Charlie Stein's Photoblog

Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park, Putnam County, New York

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Charlie

I decided to try the northwest corner of the park, which I had never previously visited. Driving north on U.S. 9, one passes county road 301, and then after a quarter mile one reaches the Hubbard Lodge park entrance, on the right. Turning into the entrance, the road splits, and another sign directs drivers to the left for the lodge and parking. The lodge is a small building on the right side of the road, about 0.2 miles from the entrance. Parking is available in the shoulders of the road.

11:19 a.m.: I didn’t see a sign indicating where the trails began, so I decided to walk around the lodge, which has benches and picnic tables in front of it. There was also a display of poison ivy (“leaves of three, let it be”):

Poison ivy

The lodge also featured a small garden behind it, dedicated to plants that attract butterflies. I followed a footpath through the woods, which led to the trailhead for the white and blue trails. (Or maybe this already was part of the trails, but I didn’t see any blazing.)

Footpath behind Hubbard Lodge

After about 0.1 mile, the footpath dead-ended at a woods road labeled “School Mountain Road,” which was blazed for the white and blue trails. I turned left on the road to follow the blazes.

Flowers grew in the shade:

Wild flowers

The trail ran along a branch of Clove Creek, and the sound of water was peaceful. I met an older couple leading a huge dog, I think a St. Bernard, which lunged at me. It was not growling, and I am not afraid of dogs, but I don’t want a huge dog knocking me down, so I jumped back. The lady said that it was just excited, and a puppy! I tried to go by and it again lunged at me, while she was exhorting the man to hold it back. Maybe they should have considered a smaller dog, that they could physically control, or maybe they should consider obedience training. Anyway, I was finally able to sneak by. (And I should be grateful that it was on a leash, as otherwise it might well have tried to bowl me over.)

Two bridges crossed the road, with bridges spanning them. These bridges had solid steel decking, of the type one sees in roadway construction to temporarily cover holes. One of them seemed to have served as a wishing well, as I counted about 50 pennies that had been tossed in.

I passed another couple hiking out of the park.

11:34 a.m.: I finally found a chipmunk that didn’t flee in terror of a human being within 50′ of him. In fact, I was probably about 20′ away. I slowly changed from my wide-angle zoom lens to my telephoto zoom lens, and photographed him at 200mm (400mm equivalent). I was very pleased with the result. I like the shallow depth of field so that the chipmunk and rocks are in focus, but the tree behind him is out of focus, and the branch in front of him is out of focus. I also like the colors of this shot.

Chipmunk

11:38 a.m.: After hiking 0.4 miles, the woods road came to an intersection, with an ancient gateway to the left. Perhaps it had once been the entranceway to a fine house.

Old gateway

The road beyond the gateway was not blazed, and my map showed that a woods road ran 0.6 miles into the woods before dead-ending. I did not explore it, but it could be interesting to check it out. Instead, I continued on the white and blue blazed trails, which immediately crossed the stream on the right side of the road. There was significant erosion of the bank on my side, and steel I-beams and two steel deck plates that had once formed a crossing were now lying in 2′ of water. Another deck plate and two I-beams had been dragged downstream about 50′ to a narrower crossing point, and set up so that one crossed the stream by walking across the two I-beams.

Here the trails diverged, with the blue trail continuing to the right as a footpath, and the white trail continuing to follow “School Mountain Road” to the left. I turned left to continue on the white trail. I would come back on the blue trail. School Mountain Road continued to roughly follow a branch of Clove Creek:

Clove Creek

11:53 a.m.: The two tire tracks show that it hasn’t been that long since the woods road has been used, no doubt by park rangers.

School Mountain Road

12:13 p.m.: After another mile, I came to an intersection with a red-blazed footpath to the left (north) and followed it. This is the East Mountain Loop trail, which promised a scenic view. The parking area had been at 400′ of elevation, and by this time I had climbed up to 600′.

East Mountain Loop Trail

In a number of cases I noticed very expensive pressure-treated lumber placed by the side of the trail, typically 8″x8″x16′. I suspect that the collapsed bridge that I saw occurred during the hurricane-related floods of last season, and the lumber was brought in and cached in a few places to assist in repairs. Here, five of the beams have been used as a bridge. It seemed like overkill, as two of them would have been adequate.

Footbridge on East Mountain Loop Trail

There were many stone walls on this hike. In fact, School Mountain Road had frequently had stone walls on one side, and sometimes on both sides of it. I also noted stone walls on the East Mountain Loop trail, as shown here:

Stone wall

Scenic view from East Mountain

12:53 p.m.: East Mountain peaks out around 1000′, but the scenic view was not great, as it was obscured by trees for the most part:

A huge leaf:

Large leaf

1:22 p.m.: Descending East Mountain, toward the end of the red-blazed loop, the trail again joined a woods road. It passed the foundation of a building, across from which ancient plows were leaned up against a low stone wall. Nearby stood this beauty:

Old plow

After 1.4 miles, the red-blazed trail ended back at the white-blazed School Mountain Road. There was a partially collapsed two-story house at that intersection. I guess the park didn’t have the budget to demolish it, which is unfortunate. On the first part of the hike I had not had much problem with insects, though I did keep walking through the webs of spiders or the threads of inchworms, which bothered me. Now, however, insects began buzzing around my ears, which bothered me much more. In addition to the red and white trails intersecting here, the yellow-blazed trail Perkins trail began here. I followed it, as the map showed that it would return me to the blue trail for my hike back to the car.

I soon stopped for lunch on a big rock, at a spot near running water. A group of four people walked by and said hello. After lunch, I continued hiking. After 0.5 miles, the yellow trail intersected the blue trail, and I turned right onto that. I joined the blue trail at about 1000′ of elevation, and for most of its distance it fluctuated 900′ and 1180′, until its descent at the end.

2:27 p.m.: The trail was usually pretty thick with trees, but I found one or two small clearings:

Small clearing

2:32 p.m.: The blue trail also had a few scenic views. Here is one of them, around 900′:

Scenic view

3:10 p.m.: Another scenic view, at around 1000′ of elevation, at Round Hill:

View from Round Hill

3:12 p.m.: A panorama of the final scenic view, on the other side of Round Hill:

View from Round Hill

The trail then began to descend sharply. I passed one man who was resting, apparently hiking alone. The descent continued to around 600′ or 500′, where I ran into a group of three hikers heading uphill. So even though these trails weren’t very busy, I did run into people from time-to-time. The trail finally descended to 400′ and then continued along a flat area for a while, eventually meeting the creek and running parallel to it, until finally rejoining the white trail at the site of the wrecked bridge. I measure that section of the blue trail at 3 miles. I took off my boots and socks and dipped my feet into the water, which was cold.

I then replaced my boots, crossed the bridge of two I-beams and continued walking back toward the lodge. At one point, I heard a loud rustling in the leaves and saw a deer, but unfortunately was not able to photograph her before she moved on.

4:25 p.m.: I then returned to the lodge and my car. I estimated that the total hike was 6.8 miles, though I read another hiker’s writeup that said it was 7.9 miles. Maybe one of us measured more accurately than the other. Anyway, it was a nice hike that took me 5 hours.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged chipmunk, New York, Putnam County | Leave a comment

Ringwood State Park, Bergen County, New Jersey

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Charlie

I was thinking of returning to Norvin Green State Forest to explore the northern part, but when I drove to the area designated as a parking area on the NY-NJ Trail Conference map, I didn’t find an obvious spot. I have had that problem with the map previously: if it’s not an obvious parking lot, and if there are no other cars there, I won’t feel comfortable parking there.

There was another parking area that I could use to access the trails I wanted, but I had forgotten to take coordinates with me for my GPS, and driving by I didn’t find the road that I needed to take. So I instead went to Ringwood State Park, where I’ve never been before. Owing to a late start, and my missteps in first trying to go to Norvin Green, I was off to a very late start.

12:30 p.m.: I parked in the northern parking lot at Ringwood Manor, which was right next to the Ringwood River, where some families were wading. I crossed two wooden pedestrian bridges across the river.

Ringwood River

After about 100′ the white-blazed trail led me to Sloatsburg Road, which I carefully crossed. A red-blazed trail starts here, and I wanted to take that one to the east, but didn’t see the blazes immediately and instead continued on the white-blazed trail to the south. I met a mountain biker going in the opposite direction, and stepped aside to let him pass. I later saw a sign that the white-blazed trail was only for hikers, whereas the yellow-blazed trail was available to hikers, bicyclists and equestrians. So I guess the mountain biker was on the wrong trail.

About 0.5 miles into the hike, the white-blazed trail came to an intersection that did not appear to be blazed. I continued on, but after 100′ came to Morris Road, which I did not expect from my map. I realized that by continuing straight at the intersection, I had turned onto the yellow-blazed trail.

12:56 p.m.: I backtracked and took the side trail northeast, and saw that white (and yellow) blazes were hidden behind a tree branch.

Blazes

The trails soon diverged again, and I turned east on the white trail.

White trail

This again joined Morris Road, but now at a place where I expected it to be.

1:08 p.m.: About a mile from my car, Morris Road crossed Cupsaw Brook:

Cupsaw Brook

1:27 p.m.: After about 0.1 miles on Morris Road, white blazes again led me into the woods, where I stopped for lunch on top of this boulder, and called my Mom to wish her a happy Mother’s Day:

Boulder

Interesting tree(s):

Tree

1:50 p.m.: After another 0.5 miles, the trail again popped out of the woods at the entrance to the New Jersey State Botanical Garden. The map shows that the white trail was supposed to reenter the woods on a woods road, but I didn’t see any blazes and instead walked south along the access road of the botanical garden.

Eagle sculpture

1:58 p.m.: I had to stand here at least 5 minutes to take shots that didn’t have people in them, as people constantly drove and walked back and forth through this area. For several minutes, a car stopped there and a woman got out, blocking my view while she argued in Russian to the driver and other passengers. Finally, everyone cleared out long enough for me to take overexposed and underexposed photos, which I later turned into this HDR shot:

New Jersey State Botanical Garden

2:15 p.m.: After another 0.8 miles, I finally reached the end of the access road through the botanical gardens and followed another woods road east back to the white trail, which was continuing to the south.

White trail

I soon left the white trail, again following a woods road northeast to its intersection with the red-blazed trail. I followed this to the northeast. This trail circled around “Thunder Mountain Shooting Range,” so I unfortunately got to hear people shooting the entire time I hiked. I also didn’t find any scenic views on this trail; the map showed a couple from Mount Defiance, but either I missed them or I didn’t find it to be too scenic. Oh, it was also around 80 degrees, and I wished it had been cooler.

2:31 p.m.: A fallen tree with some nice texture:

Fallen tree

2:34 p.m.: At least I appreciated being on a footpath instead of a woods road:

Red trail

2:48 p.m.: A ground level shot through the grass:

Tall grass

There were a few spots with bare rock:

Bare rock

2:56 p.m.: I rarely see animals when I hike. The most common are chipmunks and squirrels, and they typically flee out of sight when they hear me/see me. Here I heard something that sounded a little larger than the typical squirrel (though they can make a racket nosing through dead leaves), and I saw a turkey head pop above the hill. They were a pair, and I tried sneaking up on them, but even though they were at least 50′ away, they didn’t want to remain within sight of me. Thus, this poor shot is all that I got. I had my telephoto lens on, but just barely got this shot off at 45mm (90mm equivalent). By the time I thought about zooming up to 200mm, the turkeys were gone.

Turkey

3:44 p.m.: The red trail curved a bit to the northwest, and about 2.4 miles after leaving the botanical gardens, I arrived at Shepherd Lake:

Shepherd Lake

I took a shot across the lake, using the 200mm (400mm equivalent) setting of my telephoto lens. (The larger image that is available by clicking on the thumbnail is a 100% crop of a portion of the image.) I am impressed by the reach and quality of the lens and camera:

Shepherd Lake

A cloud of gnats was flying around a tree:

Gnats

I left the lake, continuing on the red trail, which now turned west.

4:45 p.m.: Interesting rock formations:

Rock formations

4:58 p.m.: About 1.3 miles west of Shepherd Lake, I arrived at a lean-to shelter in the woods, built by the “Hiking, Eating, Arguing and Puzzle-Solving Club of the Cooper.” [The land was once owned by Cooper Union college.] This shelter has seen better days.

Cooper Union shelter

The red blazes led up misnamed Cupsaw Mountain (which peaks at only 739′). I found the blazes to be hard to follow. In some cases, I saw that red blazes that had been spray-painted on trees had been painted over by gray paint, suggesting that the trail had been rerouted. However, I then saw red markers nailed to trees indicating that the red trail still continued over the same route. So this was especially slow going, as I had to stop two or three times and scout around to find my route.

5:08 p.m.: Here a fallen tree over the trail made me duck walk to get under it.

Fallen tree

Another 0.3 miles past the shelter, I finally returned to my car, having hiked around 6.4 miles. It wasn’t a long hike and didn’t have a lot of elevation change. Still, with the warmer weather and the scarcity of scenic views, it seemed a bit tedious at times.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged New Jersey | Leave a comment

Norvin Green State Forest, Passaic County, New Jersey

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Charlie

The Jewish Outdoors Club 5th Annual Fun Day was held in Norvin Green State Forest this year. Two hundred people bought tickets, though I don’t know if they all made it there. We met near the Weiss Ecology Center. I had been to the Forest twice the previous year, so this was familiar ground for me.

10:17 a.m.: People begin appearing, with some driving or carpooling and others arriving via a chartered bus:

The crowd gathers

Participants could chose from a number of hikes, including a very strenous hike, a strenuous hike (split into two groups), a moderate hike (split into four groups, I believe), and an easy hike. The idea behind splitting a particular hike into multiple groups was to make it more manageable for hike leaders and sweeps to keep their group together. I took the strenous hike, and our group left first and was supposed to go clockwise on the trails, whereas the second group left a few minutes later and was supposed to go counter clockwise on the trails. However, there was some confusion and both groups ended up going in the same direction, and the strenuous groups and once even one or two of the moderate groups would run into each other.

The very strenuous hike was going to the Otter Hole, which I had visited the year before. There was a social component to this event, and also a scheduled barbecue, so I decided to take the strenuous hike (but not the very strenuous hike) so that I would be sure to return to the starting area in time to enjoy the barbecue. We began our hike around 10:40 a.m., leaving the Weis Ecology Center and hiking south-southwest on the green trail.

11:08 a.m.: We turned south onto the blue trail, began climbing a hill, which began to give us nice views of the surrounding county:

Scenic view

Overexposed sky

I decided to try high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. That is a method of combining two or more images. One problem that is encountered is when one part of the scene, such as the sky, is significantly brighter than another part of the scene, such as the ground. A human eye and brain can enjoy the scene and see it as a vivid blue sky (or a cloudy gray sky, which we faced at the start of the hike) and a ground covered with greenery. However, both film and digital cameras can’t match the eye’s dynamic range. Thus, in some cases a camera will give us a choice between a properly exposed ground and an overexposed sky . . .

. . . or a properly exposed sky and an underexposed ground::

Underexposed ground

[Or the camera may give us a middle image in which the sky is overexposed while the ground is underexposed.]

HDR uses software to combine two or more images, preferably one that is significantly overexposed and one that is significant underexposed, like the two thumbnails shown above. It then combines the properly exposed sky from one and the properly exposed ground from the other, yielding magic:

HDR composite

11:33 a.m.: We detoured from the blue trail onto the red trail, just to climb to Wyanockie High Point, which offered views of Wanaque Reservoir and Manhattan in the distance. Here’s another HDR shot:

Wanaque Reservoir

11:44 a.m.: And my last HDR shot of the day:

Another View from Wyanockie High Point

11:49 a.m.: The group lingered at Wyanockie High Point for a while:

Hikers at Wyanockie High Point

We backtracked on the red trail back to the blue trail, and continued south.

12:16 p.m.: There were other hills to climb:

Hikers ascend blue trail

Come on, it’s not that steep!

You can do it!

12:34 p.m.: “With dice in the front and Brooklyn’s in the back.” Okay, that’s my tribute to the late Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Here I experiment with depth of field, holding the camera close to the ground and focusing on two nearby rocks with a low aperture stop. (This is probably Carris Hill, where we were supposed to turn onto the yellow trail, but we missed the turn.)

Carris Hill?

12:50 p.m.: Hike leader Nachi wonders if this is dangerous: a tree has fallen and snapped in half. The lower half is lying flat on the ground and is no problem, but the upper half is hung up in the branches of another tree.

Broken tree

1:12 p.m.: We arrived at the Chikaholi Falls on Posts Brook, which is when we realized that we had missed the turn-off to the yellow trail. I’m not sure what happened, as both Nachi and I were looking for the yellow blazes. So we actually hiked longer than we had anticipated.

Here is a poor view of the falls, from the trail. (I had a better shot of the falls the year before, when I crossed the brook so that I was able to see the falls head on, instead of looking at it from the side.)

Chikaholi Falls

1:15 p.m.: We turned east onto the white trail, and begin heading back toward the starting point.

White trail

1:21 p.m.: A view of a gentle part of the brook:

Posts Brook

1:27 p.m.: The white trail turned north, away from the brook. Here is some bare rock:

Bare rock

1:38 p.m.: Someone with good eyes spotted this nice little toad, who posed for a close-up:

Toad

1:52 p.m.: The white trail led us to the red trail, and we turned east on that briefly, fording a stream:

Fording a stream

After a very short distance on the red trail, we turned north-northwest on the yellow trail.

2:16 p.m.: It’s interesting when a tree falls and its roots carry along a few big rocks:

Fallen tree

2:34 p.m.: The yellow trail led back to the blue trail, which then led to the green trail. Here we are almost back at the starting point.

Green trail

I’m too lazy now to try to add up the mileage from my map, but Nachi estimated that the hike was about 6.5 miles, factoring in the fact that we missed the turn at Carris Hill and hiked farther than we had planned.

Around 2:40 p.m., we returned in time to enjoy the barbecue. Unfortunately, the burgers were already gone, but I was told they were overdone and that I wouldn’t have liked them anyway. I did enjoy salad, a hot dog, and chicken, so I didn’t leave hungry.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged New Jersey, Norvin Green, Passaic County | Leave a comment

Harriman State Park, Orange County, New York

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Charlie

The weather finally cooperated, so I drove to Harriman, where I parked in the Elk Pen off Highway 17 and began climbing the Appalachian Trail (AT) northbound (actually east-southeast) into the park. There’s a pretty steep 400′ climb up Green Pond Mountain at the start of the hike, from about 600′ to 1000′ elevation, which made me stop to catch my breath for a moment. But I was fine the rest of the day, with the elevation for the most part pretty steady from 1100′ to 1300′. I carried my fleece jacket with me, but it spent most of the time in my backpack, as the weather was warm enough, especially when coupled with my exertion.

Here’s a tree that has fallen and gotten hung up on another tree:

Tree hung up on second tree

In a number of places the grass was a vibrant green. I believe that owing to the mild winter, the vegetation started growing earlier this year than last year. That is, it was was still green in late April 2011, but I think the grass is taller this year than last year at that time.

Appalachian Trail

I don’t have comments for every photo, but Harriman has a very nice blend of bare rock, trees, elevation changes/views, water, sky, etc.

Looking downhill

Scenic view

Bare rock

Appalachian Trail

After 1.0 mile on the AT, Island Pond came into view. I had been on the trail the year before, so this was not new territory for me.

Island Pond

This is another view of the rotary gravel sorter that I photographed the year before, which was used to separate iron from gravel.

Rotary gravel sorter

After another 0.7 miles, I came to the Lemon Squeeze. The previous time I was on this trail, I was with a group that turned off here onto another trail. This time I was on my own, and I wanted to continue on the AT, which meant going through the Lemon Squeeze.

Lemon Squeeze

This doesn’t look so bad: more of a ducking action than a squeezing action.

Lemon Squeeze

After ducking under the rock in the previous photo, I found myself in a small boulder-enclosed clearing that offered a patch of sunlight and a few trees. How does one get out of here? The blazes say straight ahead, but it doesn’t look like there’s much of an opening there between those rocks.

Lemon Squeeze

Oh, maybe the entrance that I had to duck through wasn’t the Lemon Squeeze, after all. This definitely looks much more like a squeeze. Somehow I made it through there, trying not to scratch either myself or my backpack on the walls.

Lemon Squeeze

The AT turned northeast at this point, and continued up Island Pond Mountain, offering sun and green grass.

Island Pond Mountain

The terrain was far from uniform, though. Some spots were shady and thus there wasn’t much grass, some spots were wet and sloppy, and this spot was shady and rocky:

Appalachian Trail

About 1.5 miles past the Lemon Squeeze, the AT turned briefly onto an old woods road called Surebridge Mine Road.

Surebridge Mine Road

Just past the turn I came to Greenwood Mine. Here’s a nice piece of rock that I found in the road:

Rock

This is Greenwood Mine, now a water-filled hole:

Greenwood Mine

I continued on the AT, which very soon left the woods road for another footpath, this time climbing Fingerboard Mountain:

Fingerboard Mountain

I had earlier reflected on the wide range of colors I was seeing, with green grass, blue skies, brown for tree trunks and dead leaves, and white and gray for the bare rock. But I was missing red. Finally, I found some vegetation that had at least some red to it.

Fingerboard Mountain

This looked like a good place for lunch, and also a good place for a 360′ panoramic shot. (The larger version is 700 KB, so don’t load this unless you have a fast connection.)

About 0.7 miles past Greenwood Mine, I came to the lean-to shelter at Fingerboard Mountain.

Shelter on Fingerboard Mountain

At this point I left the AT, turning onto the blue-blazed Hurst trail. This was only 0.4 miles long, crossing under telephone lines and dead-ending at Seven Lakes Road. Here’s a shot of the road, with a bicyclist, and Lake Tiorati behind.

Seven Lakes Road & Lake Tiorati

Lake Tiorati:

Lake Tiorati

Having now hiked 4.3 miles from my car, I decided it was time to head back. There are so many trails at Harriman that it’s almost always possible to make at least a partial loop. Leaving Seven Lakes Drive, I began hiking south-southwest on a woods road that is shown on the map but not labeled there. It was very easy to follow, though. At first it was lushly carpeted:

Woods road

The ground changed a bit, but it was still easy to follow the woods road:

Woods road

I had planned to turn off the woods road at the unmaintained Bottle Cap trail, but I missed the turnoff, and decided that rather than backtrack and look for it, I would just continue on the woods road.

Woods road

After 0.9 miles, the woods road ended at the red-blazed Arden-Surebridge trail, and I turned right (west) onto that. My map showed unnamed mine workings in the area, and these water-filled pits could be the remnants of a mine.

Mine workings

They say that moss grows on the north side of a tree, and that seems fairly accurate.

Mossy tree

I continued on the red-blazed trail for 1.7 miles, past “Times Square” (a boulder that marks an intersection with a number of trails) and back to the Lemon Squeeze. Then I rejoined the Appalachian Trail and followed it back another 1.7 miles to the Elk Pen and my car.

Appalachian Trail

I estimate the hike was 8.6 miles. It was a pretty day and a lot of fun.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Appalachian Trail, Harriman, New York, Orange County | Leave a comment

Splitrock Reservoir, Morris County, New Jersey

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Charlie

Splitrock Reservoir is a popular location for area fishermen, and is encircled by a 13.8-mile trail. There are rolling hills but the elvation change doesn’t appear too steep. Unfortunately, I got there around 11:00 a.m., and it was also an overcast yucky cool day, so there was no way that I was going to hike 13.8 miles. Instead, I hiked a bit on a trail to the south of the reservoir, and also hiked a short distance around the reservoir before turning back. I probably only hiked about 3 miles.

The parking area is right off Split Rock Road, at the southern end of the reservoir. Finding the trail was a bit challenging, as it wasn’t obvious from the parking area. I crossed Split Rock Road and followed a dirt road up a hill behind the parking area to see if I could find any blazes. The road soon ended, and apparently was just to service a transmission line tower.

Powerline

While standing near the tower, I saw a footpath from there that led south into the woods, and even though it wasn’t blazed, I followed it for about 0.1 or 0.2 miles, and finally found the blue-blazed Splitrock trail. I followed the trail, which soon led to a boulder.

Boulder

After a while, the trail crossed a woods trail and then immediately after that a stream:

Woods road and stream

Crossing the stream meant carefully balancing across rocks, and took a while.

Stream

The trail turned west, and then north. Another boulder:

Boulder

This rock seemed out of place,and reminded me of the caprock of Schunemunk, which is a reddish-purple matrix studded with pebbles of white quartz and pink sandstone:

Matrix of quartz and sandstone

A fallen tree with one of the trail markers:

Fallen tree

Another boulder:

Boulder

I passed an extended family that was hiking with a small- to medium-sized dog that was off its leash. People always seem to ignore the fact that if dogs are allowed on trails at all, they are supposed to be leashed. The dog didn’t bother me at this moment, though later I encountered the same people and the dog starting barking at me and charged me. I ignored it, and happily it didn’t bite me.

Here’s a spot where one can see a bit of the reservoir:

Scenic view

A stitched panorama:

Stitched panorama

I’ve reached the end of the blue-blazed trail, and I turned right onto the white-blazed Four Birds trail.

White-blazed Four Birds trail

Before long the white-blazed trail led me back under the transmission line, where someone (probably the utility) had cut a lot of brush. I heard motors and wondered if someone was working (with a chainsaw) on Sunday, but my question was soon answered when a couple of young men rode up on dirt bikes. They nodded at me and continued on. I don’t know if they were allowed to be there, but as with dogs off-leash, many people don’t follow the rules.

Transmission lines

The white trail then crossed Split Rock Road and brought me within site of the reservoir again. I hiked a short distance and found a woods road that the map showed led to a scenic view on the shore of the reservoir:

Woods road

Following the woods road did indeed lead me to the reservoir.

Splitrock Reservoir

I stopped here for lunch, though as it was an exposed area, it was getting pretty cold.

Splitrock Reservoir

I then followed the woods road back to the white-blazed trail and returned south, which is when I ran into the people with the unleashed dog that suddenly became nasty toward me.

When I reached Split Rock Road again, I turned east toward the parking area. This soon led across a dam at the southern end of the reservoir:

Dam

South of the dam, there is Split Rock Furnace, a 32-foot high charcoal furnace built during the Civil War, which is well-camouflaged in the brown vegetation of winter:

Split Rock Furnace

The furnace only operated about ten years. Iron was important in New Jersey and New York from the 1730s through the 1890s, when high-grade iron ore was discovered in Minnesota. No doubt there will be a greater contrast in the middle of summer when the furnace is surrounded by greenery. But at the beginning of April, it blends very well with the fallen leaves:

Split Rock Furnace

A panoramic view of the south side of the dam:

Split Rock Furnace and the spillway of the dam

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Morris County, New Jersey | Leave a comment

Ken Lockwood Gorge & Columbia Trail, Hunterdon & Morris Counties, NJ

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Charlie

The plan was to join a group that advertised they were going to hike Schooley’s Mountain in Morris County, New Jersey. I drove about 90 minutes to get there. I had never been with this particular group before. I learned that they had a few members in their 30s, but that most seemed to be in their 60s or 70s. They announced that one of the men there had bad knees, hips, etc. and it was hard for him to hike up and downhill. But he had brought his bicycle and did fine on flat surfaces, so would we mind if instead of hiking up and down a mountain, we just followed a flat trail, so that he could join us (on his bike)?

Well, I minded, but I was not a member of this group, and just suffered in silence. As I’ve noted before, I enjoy mountains because the elevation change provides more of a workout, and also provides better views.

So we piled into a few people’s cars and shuttled to Ken Lockwood Gorge in adjacent Hunterdon County, where the drivers parked and we began hiking (or in one case biking) along the south fork of the Raritan River. For mid-February, the weather was unseasonably mild, probably in the 40s and 50s.

10:25 a.m.: The Raritan River is an important river in New Jersey, and this area is popular for trout fishing. As a hike, it is insanely boring.

Raritan River

Here’s a photo that shows the river and the “trail” that we were
following, which was a service road.

Trail through Lockwood Gorge

After about a mile or two, we exited the gorge.

Bridge over Raritan River

We then began hiking along the Columbia Trail, advertised by Hunterdon County as a 7-mile greenway. This is a rails-to-trails project that had formerly been a railroad bed, specifically, the High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The branch of the railroad was in service from 1876 to 1976, with the rails removed in 1980.

Columbia Trail

Local residents enjoyed placing plastic gnomes and assorted “gnome homes” along this trail. Some people on the hike thought that was charming, while I considered it to be littering.

The stone station and a bit of track remain at a town called Califon. A sign states that the founder of the town intended to call it California, as he had spent time there, but a sign painter ran out of room and abbreviated to Califon. A wooden station had been built here when the branch opened in 1876, but residents felt that the town had achieved a significant-enough stature by 1893 that they deserved better, and cooperated with the railroad to build this beautiful little fieldstone station that still stands.

Califon Station

An old building along the trail.

Old building

The Willow Grove Farm breeds Clydesdale horses and offers rentals for trail rides. I probably would have enjoyed that more than walking along the “trail.”

Clydesdale

Another old building:

Old building

This cow looked as bored as I felt:

Cow

We walked through a forest of precisely spaced Christmas trees, which sounds fascinating . . .

Christmas tree farm

. . . until one realizes that they were only about 3′ tall.

Raritan River, NJ

A few of the intrepid hikers (and biker) investigate a bridge that had recently had a new deck applied. We stopped here for lunch.

Bridge

The bridge afforded a pretty view:

View from bridge

The Raritan River had recently flooded, and at least one homeowner decided to have his house raised to avoid future floods:

Flooded house

Another homeowner, where Columbia Trail crosses Middle Valley Road in Washington Township, has a collection of old cars that is slowly rusting away.

Auto Graveyard

We finally returned to where I had left my car. I think the hike was only about 8.5 miles, but with the monotonous hike along totally flat ground, it seemed like a longer distance.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Morris County, New Jersey | Leave a comment

Hudson Highlands State Park, Westchester County, NY

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Charlie

It was a very cold day, but I hadn’t been hiking in several weeks and the sky was bright and clear, so I decided not to be deterred by the cold weather. Before I left home, it was around 10 degrees at Bear Mountain. I don’t know what the temperature was when I was hiking in the area, though I’ll guess it was fluctuating between the teens and 20s.

I decided to hike the Camp Smith Trail, which is supposed to be the most strenuous hike in Westchester County. (That’s not necessarily saying much, as Westchester County is still pretty flat.) I drove on Route 6/202 past Camp Smith, a New York National Guard base, and parked at the former toll booth for the Bear Mountain Bridge.

10:42 a.m.: The southeastern end of the Camp Smith Trail began right behind the building. The trail is well-blazed for the most part, and there are signs (and in places yellow ropes) warning hikers not to veer to the east, which would put them into Camp Smith.

Former toll booth for the Bear Mountain bridge

10:48 a.m.: I headed northwest, and the trail quickly gained about 200′ elevation.

Camp Smith Trail

I encountered varied terrain. Rocky areas:

Rocky terrain

10:54 a.m.: No snow, but several ice crystals.

Ice crystals

11:11 a.m.: Some bare rock.

Bare rock

11:21 a.m: The Hudson was never far away.

Hudson River

11:24 a.m.: A view of Iona Island. There were a few patches of ice, which I was careful to avoid.

Iona Island

11:44 a.m.: The trail climbed to about 700′ in elevation, but then descended again to about 400′. This view was taken near Broccy Creek, where there is another parking area off Route 6/202.

View from Camp Smith Trail, near Broccy Creek

11:46 a.m.: Another icy patch. I only had to walk a few feet to one side to avoid it.

Icy patch

12:19 p.m.: Gaining elevation again.

Hudson River

1:02 p.m.: Back around 700′ in elevation

Scenic view

1:14 p.m.: Finding Anthony’s Nose was the only tricky part. One following the blue-blazed Camp Smith Trail could easily miss the short-side trail to Anthony’s Nose. It is blazed white in places, though I also saw blue blazes there. A sign would be nice. But I found it, and as you can see, it’s almost right above the Bear Mountain Bridge. On the far side of the bridge is the famous park of that name. I don’t know who planted the American flag, but it’s a nice touch.

While hiking, I alternated between being cold and hot, so I would unzip my parka and take my gloves off when I got hot, and reverse the process when I got cold. On Anthony’s Nose, the wind was quite fierce, and after just a few minutes of having my hands exposed to take photos, I began to lose feeling in my fingers. It was good timing that a tugboat and barge came by while I was there, and I was able to frame them between the American flag and the bridge.

Bear Mountain Bridge, seen from Anthony’s Nose

Even though it was very cold, there were other hikers on the trail. One was a man who had lost a bet on the Denver Broncos vs. Pittsburgh Steelers football game of the previous week, so he had to strike a “Tebow” pose. I photographed him emulating the Denver quarterback, and he took this photo of me standing on Anthony’s Nose.

Posing on Anthony’s Nose

Earlier in the hike, when I first began to warm up, I took off my poncho, but quickly became too cold. I then tried putting it on over my backpack instead of between my body and backpack, and that worked well. After descending from Anthony’s Nose, I continued toward the northeast. If it had been summer, it would have been nice to have lunch at a scenic spot such as Anthony’s Nose, but on this very cold and windy day there was no way anyone would be eating up there. I found a calm spot and sat on a log. When I finished lunch, I put my poncho on first and the backpack over it and resumed hiking. I later discovered that the water in my Camelbak sipping tube had frozen. So another benefit of wearing the poncho over the backpack is that keeps the water sipping tube from freezing.

After 4.3 miles, I came to the end of the Camp Smith Trail. I continued on the Appalachian Trail southbound. (It’s easier to see the AT blazes going northbound, but the southbound blaze leads one pretty much straight ahead down the side of a hill, and then turning left.) I followed the AT 0.6 miles down to Route 9D. I then walked along Route 9D to the intersection with the Bear Mountain Bridge and Route 6/202, and followed 6/202 for 2.5 miles back to my car.

Along the way I took a shot of icicles cascading down the rockface near the road:

Icicles on rock face

And one last shot of the Hudson.

Hudson River

Walking along Route 6/202 isn’t fun, as there’s not much of a shoulder, so I had to frequently step off into brush as cars would pass. I prefer hiking in some sort of loop rather than hiking forward and then back on the same trail, so that’s why I followed the road at the end.

So that was my 7.4 mile hike in very cold weather.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Appalachian Trail, Hudson Highlands, New York, Westchester County | Leave a comment

Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge, Brooklyn, New York

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Charlie

I thought it would be a good idea to check out the polar bear plunge on Coney Island on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, my date was not ready when I arrived to pick her up, and she also directed me to park about a mile from where the swimmers were, so by the time we walked down the boardwalk, the crowds had thinned out considerably. Still, there were some bathers who dashed into the water for a second or third round, so we saw a few of these hardy souls in action.

This was an unusually warm January 1st (and a warm winter in general). However, the wind picked up as we were watching the festivities, so it did become uncomfortably cold.

“Polar Bear” plunge

On the boardwalk: I wonder if the lady with the red scarf was smiling at me. I was just taking a photo of the mob, and hadn’t noticed her until looking at the photo.

Crowd on boardwalk

On the boardwalk:

Astroland’s Burger Boy

On the boardwalk:

Decorative fish

I wonder if this fellow ever saw the Alfred Hitchcock film, “The Birds”.

Seagulls

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged New York | Leave a comment

Wawayanda State Park, Sussex County, New Jersey

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Charlie

I had planned on hiking with the Appalachian Mountain Club, but arrived at the meeting place a few minutes late and they were gone. I continued on my own to Wawayanda, which I understand is pronounced “way way yonder,” a cutesy name with spelling that is falsely suggestive of a Native American origin.

I drove into the park entrance of Warwick Turnpike and parked at the office.

9:55 a.m.: I began hiking north on the blue-blazed Hoeferlin trail, which was thoroughly covered with leaves.

Hoeferlin trail

After 0.2 miles I came to the intersection with the Appalachian Trail, but the NY-NJ Trail Conference map showed a number of mines on the blue trail north of this intersection, so I decided to continue on the blue trail to see if anything was visible. I continued on another 0.75 miles, until the blue trail intersected a dirt road, which was past what the map showed as the “Green Mine” and two unnamed mines. At this point, I was less than a mile from the border with New York State. However, I didn’t seen anything that looked like a mine, and I backtracked south 0.75 miles on the blue trail.

10:25 a.m.: I turned west (southbound) on the Appalachian Trail.

Appalachian Trail

I practiced spotting crushed leaves or depressions in the trail that would indicate the path, and only looking for blazes after deciding which way the trail went.

Crushed leaves mark the trail

The route I took this day was very flat, for the most part, ranging between 1100′ and 1300′ of elevation. Here, a few rocks help hikers descend a very short hill.

Stepping stones lead downhill

The AT crosses an old woods road.

Old woods road

10:49 a.m.: After 0.75 miles, I passed north of Kazmar Pond.

Kazmar Pond

Puncheon leads across a muddy area near the pond. They could have used a few more pieces of it.

Puncheon

A stream led from Kazmar Pond:

Stream

10:58 a.m.: After another 0.3 miles, the AT briefly joined the blue-blazed Iron Mountain Trail, which runs entirely on a woods road. The stream from Kazmar Pond fed into Wawayanda Creek, substantial enough that a bridge was needed to cross it. The AT thus made use of the obsolete bridge on the Iron Mountain Trail, which dates from the 1890s. I’m not entirely satisfied with this shot, as the berries aren’t as focused as I would prefer, but in the background one may see the bridge.

Old bridge on Iron Mountain Trail

A closer shot of the bridge.

Old bridge on Iron Mountain Trail

Sign on bridge

The weight limit was removed from both signs. Other than perhaps park vehicles, there should not be any vehicles on the Iron Mountain Trail.

A view from the bridge.

View from bridge

11:07 a.m.: After the bridge, the AT almost immediately split off the Iron Mountain Trail. The AT thus continued as a footpath. Here, hikers had to stoop to get under a tree that has fallen.

Fallen tree

I saw a number of old blazes. These abandoned trails are not shown on the NY-NJ Trail Conference map or on the park map. Here, traces of a red blaze and a second, perhaps blue blaze.

Abandoned trails

More puncheon:

More puncheon

11:20 a.m.: More remnants of abandoned trails. Here, a double red blaze:

Another abandoned trail

11:33 a.m.: The trail briefly ran between two stone walls:

Stone walls

The trail crossed Barrett Road, where I passed a couple sitting and talking. I didn’t take any photos or record the time, but I believe it was after I encountered the two stone walls above and before I encountered the view below. I thought of walking 1/4 mile up Barrett Road to check out the High Breeze Farm Historic Site, but there was a fair amount of traffic on the road and it didn’t seem very safe for pedestrians to walk along the road. So I just quickly crossed and reentered the woods.

11:53 a.m.: As I noted, this hike did not have many elevation changes, but there were a couple of spots where the surrounding countryside dropped off enough that I had a bit of a scenic view. This spot was not “starred” as a scenic view on the NY-NJ Trail Conference map.

Scenic view

12:04 p.m.: I thought I would stitch together panoramas of a couple of trees. Here’s one that’s standing:

Panorama of standing tree

. . . and one that’s fallen, hanging up in other trees.

Panorama of fallen tree

12:11 p.m.: After 0.7 miles of hiking from Barrett Road, I approached Livingston Creek. I encountered a number of trees that were marked with orange paint or tape, and it also looked as though some trees had been removed from the area. I don’t know if a new trail is being planned or what is happening there. I met three men, a woman and two dogs heading up from the creek as I was about to descend.

Livingston Creek

A small bridge crosses the creek. I don’t think it was needed, but perhaps the creek is much wider at other times of the year.

Livingston Creek

12:28 p.m.: The trail passed through a rough stone wall:

Crossing a stone wall

A view of the top of the wall:

View along the stone wall

12:41 p.m.: As I approached Wawayanda Mountain, I passed a dozen or more hikers from the Appalachian Mountain Club, who were no doubt the hikers I had wanted to join but whom I had missed by a few minutes. Here is some bare rock near the top of the mountain:

Bare rock

12:43 p.m.: I passed an unmaintained blue trail. A box holds log books in which hikers can record their observations.

Old trail and log book

12:49 p.m.: As I noted, my hike was pretty level, so how was I approaching the peak of a mountain? Well, maybe I was on a plateau, but to the west and north the terrain soon began to drop sharply. I wasn’t going that far, though. This was as far as I went on the Appalachian Trail, around 1.1 miles past Livingston Creek (and about 0.1 mile past the aforementioned box with the log books). A cairn marked the start of a very short side trail which led a tenth of a mile to Pinwheel Vista.

Cairn marking side trail to Pinwheel Vista

Cairn and side trail to Pinwheel Vista

12:51 p.m.: I climbed Pinwheel Vista, which I’ve read is frequently crowded. I was all alone, though, and ate lunch. The temperature was fine, but it was a little windy, so I didn’t linger too long.

Scenic view from Pinwheel Vista

After lunch, I followed the blue side trail 0.1 miles back to the Appalachian Trail, and then backtracked on the AT 0.1 miles to the unmaintained trail that was blazed blue. A sign there read “Old AT Vista, 0.8 miles.” My NY-NJ Trail Conference map showed unmaintained trails running to Barry Lakes, and I contemplated investigating to see if I could make a loop out of this route, rather than backtracking on the AT. I met a man and dog and asked the man if he was familiar with the blue trail, but he wasn’t. I started up the blue-blazed trail, and soon encountered a couple. I asked them if the trails led to Barry Lakes, and the lady said that the trail led to a fort, and then she corrected herself to say an old campsite, but that the trail grew hard to follow after that. I decided to investigate anyway.

1:25 p.m.: On the way, I found a nice strip of bare rock. For an unmaintained trail, this path was very easy to follow. The blazes weren’t as bright as those on a maintained trail, but I don’t remember seeing any downed trees or branches blocking the path.

Bare rock

1:29 p.m.: After about 0.6 miles (rather than the 0.8 miles shown on the sign), the path forked, with a white trail leading to the left (east) and the blue trail turning right (west).

Trail to Old AT Vista

About 100 yards past that point, the blue trail reached the old vista. Blazes indicated that the blue trail continued down Wawayanda Mountain to Route 94.

Old AT Vista

I returned to the fork and took the white trail, which almost immediately led to a fine stone wall. I can only guess that’s what the lady meant when she mentioned a fort or an old camp.

Stone wall

The white blazes continued east, toward Barry Lakes, as shown on my map. This trail was indeed unmaintained, and there were many downed trees and branches that I had to avoid. Still, it was easy to follow the general route, as the white blazes continued running parallel to the fine wall.

Stone wall

My shoelace somehow caught a branch, but I managed not to fall.

Shoelace caught by a branch

1:47 p.m.: The stone wall came to an end, and the white blazes continued across the woods. I followed.

Old Appalachian Trail route

The trail crossed a stream, which might well be the south end of Livingston Stream. My map shows that the stream ended just before the trail, but the map could be off a bit.

Stream

1:59 p.m.: Another great wall appeared, with the white blazes again following it.

Stone wall

2:01 p.m.: The wall t-boned into another wall, with Barry Lakes in the background.

Stone walls on north side of Barry Lakes

I’m not sure how this strange turn in the tree developed.

Tree with odd shape

2:07 p.m.: My map showed a residential neighborhood in the middle of Wawayanda State Park, bordering the east end of Barry Lakes. The trick was to get to the east side of the lakes, when I was on the west side. The white-blazed footpath I was following turned into a white-blazed woods road. The map showed several woods roads on the west side. The map also showed that a path led between the two lakes and the neighborhood, and I thought it was the same path that I was following. However, whenever I came within sight of the lakes, I didn’t see a boundary between them or a place to cross.

Woods road north of Barry Lakes

2:29 p.m.: I decided that I was on a woods road that would take me about a mile past where I wanted to go, which was unacceptable. Therefore, I just bushwhacked, i.e., made my own path through the woods, by walking close to the perimeter of the lake. I decided that I had missed the place to cross in between the two lakes, and just continued to circle around the southern lake.

Barry Lakes

I soon came to the end of the lake and walked through a commercial parking lot to Wawayanda Road. I estimate that I had followed the white blazes 1.6 miles from the Old AT Vista to Wawayanda Road. I later learned that the AT had formerly been routed between the two lakes, along the white trail through the woods that I took, past the Old AT Vista, and then down the mountain following the now-unmaintained blue trail. It was rerouted in the 1960s to its current path. I am sure that some maintenance has been done on the “unmaintained trails” in the past 50 years, but perhaps they aren’t currently being maintained. In any event, it was easy for me to follow these trails, though as I noted the white-blazed trail did have many downed trees and branches.

2:42 p.m.: Wawayanda Road soon left the residential area and re-entered the park proper.

Park Entrance

Parts of Wawayanda Road were gravel, though later it was paved.

Wawayanda Road

2:59 p.m.: There were some nice wetlands within the park.

Wetlands

3:15 p.m.: After 2 miles on Wawayanda Road, I turned right onto the Black Eagle loop. I followed this 0.8 miles until it ended at the blue-blazed Hoeferlin trail.

Black Eagle Loop

3:29 p.m.: The Hoeferlin trail was where I had begun my hike, north of Wawayanda Road and the parking lot. Now I was on the same trail, but south of Wawayanda Road. I followed the trail another 0.75 miles back to my car.

Hoeferlin Trail

3:41 p.m.: I returned to my car, having hiked about 11.5 miles in 5-3/4 hours. The 2 mile per hour pace was a fast pace, helped in great part by the fact that most of the hiking was on level ground, and also that 2 miles was walking along Wawayanda Road.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Appalachian Trail, New Jersey, Sussex County | Leave a comment

Manitoga, Putnam County, New York

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Charlie

My goal this week was to hike along the Appalachian Trail near the Bear Mountain Bridge. I decided to park at Manitoga and hike through their trails to reach the AT. Manitoga was the estate of the industrial designer Russel Wright. It has 4 miles of trails.

My car was the only one in the parking lot. It appears that house and landscape tours are only offered May through October, though as far as I know, the property remains open throughout the year for hiking. The parking lot was not marked, and I didn’t even know whether to park north-south or east-west. I guess when you’re the first car in an unmarked lot, you can set the rules.

I didn’t think that it was all that obvious to find the start of the trails, but I finally walked across a muddy field (“Mary’s Meadow”) and found the trailhead, which led uphill on a series of stones placed as steps. As with every set of trails I can think of, the trails are blazed for travel in both directions (i.e., typically a tree will have a blaze on one side for those hiking in one direction, and a blaze on the opposite side for those hiking in the opposite direction). However, a note indicated that the trails were aesthetically placed and designed for travel in the clockwise direction. If one wanted to go counterclockwise, he would find the blazes had a black circle in the center of them, to show that he’s going in the wrong/non-preferable direction. [I think that even if the trail designer intends a trail to be traveled in only one direction, for safety the trail needs to be blazed in both directions, in case one needs to backtrack if a trail is blocked, if someone is sick or injured, if there’s not enough time left to complete the hike as the designer intended, etc. In addition, many times I have passed one blaze without immediately seeing the next blaze and without being certain of the direction of the trail, and I have looked back to see the blazes on the trees that I have already passed, which help me to line up the direction in which I should continue to travel.]

Trailhead

The land was pretty, with a stream flowing through it.

Stream

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that there were many downed trees, limbs and branches, which made hiking very difficult.

Fallen tree

In some places, trees had fallen a while ago and the path had been cleared by chainsaw.

Path cleared by chainsaw

However, in other places, there were trees that had just fallen down in the snowstorm of eight days earlier, and they had not been cleared. There were also downed trees that had been dead quite a while, and in those cases it’s hard to tell when they fell. It could be that these trails were never cleared after Hurricane Irene came through in August.

Fallen tree

Here a large tree has fallen, only to be caught by a much smaller tree. It should probably be taken down, for safety.

Fallen tree

Branches block the trail.

Trail blocked by branches

More branches and limbs:

Fallen branches

Tree limbs block path

In addition to the trails being blocked by fallen trees, it was hard to find the trails at times because of the heavy leaf cover. Also, some of the blazes were on trees that had fallen, which also made it harder to follow the path.

Fallen trees

Storm-wrecked tree

After about 1-1/2 hours, I gave up, as it wasn’t fun constantly detouring or climbing over downed trees. I never made it to the Appalachian Trail that day, so I don’t know what shape it was in.

Manitoga looks like a nice place to revisit someday, but it’ll be a big effort to clear its trails.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged New York, Putnam County | Leave a comment

Archives