[Journal entry for November 10, 2013; Timp Pass, Harriman State Park, New York]. Dallas and I parked at the hikers’ lot off of Seven Lakes Drive, just south of Bear Mountain. Many hikers were about; the lot was quite crowded. The morning was sunny, with temperatures in the mid-fifties, Fahrenheit. However, by the time we started our hike, at about 12:30 PM, the sky had clouded over and light rain had begun to fall. I donned my poncho and hat and left my camera behind.

We walked a loop around West Mountain, taking mostly woods roads. This mountain is a prominent north-south ridge that’s about two miles in length. The hikers’ lot is just beyond the north end of the ridge. Our loop, which we took clockwise, took us completely around the mountain and was about eight miles in length.

We first took the 1777W Trail (blazed with a red 1777W) but quickly connected with the Doodletown Bridle Path. This woods road heads east, maintaining a relatively low grade though country containing old stone walls and foundations and other signs of past habitation. The middle section is through a narrow gorge at the bottom of which flows Doodletown Brook. The north side of the gorge is steepest, with tall cliff in places. Peering up at the cliff top, I could see an open spot that might offer a nice view to the south. However, we forwent such a detour, which might have been time-consuming, and continued eastward until we reached Pleasant Valley Road, a wide woods road. The general area of this intersection was the site of Doodletown, a now-defunct hamlet. Numerous placards identify the sites of the houses that once stood on the sides of the road, but very few ruins of any sort remain. Only the presence of ornamental and fruit trees hints of the inhabited past. That era ended in the 1960’s when the State purchased the land.

We headed south on Pleasant Valley Road, past a open field across which Bald Mountain can be seen, and then connected with Timp Pass Road. The intersection is near a wide glade that hosts a little stone shelter. Timp Pass Road is narrower and more eroded than Pleasant Valley Road. In contrast to the hiking trails, few of the woods roads in Harriman State Park are blazed, and for a while we were unsure whether we were on the right road. The park is riddled with woods roads, some built hundreds of years ago and most unmaintained. The minor ones often fade away after a quarter mile or so. However, our route proved correct: the road soon began to follow a little stream, Timp Brook, began to hug the steep eastern flank of West Mountain, and began to rise in elevation and steepness as it ascended up to Timp Pass.

I has not walked Timp Pass Road for about a decade (and Dallas never before), and I had forgotten how impressive are all the rocks. Both sides of the valley have cliffs, and though they are not continuous, they are in places very tall – perhaps a hundred feet in places. The ground around the cliffs is littered with gigantic angular blocks, resting against one another, seemingly precariously, and making little caves. Some of the cliffs overhang, too. As we ascended, the quality of the road surface worsened; some spots were especially difficult to traverse because of loose stones, now treacherously covered by recently-fallen leaves. We were careful and reached Timp Pass without incident.

Timp Pass is a saddle between The Timp, a hill on our east, and West Mountain, on our west. The pass itself is unremarkable; mostly it’s just a level spot dividing the uphill and downhill grades of the road, although it does host a little wetland that it the source of Timp Brook. In contrast, the surrounding hills are really quite remarkable. The west side of The Timp has a steep and tall cliff, whose base is heaped up with giant boulders that must have tumbled down during some ancient landslide. The east flank of West Mountain is mostly open glades, with many rock ledges offering great views to the south.

Today, however, we climbed neither The Timp nor West Mountain, but instead continued south on the woods road. South of Timp Pass the woods road is concurrent with the Red Cross Trail (blazed with red crosses). We found the first few hundred yards even more treacherous than the worst sections north of the pass. It is steep and slippery. However, the scenery is great, with open woods full of large stone blocks, and on the east side, a towering stone cliff. Once again, the cliff top looked to me as if it would offer a nice view. Once again, we pushed on without making any detours. The weather had been gradually improving. We began to experience flashes of sun around the time we crossed Timp Pass and by the end of our hike the sky has cleared completely.

We connected with the North Ski Trail – just another woods road – and took it west, along the southern flank of West Mountain. It passes several small but pretty wetlands. While most of the trees along our overall route have lost their leaves, a few beeches along this woods road still had their fall-yellow foliage. After a few minutes, we reached Beechy Bottom Road and took it north.

Beechy Bottom Road is easily accessible from the giant parking lots of the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, off of the Palisades Interstate Parkway. Consequently, we know it well and reaching it gave us a sense that the rest of our hike would be familiar and routine (which indeed was the case). We soon reached the Appalachian Trail (blazed in white) crossing. Dallas pointed out that the innumerable through hikers who crossed Beechy Bottom Road on their ways north or south had worn a little rut across it.

We walked the entire length of Beechy Bottom Road, passing some sort of abandoned waste treatment plant at its northern terminus, consisting of several sand pits that seemed to have been used for filtration. We then took a sequence of three trails, Anthony Wayne (blazed in white), Timp-Torne (blazed in blue) and 1777W to reach the hikers’ parking lot. The sun was getting low in the sky as we walked up Beechy Bottom Road and by the time we reached the Anthony Wayne Trail it had set below the level of the western hills, putting us in deep shade. The trails we took are pretty enough, with some larch trees and small wetlands with fall-red bushes. But we hurried along with only minimal viewing, reaching our car at about 5 PM.

This was one of our longer hikes, taking about four and a half hours.

[Journal entry for November 13, 2013]. The day has started perfectly clear and is predicted to remain so through evening. Dallas is away in Maine. I decide to repeat our recent walk to Timp Pass with a focus on photography. I arrive at 8:30 AM and make to changes to Dallas and my former itinerary: I park at the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, not the hiker’s lot, starting the loop where the Appalachian Trail intersects Beechy Bottom Road; I walk the loop counter-clockwise, not clockwise; and I make many side trips to visit photogenic places, instead of always pushing on.

I document only the side trips here.

Since I park at Anthony Wayne, I need to take the Beechy Bottom Trail (unblazed) and the Appalachian Trail (blazed in white) in order to connect with Beechy Bottom Road. I visit a large beaver pond along the Beechy Bottom Trail, viewing it from two different points along it shore. A thin layer of ice coats the water. The morning is cold; my car thermometer read 38F as I drove up. The pond actually is two adjacent but distinct ponds, with the southern one being both newer and higher. I walk out onto the dam impounding the southern pond; it looks freshly made. Unfortunately, I get my feet wet in the process; all the newly-fallen leaves make wet spots hard to see.

I climb up onto a low rocky knob, just east of the Red Cross Trail. Its summit is bare and someone has built a fire ring on one of the rock ledges. I can see the summit of West Mountain, but the knob is really too low to have a good view.

I climb up the east flank of West Mountain at a point just a little south of Timp Pass. All the rocky ledges, intervening grassy glades and occasional solitary tree are really beautiful. I have a wonderful view of the Timp. My presence seems to have unsettle a group of Turkey Vultures; they take to the air and fly circles above me. I connect with the Ramapo-Dunderburg Trail (RD, blazed in red), which crosses this part of West Mountain, and take it past more ledges that offer wonderful views of the Hudson Highlands at the south end of the park. I can see Lake Bullowa (actually just a small pond) nestled between the hills and the Hudson River, lit up silver by the morning sun, further away. I take RD back down to Timp Pass.

I hike up to the top of the cliff that looms above the Red Cross Trail, east of the trail and south of the Timp Pass. I have a hard time finding it, for I loop too far east and wind up crossing several smaller knobs as well. One low knob has a stand of Red Cedar Trees growing on its summit. One side has a prominent cliff that is quite picturesque, on account of several large and strangely-shaped blocks that have tumbled off. I eventually find the spine of the higher knob, and climb from ledge to ledge until I reach its summit. My guess was correct; the view from the cliff edge is wonderful. I have a great view to the south and can see the eastern flank of West Mountain, as well. Furthermore, several interesting solitary evergreen trees are growing on the cliff edge and are very scenic. I descend by following the spine northward. It meets the Red Cross Trail just south of Timp Pass. I will take that route if I ever climb up again; it’s much more direct.

I visit the little wetland in Timp Pass, getting my feet wet again.

I walk amongst the enormous boulders of the landslide debris field at the base of The Timp. The individual boulders are impressive; the large area over which so many are haphazardly scattered even more so.

I hiked up into a subsidiary valley from the main valley that Timp Pass Road follows north of the pass. Its walls are all low cliffs. I climb up onto the rock above the cliff. The view is mostly obscured by surrounding trees, but I have a nice view of the West Mountain ridge crest.

I hike down to Timp Brook at a point near where the western side of the valley has a tall cliff face. No water is flowing in the brook, but there are a few isolated pools of water here and there.

I poke around the area of the little shelter at the intersection of Timp Brook Road and Pleasant Valley Road. The shelter itself is completely empty and bare, without any sort of platforms or furniture, but the fire place outside the shelter looks recently-used. Timp Brook crosses Pleasant Valley Road near the shelter. A low concrete dam, perhaps three feet high, once dammed the brook at a point just east of the road. The open area around the shelter has ruins of other structures, such as foundations and steps, so I suppose that it was once a farm or similar habitation.

I leave the Doodletown Bridle Path, in the gorge section, and to down to Doodletown Creek. It is a thin meandering stream with grassy banks. I then hike up to the top of the cliff on the north side of the gorge, skirting its eastern edge where the rock is merely steep and not vertical. I find a wonderful overlook at the top that looks southeast and which commands a great view of Bald Mountain. I continue along the spine of the hill, bushwhacking through rather too many laurel bushes, until I encounter Doodletown Bridle Path again.

I spend a frustrating five minutes trying to photography pretty fall-red bushes in a small wetland along the 1777W Trail. To the eye they look bright red, but the camera sees them as less vivid. Their leaves are indeed red, but not set close enough together to given the impression of solidity when seen from a distance.

I visit the beaver pond on Beechy Bottom Brook again. The afternoon sun is lighting up West Mountain fully, in contrast to the morning when the hillside was partly in shadow. One again, I get my feet wet.

I reach my car at 3PM, the loop and all the detours having taken six and a half hours.