Harriman State Park, Orange County, New York

I joined the Appalachian Mountain Club for this hike. I drove to Orange County, took Highway 17, crossed the bridge on Arden Valley Road across the Thruway (I-87) and parked in the “Elk Pen” parking lot.

9:45 a.m.: The beginning of the hike, at about 500′ in elevation, crosses a field to the east.

9:52 a.m.: We then followed the Appalachian Trail east, climbing Green Pond Mtn.

10:08 a.m.: Still climbing.

10:16 a.m.: Still climbing.

10:18 a.m.: Looking down:

10:39 a.m.: After about 1.0 mile we crossed Island Pond Road, a woods road dirt road built by Edward Harriman around 1905, and passed by Island Pond, at 970′ elevation.

10:59 a.m.: This stone spillway was associated with a dam that was begun, but never finished.

There were a few iron mines in the area, and I understand this was a rotary gravel sorter used to separate iron from gravel.

11:04 a.m.: Another view of Island Pond.

11:17 a.m.: After another 0.7 miles, we reach the Lemon Squeeze at about 1160′ elevation, where the AT continues through a cleft in the rock, requiring hikers to contort their bodies to pass through. We do not go that way, but I took a few shots.

Looks like fun. I’ll have to return and give it a try.

11:27 a.m.: We instead turn onto the red-blazed Arden-Surebridge (“A-SB”) trail, continuing east. After only about 0.2 miles, the red-blazed trail is joined by the teal-blazed Long Path. Here’s a nice rock wall with some green moss.

After another 0.3 miles, we turned south on to the blue-blazed Lichen Trail, climbing up to around 1300′.

11:50 a.m.: One of the hikers enjoyed adding to cairns.

11:54 a.m.: Nice bare rock:

11:55 a.m.: Here’s a stitched panorama of this beautiful relatively flat rock.

11:58 a.m.: Here are additional photos of the area.

12:05 p.m.: Another stitched panorama.

12:13 p.m.: We decided to take a lunch break at the end of the blue trail, which only extends about 0.5 miles.

12:45 p.m.: Lunch over, we continued on, turning southwest onto the red-blazed R-D trail. (If we had gone east on that trail, we would have quickly come to “Ship Rock.” I’ll be sure to add that to my bucket list. As it is, I enjoyed the huge expanse of rock that I photographed above, which does not appear to be named on my map.) We successfully crossed a stream without falling into the water.

12:48 p.m.: A boulder.

The Goldwaithe Memorial. I wonder if anyone will ever remember me with a plaque.

After about 0.4 miles, we turn west onto the yellow-blazed Dunning trail.

1:52 p.m.: About about 0.8 miles, we came to the “Boston Mine” a surface mine that had one produced iron ore. I followed the man ahead of me through the cut in the rock that gives access to the mine.

After entering the cut in the previous photo, I turned left and took this photo. The mined area is not very large. I do not think the overhang extended too far. A pool of water covers the ground under the overhang, and I see there is some ice floating on the water. I wonder if there is always water here, or if it dries up later in the year.

Leaving the mine, we almost immediately turned north onto Island Pond Road, and after 0.4 miles turned left (northwest) onto the red-blazed A-SB trail, which descends. After another 0.6 miles, the A-SB trail passes by a steep drop-off of about 120′, so it’s good to move slowly and cautiously in this area.

2:40 p.m.: Descending.

After another 0.7 miles, the A-SB trail had descended back down to about 500′ in elevation, and then we walked along flat ground for 0.3 miles back to the cars.

So this was a shorter hike of about 6 miles.