[Journal entry for October 26, 2019; Conklin Cemetery and Pine Meadow Lake, Harriman State Park, New York]. I did this hike on the spur of the moment, for unexpectedly I was asked to drop off a package in Montebello, New York and decided to make use of my proximity to Harriman State Park. Before setting out, I purchased a large bottle of diet lemonade from the Shop & Stop in the Pacesetter Park Shopping Center, off of Route 202 in Pomona New York, for the day was sunny and warm. I then headed west to the hiker’s parking lot at the Clarkstown Equestrian Center, off of Route 202 in Wesley Hills, New York.

I made a short stop on the way, to view the big marsh on the Mahwaw River that is immediately north of the Route 202, parking opposite the Route 202C intersection. I first visited a view point along the highway, which because of its elevation offers a great view of the marsh and of the Ramapo Mountains, beyond. The trees are in peak full colors, though somewhat subdued this year, owing to the long stretch in September and early October when no rain fell. Still, the yellow Beech Trees and orange and red Maple Trees are very beautiful. I walked a little stream through the woods to where it emptied into a pool of open water, surrounded by cattails on the edge of the marsh.

The Ramapo Mountains are a long line of hills on the northwestern side of the Ramapo Fault, the geological boundary that separates the Hudson Highlands from the Newark Basin. Many of these mountains have their own names: Nordkup, Cobus, Horse Stable, Catamount, Panther, Limekiln, Horse Chock and Pound Swamp, from southwest to northeast. Today’s hike took me onto Horse Stable and Catamount.

A couple of equestrians were riding their horses around a track when I arrived at the Center, and a couple more horses were standing in a pasture. I walked over to the fence and viewed these majestic animals up close. My admiration was not reciprocated; they ignored me. I then set out on the Pine Meadow Trail (blazed with a red square on white) and took it steeply uphill, first through woods, then briefly along a power line right-of-way, and then through woods again. The right-of-way is full of wildflowers, but except for one purple Roadside Aster that still had flowers, most had already gone to seed. On the other hand, very nice fall color was provided by trees growing along its edges.

The trail fords a small stream that flows out of a very deep ravine that is full of large boulders, and then parallels it for a while, passing a sequence of small waterfalls. I climbed down to the water once to view the cascade close-up. The combination of yellow foliage on the tall tress in the valley and the water sparkling in the sun is striking. The Pine Meadow Trail joins the Suffern - Bear Mountain Trail (SBM, blazed in yellow) just upstream of the falls and then separates again from it about a half mile further uphill. I stayed on the Pine Meadow Trail, taking it westward over the crest of the Ramapo Mountains and into the central part of Harriman State Park. One section of woods has experienced a wildfire a year or so ago. The roots of fire damaged Maple and Oak Trees and Blueberry, Mountain Laurel and Witch Hazel Bushes are sending up shoots that surround the older and charred wood. A few surviving Witch Hazel bushes are in bloom; their flowers consist of small tufts of stringy yellow-green pedals that would be easy to overlook in the rich summer canopy, but stand out on now-bare branches.

The trail passes group of very large boulders, the size of a cars and very angular in shape, which I suppose were dropped long ago and chaotically by an Ice Age glacier. I walked around them and discovered that they enclose a small flat area accessible easily from a wide opening on the back side and with more difficulty, from a narrow crack on the front side.

A little further east, the trail passes a small marsh, full of colorful bushes, such as bright red Winged Burning Bush and the burnt red Blueberry bush. I had explored the marsh and its inlet stream on my previous trip (see the October 24 entry, below) and merely glanced at it as I passed by today. A little further along, the trail crosses Pine Meadow Road, one of the wider woods roads in the Park. I stayed on the trail until I could see the blue waters of Pine Meadow Lake below me.

I then bushwhacked up onto a hill with exposed rock pavement near the northeast corner of the lake. It must be a large-scale roche moutonnée dating from the Ice Age, for its northern upstream side, eroded gently by the glaciers, gently slopes up to its summit, but its southern downstream side, plucked away by the glaciers, is terminated by a sheer cliff. I circled around and climbed the gentle side and sat for a while near on a boulder near the cliff-edge. It offers an excellent view of the Pine Meadow Lake (actually an impoundment with the dam on its western shore) and of the hills that surround it. My little hill was also very picturesque, with burnt red patches of Blueberry Bushes and groves of yellow, knee-high Beech saplings. Looking directly down from the cliff edge, I could see a pile of huge boulders, some ten feet across, that have fallen off the cliff in the twenty thousand years since it was sharpened by glacial ice.

I then walked counter-clockwise around Pine Meadow Lake. It is about three quarter mile in length, irregular in shape and with many picturesque coves, and has a small island near its southern shore. The Pine Meadow Trail follows an old aquifer built along the lake’s northern shore that is just a little above lake level. It passed the boulders at the base of the cliff the top of which I had just visited. Many rock ledges along the trail provide excellent vantages from which to lake. I circled around to the dam. It offers a great view of a very dramatic section of lake shore with a low cliff that has been cracked (again by glaciers, I suppose) into giant rectangular blocks. I walked the dam to where it joined Pine Meadow Road West, another woods road that wraps around to the south side of the lake.

At the crest of a hill, I transferred to an informal trail, one that I had never before taken, hoping that it would provide views of the lake (which indeed it does). Additionally, it provides access to Conklin Cemetery, a small square graveyard enclosed by a sequence of posts and overlooking the lake. I examined the grave markers, while singing Amazing Grace in honor of the family buried there. The original markers were very worn, but newer, clearly-legible markers had been added recently. They identified the buried as: Ramsey Conklin,1873-1952, son of Stephen and Hanna Conklin; Hanna Clark, first wife of James H. Conklin; James H. Conklin 1817 – 8-31-1889; Agnes Conklin, 9/1896 – 11/27/1897 Dau. of James H. and Ida Conklin; and Elizabeth Conist, 5/17/1827 – 8/19/1885, Born in Baden, Germany, second wife of James H. Conlkin. The trail descends to lake level a little east of the cemetery and has several spots at which the little island in the lake can be viewed close up.

I lost the informal trail about a quarter mile east of the cemetery; I am unsure whether it petered out or I just wandered off it. I wound up bushwhacking for a half mile of so, through fairly heavy Mountain Laurel and Blueberry Bushes beneath deciduous trees, until I reached another old aquifer on the eastern shore. I followed it north, passing Conklins Crossing Trail (blazed in white) and finally closing my loop as I reached the Pine Meadow Trail. I backtracked to Conklins Crossing and took it east, back up to the crest of the Ramapo Mountains and the SBM.

I followed the SBM northeast, stopping briefly at The Egg, a rounded rock ledge situated on a cliff edge at the southern edge of the Ramapos that looks out through the valley between Cobus and Horse Stable Mountains towards the Newark Basin. I could see the skyscrapers of Manhattan on the horizon. I also stopped briefly at Stone Memorial Shelter, a three-sided lead-to a little further north along the trail.

I took the Sherwood Path (another woods road) steeply downhill, thinking that I would take it all the way down to the power line right-of-way and thence to my car. But as I still had a few hours of daylight, I was tempted, when it intersected another woods road about halfway down, to see where that road led. So I took it north as it ascended the valley between Horse Stable and Catamount Mountains. The road is in poorer shape than the Sherwood Path, but still easily walkable, except for one erosional gulley across which I had to clamber. I passed numerous ruined stone walls and small plots of leveled land that I guess were homesteads or maybe pastures. Oddly, I came across a dozen or so old cars, some in groups, other singly abandoned, space along the stream. Little paint remained on their bodies but their chrome-work was still shiny. The road took me back to the crest of the Ramapos and back to the SBM and, after a short distance, to the Pine Meadow Trail, which I took back to the Equestrian Center and my car.

About five and a half hours of hiking.

Before heading home, I stopped at the Avanti restaurant in the Pacesetter Park Shopping Center in Pomona New York and had a sausage and green pepper pizza pie for dinner. Today’s route had a lot of ups and downs and was very strenuous!

[Journal entry for October 24, 2019; Wetland east of Pine Meadow Lake, Harriman State Park, New York].

The afternoon is sunny and warm, so I took some time off work and hiked in Harriman State Park. As I drove Route 202 through Pomona, New York, I caught a glimpse of the big marsh along the Mahwah River, located between the highway and the Ramapo Mountains to the northwest. I didn’t feel that I had time to stop, but I noted the location of parking spots for future reference. I continued on a mile or so to the hiker’s parking lot at Clarkstown Equestrian Center.

I took the Pine Meadow Trail (blazed with a red square on a white background), steeply uphill. It follows a deep valley between Catamount and Panther Mountains, two of the range of hills called the Ramapo Mountains. The trail crosses, follows and then turns away from of a stream flowing in the valley, but a woods road continues up along the valley. Today I decided to follows it.

The route is steep and the road, while in reasonable shape, is blocked by several dead-fallen trees, making progress slow. The valley is very interesting, with the stream bed full of large, angular boulders that have fallen off the high cliff on the valley’s northeastern side. Maple Trees add bright fall color to the area, which is otherwise colored by grey rocks and brown tree trunks. The bare peak above me proved a considerable temptation, for I presumed that it would provide excellent views. When I reached the level section of the road, I sighted a route that, with a little bushwhacking, would take me to the top. I left the road and climbed up. I immediately recognized the area when I reached the top. It is a blueberry meadow atop Panther Mountain along the Suffern – Bear Mountain Trail (SBM, blazed in yellow), located right at the edge of a ravine – the same ravine though which I just ascended. The scenery, including the meadow with its Blueberry Bushes, Scrub Oaks, rock ledges and glacial boulders, and the views across the raving to neighboring Catamount Mountain, is breathtaking. I spent a few minutes visiting different viewpoints, winding my way around impassible (though pretty) patches of Scrub Oak.

I then descended off Panther Mountain via the SBM, which follows a very steep and difficult route down through a gulley in the cliff face. In a few minutes, I was again on the Pine Meadow Trail at a spot just below the intersection where I had left it. I put off further exploration of the woods road, and took the Pine Meadow Trail, here concurrent with the SBM, uphill. I stayed on the Pine Meadow Trail after the SBM diverged, and took it east towards Pine Meadow Lake. I was starting to run out of daylight, and though I was hurrying along, I realized that I did not have enough time to get all the way to Pine Meadow Lake. I passed through a recently burned-out area, where fire-damaged trees and bushes were re-growing from shoots coming out of their roots –four-foot-high bushes with colorful leaves centered around blackened trunks and branches. I passed an older burn scar, one where the Blueberry Bushes have formed carpets between grey weathered tree trunks. I went as far as the point where the trail crosses the inlet stream of a little wetland.

I spent a few minutes exploring the wetland, walking between the bushes at its edge, which included bright red Winged Burning Bush, burnt red Highbush Blueberry and yellow-leafed bushes I didn’t recognize. I climbed to the top of low rock outcrop that offered a view across the top of the wetland.

I then headed back the Pine Meadow Trail to my car. A frog jumped as I crossed one of the little streams along the way.

About three hours of hiking.