[Journal entry for October 16, 2012; Ramapo Torne, Harriman State Park] Ramapo Torne is a tall hill on the southwestern edge of Harriman State Park. Its bald rocky summit gives it a tower-like appearance; hence the designation torne, which is derived from toren, the Dutch word for tower. I arrived in the late afternoon of a beautiful fall day, bringing my daughter’s Australian Cattle Dog Estel as a hiking companion. We parked at the Reeves Meadow Visitors Center, off of Seven Lakes Drive, a few miles east of Sloatsburg NY. The open meadow there offers a good view of Pound Mountain, to the north, and the dramatic cliffs on its south side. Several trees along the margin of the meadow were decked out in the bright red fall foliage. Ramapo Torne, which is to the south, is not visible from the meadow.

We took the Seven Hills Trail (blazed in blue) southward, through woods full of beech trees, whose now-yellow leaves were glowing in the sunlight. Occasional maples, with their red leaves, add a little variety. The trail crosses several small streams. Estel waded through the first, but adopted my use of stepping stones for most of the others. Some sections of the trail were quite rocky. My two legs do better than Estel’s four in such terraine, and reduce (but don’t eliminate) the speed differential between me and this very fast dog. The trail passes numerous large boulders and rock ledges and a small fragmites marsh. Initially the grade of the trail is low, but it eventually steepens as it starts to climb up the flank of Ramapo Torne. Seven Hills connects with the Hillburn-Torne-Sebago Trail (HTS, blazed in orange); we took it up the ridge to the summit. The summit area is a grassy meadow with rock ledges and some shrubs and low trees. It commands a wide view of the surrounding hills of the Hudson Highlands, all now near the peak of their fall foliage. Looking east, we could see the cliffs of the hill called the Russian Bear. A little down from the summit, on the western side, is a rocky overlook that commands a nice view of Nordkup Mountain to the south and the lowlands of the Newark Basin beyond it. The Manhattan skyline is visible in the distance. I could see that the new Freedom Tower now rivals the Empire State Building in height.

After resting for ten minutes or so at the summit, we headed back. Our return trip was almost all downhill and so relatively fast and easy. We started two deer that were feeding beside the trail. The sun was very low on the horizon when we reached Reeves Meadow, and lighting up the cliffs on Pound Mountain particularly well. Almost exactly two hours.