Sunday, December 26, 2010

Harriman State Park, NY (File Factory Hollow/Panther Mountain)


ABOUT THE PARK:  New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates:  41.185122 -74.07385

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Diltz Road Hiker Parking

TRAIL MAP:  NY/NJ Trail Conference Southern Harriman Bear Mountain Trails Map 118

HIKE DISTANCE:  5.45 miles

HIKE DESCRIPTION:
From the hiker parking lot on Diltz Road, take the red dash on white trail beyond the barrier.
A short distance ahead turn right and follow the red on white trail along the power cut.
When the red on white trail leaves the power cut, stay with the red on white trail briefly then turn right on the unmarked trail to the left of the power cut; cross over a creek at .95 mile.
On the other side of the creek turn left on the unmarked File Factory Hollow trail which will run parallel to the creek. 
After rock hopping over the creek twice, the trail is intermittently marked with old horse trail disks. (According to the 2010 publication of the map, horses are no longer allowed in the park.)

At 1.8 miles turn left on unmarked Woodtown Road...
Then at 2 miles left on the yellow-blazed Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail:
The trail will now become more challenging with rock scrambles.

At Panther Mountain, views of the Hudson River and the New York City skyline:
At 3.9 miles turn left on the red square on white trail:
At 4.55 miles turn left on the power cut trail back to the parking lot:

HIKE SUMMARY:
[  0.00]  Start at red dash on white trailhead beyond barrier at Diltz Road hiker parking lot
[  0.20]  Left on red dash on white then immediately right on unmarked
[  0.95]  Cross over creek; turn left on unmarked File Factory Hollow
[  1.20]  Rock hop over creek; take either fork; rock hop back over creek
[  1.40]  After huge rock boulder on right, keep straight at intersection ***
[  1.80]  Left on unmarked Woodtown Road
[  2.00]  Left on yellow-blazed Suffern-Bear Mountain trail
[  2.10]  Keep right on yellow as red arrow on white starts to the left
[  2.80]  Cross over red Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail keeping straight on yellow
[  3.00]  Cross over unmarked trail at cairns keeping straight on yellow
[  3.70]  Views at Panther Mountain
[  3.90]  Rock hop over creek; left on red square on white as yellow/red square goes right
[  4.40]  Turn right on red square at power cut (no access to power cut trail if you turn left without going through thick growth of thorny vines)
[  4.55]  Turn left; where red square goes right at a large cairn, turn left on power cut trail
[  5.40]  Turn right on red dash on white
[  5.45]  Arrive back at Diltz Road parking lot

***  In case you are wondering what lies to the right of the intersection beyond the huge boulder at 1.4 miles...

A right turn on the unmaintained Iron Mountain Trail would bring to you an intersection marked (as of this writing) by orange tape and three blue blazes in a vertical line on the other side of the tree at .4 mile. 
Turn right here and follow the trail for .4 miles, sometimes marked by old white disks and some cairns, to views of the Hudson River and the New York City skyline (almost the same views you get at Panther Mountain).
I had originally intended to loop around here from the trail along the power cut but once the trail left the power cut, I lost it and had to backtrack.

Back at the intersection with the orange tape, left would bring you to a no trespassing sign .5 mile ahead just before Woodtown Road.  This is not indicated as a restricted area on the map but apparently it is. In case the sign was maybe old and randomly left there, I turned left on Woodtown road heading towards Second Reservoir only to find many more NO TRESPASSING/KEEP OUT/WATERSHED PROPERTY signs so I turned around and headed back.

2 comments:

  1. I just hiked much of this a few days ago. I've been uploading my tracks as I go to Open Street Map : http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=41.2024&lon=-74.0663&zoom=14&layers=M do you have GPS tracks that you could also load to the site? Anyway. I went up File Factory, eventually S-BM to Big Hill. From there to Iron Mtn I passed no trespassing signs, even when I went right past the 2nd Reservoir, but I did see them behind me as I passed. The orange tape / white disk/ can top trail was hard to follow, especially going down to the Power Line.

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  2. Sorry, I don't have GPS tracks to load since I don't use a GPS for hiking. That orange tape/can lid trail is shown as an unmaintained trail on the map so I can imagine that this time of year it is even more overgrown and hard to follow than when I tried in the winter. I was trying to get from the power line up and could not find it that way at all.

    Daniela

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