it petered out quickly. We then stepped almost over a basking Timber Rattlesnake, of reasonable size!
We paused after getting back a bit, and it slithered slowly away from us for a bit. I got a little bit closer to see if I could get a better photo of it, because it had some beautiful colors, and it got into a coiled position in the blink of an eye. I didn’t dare take any more, and we continued to try to find the Bockey Swamp Trail.
Timber Rattlesnake
We wandered through blueberry undergrowth for a while, and we were not seeing anything. Based on my aerial images on my phone, we were off the trail. We opted instead to bushwhack to where we had last been on marked trail on the AT and figure it out from there.
Bockey Swamp Trail
If only I had looked better the first time, the trail was much more obvious, with a pile of sticks across the entrance to it.
I had used this and a short section just beyond to a saddle in Letterock Mountain on a couple of occasions, because it makes a good safe cut through when getting late on loop hikes around the area on official trails.
We walked the trail to the north a bit, and a cairn marked the intersection with the path over Letterock Mountain through the saddle. I had never followed Bockey Swamp Trail to the north of here. We turned to continue following it. Occasionally, there were faded old white blazes, but mostly it cut through thick blueberry and was easily discernible.
Although there were tons of blueberries, we couldn’t really enjoy them. It started raining insanely while in this stretch. Fortunately, I had brought my umbrella, but I was still getting pretty wet.
Near the south end of Bockey Swamp Trail, we reached an old woods road. I recall seeing an old foundation up there, and we cut to the right gradually descending on it. Before we came to the end of the trail at Red Cross Trail, I believe it had become a foot path again.
We turned left on Red Cross Trail briefly, then reached the intersection with the Beech Trail where we turned to the right.
Beech Trail was one of the newer ones in Harriman. It was cleared and marked in 1972 by Westchester Trails Association and in honor of Art Beach, who was the park administrations’ representative for the Trail Conference. Because it’s against policy to name trails after living people, the name of the trail was instead spelled “Beech” like the tree. It should be noted that I saw NO Beech trees on this trail while walking it.
Small falls on Tiorati Brook
Another interesting point on this trail is the fact that this was the first one where the double turn blaze was ever implemented. Having the offset blaze signify the turn started here, made it’s way onto the Appalachian Trail in Harriman, and then became the standard for the entire mid Atlantic.
We followed the trail over Flaggy Meadow Mountain, then descended a bit to parallel Tiorati Brook. We followed it down stream to the crossing of Tiorati Brook Road. It was still raining when we got to the spot, and it was really nice, so we took shelter underneath the road bridge for it to calm down. I went and climbed the falls briefly, and we were able to wait out most the storm.
Beech Trail
After crossing the road bridge, the trail turned to the right back into the woods, parallel with the north side of Tiorati Brook Road. We cointinued on the trail from this point, and eventually crossed over to the other side to head south. There was a nicer waterfall on the next section of the trail, just barely off trail to the left. We crossed over Tiorati Brook Road and continued on the trail south past the falls, which is known as Arthur’s Falls. The trail continues on along Nat House Mountain and crosses the old Hasenclever Road we’d seen earlier. It once led to the village of Sandyfield, which is now covered by Lake Welch.
Arthur's Falls
The trail continued along, and soon came upon an old cemetery to the right. Many members of the Youmans family are buried here, dating to around the time of the Civil War. One of the Youmans brothers died only a couple of days before the war ended.
Cemetery on Beech Trail
There were also Jones graves, and one grave stone was on the other side of a stone wall from the rest of them, which makes me wonder why. I can’t find any particular reason noted in any book or on line.
Outcrops on Rockhouse Mountain along Beech Trail
We continued to the west along the trail, which passed by some nice rock outcroppings. We passed by an old farmstead site that was supposed to be the home of Maybelline Youmans until the 1920s. I noted some sort of pit along the way as well.
The rain pretty much stopped before we reached the terminus of the Beech Trail, at the Long Path on Rockhouse Mountain. After getting soaked before, we’d had about enough, and were ready to head back toward the cars to close in the loop. I didn’t get to finish the Long Path in Harriman this time, so it would merit a re-visit to do that.
Some sort of old pit
I only had a little bit more to do to the south of the Beech Trail intersection, on to Big Hill Shelter where I had left off a few years back on another loop hike to the south. At least I would get to doing the section I’d never done from this point back to Lake Tiorati.
We walked onward down hill steadily, and passed where the Rock House is supposed to be in Rockhouse Mountain. For whatever reason, I did not find the feature that was referred to and we continued south.
Long Path
We passed over a utility right of way as well as a series of puncheons, and crossed a road. Before getting close to the end, we could hear the sound of cars on Seven Lakes Drive down to the left. The trail emerged at a woods road along Lake Askoti, and we turned to the left to cross Seven Lakes Drive.
The trail went down over the guide rail, then descended along the brook that flows from Lake Askoti to Lake Skanattati. The trail then skirts the lake for a bit out to the parking lot where we had met in the morning.
Lake Skanattati
I was hot and sweaty again, and couldn’t wait to take another dip. However, there was a man in the parking lot watching us very closely. He was an Hasidic Jew, stocky and arkwardly attentive. He was clearly looking over at us, pinning us out. I pretended I didn’t see him there. He would turn and take photos with his cell phone of the lake from time to time, and then look like he was texting or calling someone. I figured he might be calling park police thinking we were swimming, though I hadn’t even gotten in yet.
I didn’t want to wait around, so I walked along the shore of the lake to the west just a bit until I was out of sight and at a nice rocky spot, and went in to col off. I don’t think the guy saw me from over there at all. When I was satisfied, I came back and joined the others.
Lake Skanattati
I meandered back over to the parking lot, and the guy who had been watching us took a few photos of ducks or something and then left.
Except for the little bit of rain, this was a really great hike covering a few places I’d loved, and a lot more that I’d never seen. I hope to keep filling in the gaps of these great long trails like the Long Path, Suffern-Bear Mountain, Ramapo-Dunderberg, and others I haven’t gotten around to finishing in the near future.
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