Monday, December 2, 2013

Harriman State Park, NY - Ramapo Torne and Reeves Brook



ABOUT THE PARK:
Harriman State Park - The Palisades Parks Conservancy
Harriman State Park - New York State Parks

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates to Reeves Meadow Visitor Center parking 41.173713, -74.168573

View Larger Map
Reeves Meadow parking lot at 7 AM - it fills up quickly but is always empty this early.

TRAIL MAP:
NY/NJ Trail Conference Southern Harriman Bear Mountain Trails Map 118
Harriman State Park, NY - Ramapo Torne at EveryTrail


HIKE DISTANCE:  5.3 miles

THE HIKE:
Take the red-square-on-white Pine Meadow Trail on the opposite side of the parking lot from the building and kiosk.
Pine Meadows Trail
Looks like a newly downed tree from last week's high winds.
Some evergreen mountain laurel when all other leaves are gone.
The orange trail to the right leads to the summit of Ramapo Torne but it looks like there are some very steep sections, too steep for Shawnee at this point.  We stayed on the blue-on-white Seven Hills Trail and turned right at the next intersection with orange to approach from the opposite, less steep way.
On orange along the ridge of Ramapo Torne,
Looking south at I-87.
Some charring from the fire of October, 2013.
Heading back to the Seven Hills Trail...
... where orange joins for a while ...
... then the trails split apart.
At almost 13 years of age, she no longer sees the humor in navigating steep crevices.
Well now, this is a first.  Telling me she REALLY does not want to do this.  Actually there was no choice because turning back would have been worse since we had just come down a steep scramble.
I left my gear behind and got her up (under duress) then had to go back for my gear and see that "I told you so" look on her face when I had trouble getting through and up.
Looking back at the Torne.
Always happy that she made it up.
The reward.
On the Reeves Brook Trail with no Reeves Brook.  We hiked this trail last year in October and there were lovely cascades.
Seriously?  This is a first for us - illegal ATV use in Harriman State Park.  It's loud, it stinks, it's disgusting, it's destructive and it was reported to both the state park police and the NYNJTC.
A little bit of Reeves Brook finally.
Back at the parking lot at noon with quite a few more cars even though it was a dreary day with a few rain drops.

HIKE SUMMARY:
[  0.00]  Take the red-on-white Pine Meadow Trail from the opposite side of the parking lot from the visitor center and kiosk
[  0.15]  Turn left on blue-on-white Seven Hills Trail
[  1.60]  Keep left on blue-on-white with orange starts to the right
[  2.05]  Turn right on orange when blue-on-white/orange goes straight
[  2.45]  Views at summit of Ramapo Torne, retrace
[  2.80]  Turn right on blue-on-white/orange
[  3.00]  Left on blue-on-white at "7 Hills" painted on rock when orange leaves to the right
[  3.30]  Torne view
[  3.40]  Straight on blue-on-white when black circle-on-white goes right
[  3.75]  Left on white Reeves Brook Trail when blue-on-white goes straight
[  5.20]  Left on red-on-white Pine Meadow Trail when white ends
[  5.30]  Back at parking

3 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorite hikes to take my dogs on at Harriman. Thanks for your great blog posts!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Linda! I was thinking yesterday that my dog was doing a lot more sniffing than usual so there must be lots of other dogs hiking those trails. Might have been yours!

      Daniela

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  2. We did this hike today. The last time we tried this hike, we were there during the forest fire, and had to turn around! Our dogs did okay with the steepness, but we found one part of the Seven Hills Trail super steep down hill with ice - tricky even with microspikes.
    Some photos: http://www.agiletrekker.blogspot.com/2014/03/seven-hillshtsreeves-brook-trail-loop.html

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