Hike #1423: 6/20-6/21/21 Sloatsburg/Douglastown/Sebago Harriman State Park loop with Jillane Becker
This would be a two day weekend trip with Jillane up through Harriman State Park mostly. She wanted to do some camping before the baby came, and had a lot of criteria to meet to do a hike.
It was Summer so it was hard to find anywhere we could camp, because so much is booked, and she wouldn't want to do any of that anyway. So, I had several ideas that might work, and I had to quickly concoct something that would have overnight parking where we wouldn't be bothered, but also within reasonable proximity to do some sort of a loop hike.
I came up with two trips that would both involve hiking out to the Lake Sebago area. One of them would have more mountains and such, and the other would have a more gradual approach but be a bit longer. There's really no way to do a trip like this and find a good spot without a long walk.
That made planning this route a bit harder. It would still be over fifteen miles, but over the two days and over some rougher terrain. I think we got over twenty miles for sure.
We got a far too late start to do the more substantial climbing I thought would be alright, and it is of course a lot hotter when we get hiking with a larger pack on.
I chose the second route I came up with, which meant starting in historic Sloatsburg NY along Rt 17, near the intersection of Trooper Robert V. Conklin Drive and 17, the Orange Turnpike.
The Orange Turnpike was the major pass road through the Ramapo Mountains, carved by the Ramapo River, built in 1800. The settlement is named for European settler Stephen Sloat. The Sloats were the third generation to own the land, bequeathed from the Van Gelder family who first procured the land from the Minsi Lenape around 1738.
Sloat operated a tavern which was occupied by the Continental Army during the American Revolution as a headquarters for the strategic pass through the break in the Ramapo Mountains.
The parking area was sort of used as bonus parking for a bar just to the south. I had used this lot for hikes before, and there was no signage, so I figured we would be good there.
We started walking north through the lot, and then onto Mill Street, a tiny road that passes by a few homes and then parallel with the former Erie Railroad tracks and the Sloatsburg Station.
We turned right at the end of the road, at the station, across the tracks onto Ballard Avenue which went slightly uphill a bit.
To the right at the intersection was Brown's Gate. This was an estate farm entrance to the Cappamore Farm built in 1900. It led to the home and farm of Nicholas T. Brown, and had a wooden bridge over a mill race built in the late 1700s by the Sloat family, as well as a steel bridge over the Ramapo River.
The farm house on that estate was demolished when the New York State Thru Way was constructed. Much of that property on the other side of that highway is now part of Harriman State Park.
We headed uphill slightly on the road, then back down hill to a hard right turn where it changes names to Academy Ave. This took us out to Seven Lakes Drive where we turned right and crossed the Ramapo River.
Immediately on the other side, we passed through a residential area, went beneath the NY State Thru Way, and made a left turn on the far lesser used Johnsontown Road.
Johnsontown Road was the predecessor to Seven Lakes Drive, the old main road that once traveled up into present day Harriman State Park. The settlement of Johnsontown is now under the waters of Lake Sebago, near the New Sebago Beach. As such, much of the route we would be following from here would either be the old Johnsontown Road itself, or routes closely parallel with it.
There were some good views of the Ramapo River when we crossed, and then some light residential on the old road. It was still paved at the start, and had one abandoned house on it.
As we walked, we got closer to the Stony Brook, and I checked out the abutments to an old bridge to a road that once went south of the Johnsontown Road.
There was a connecting road to the south, to Seven Lakes Drive, beyond which there was barely any traffic on Johnsontown Road because it is now a dead end.
We passed some pretty farms, and there was a trail on the way that went off to the left, but that was too soon to get off of the road. We saw some stuff out for free in front of one of the houses and sifted through it a bit, but we didn't want to carry anything extra. We had talked about going back or it later, but that would be out of the question in the circumstances then.
We continued to the end of the drivable Douglastown Road, where it is a big loop with parking on it.
Jillane took a break here, where the White Bar Trail continues on the old road route ahead into the woods.
The White Bar Trail system was formerly a boy scout trail system of over twenty miles in what is now the park. A lot of the trails presently in the park were once part of this system, now blazed differently. The present White Bar Trail utilizes some of the historic White Bar Trail route, but was extended down to the former Douglastown Road in more recent years.
We followed this into the woods through some first sparse forests, and then along some stone walls and through more dense forests. We came to a point where we were closer to Seven Lakes Drive, with some giant Sugar Maples that might have been a homestead site at one time.
As I understand, some of the Johnsontown Road is now Seven Lakes Drive or very near it, and the White Bar Trail picks up a different old woods road to gradually ascend to the north a bit of where the old road used to go.
This brought us up to the intersection with the Tuxedo-Mt Ivy Trail, which I'd hiked several times through this area over the years. Around this point, we passed an old cellar hole to the left side of the trail.
I think this foundation, as I recall, was the home of the Dutch Doctor for whom the nearby Dutch Doctor Shelter is named. He lived out in the wilderness back in the early days even before the park.
We continued up the coaligned White Bar and Tuxedo-Mt Ivy Trail, and the latter broke off to the left after a short bit where there was an old fireplace or chimney thing to the left.
We continued straight ahead on the White Bar Trail, and the Dutch Doctor Shelter, already occupied by people, was up above us on the right. This was one of those old, rustic shelters in what I think they call "Adirondack Style", like we see throughout this park and along a lot of the Appalachian Trail. Many of these older style ones are disappearing in favor of newer ones, but I do like these old ones, often referred to as "Lean Tos" although they're not quite that simple either.
We continued ahead to the intersection with the Triangle Trail. I had hiked this not all that long ago with a group in 2020, and found it to be one of the easiest trails in all of Harriman. I figured this would be perfect for Jillane, who was at this point over seven months pregnant.
I was glad and proud of her for wanting to do this, but I didn't want to kill her with it either, so I can't begin to express how much I stressed over exactly what route I could do through Harriman that would be appropriate for her.
I think I pulled it off though.
I was thinking at this time quite a lot of my old friend Margo Pellegrino, who hiked long distance with me through being seven months pregnant.
I reminded Jillane that I was proud of her for trying to keep in shape through her pregnancy, and tried to keep telling her, but it was honestly very hard for me to try to keep being positive and supportive with constant moody attacks that are to be expected of pregnancy. I thought I would be able to handle it better, but I think the part I was not prepared for the most was how personal the attacks can be, and how deeply disapproving they can be of character and everything that makes me who I am. Maybe I didn't have it in me to be good enough through all of this, just because I'm admittedly too sensitive, but I really did try.
I think she appreciated this trail quite a bit, because it was shaded, and in a sort of tunnel of Rhododendrons, and the surface through this section really didn't have many rocks to trip on.
We emerged from the deep woods to the beautiful Lake Sebago. It is among the biggest lakes created for Harriman State Park, and is fittingly named with the Algonquin word for "big water".
The lake was completed in 1926, and is said to still have the old saw mill beneath the water near the main dam, which can be visited by scuba divers.
From here, I had two different plans. One of them was to follow an informal trail along the west shore of Lake Sebago. This gets to be a little rough, but leads to some really excellent swim spots and private areas where I've never seen another hiker before. It then passes through an abandoned section of camp before coming out to the New Sebago Beach complex.
We still had some daylight, and the other opportunity was potentially uphill further. We could continue on the Triangle Trail to the Victory Trail, which would take us to Lake Skenonto.
When Lake Sebago was completed, the area of Lake Skenonto was still being referred to as the "Big Swamp" over the hill.
The area for this lake was prepared in the 1930s, and filled in 1936.
There was once a small camp along the north shore, which was demolished in 1993. Apart from that, the lake pretty much remained undeveloped. Like so many of the lakes within Harriman State Park and other places as well, there were some big plans for camps and such at this lake that never came to fruition.
We headed uphill on Triangle Trail, and emerged at the south side of Lake Skenonto with some nice views at rock outcrops.
There were a lot of lily pads and such in this sloppy, shallow section, so we continued to the west a bit more to the Victory Trail. We turned right on Victory, and took to a higher ground area above the lake. Little side trails led closer to the land and to spots where there were accesses to the water.
It was here we started looking for spots to camp. I went further ahead, and there were people camping at the lake farther down, so we didn't want to get too close out that way. We considered a couple of spots, but finally settled on a good one with a fire pit and a steep but usable access to the water.
I went down and cooled off here before it was too dark to do it.
We then gathered some fire wood, and there was even a piece of metal grill top we could put on top of it.
Jillane prepared on the fire some chicken parmigiano sandwiches on the fire, by wrapping them in foil. They actually came out quite delicious. I was able to get the tent set up fortunately.
We had used our old blue tent for this one, which hadn't seen a camping trip in a couple of years. It was always a good tent, and we had gotten a replacement that was a bit harder to set up, but was slightly bigger and more camouflage. That one had a problem with the strings in the poles losing all elasticity to the point that it didn't make sense to try to use it, so the old one made another trip. I was very glad that we'd found a beautiful place in the mountains before dark.
The fire was hard to get going, but Jillane is always really determined with that. We let it sputter out mostly before we turned in to sleep, and then I got it going again a bit in the morning.
The area was down below the Victory Trail, so we didn't really have to worry about too many people walking right by.
In the morning, while Jillane was asleep, I got up and explored a bit more. I followed the Victory Trail for a bit, and then headed off through the woods, and scaled a rock face to the west of there. I came to the power line clearing and then weaved back around and checked out a little more of the White Bar Trail.
I also went out and swam to the middle of Lake Skenonto on my own, which was incredibly relaxing.
Jillane got up and we packed up the tent, and went for a great swim in Lake Skenonto.
When we were ready to head out, we got back on the Victory Trail and headed north.
The trail section here was originally the Black Ash Swamp Road. It was blazed as part of the Victory Trail in the 1940s.
We continued along the shore of the lake, saw some beaver dams and pretty lake views, and then came to where other people had been camping the night before.
There were actually quite a lot of people out there, but we had chosen the spot where people stopped walking to. Really a perfect spot.
Other spots closer to the edge of the lake were all set up with more outlandish and high class camping gear. This was when we knew we were getting close to the nearest road access.
The Victory Trail continued along the old road and joined the power line, then left the north shore of Lake Skenonto. We continued for a bit, and we started walking the wrong way around toward the other side of the lake for a bit before I realized where we were.
We had to walk out to another swamp area to the north, where there was a fork in the road. Where Victory Trail continued north, we turned to the right. Soon, we ended up in an abandoned camp area that was only a short distance from the New Sebago Beach. I don't remember what the name of this camp was, but I had hiked through it a couple times before on past Harriman hikes I'd done.
We took a side trip up another road to the left from the one we had just turned on to check out more of the old camp buildings before moving on.
Eventually, we moved on back to the road to the New Sebago Beach, and came into the former picnic grounds associated with that beach. We cut to the left from the road and over a little foot bridge into those grounds, which still had benches and such, as well as some comfort stations that are now broken into and pretty much destroyed.
We walked around the one restroom and then back out to the access road again. There was some contractors equipment parked out in what I think was an activity field because I think I recall seeing a backstop of sorts.
There was an abandoned picnic area along the west side of Lake Sebago as we approached it again, and then we followed the main access road above and around the former beach complex of the New Sebago Beach, which was constructed in 1952 to replace the original beach a bit to the south of this point.
There were a couple of options from the New Sebago Beach. One was to just head out to the main and pick up other trails to the south after going east.
The other was to follow along the shore of Lake Sebago from below the New Sebago Beach.
There was a couple we passed by out on the road around this time that seemed to be wandering aimlessly. We continued out the road, and I was wary about going over near the beach complex area. My understanding is that it is now used as a maintenance area for the park, and I have seen cars parked there in the past. The grass around it immediately is in good shape, so I wanted to be careful.
We headed down the access road and close to the beach complex, and then followed some of the cement walkway that continued down into another picnic ground on a large peninsula into the middle of the lake.
I knew this way might be rough, because there was no trails noted on Trail Conference maps or official Harriman maps. I knew there were woods roads much of the way, but that they did not go fully through.
We took a little break in the closed picnic ground for a bit, and then we saw the couple that we had passed earlier heading out to the same area we were in. We decided to move on and avoid being around other people entirely on this one.
The woods road started at the end of the picnic grounds and skirted a hillside with a bit of an uphill. The woods road emerged on a power line cut and started heading to the south a bit. It was alright at first, but it came to a point that it got much harder to follow.
The couple we had seen twice before was still behind us, which was odd. We were clearly walking something that appeared on no maps really. There was a junction of power lines as I recall, where we could have gone left, but we were heading south along the slope of Brundige Hill.
We turned off of the power line cut to our right, and made our way through woods of sparse undergrowth, and to an area where there was a stone row lined clearing. Just as we were leaving the power line through the woods, we heard a blood curdling scream behind us.
The girl had hollered at something. We were both kind of shocked and just stood and waited for a moment. It was not followed by some cry for help, so we just tried to move on ahead a bit.
Soon, the couple were back in sight of us again, and where we had left the power line clearing, they were still following us through the woods. We allowed them to catch up with us, and I told them we were exploring, and that we were going at least another ten miles.
I forget the name of the place they told me they were parked, but I recall they'd come quite a ways south to get to where we were, and they certainly didn't want to be following us where we were going.
After the scream we'd heard earlier, the woman the guy was with was none too happy about this trip either.
I think I gave a general direction for them to get back out, by going past the beach, past the abandoned camp buildings, and then back to the Victory Trail. I think they said the "blue trail".
We made our way along the water, and there was a really nice spot where someone had placed some chairs. It looked like they pulled boats out at this point to hang out.
We continued from here through woods with no apparent trail for a time, and then at some point one started becoming more apparent.
This was an obviously "built" trail. It was graded pretty well, and most larger rocks removed from the surface on it. The route was further delineated by the occasional log that had been chain sawed years ago, rotten but still recognizable as having been cut from the path.
We continued along height of land, and the trail became a bit more pronounced, then less pronounced. In this area, we found an old wooden sluice of sorts. I couldn't figure out what it was, but it had a sort of wooden lining. At first, I thought maybe it was a sort of really fun boat lunch site, but then it seemed more likely that it was a waste water apparatus down into the lake.
We continued on the slope, and kind of lost the old trail for a bit. It became much less apparent for a bit, and we ended up following that sluice for a bit.
Then, I realized that we had left the trail, and it was not noticeable because of it being grown over by Japanese Barberry, so we got back on it and headed to the south, now on a greater slope and height of land.
There was building just above us to the left as the trail started heading toward an open area. We went around it after some stone rows and came out into the property of the old Baker Camp.
The camp was built in 1927 for the employees of four New York City Banks: First National, Bankers Trust, U. S. Trust, and New York Trust.
The camp is named for First National Bank President George F Baker senior donated donated $50,000 to the Park Commission in 1909, $100,000 in 1917, another $100,000 in 1920, and another $100,000 in 1925.
The camp was turned over to a private concessionaire in 1986.
While currently closed, Appalachian Mountain Club reportedly plans to rehabilitate and reopen the camp.
We headed into the old camp past several old buildings. These last ones in the lines were pretty badly deteriorated but still salvageable. We went into the first building which was wide open, and it had some missing floor boards on the porch, but was otherwise alright.
The buildings got to be in better shape as we moved on through the camp, and tried to stay reasonably close to the waterfront.
We walked down one road, which sort of dead ended, so we backtracked just a bit, and passed between tons of cabins. Off to the left of one of these may through ways was what looked to be the mess hall on the left. We checked that out as well.
It was amazing that this beautiful place had no one even walking around on such a nice day. I suppose it's because it's such a far walk in from any road or parking.
We reached the main road out of Baker Camp which starts to head to the north parallel with the waterfront but at a much higher elevation.
Jillane was out behind me a bit checking out another building as I headed down the road.
I was freaked out when we went a building on the right and there was a signed truck parked outside of it. Off to the left was another building, this one a bi level with a sort of rustic overhanging front. It looked different.
The door to the building was wide open, so I had a look.
The place was far more beautiful inside. No one had been inside it for a very long time. The stairs up into it were deteriorating and looking as though they might collapse at any time. There were no signs saying to keep out, no signs saying that it was any kind of private place, although I suspect that this building was either administration offices or a caretaker's house for the camp.
I really hope that the AMC comes in and makes something of this camp. It is absolutely stunning with so much potential to an organization to put passion behind it.
Again, I was shocked that this place wasn't broken into and destroyed, thankful that it was in such nice shape. But it is only a matter of time.
Jillane made her way to the building to check it out as well. The fireplace and such inside were quite impressive. We took a little break here, because it was a bit cooler.
From this point, we headed back to the road and started following it further to the north. There were some steep rock walls along the left side of the road on which where were beautiful purple flowers known as Sea Thrift, or Armeria maritime.
Along the way, there was another side road to the right that led down toward a dock area. We turned right and followed it down past an abandoned ball court and then to a boat house and dock area.
This was the perfect spot for a longer break and swim stop. We both jumped off of the end of the dock and swam around a bit. It was really a perfect spot. We could see people across the lake at the Sebago Cabins and Old Sebago Beach and boat launch areas. One or two came by the shore the entire time we were there. It was just unbelievably peaceful.
We headed from here back up from here and turned right to head toward the camp exit.
The road to access the Baker Camp is called the Mad Dog Road. It is a very winding road, a full three miles long, built in 1927 in part using existing old logging roads an such to reach the camp. With that amount of distance to get to the entrance, it's no wonder no one walks to it.
As we reached a bend in the road to the right, another woods road went off to the left over a saddle in Brundige Hill. This road leads up and makes access to a cemetery on the top of the hill, but we didn't try to explore that this time. Off to the left, there is a cave that Jillane pointed out in the rocks. It turns out this cave has a name, I think Auntie something cave, and I can't remember exactly what it was. There is some local legend that a "witch" lived in it or something who had that name.
We continued on the road, which is paved, to the east for a bit. I considered trying to head down to the right to get on the shore of Lake Sebago on the east side, if there was a good path, but I didn't see anything.
We continued on the road to where it hits the old alignment of Seven Lakes Drive and turns right. It crosses Whitney Brook and heads out to the current alignment of that road.
We turned right and walked along Seven Lakes Drive for a bit, which honestly sucked, but it wasn't for all that long. After a short bit, we turned to the right on Ski Trail, which barely had anything to mark it. It followed an old road alignment that predated Seven Lakes Drive through very nice woods, as a sort of narrow path, and past an old homestead site and Sugar Maple near the Sebago Boat Launch.
I chatted with a couple guys I met while walking through the launch. When we're wearing large packs, it always turns into people asking where you're going and where you've been, which I don't mind at all. Jillane wanted to just continue on though.
There was section of foot path near the end of the launch that went back to the access road, and we followed that road to the southwest past the Old Sebago Beach. That opened to swimming in the area shortly after the development of the lake in the late 1920s.
We continued along the road, and a lot of people were parked out there despite it being pretty rough.
There were quite a lot of people swimming out there as well, even though it is not legally open to such. I thought we might find another spot to swim ourselves in this area, but it was so busy that we didn't want to bother going down.
My hope was that there would be a good trail following along the shore of the lake the entire way through, but when we got to the last cleared area at the Old Sebago Beach, there was just nothing.
I looked around, and it seemed like the only options were either going all the way back and walking the road up to Seven Lakes Drive again, or bushwhacking directly from the end of the beach area up to the road.
Seven Lakes Drive was a good distance above us at this point. I did find a bit of a foot path into the woods toward the road, but it did not go to the top. We had to carefully ascend on loose dirt and stone up to and over the guide rail to reach the road again.
After this was probably the worst part of the entire hike; that stretch of Seven Lakes Drive that goes on down to the main dam.
It didn't take too terrbly long, and the trail turned off to the left on the near side of the dam, which doubles as a bridge for Seven Lakes Drive over the outflow.
We turned down there, and then followed the trail, which is actually several trails co-aligned, down to the brook. Stony Brook Trail would be our main route from here and for a while.
We headed downhill and across a smaller tributary coming in from the left, and then turned to the right at the trail intersections. Tuxedo-Mt Ivy Trail also passes through here.
We headed downstream along Stony Brook for a ways; this trail for many years was unofficial and it eventually was added to the Harriman State Park official trail system due to its popularity.
We found our way to a great deep hole to take a dip in on this stretch. It was a really nice cool off after being on old and new roads with less tree cover.
Eventually, some of the trail followed parts of a very old road that was probably used for milling purposes.
Kakiat Trail joined in along the way from areas to the east, and I had only done the Stony Brook Trail to the east of this point. I'd never walked the bit down below here as I recall, so this was a cool little addition to add for me.
Pine Meadow Trail joined in from the right of us, and there were a couple more really nice deep holes in the stream, but we didn't bother stopping again.
We wanted to try to get out of there before it got too dark.
We actually saw a couple other people hiking this section, which was something we barely saw at all our entire time out.
It was starting to get pretty dark by the time we reached the Pine Meadow Trail, which was red blazed. Red blazes are terrible to see in the dark compared to the yellow on the Stony Brook.
The trail got more and more worn as we approached the Reeves Brook center off of Seven Lakes Drive. I had wanted to try to continue to follow the Pine Meadow Trail parallel with the road downstream, but it was getting really dark. Jillane said she wanted a break, and as much as I really wanted to let her have that while pregnant, I had just checked the weather.
There was a major dangerous storm coming our way. I knew it was coming from looking at the radar earlier, and I wanted to be sure we were out and safe before it started. Most of the day, it looked like we were going to make it back just before dark and with some time to spare, but we were running out.
At Reeves Brook, Jillane said she was going to walk Seven Lakes Drive the rest of the way, and so I decided I would try to walk Pine Meadow Trail. It was getting darker, and I had never walked that segment. I'd actually never walked any of the lower sections of that.
I tried pushing through on it in the dark, but it was getting really difficult. There was a cut through to the right that took me out to Pine Meadow Road again eventually, and I headed out that.
I continued down Seven Lakes Drive to the bridge over the Stony Brook by where the trail actually comes out to wait for Jillane. She wasn't all that far behind me at this point.
We continue down Seven Lakes Drive and beneath Interstate 87, and it started raining. We hurried on down Seen Lakes Drive and across the Metro North tracks on the bridge, then left on Orange Turnpike.
At this point, it was raining really hard, with thunder and lightning. I walked fast, but never too far ahead that Jillane wasn't clearly visible.
We just had to walk through town and past the municipal offices for a bit in order to get to the parking lot we were in. So it was kind of nice to walk through the town, though it would have been much better not in the rain.
I recall we stopped under an awning of one of these buildings briefly as well so Jillane could find her keys from the pack to get into the car.
It wasn't much longer walking in the rain to get back, and so the excellent two day trip ended with a little stress and excitement.
At this point, we knew only had about two more months to go before we would be parents, so doing trips like this would change forever. Little did we know that the time would come in less than a month.
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