[Journal entry for June 28, 2014; Hike with Summer Interns to Claudius Smith Den, Harriman State Park, New York]. Dallas and I led a group of six Summer Interns, Eun Sik (John) Cho , Tianjia (Tina) Liu, Abigail Martens, Trevor Neitz, Daniel Nothaft and William Skorski, on a hike through Harriman State Park, during which we visited Claudius Smith Den and the Elbow Brush.

We parked at the American Canoe Association (ACA) Camp at Lake Sebago and hiked the Tuxedo – Mt. Ivy Trail (TMI, blazed in red) westward. It first climbs the Dutch Doctor, a low wooded hill. The vegetation is lush this time of year, with moss, fern, blueberry and mountain laurel growing beneath the canopy. We passed a granite boulder, precariously perched on a small rock scarp of gneiss. This area is full of glacial features dating back to the Ice Age. We encountered many erratic boulders made of sandstone and quartzite as we hiked this rather rocky trail.

We made a short detour over to the Hiker’s Shelter that’s on the west side of the Dutch Doctor. It was uninhabited at the moment, so we poked around it and its grounds, while Trevor told us of similar shelters he visited during his hike on the Appalachian Trail.

We continued westward on TMI, crossing a small stream and then slowly gaining elevation as the trail would up the adjacent hillside. We passed several steep cliffs. The Hudson Highlands are full of these scarps. Most of them are south-facing, so I believe that they were formed by glacial plucking during the Ice Age. One scarp exposed gneisses with prominent boudins. We soon reached a broad and bare ledge atop one of these cliffs, which commands a great view of the surrounding hills, and especially those to the south and west. We rested there for a while, rehydrating and discussing the geology. The rock at the cliff edge is granite, but gneisses outcrop at the edge of the nearby woods. We discussed the nature of the contact between these two rocks and also the origin of the corrugations on the top surface of the granite ledge. One of the geologists, Abbie went ahead to find the contact, which is well-exposed on the trail that leads down to the bottom of the cliff. Several of the interns explored a narrow boulder cave that formed were several huge blocks of stone shifted away from the main part of the cliff, opening a passage.

Claudius Smith Den is a small cave created by an overhang in the cliff. Local legend identifies it as the hideout of a band of Loyalist guerilla fighters who conducted raids that terrified the local population during the Revolutionary War. Their leader, Claudius Smith, was hung in1779 over his role in the murder of Patriot Major Nathaniel Strong.

We ate lunch at the Den. The cliff which hosts it is very dramatic, a nearly-vertical tan-colored rock rising perhaps a hundred feet above the open woods at its base. A few picturesque trees and bushes sprout from cracks in its otherwise bare granite face. The afternoon sun was hot. Most of us relaxed in the cool shade inside, but John climbed up onto one of the large boulders scattered around the foot of the cliff and sunbathed. We then hiked south on the Blue Dot Trail (blazed in blue) and made a quick visit to the Elbow Brush, another narrow boulder cave. We then retraced our path back to Lake Sebago. The hike totaled about four miles, round trip.

Back at the ACA Camp, we swam at the Swim Dock and kayaked in the Lake, using boats that we had brought up with us. I set myself up in the stern of Tephra, Dallas’ and my Nelo Waterman tandem kayak. I took, in turn, Tina and Abbie for outings. They were both novices to kayaking, so I taught them some of the basic strokes and braces. We then paddled the length of the south end of the lake, from west cove to Pump House, each of the two trips being a distance of about two miles. We even did a bit of sprinting. They both kayaked very well on their first encounter with paddlesports.

We ate dinner of bagels with cold cuts and drinking ice tea on a picnic table by the dock. Two ACA club members, Lee Reiser and Bob Anderson, chatted with us. Just before we left, Bob also demonstrated how a kayak can be rolled, flipping the boat upside-down and then right side-up in the water just off shore.

About three hours of hiking and ninety minutes on the water.