Bald Rocks Shelter & Hogencamp Mountain (Harriman State Park)
Distance: 6.05 miles
Elevation: 761 feet
This stretch of trail was definitely on an old road, which meandered beautifully through the woods. Down by the mine there were a few flies and mosquitos, but that was really the end of any annoying bugs. Higher up, I entered the land of 1,000 blueberries, but due to the heat they were HOT, which was not as refreshing as I wanted, tragically. There was a grassy spur path to a partial view in a beautiful grassy area (grassy is a theme here).
Elevation: 761 feet
Time: 2 hours, 32 minutes (2 hours, 27 minutes moving)
Hike Type: Loop
Hiking Challenges: 52 Hike Challenge 2024, Harriman Trail Challenge, Harriman Shelter Challenge
Hike Type: Loop
Hiking Challenges: 52 Hike Challenge 2024, Harriman Trail Challenge, Harriman Shelter Challenge
The Hike
I was READY for my redemption hike at Harriman State Park after last summer's washout and last week's bug-fest. The plan was to hike to the Stone Memorial Shelter from the Equestrian Center but... signage was confusing. A short ways into the driveway there is a sign saying "no admittance," so instead of pushing boundaries I pivoted to Plan B, which led me right back to Lake Skannatati - the same parking area I've now been to three times!
It was visually much nicer than my last two visits, and at 85 degrees, it was actually much cooler out than the rest of the tri-state. Humidity was relatively low... it was actually kind of nice out?? I refused to get my hopes up, though. I got my gear together, enjoyed the sound of some SCREAMING bullfrogs, and overheard a conversation about swimming in this lake, which is clearly posted no swimming. The hike officially began where the Long Path continues away from Seven Lakes Drive.
"Lake Skannatati" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
After Lake Askoti had been filled with water in 1937, work began on another lake across the road, already named Skannatati, which means "the other side." This second lake needed two dams. The first was finished in 1938; the second in 1947. The lake is fed by the overflow from Lake Askoti (once the Stillwater Creek, which ran into Lake Kanawauke) and by the brook, further to the west, which runs down from Pine Swamp.
There is a parking area at the lake edge, much used by fishermen and picnickers. The Arden-Surebridge Trail (red triangle on white) starts from the parking area and heads north along a shoulder of Pine Swamp Mountain. The Long Path (aqua) crosses the parking area and heads west, between the lake and the mountain.
A gentle knoll projects into the north side of the lake, and just beyond is the cascade from Pine Swamp. In 1921, when the Boy Scouts built their White Bar Trail system, their Camp Forest Ranger was located on that knoll (there were six such camps on the 35-mile trail). About 1942, the Boy Scouts marked a path from Lake Skannatati to the Hogencamp Mine. This path was adopted in 1944 by the Trail Conference for their Red Cross Trail. Later it became the Skannatati Trail, and it is now part of the Long Path.
The Long Path followed the shore of the lake with an occasional viewpoint through beautiful, grassy woods. The trail then rises into a blueberry-filled area and the continues through more open, grassy woods. There was a rock bridge over some mud and an easy stream crossing on boulders. I was delighted to discover that bugs weren't too bad - just a few occasional buzzes in my ear (which is paradise after the swarms last time).
I was definitely sweating, but not passing away, which was a welcomed change. Continuing through the grassy woods, I passed a grassy stream and descended into thicker woods (the kind where flies like to live!! I was still fine, but was nervous...). After rising slightly, the yellow Dunning Trail joins, and then veers off left, descending to the Hogencamp Mine area.
"Hogencamp Mine" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
The Hogencamp Mine is on the Dunning Trail, about 0.2 mile south of its junction with the Long Path, and 0.2 mile north of a junction with the woods road coming up through the abandoned camp at Little Long Pond. The largest openings are fairly narrow cuts on the mountainside. There are at least six openings, all in the line of one vein of ore. One opening is a vertical shaft about 12 feet across. Another shaft near the trail is filled with water. A six-inch pipe rises from the water. Across the trail, iron bars are fixed in a rock, and nearby is a concrete base with more bars. These were probably used to anchor machinery for pumping and hoisting.
Ore from the mine was put into buckets and hoisted over the cliff above the mine. The buckets were carried on a tramway which took them up a valley (the Long Path runs along the hill on the side of that valley) to a point on a mine road where they could be unloaded into horsedrawn carts. The stone supports of the old tramway can still be seen on the cliff above the mine, and in the valley up to the point where the Long Path joins the old mine road. Sharp-eyed hikers may also see up there pieces of the cables and pulleys that carried the buckets.
As at the Pine Swamp Mine, there was a small village near the mine. A well can be seen near the road, which was called the Pine Swamp Trail before 1943 when Joe Bartha made it part of the Dunning Trail.
The mine was worked steadily from 1865 to 1885 (Ransom, p. 237).
There was another stream crossing followed by a small flooded spot easily avoided by a herd path. Blueberries continued to be in abundance but now there were also Huckleberries (I had to use the Seek app to look them up - they apparently are edible). The Dunning Trail continues on, eventually opening to a huge open slab. The floor was gritty from dried-up lichens and there was a nice area to explore. Not much to see in terms of views besides geology. This area is called "Bowling Rocks," I'm guessing because of the scattered boulders and otherwise flat slab.
The sun was feeling HOT in this spot, so I kept it moving. The hike continued to be more exposed than I originally thought (I was emotionally ready for a tree tunnel with a view or two...). I went back into the woods where I heard a big THUMP not too far away... HOPEFULLY it was a deer or human, likely it was a bear. I would never find out what the thump was, thankfully.
I managed to take a shortcut spur path up to the Bald Rocks Shelter - yay! The shelter is legally just off the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red dot on white square). This shelter was a bit more rustic than the last one, maybe because it's not on the Long Path? Not sure. I did get to watch a deer munching on some leaves near the bear hang area, which was lovely.
From here, I was now on the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail, mostly following open rockface with many partial views and MANY blueberries. I feared I was going to get sunburnt (plot twist: I did, in fact, get sunburnt) once I realized much of this trail would be in the open - I thought I'd be in a tree tunnel all day!
The trail meandered in and out of the woods, almost always surrounded by blueberry bushes - some low to the ground and some taller than me. There was an occasional breeze that was amazing since it was so hot out! The continual slabs provided views of other slabs - there is some impressive geology here. There was one small stream crossing on a sketchy log and then the trail climbed yet another slab to a junction with the blue-blazed Lichen Trail.
Following this junction, the footbed narrowed. The Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail swung around an impressive boulder, possibly named "Ship Rock" according to the map. Climbing some more, the trail eventually rises to Hogencamp Mountain where there is a beautiful view into the park, including towards Jackie Jones Mountain!
From Hogencamp Mountain, there was a steep descent down to the intersection known as "Times Square," where multiple trails cross. From here, I began to follow the Arden Surebridge Trail, blazed in red. This trail was wider with rocky footing on a gentle road grade.
The trail continues to descend gentle, eventually crossing a stream with a gentle cascade and the Dunning Trail junction. It looped around some wetlands with LOUD bullfrogs and many cellar/mine holes, which I believe are a part of the Pine Swamp Mine.
"Pine Swamp Mine" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
The Pine Swamp Mine is located in the area surrounding the junction of the Dunning Trail (yellow) and Arden-Surebridge Trail (A-SB) (red triangle on white). There are eight openings to the mine, the largest being the farthest south. This opening is on the Dunning Trail, about 0.15 mile south of its junction with the A-SB trail, or 0.5 mile north of its intersection with the Long Path (aqua). A large mine dump of rock tailings rises about 60 feet on the hillside near the trail. By climbing over the dump, one comes to a large cut, about 25 feet wide, with high walls on each side. In the cut, there is a perpendicular shaft, now filled with water. The cut leads into a 30-foot high passageway tunneled into the hillside, which runs uphill for about 125 feet. A skylight overhead lets some light into the passageway. Other openings may be found a little further north along the Dunning Trail, and on the A-SB Trail, just east of its junction with the Dunning Trail.
When this mine was active, there was a small village nearby, with homes, barns, stores and a saloon. The foundations of some of these structures can still be seen along the A-SB Trail, east of its junction with the Dunning Trail (about 500 feet southeast from where it leaves the old mine road).
The mine was probably first worked in 1830 by Gouverneur Kemble, owner of the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York (Ransom, pp. 141, 238).
After a short flat spell, the Arden Surebridge Trail begins to climb again, briefly descend, and then climb some more before leveling off to cross a stream. After one more little climb, the trail follows the contour line around the grassy cone of Pine Swamp Mountain in some beautiful woods.
As I began my final descent, I was thankful that Harriman State Park FINALLY got its redemption story told. This was a LOVELY hike on a hot day with great views, I was really thrilled! The Arden Surebridge Trail continued a steady descent back to the parking lot, where there were many folks out swimming and fishing.
Step-By-Step
- Park at Lake Skannatati parking area.
- Start hike on Long Path (teal) at the Long Path/Arden Surbridge jct.
- Follow Long Path around Lake Skannatati and into the woods.
- At jct. with Dunning trail (yellow), follow left where trails coincide.
- At the split, turn left onto Dunning trail (yellow).
- At jct., turn right onto Ramapo-Dunderberg trail (red dot/white rectangle).
- At Times Square, veer right onto Arden Surebridge trail (red).
- Follow Arden Surebridge trail back to car.
"Long Path from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. At the edge of the lake, LP passes the beginning of the Arden-Surebridge Trail (red triangle on white). LP follows the north shore of the lake, crosses Pine Swamp Brook, and then turns uphill to the right. At 10.5 miles, it joins the Dunning Trail (yellow).
[...]. The Long Path goes west with the Dunning Trail for about 250 feet. It then bears right where the trails diverge, at a fork. [...].
"Dunning Trail" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. On the ridge of Black Rock Mountain, 1.7 miles from the start, the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (R-D) (red dot on white) crosses. (The Bald Rocks Shelter is 0.15 mile to the south on the R-D Trail.) From here, Dunning proceeds downhill and eastward, crossing a little stream adn then a bare, rocky area. The boulders that dot the bare rock gave rise to the name "Bowling Rocks."
About 0.15 mile downhill from Bowling Rocks, the original route of the Dunning Trail goes left into the laurels. This path, now unmarked, leads in 0.3 mile to the Long Path. Dunning continues downhill, following the Crooked Road. At 2.65 miles, the Crooked Road turns sharply down right, while Dunning continues straight ahead. (The Crooked Road, a lovely old grassy road, descends 0.5 mile to Little Long Pond, passing through the abandoned Girl Scout Camp Quid Nunc, which means "what now?")
In another 0.2 mile, the trail passes the extensive cuts of the Hogencamp Mine on the hillside to the left. A short distance beyond, as the trail passes a swamp on the right, the tailings from another shaft of the Hogencamp Mine can be seen on the left. This mine was worked from 1865 to 1885, when the Clove Furnace was finally shut down (see pp. 379-80).
At 3.05 miles, the Long Path (aqua) joins from the left. It runs jointly with Dunning for a short distance, and then departs to the right and goes to Lake Skannatati. [...].
In 1934, Dr. James M. Dunning, chairman of the AMC Trails Committee, personally maintained the AT from the Bear Mountain Bridge to the Connecticut line. In April 1933, he proposed a new trail, to be a short-cut to the R-D Trail for hikers from Southfields. The proposal was endorsed by Major Welch, General Manager of the Park. Dunning, Ridsdale Ellis and other AMC members cut the new trail from Nurian's trail to the Crooked Road and thence to the R-D on the ridge. By June 1933, the red-blazed trail was complete. Unfortunately, Dunning had used Nurian's route from Stahahe Dam to Island Pond Road, and this led to a historic dispute. Kerson Nurian would not tolerate the new red markers, and he painted them out. Dunning then started his trail on the top of the ridge and relocated it along nearby Green Pond, and the dispute subsided.
The Dunning Trail was blazed red until 1943, when Joseph Bartha repainted it yellow and extended it from the R-D trail past Hogencamp and Pine Swamp Mines to end at the A-SB Trail. In 1979, the Dunning Trail was rerouted to avoid passing an open cut of the Hogencamp Mine at the edge of the trail (the Long Path now uses that route, however).
"Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. The trail passes just east of teh summit and goes by the Bald Rocks Shelter (built in 1933( at 6.25 miles. 0.15 mile further, the Dunning Trail (yellow) crosses. R-D soon goes over an open rock surface (known as the Whaleback), passing through an area burned by a forest fire but now starting to regenerate with evergreen trees.
Just north of the Whaleback, on July 13, 1964, a bronze plaque was placed by the Fresh Air Club of New York on a boulder to the right of the trail in memory of George Holdthwaite (1889-1960). On December 22, 1929, he hiked the entire R-D Trail in 4 hours and 51 minutes - the record time for hiking this trail. He is also remembered for his great knowledge of Park trails and as a hike leader. The plaque was vandalized in March 2016 and has not been replaced.
After descending to cross a stream on a log bridge, R-D comes to another open rock where the Lichen Trail (blue L on white) leaves to the left at 6.85 miles. Just beyond is "Ship Rock," a boulder beside the trail that looks like a ship's prow, bottom up.
R-D now turns east and goes down about 40 feet, then up over Hogencamp Mountain. (When the trail was first marked in 1920, there was also a ruined fire tower here on the 1,353-foot summit; N.Y. Post, 4/1/21.) "Times Square," parked by a fireplace next to a great boulder, is reached at 7.55 miles. Here, R-D crosses the Arden-Surebridge Trail (red triangle on white) and the Long Path (aqua). [...].
"Arden Surebridge Trail" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. A-SB/LP turns right (east) on the Surebridge Mine Road and in about 500 feet reaches a junction known as "Times Square," marked by a stone fireplace beside a large boulder. Here, the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail (red dot on white) crosses, and in another 75 feet the Long Path departs to the right. A-SB continues along the road and begins to descent. At 5.0 miles, it reaches a brook where the Dunning Trail (yellow) starts on the right. On the other side of the brook, there is a large opening of the Pine Swamp Mine to the left of the trail. After passing three smaller mine openings, A-SB bears right, leaving the wide path, and drops down a bank. It soon passes several stone foundations on the left. After going by the edge of Pine Swamp, the trail begins a gradual climb to the shoulder of Pine Swamp Mountain. At 5.7 miles, the Red Cross Trail begins on the left. A-SB now descends gently to end, at 6.15 miles, at the parking area for Lake Skannatati. Just before reaching the parking area, the Long Path (aqua) comes in from the right.
The Arden-Surebridge Trail was first blazed during the summer of 1921 by J. Ashton Allis. He was a leader of the Fresh Air Club and the AMC and was a founder of the new Palisades Park Trail Conference. In prepartion for his AMC hike the following weekend, he marked the route as a short-cut from Arden station to the R-D Trail on Hogencamp Mountain. It is shown as the "Allis Short Trail" on a map in the N.Y. Post (10/14/21). By December 1922, it had been extended by members of the Green Mountain Club from the R-D Trail to Camp Thendara on Lake Tiorati, and was marked with white wooden arrows and red metal triangles inscribed "A-SB."
From the Erie Station at Arden (located about 0.7 mile north of the present-day Arden Valley Road), the trail crossed Arden Brook at the Harriman Dairy bottling house and went up the wooden steps beside the old Greenwood Furnace. From the upper terrace, it followed the Echo Lake Road, which proceeded to teh east on the south side of Arden Brook. At a fork, the trail turned right and went through the chicken farm and pastures. Then, at another fork, it turned left onto an old grass-grown road taht led to the west side of Island Pond. After leaving the grassy road, A-SB went over a rise, crossed the outler brook from Island Pond, and climbed to the top of Island Pond Mountain (then known as Echo Mountain).
It was there, on Echo Mountain, that the new Appalachian Trail, built in 1922, met the A-SB which J. Ashton Allis had built in 1921. Both trails followed the same route down through the Lemon Squeezer, which had been discovered and named by Allis. From the Lemon Squeezer to "Times Square," A-SB followed the same route that it still does today.
From "Times Square" to Lake Tiorati the trail was just a footpath in 1922. It was widened by the Park in 1936 as a fire road, from the Hurst Trail up to Pine Swamp Mine (Dunning Trail). In 1966, it was widened further, up to the Surebridge Mine Road (which also was widened to Lake Cohasset).
In 1924, because of a hunting incident, Roland Harriman closed the Echo Lake Road to hikers. They then used the Harriman Level Road south to the Elk Pen. This route, too, was closed in 1953 when the new Thruway sliced into the hillside. After that, hikers went south from the Arden station along the west side of the Erie tracks, joining the original Arden Valley Road where it came down to the river level (see p. 17). They followed that old road up to the new entrance road and the bridge that was built across the Thruway in 1954. That route, too, was abandoned after rail service to Arden ceased about 1970.
In June 1978, A-SB was rerouted south over Pine Swamp Mountain. This change was made in order to divert the trail away from the entrance to Camp Thendara on the Seven Lakes Drive, near Lake Tiorati, where there had been parking problems and complains of valdalism.
In the spring of 1995, the western end of A-SB was relocated. This reroute eliminated the roadwalk on Arden Valley Road and teh steep climb up Island Pond Mountain, which was often icy in the winter. From its start near the Elk Pen, A-SB now follows a route around the southern end of Island Pond which was used by the AT from 1980 to 1993. However, A-SB uses the route of the old Green Trail to climb Green Pond Mountain, shortening the old AT route by nearly half a mile.
The eastern end of A-SB was relocated in 2015. Formerly, the trail climbed steeply to the summit of Pine Swamp Mountain, with views over Lakes Skannatati and Kanawauke. For ecological reasons, the State decided to reroute A-SB to follow a more gradual route along a shoulder of the mountain.
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