[Journal Entry for January 18, 2013; Long Path near Cohasset Lakes] Arden Valley Road, a country road connecting Seven Lakes Drive to Route 17 in Arden NY, is closed to vehicles in the winter and used as a pedestrian walkway. I parked at the picnic area near Tiorati Circle and first walked down to the shore of Lake Tiorati. The afternoon is clear, with temperatures a little below freezing. The surface of the lake is most frozen, with a few inches of snow on the ice. The camp buildings along its shore are plainly visible through the bare trees. The bath house of the little beach that is part of the picnic area is closed up for the winter. It and the nearby Park Office are two of the many stone buildings in Harriman State Park.

I took Arden Valley westward. It first crosses Fingerboard Mountain and then follows a little brook downhill. The north side of the road is beneath a steep hillside with many steep rock faces. These are glacially-plucked relicts of the Ice Age. I pass a very large glacial erratic boulder of meta-conglomerate on the side of the road. One particularly steep rock race is posted with ‘restricted’ signs, either to deter rock climbers or to prevent access to the Bradley Mine (which I have never visited), which is somewhere up near the hilltop. I walked Arden Valley Road as far as Mosholu Day Camp, at the east end of Upper Lake Cohasset enjoying the scenery, and then doubled back.

Upper and Lower Lake Cohasset are anthropogenic, created by impounding the stream by concrete dams on the downhill side. There are, in fact three lakes, not two, but the easternmost (and highest) is just a small pond impounded by a little concrete dam three or four feet high. Its pond is mostly silted up, and the wetland that has developed on it eastern side is very beautiful. I lingered on its shores admiring hummocks of grass growing from its waters and red-colored bushes growing around its periphery. A neighboring stand of White Pine is very beautiful, too.

The Long Path (blazed in blue) crosses Arden Valley Road just uphill of where that road crosses the stream. I took it south, booting it through about four inches of snow. The Long Path first follows the stream and then gradually climbs up into the hills, crossing several little streams and one largish one called Surebridge Brook, and following the edge of a wetland full of tall fragmites grass. It then climbs up onto the northern flank of Surebridge Mountain. I went as far as the Hiker’s Shelter and the overlook just uphill from it.

The Hiker’s Shelter is a corrugated metal affair, uilitarian three-sided lean-to not nearly as picturesque as most of the other shelters in the Park, which are of fitted stone.

The overlook commands a nice view of the valley and hills to the north. Cohasset Lake is clearly visible as a white patch among the trees at the valley floor. Bradley and Lindley Mountains – rounded tree-covered knobs – are on the northern skyline, and Arden House, the old Harriman Family mansion, now owned by Columbia University, is to the northwest.

I put on my instep crampons for the trip back, which is mostly downhill. The sun had just set as I reached Tiorati Circle. Lake Tiorati was beautifully illuminated by the orange glow of the evening sky.

About two and a half hours.

[Journal Entry for January 20, 2013; Long Path near Cohasset Lakes] I returned to Arden Valley Road in the mid-afternoon of what started as a cloudy day. I walked the road westward from Tiorati Circle, watching a patch of blue in the sky and hoping that it would expand to give me some sun. Remarkably, it did just that as I neared Upper Lake Cohasset. The ay became sunny and unseasonably warm, with temperatures near fifty Fahrenheit. I felt as though I was out on a spring day. I walked the road as far as the dam on Lower Lake Cohasset, taking several side trips to view interesting features:

The little wetland, full of hummocks of now-brown grass, located in a cove along the north shore of Upper Lake Cohasset, near Mosholu Day Camp. This wetland is formed by a tributary stream, not the main one that parallels the road. The lake is irregular in shape, and from this vantage I could see only the northwestern part. The dam is visible as an anomalously straight section of shoreline, with some low concrete fixtures. Most of the rest of the shoreline is rocky, with several tall outcrops of grey rocks. Several island dot the lake; the largest of these have small stands of trees growing on them;

The stream between the upper and lower lakes, located at the bottom of a deep ravine just south of the road. I climbed down into the ravine and first viewed the little wetland at the eastern end of Lower Lake Cohasset, where the stream flows into that lake. The wetland, composed of hummocky grass, was similar in appearance to the one at the upper lake. The lower lake is smaller than the upper and is rectangular in shape. I could see most of it from this vantage. I then crossed the stream by stepping from stone to stone, and climbed up onto a rocky knoll. I was now atop of the grey rock that I could see from the first wetland. I could look out across Upper Lake Cohasset to Mosholu Day Camp in the north and the steeply rising hills of the Park to the south. I examined the dam, a concrete structure perhaps twenty feet high, on my way back. The northernmost section seemed to have sustained some recent damage. The lake level was being controlled by the spillway and water was cascading down over its downhill face;

A wetland on the north side of the road, fed by the outflow of Lower Lake Cohasset;

Lower Lake Cohasset, seen from the hillside near the southern end of the dam. A set of park buildings, signed C-14 Lewis, are prominent on the northeastern shore of the lake; and

A third dam, much smaller than the first two, located upstream of the upper lake. The dam is just three feet of so high, and impounds a small pond which is now mostly silted up. The adjoining wetland and stand of White Pine are very beautiful. I stood for a while at the shore admiring the grass hummocks and bushes, and the skeletons of fallen trees now decaying in the water.

I sighted a group of about five White Tail Deer as I headed back. They were browsing by a stream near the Long Path crossing.

About two hours.