ABOUT THE PARK:
Hiking the AT in NY and NJ - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
Terrain by Region: New York - Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Appalachian Trail Community: Harlem Valley - Appalachian Trail Conservancy
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| Harlem Valley Appalachian Trail Community Brochure |
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.594744, -73.587023
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| Parking off of Route 22 in Pawling, NY |
TRAIL MAP:
New York/New Jersey Maps - Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Harlem Valley Appalachian Trail Community Map
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HIKE DISTANCE: 14.4 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Heading south for a short distance on Route 22. |
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| Right to the Appalachian Trail Metro North Railroad Stop. |
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| Just the other side of the railroad tracks, the boardwalk through the Great Swamp. |
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| Cedar Waxwing |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| Red-winged Blackbird |
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| The far end of the Great Swamp. |
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| The trail skirts a beautiful meadow ... |
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| ... with views. |
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| A window to ... |
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| .... another meadow. |
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| The rock face at the top up ahead is Cat Rocks where we are heading. |
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| Female Red-winged Blackbird |
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| Dover Oak |
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| A little bit of a rock scramble. |
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| Coming off of the rock scramble I made note of a trail to the left that looked like a bypass figuring I might need that on the return route since this was going to be a particularly long hike. |
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| The Telephone Pioneers Shelter to the left. |
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| On to Cat Rocks. |
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| A short side trail to the Cat Rocks overlook. |
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| Turkey vultures riding the thermals and coming in very close. |
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| Continuing on towards Nuclear Lake. |
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| There were so many chipmunks that Brodie actually did not notice a few that I was able to photograph in peace. Had he seen this one I would have been too busy wrangling him to get a picture. |
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| Leaving the AT to the right on the Beekman Uplands Trail. |
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| Brodie doesn't usually eat lunch on the trail but just a few bites to tide him over since it will be a long day and dinner will be a few hours late by the time we get home. |
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| Nothing like lunch in the woods. |
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| Mountain laurel blooming everywhere. This trail should be gorgeous in another week. |
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| After a short rocky section ... |
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| ... left on the AT. |
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| Shortly after the second bridge ... |
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| ... a yellow trail starts to the right looping around the other side of Nuclear Lake but we stayed on the AT. |
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| The AT becomes a woods road ... |
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| ... then Nuclear Lake comes into view. |
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| A break at the lake. |
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| Caught a bird flying over the lake ... |
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| ... and landing in the tree. |
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| A Canada Goose family with a single child. |
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| This family has triplets. |
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| The single gosling family ... |
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| ... passing behind sunning turtles. |
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| The other end of the yellow trail comes in where the AT leaves the lake. |
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| Meeting up with where we had left the AT on the Beekman Uplands trail at 9.2 miles, now retracing with over 5 miles to go.. |
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| Another chipmunk that went under Brodie's chipmunk radar. |
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| Looking for chipmunks over there ... |
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| ... while I nab another over here. |
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| Stopping at Cat Rocks for another quick break but there were loud people there so we did not stay long. |
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| We turned right on that trail I had noticed earlier to bypass the scramble. There was actually a faded orange blaze on the tree on the right. |
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| A trail to the right of the scramble. |
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| Old farm equipment off the trail. |
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| And this spit us right back out on the AT at the other end of the scramble. |
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| Coming up on West Dover Road with the Dover Oak up ahead. |
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| Looking back down at the Dover Oak from higher up on the trail. There is a woman standing to the left of the tree which puts in perspective just how huge it is. Over 300 years old and a circumference of over 20 feet. |
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| Uphill into the meadows. |
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| Looking back and zooming in to Cat Rocks. |
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| Coming up on the Great Swamp boardwalk. |
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| I love when these guys are around because when they are, mosquitoes are not. They devour mosquitoes. |
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| Tree swallows ... |
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| ... feeding their young in the nest. |
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| Crossing the railroad tracks ... |
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| ... then left on Route 22 back to the parking lot. |
