[Journal entry for February 3-4, 2010. Big Hill]. I’ve delayed my annual winter campout till now, because the weather has been so warm. I normally hold it in mid to late January, but we had a week of rainy weather then. Now the weather has turned cold again and two inches of snow fell last night.

I arrive at the Suffern – Bear Mountain (SBM) Trailhead, off of Route 106 near Willow Grove NY, in the late afternoon. I cross Minisceongo Brook, the outflow of Lake Welch, via the highway bridge. It’s flowing briskly and has nice ice formations along its edges. The SBM at first follows the access road of the communication tower atop Jackie Jones Mountain, but soon switches to a woods road that passes by the ORAK Ruin, the old Buchanan estate. It must once have commanded a nice view of the Hudson River, but it’s now dilapidated. Just a few stone wall of the main building are still standing. Several smaller buildings are better preserved, though their roofs are broken. Nearby a stream is dammed by a little concrete dam. Its pond is almost complete silted up. I accidentally break though the ice on a puddle while standing on the downstream side of the dam. Fortunately, the water does not overtop by snow boots.

The SBM winds up Jackie Jones Mountain, first passing the communications tower and then a smaller, but still impressive, fire tower. Climbing the fire tower is permitted to just below the booth at the top, which is locked up. I decide to postpone my ascent till tomorrow, hoping that the sky will be clear then. Today’s been rather cloudy, though with some periods of sun. I pass several viewpoints. None are spectacular, since the views are partially obstructed by trees. But they provide glimpses of the Hudson River valley. I cross several small streams. One has lots of ice terraces, treacherous when covered, as they are now, with a thin layer of snow. I pick my way carefully. The SBM then descends the west flank of Jackie Jones Mountain and crosses Old Turnpike, a wide unpaved track.

Mine were the only footprints along this first section of the SBM. But a group of people already have been down the section past the Old Turnpike. The trail soon starts to ascend again up the flank of Big Hill, intersecting with the Long Path near the shelter. I am alone when I arrive. It looks like the group used it during the day, sometime, but have already left.

The Big Hill Shelter is similar in design to many of the other Harriman State Park shelters – a three-sided lean-to with a wooden floor and roof and with two fireplaces built into its stone walls. It sits at the edge of a low cliff and has a very nice view to the south. I drop off my pack and go in search of fire wood. I have stayed at this shelter twice before. On one of those previous trips, my son Josh and I scouted around for the best places to find wood. We discovered that by taking the Long Path northward, we could connect with the Old Turnpike in just a few hundred yards, and that dead-fallen wood is quite plentiful along its edges. This proved to be the case today, too. I make two trips, the first to gather branches and the second to gather twig for kindling. I gather mostly sticks that are one-to-two inches in diameter. I want my fire to burn brightly for a couple of hours and then burn down. By the time I’m done, the evening is getting pretty dim. The clouds have broken up and the sky is very pretty.

I set up my MSR stove and make dinner. My friend, Fred Griffing has given me a package of Trader Joes’ Roast Beef Hash to try out. I boil the foil pouch in a pot to heat it up and then use the water to make macaroni and cheese. I also make a big kettle of instant coffee. I sit around the shelter, eating my dinner, watching the fading evening view and listening for animals. I hear none, even though I spotted many animal tracks, including coyote, on my way in. The sky is now dark enough – and clear enough - to see stars. I start a fire in one of the shelter’s fireplaces. I am pleased that it lights up on my first try. I relax and watch its flames. The temperature has fallen to about twenty degrees, Fahrenheit, so I don my down suit and heavy gloves.

After an hour or so, I set up my sleeping area by a rock a hundred feet of so from the shelter. I prefer the outdoors to the shelter, as long as the weather is not wet, for I like the view of the sky. I can see the constellations of Orion, Cassiopeia, the Pleiades and the Big Dipper and the planet Mars. The night is not truly dark, for the glow form NY City to my south is so strong. But I wake a couple of times during the course of the night, as so can see the stars change position in the sky as the earth turns. Sometimes around 2AM a gibbous moon rises.

I arise at dawn. The temperature is now eleven Fahrenheit and the sky is very clear. The eastern sky is glowing orange. I start up the MSR stove and make coffee and an omelet. I fry the eggs on a new frying pan that I recently purchased. I had bought a small aluminum frying pan of the type made for kitchen use and converted for camping by sawing off its handle. It works much better than the titanium saucepan lid that I had been using previously, for it distributes the heat of the very-hot MSR stove much better. While it adds a little weight, I value uncharred food enough to be willing to huff a few ounces of aluminum.

The sun rises about 7AM. Shortly afterward, I pack up my gear and headed out. I stop by the fire tower on the way back and climb it. I am treated to a three hundred and sixty degree view that includes Lake Welch and Bear Mountain to the north and the Hudson River to the southeast. I continue onward, past the ORAK ruins, back to the car. About seventeen hours, overall.