[Journal entry for February 9-10, 2017; Overnight at Dutch Doctor Shelter] Snow fell today, leaving an accumulation of perhaps eight inches before tapering off in the afternoon. The temperature slowly fell, from the high twenties Fahrenheit during the snowfall to about twenty afterwards. I figured this was pretty much my only chance for a winter-like winter campout, for the late January and early February have been so warm.

I parked at the White Bar Trailhead (blazed in white) at the end of Johnsontown Road in Sloatsburg New York, donned my snowshoes, and headed northeast. The trail was already broken. I imagine several other hikers rushed out for this season’s rare opportunity of snow. The trail runs through the woods, between Spring Brook to the west, and Seven Lakes Drive to the east. The trees are mostly deciduous with an occasional stand of conifers. They are mostly small but a few large oaks are mixed in, which date, I guess, from the time the area was farmland,. The woods are very pretty with all the snow. It coats rocks making them look like giant eggs and adheres to the sides of tree trunks, giving them a white stripe.

I followed the snowshoe-broken trail rather too incautiously, past the point where it crossed Spring Brook. This was a mistake, for I missed an intersection and wound up following a woods road that veered west, whereas the unbroken White Bar Trail continued north without crossing the brook. This is an easy mistake to make in Harriman State Park, where a trail will follow a woods road for a mile or more but then inconspicuously diverge from it. I realized my mistake after a half mile or so and bushwhacked east through the woods, crossed Spring Brook once again by stepping from stone to stone (or egg to egg, as it seemed), and connected once again with the White Bar Trail near a small Phragmites marsh. This section of the trail was unbroken.

At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds and lit of the woods and its quilt of white snow beautifully. The shelter is another quarter mile further up the road, on a little terrace on the southwestern flank of the Dutch Doctor, one of many hills in Harriman State Park. It is a three-sided lean-to, with stone walls, a wooden roof and a wooden sleeping platform. Unlike some of the other shelters, it has no fireplace, but only a fire ring outside.

I think of this shelter as being rather too closed in by trees, but I formed that impression during the summer when the woods were leafed out. The area feels much more open in winter! I dropped off my gear and when looking for firewood. I headed up the trail, past a wide blueberry field. Wood was scarce, but I managed to find a few dead-fallen branches near the Yellow Triangle Trail intersection. I hauled them back to the shelter, broke then up, and arranged them by the fire ring. The sun was now setting and the western sky was glowing orange.

I switched into my down suit and set up my air mattress and sleeping bag while the light was still good. I had brought a MSR PocketRocket stove. It is fueled by a gas canister, a design that doesn’t perform all that well in the cold, but I figured that it would suffice given that the temperature was not all that much below freezing. I boiled water for tea and cooked an omelet in a frying pan that, although tiny, is made of thick aluminum that distributes heat well. I then relaxed inside the shelter, eating the omelet in a bagel and sipping my tea.

The light slowly dimmed, but not as much as I expected. After a while, I realized that the direction of the shadows of tree trunks and the lit side of rocks had flipped direction and that the moon must have risen. I went outside the shelter and admired the moonlit snow. The sky was clear now with the moon showing in the eastern sky and Venus in the west. I started up my bonfire, using a small can stuffed with paper and doused with kerosene as a fire starter (no purist, me). I sat by the fire and sang a few songs, including Tallis’ Cannon, as I watched the flames leap. My fire was not particularly big but it seemed to burn a long time before only glowing embers we left. I then retired to my sleeping bag.

I did not sleep immediately, but rather listened quietly to the sounds of the night. Mostly I heard the wind blowing through the trees, for its speed had picked up during the course of the evening and was now pretty fierce. Once I thought I heard an owl, but if so it was far off, for the sound was dim. Eentually OI fell asleep; the night passed uneventfully. I got up once and checked the thermometer on my backpack, which read ten Fahrenheit.

I arose at 7:30AM to daylight but with the shelter still in shadow. I coaxed the stove to life and heated up a cup of milk. I ate it over cereal while I boiled more water for tea. I then packed up. I hustled once I took the down suit off for the morning was cold and I needed to get moving. I left just as the sun was clearing the Dutch Doctor. I walked back on the White Bar trail and avoided yesterday’s detour. The woods were again beautifully lit by the sun, shining in a vividly blue sky full of puffy white clouds. The snowshoe took a little less than an hour.

I stopped twice to view Spring Brook as I drove Johnsontown Road back to Sloatsburg. It is flowing strongly. I bought coffee at Hayward’s Deli before heading back to my house.

About 17:00 overall, with two hours of snowshoeing.