Stone Memorial Shelter via Kakiat Park (Harriman State Park)
Distance: 6.55 miles
Elevation: 1,437 feet
Elevation: 1,437 feet
Time: 3 hours, 38 minutes (3 hours, 27 minutes moving)
Hike Type: Reverse Lollipop
Hiking Challenges: Harriman Shelter Challenge; Harriman Trail Challenge
Hike Type: Reverse Lollipop
Hiking Challenges: Harriman Shelter Challenge; Harriman Trail Challenge
The Hike
Another HOT afternoon with a sleep drive after work to get two more shelters! Ambient temperature was 95 degrees but what would summer be without a bit of sweat (a lot more pleasant...)? Kakiat Park has a lot of nice signage (and bathrooms!) with a fancy bridge right away. There was a very intermittent breeze which was appreciated. I crossed the bridge and turned right onto the Old Mill Trail, just past the warning sign for Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads (I did not see any snakes, thankfully).
I crossed paths with two guys right away, they would be some of the last people I see for the day! The Old Mill Trail entered a piney area that smelled like a Yankee Candle before coming to a stream. Even though it was an actual oven outside, it was shockingly peaceful outside.
The Old Mill Trail passed the old mill in question and then crossed a little footbridge over a still stream. Soon after, the trail terminates at the white Kakiat Trail, which continues on. It was here, 15 minutes into my hike, that I realized I forgot to start my watch! Truly tragic. All that work and it doesn't count! (only half joking...).
The Kakiat Trail terminates at the orange Mountain Trail, where I turned right to start my ascent of the ridge. There were MANY old/abandoned paths in this initial low area, but the trail was well-blazed. The climb had officially begun! There were many little birds cheering me on, but I could hardly see them through my sweat.
The Mountain Trail crosses a pipe line cut and officially enters Harriman State Park, where a sign warns hikers to be prepared. IMMEDIATELY the trail gets rougher and steeper... thanks. I passed a VERY dead bird and admired some fungi that were growing on nearby trees. The climb was pretty steady but I actively took it slow to preserve any ounce of life that was left in my body.
At an unmapped/unmarked trail split, the Mountain Trail veers right and somehow gets rockier. There was an off-trail scramble to a nice graffitied viewpoint with plenty of litter... sigh. There was also an easier way up here around the back... sigh.
The trail descended slightly from here and then continued to climb (I also remembered that I did leg day this morning, further slowing me down to a glacial pace). There was a small, fun little chimney scramble and then the Mountain Trail steepens again. This time, though, it was rewarded with a life-saving breeze and a second viewpoint.
From the second viewpoint, the grade began to ease and the trail got grassier, which I'm used to at this point in Harriman State Park. There was another partial view behind me of a very hazy NYC, which was cool to see.
A third viewpoint was soon after from a height-of-land and the trail continued along a beautiful plateau which would have been amazing in normal weather. At this point it was 93 degrees in the shade and 101 on the sunny rocks. There were many blueberries and huckleberries, and eventually another view from a large power cut.
Following the power cut, the Mountain Trail descended on an access road past a family of turkeys and another pipe line cut. The Mountain Trail terminates after here, and I continued left, again on the white-blazed Kakiat Trail. There was another warning sign telling folks that Kakiat Park is the other direction, which was nice.
The breeze was relatively consistent now, which made this sweat fest slightly better. After a short, rough, gradual ascent, the Kakiat Trail continues straight at a junction with the yellow-blazed Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail, where I turned right.
Turning right, the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail ascends steeply for a short bit to the land of 1,000 blueberries. I was sad it was so hot - I didn't even want my free snack! The trail continued to meander on a very narrow footbed through a carwash of low-lying blueberry bushes with some buzzing bugs, eventually descending to a sag.
Climbing gently again, I saw a deer almost dancing with a nice glacial erratic, but I wasn't able to get a photo in time. There was a nice view along this gentle climb, even past a big ol' hairy poop. The trail never got much wider than a foot, and it felt very claustrophobic at times (for me, any sane person would have been completely fine). The Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail descends yet again into an open area that provides a nice, hazy view to a junction with a white-blazed trail - I continued on toward the shelter.
The next landmark was "The Egg" - a cool boulder with a nice view. I was getting close now! There was one more short descent to a wet area covered in boulders. After, there was a short steep climb up to the Stone Memorial Shelter! I took a very short break to inhale some liquids before getting back into the tree cover to stay as cool as humanly possibile. I was lowkey dreading the return trip, but it had to be done!
I've had this numb arm pain all day today, not sure what it's from, probably either working out or playing clarinet, but it was HURTING at this point in the hike (I'm guessing from swelling due to mild dehydration). I could also feel how wet my socks were from the sweat that had dripped down my leg... having fun!!
A neat feature of hiking during blueberry season is that there is SO MUCH small animal poop that is dyed blue/purple from the berries - I actually found that to be very cool! I pushed through the endless ups and downs of this hike, and the final climb up was expectedly painful. Plus, my lungs were starting to be mildly asthmatic, which was just the icing on the cake!
I did eventually make my way back onto the Kakiat Trail, which I would follow all the way back to the Old Mill Trail. The occasional breeze continued to do the lord's work, and all my brain could do was sing "As We Stumble Along" from the Drowsy Chaperone. There weren't any pest-bugs out today but there were ENDLESS grasshoppers of all shapes and sizes, which was kind of cool?
The Kakiat Trail crossed a few power/pipe line cuts with unique views before reentering the woods for a final time. I saw a black squirrel! It reminded me of UMass Amherst and Kent State Universities (where both of my degrees are from, and where there are also black squirrels). The trail followed a trickling stream for a moment, crossed another pipe line cut, and officially left Harriman State Park.
After one more final pipe line crossing, we were back into the woods for good. There was one pile of bear poop, hauntingly illuminated by an orange glow of a 5pm sun (I believe wildfire smoke was in the air). FINALLY, I would reenter familiar territory at the terminus of the Old Mill Trail (I re-hiked this section of Kakiat), where it was delightfully flat with only a few gnatty bugs.
I saw another person for the first time in a WHILE and made it back to the main Kakiat Park area. I was so happy to be done with this one! I was absolutely beat but I do think I handled the extreme heat better than I thought I would. The final test for me was avoiding eye contact with the man playing guitar directly in front of my car as I got changed and ready to go... Six shelters done!
Step-By-Step
- Park at Kakait Park.
- Start hike by walking across bridge.
- At first jct., turn left onto Old Mill Trail (blue).
- At terminus, continue straight onto Kakiat Trail (white).
- At terminus, turn right onto Mountain Trail (orange).
- At terminus, turn left onto Kakiat Trail (white).
- At next jct., turn right onto Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail (yellow).
- At Stone Memorial Shelter, turn around.
- At jct. with Kakiat Trail, turn left to retrace steps.
- At jct. with Mountain Trail, continue straight on Kakiat Trail.
- At terminus, turn left onto Mountain Trail (orange).
- Walk back to car.
"Kakiat Trail" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. At 6.0 miles, the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail (S-BM) (yellow) crosses. On the S-BM just south of this junction are two huge boulders (many others are nearby) which were named "Grandma and Grandpa Rocks" by Place and Torrey when they scouted the S-BM in 1926 (N.Y. Post, 4/21/36).
Descending Cobus Mountain partly on woods roads, Kakiat reaches teh power line service road of Orange and Rockland Utilities at 6.4 miles. Here, the Mountain Trail (orange) leaves on the right, while the Kakiat Trail makes a sharp left turn. After crossing the power line, the trail enters Kakiat County Park and crosses a gas pipeline at 6.65 miles (look carefully here for the blazes). Further down, it goes into Kakiat County Park and once again uses wide woods roads. This county park was created in 1963 when Rockland County acquired 239 acres owned by Anthony Cuccolo (he also owned Kakiat Farm) and the adjoining 105 acres owned by Baillie. At 7.15 miles, the trail approaches the Mahwah River. The old Kakiat Lodge was across the river here. The Kakiat Trail now turns right on a park road, and ends 0.25 mile further, 7.4 miles from the start. A parking area is across the Mahwah River, 0.1 mile to the left.
In the 1920s, the Tramp and Trail Club of New York City rented a lodge at the corner of Route 202 (it was then known as Route 122) and Grandview Avenue. It was called the Kakiat Lodge, probably because it was across the road from the Kakiat Farm. In 1926 that club, led by Frank Place and Raymond Torrey, marked a trail (white K blazes) from the Kakiat Lodge to Stony Brook. They often referred to it as the Tatcony Trail (the initials of Tramp and Trail Club of New York).
The name Kakiat is derived from a grant of land made in 1696 by Governor Benjamin Fletcher, in the name of King William III, to Daniel Honan and Michael Hawdon. The grant included the land from Sloatsburg to Monsey and Pomona. The Minsi Indians called it Kackyachtaweke. This region, once known as Kakiat, was later named New Hempstead by settlers from Long Island. Eventually it became the Town of Ramapo.
For many years, there was an historical marker at the junction of Route 202 and Grandview Avenue, 0.5 mile northeast of the entrance to Kakiat Park, which read: KAKIAT LODGE: Aaron (Aurie) Blauvelt (1738-1801), French & Indian War veteran and Orangetown Militia captain in the Revolution, occupied a stone house here and ran a saw and grist mill on the Mahwah River nearby. Son, Carnelius Blauvelt (1766-1843), a colonel in the War of 1812, inherited the farm. His son, Richard, added a foundry to the mill and probably built this homestead c. 1830. It served as an inn in recent decades.
"Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail" from Harriman Trails, 4th Ed. (2018)
[...]. S-BM crosses the Kakiat Trail (white). To the right on this trail, it is 1.5 miles to Route 202. S-BM now climbs over Cobus Mountain (1,150 feet), named after Jacobus Smith, said to have been the brother of Claudius Smith, the bandit (see p. 53). After descending through mountain laurel on a rocky footpath, S-BM climbs the next hill. A short distance beyond the summit, a viewpoint looks down into the glacial cirque behind Horse Stable Mountain, with New York City visible in the distance on a clear day. The trail now descends to teh Conklins Crossing Trail (white), which ends here.
The S-BM trail was proposed in 1924 by Major Welch, General Manager of the Palisades Interstate Park, as a project for the Trail Conference. Under the general direction of Frank Place, the trail builders divided the task into sections. Place himself, with Torrey's help, took the southern portion from Suffern to Conklin's Crossing. He reported: "I have already started scouting over the ridges at the lower end of the Ramapo Rampart" (N.Y. Post, 10/28/24). It was Frank Place who, in 1925, named the Kitchen Stairs, the Valley of Dry Bones, and the Grandma and Grandpa Rocks.
The pipeline over Nordkop Mountain was built in 1953 by the Algonquin Company. Before crossing the mountain, this pipeline goes south from Ladentown along the foot of the hills, parallel to Route 202. The Columbia Gas Trandmission Company pipeline, crossed by S-BM near the Kakiat Trail, was built in 1949 and widened in 2007.
[...]. Until 1963, the Park boundary was 0.5 mile north of the Kakiat Trail. The first 0.5 mile north were on land belonging to the Ramapo Land Company (of the Pierson family). At times they closed their land to hikers who, when allowed to hike on the property, were required to pay a fee for a permit to hike the S-BM, Kakiat, HTS and Seven Hills Trails.
The original route of the S-BM Trail is described in detail in the second (1934) edition of the New York Walk Book, pp. 158-62.
Continuing north from the Conklins Crossing Trail, S-BM passes a great boulder named "The Egg," with views to the east and southeast. It then descends to cross Many Swamp Brook and climbs up a ledge to the E.D. Stone Memorial Shelter (built 1935), which it reaches at 5.95 miles. [...].
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