ABOUT THE PARK:
Harriman State Park - New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.229817, -74.060450
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| Parking on Gate Hill Road. |
TRAIL MAP:
Northern Harriman Bear Mountain Trails Map #119 - NY/NJ Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCE: 9.6 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Because of winter road closures, otherwise heavily trafficked roads can be used to link trails with no traffic! |
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| From the parking lot, turn left on Gate Hill Road then right at the opening in the guardrail before the bridge. |
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| Yellow goes up, more steeply towards the top ... |
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| ... to Irish Potato. An unmarked trail to the left comes up from the Lake Welch camping area - that would be our return route. But now, right on yellow. |
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| The Hudson is somewhere in the distance in all that fog. |
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| Upper Pound Swamp down below. |
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| Taking an unmarked trail to the right a short distance ... |
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| ... for a better view of Upper Pound Swamp. |
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| Continuing on yellow. |
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| Yellow turns right on Lake Welch Drive ... |
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| ... but because the exit off of the Palisades Interstate Parkway is closed for the winter ... |
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| ... we turned left and road walked. It's not every day a dog can safely walk up the middle of a road. |
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| Keeping right to Tiorati Brook Road which is also closed. |
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| In case that first barrier did not stop anyone, this one would. |
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| This road walk was very pleasant and scenic with no traffic. |
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| We should have turned before this bridge but did not see the trail. |
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| Instead we turned after the bridge along this very scenic stretch of the blue trail. |
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| We weren't too far in before I realized this was the wrong way. |
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| Heading back and crossing the bridge to the other side ... |
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| ... where the trail markers are not as obvious but they are there. |
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| At the end of blue ... |
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| ... left on red cross. |
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| For tired hikers? |
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| Crossing a meadow to ... |
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| ... Tiorati Brook Road ... |
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| ... where red cross continues on the other side. |
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| Balloon #55 of the year. |
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| Coming up on piles of mine tailings then ... |
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| ... Hansenclever Mine. |
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| Just after the mine, red cross veers right, we stayed to the left on unmarked Hansenclever Road. |
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| Keeping straight on Hansenclever Road when blue crosses over. |
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| Hansenclever Road leads all the way to ... |
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| ... a left on Lake Welch Road. |
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| We turned right into Lake Welch ... |
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| ... then kept to the left around the lake. |
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| Lake Welch |
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| We worked our way left through the campground ... |
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| ... to the unmarked trail straight ahead. |
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| A right on to another unmarked trail, then a left at a fork ... |
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| ... and we were coming up on Irish Potato. |
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| From Irish Potato, right on yellow to retrace from the beginning of the hike. |
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| Way up ahead, the only other hiker we encountered. |
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| A left on Gate Hill Road ... |
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| ... back to where we parked. Everyone else parked there most likely went to Jackie Jones Mountain, which is more popular. |
