Hike #654; Central Valley to Harriman State Park (Anthony Wayne)

 Hike #654; Central Valley to Harriman State Park (Anthony Wayne)

9/30/12 Central Valley to Anthony Wayne Recreation Area (Harriman) with Jaque Melo, Brad Anesi, Terri Allen, Victoria Reiners, and Don Elliker.

The group on Long Mountain

This was another great hike in NY state, again with a beautiful scenic route and the hospitality and knowledge of my Cousin, Dorothy.

I'd been arranging hikes in the area of her home, the former Helbing Farm at the Mineral Springs north of Central Valley, and Harriman State  Park. I'd recently done two pieces of trail in that area, but I hadn't connected them with previous hikes I'd done yet, although they were close. We had finished off the one of those two hikes (both of which connected) at Central Valley NY, so this time I would start there, and my route would take us to where I'd left off on another hike a couple years back: Anthony Wayne Recreation Area in NY.One thing went awry during the planning, some murderer named Eurgene something was loose in the park. He was being labelled a "survivalist", and was in the areas to the south part of the park. I called in to the park police to ask what was going on, and they told me that they were encouraging people not to hike in the park until he was apprehended. Brad made jokes about us dressing one of us up like him and doing a bad job to hide (ha).

I figured we'd be on the Long Path, mostly near the West Point Military boundary.

I went ahead with my original plan and we met at Anthony Wayne. We had three newcomers to this hike, which is rather uncommon as of late, and Brad and Jaque both joined as well.Once together, we shuttled in my car (now adorning nice Metrotrails logos on the sides, thanks to Matthew Davis) to Central Valley. Dorothy arranged for us to tour the Gate House, once the entrance building to "Proctoria", the name given to the enormous estate of F. F. Proctor, the King of Vaudeville.We started our hike at the school where we'd left off in Central Valley, and walked up Smith Clove Road through town and under the railroad tracks we had walked the previous time. When we reached Abrams Road, we saw the Long Path blazes. It follows roads through this section. We walked Smith Clove Road north past a golf course, which was originally owned by Proctor, and then reached the building itself.Dorothy was inside getting ready to give us the grand tour.The building was really cool. It resembled something the CCC would have built in the 1930s, only with the grandeur or extravagance not often seen in the CCC construction. On one hand, it was crafted beautifully, with gargoyles cut out of old Chestnut wood, but the stone work was not cut like old masonry; it didn't fit together quite as perfectly as the 19th century or earlier structures. Proctor built his estate in 1912, and had a plethora of buildings, but now only two remain. The Army took over the property and added to their growing West Point Military Academy property, and left up only one of his five houses. The Gate House, Dorothy explained, is standing for reasons unknown. Why the army did not tear it down is a mystery, but years later it was gifted to the town of Woodbury. The town was going to give it back to the military, but instead it became the educational visitor center it is today for which Dorothy is the Chair.She took us through all rooms of the building (I guess technically there are three original Proctoria buildings if you count the carriage house behind the Gate House), and told us the entire history, which was very interesting. She told us about what was done to refurbish the place, and the kinds of events they'd had going on. It's really an excellent feat, something to be very proud of.The building was adorned with a great collection of Proctor memorabilia; old pictures, timelines, and even post Proctor era military innuendos.Dorothy invited us all back for dinner after the hike before we took off, and so we'd work up quite an appetite over the next several miles.When we left, we followed the Long Path route back the way we came, which turned us onto Abrams Road, the frontage road parallel with Rt 87. This road led us to Estrada Road, where the trail turned left to follow it up hill. The road is named for the former President of Cuba who lived in the area at one time. The road was also the original Rt 6, prior to the construction of the current, graded alignment.

As we headed up hill on it, we passed an old gas station, abandoned, on the right. We thought it was quite a trip that a service station be located in such a place, but we soon realized this road once went through. A short distance away, the road became abandoned, but was still paved with yellow lines in place. It took us a couple of times under a power line with some nice views to the west, and continued up hill until we reached current Rt 6. The Long Path followed the road the whole way, then stayed along the edge of Rt 6 to the entrance to an old Military road. It then cut into the woods and skirted the fence that follows the West Point boundary. We remained near to the highway for some time until the property line bent to the north a bit. The trail then turned as well and followed the boundary to the top of Blackcap Mountain, where there wasn't really a view, but it was pretty woods. The trail descended for a bit, and I think I recall secondary views heading down before crossing Rt 293. From the other end, we headed up hill again. We went up over Brooks Mountain, and the trail continued to have an up and down grade, but it wasn't too terrible.We passed the only other two hikers we'd see all day along a brook on the way off of Brooks Mountain, two ladies off trail looking for ways across the bridge-less creek. Everyone made it fine.We continued through Deep Hollow; this was all within Harriman State Park, in some of the least used reaches of it. This northern section doesn't provide many loop hike opportunities and so I suppose it doesn't get used all that much. I thought it was very nice and peaceful.On the other side of Deep Hollow, we climbed on to the top of Long Mountain. Just as I reached the top, Brad caught up with me and we waited for a bit because it started pouring down rain. I hadn't brought a jacket, but it wasn't terrible. We got soaked, but made our way under a tree with a good canopy for shelter for a bit. Even after everyone caught up, we stopped for a break.The top of Long Mountain was beautiful, with a great view of Turkey Hill Pond, and a monument dedicated to Raymond Torrey, founder of the Long Path, and one of the proponents of the Appalachian Trail, which might have remained obscure had Torrey not promoted it in his writing columns.We continued from Long Mountain down  hill to the intersection between the Long Path and Popolopen Gorge Trail, and turned left onto it. This trail was much easier, following gentler terrain out to and along the edge of Turkey Hill Lake. We continued along the trail, which then skirted the north shore of Queensboro Lake, and joined 1779 and 77 Trails. There were history kiosks about this along the way which was nice.

Signs we soon passed warned that there was an active firing range just off the trail, so we kept with it and headed out to Seven Lakes Drive where it crossed Palisades Parkway. We then turned off of 1779 Trail and onto the Anthony Wayne Trail's white blazes. Don waited at the road for the last mile or so, because he was hurting and there was no sense in doing more damage; it'd be easy from this point to go back and get him.We headed over a hill, and the Anthony Wayne Trail joined some abandoned roads, heading south then and down hill to the recreation area, an overly  huge lot of gravel that looks like it would never be filled.Terri was tired and headed home, but the others all went with me to Dorothy's where she prepared for us another amazing dinner (she's really an incredible chef), and we hung around and talked about everything under the sun.One of the things I appreciate so much about this diverse group of people is that they can talk about just about anything without being malicious. So many people get into heated debates about things like religion and politics, and get so bent out of shape that they scream, but with this group it's always a very educational and respectful conversation, and leads to an understanding of the points of view of others.It's always such a great feeling being up in that area. Maybe it's the family connection I have to it, maybe something I can't explain is embedded. For some reason, unlike some of the places I visit, even though I cover new ground hiking that I've never done before, the area doesn't seem as alien to me. I can't wait to do my next trip in the area. There's still a life time's worth of things to see!