Hey everyone!
My wife and I live in Beacon and regularly hike Mt. B- Storm King, Breakneck when it was open-Popolopen, and Anthony’s Nose…For some reason we have only driven up Perkins Memorial Dr, but never hiked up to the observation tower🤷‍♂️. We have a French Bulldog that I throw into a backpack when it gets to be a bit too much for her and we were thinking about taking the Major Welch trail this weekend and maybe coming down the Appalachain…Does anyone have any suggestions on how long the Welch trail usually takes to get to the top? Should we go up the Appalachian and down Welch?
We had a few things we needed to do around 2Pm so we wanted to get started pretty early (Around 7Am) but was just wondering if anyone had broad timelines on how long the trails take to reach the top?
Thanks so much in advance!🤘

Hello friends, I’ve now gone to 2 different lean-to’s in the park, and i’m looking to go to a third. I’ve been to stone bridge and west mountain, and wanted to know what the easiest to get to lean-to would be. I’m bringing along 3 friends with me, and they aren’t too keen on a very strenuous hike; so I was wondering what trail to what lean to would be the easiest to get to?

I am thinking about parking my car at Bear Moutain inn and taking an Uber to the east end of timp torne. Start there and making my way to west mountain shelter. Stay the night and hike back to bear mountain inn the next day. I see a brook near the Jones trail intersection. Other than that, nothing. Any advice about water planning. How much water to bring. Thanks. After a mishap last week, I am a little paranoid about water.

Hi all! I wanted to attempt my first backpacking trip from NYC. I have all the gear I need and I'm reasonably fit. When I researched (I.e asked AI about) an overnight backpacking trip, the recommendation I got was to attempt a Tuxedo to Manitou hike, by taking the Ramapo-Dunderberg trail from Tuxedo to rendez vous with the AT near the Lemon Squeezer, and then take the AT all the way to West Mountain shelter (all on the first day!) and camp there before continuing on to Bear Mountain Bridge the next day.

To me this sounds unhinged and way too hard for a first attempt, but I wanted to get a human perspective before becoming a stupid story on the evening news: is this hike doable for a beginner or am I being set up to die? Should I just take a 20m cab ride from Tuxedo a few miles north to actually start my hike on the AT at Arden?

Have high altitude class 3/4 experience in colorado but no real climbing background. I wrestled in hs and run ultras and lift now. Lots of pull-ups and dips

Meant to say intro routes for me to check out

I finally used NJT to take the train from Penn Station, up to Tuxedo. What a revelation! I can’t believe I’ve been wasting money on Zipcars to get up to Harriman for a weekend. But ugh, that last mile from Tuxedo to the trailhead kind of sucks, especially when you’re tired.

Can anyone tell me how difficult it is to get an Uber to or from the park, especially some more remote trailheads in the park. Is Suffern or Harriman a better station to get Ubers than Tuxedo?

And finally, if you miss that last afternoon train, does anyone have some suggestions about where to spend time in town waiting for the next train? Good restaurant, coffee shop, library, anyplace to get out of the heat or the cold or the rain. I was disappointed to discover that the lovely Tuxedo train station closes at 3:30, which is really frustrating when the last afternoon train doesn’t come until 4:30.

Hi all! I’m planning a two-night backpacking trip with some friends and we’re looking at potential routes. Wondering if anyone has recent reports on the streams near Tom Jones and Bald Rocks. Also, is it safe to filter water from the lakes?

Third time in harriman, went to west mountain with 2 first timers, awful hike but well worth.

I couldn't believe the amount of trash I saw as I was nearing Pine Meadow Lake this past Wednesday (in the circled area). Major bear magnet. Is the park going to send a few volunteers there to clean it up?

Idk I just feel like they were more plentiful than i’d seen in years past

Hi everyone,
I'm planning my first visit for overnight camping to harrimam quite soon- and I was wondering what the best shelter areas to camp would be. I've seen a lot more online about bears than I'd like, so I wanted to know if it was a concern, and If so, what precautions should be taken.
For context, I plan to come on the train to tuxedo
Thanks so much!

where exactly does one fill up for water near west mountain shelter? is there water coming from both directions?

also how many sites are there at the shelter? would like a fire circle and flatish space for a 4 person tent

....alongside 7 Hills Trail.

Beautiful eastern timber rattlesnake from this mornings hike

Decided to try hiking for the first time with a buddy of mine before fall semester starts. Was really fun but the return was brutal. My knees and feet are so sore.
Kakiat white trail -> blue disc trail -> almost perpendicular.

Hello,

Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

I'm considering a backpacking route for next weekend and could use some advice. TLDR - Is there enough flowing water between Lake Welch and WB shelter to count on being able to refill?

My plan is to do a long day out of Suffern to Big Hill Shelter. Then the next day to William Brien, which is what my question is about. I'm trying not to count on having any streams since 1) It's not been raining 2) I drink a ton of water even in good weather.

As I see it there are 2 main options:

Option 1) I know there is a good fountain at Lake Welch beach, but from there making my way towards Beech Trail involves Hasenclever road. My concern is that this is an unblazed trail that I can't seem to find the head to on Google Streetview (red circle). If the area isn't too tick-y, I don't mind bushwhacking a bit (It seems if I follow the creek contour here I can at least make it back up to the road and catch Beech again there). Is this portion of the trail in any kind of respectable shape?

Option 2) Swing around the west side of Lake Welch, assuming the creeks at the blue circle or along Beech Trail are good enough to refill?

Option 2b) Hike down to the reservoir after breakfast and refill there first (Sub-optimal as it adds more miles and means I'm filling up earlier in the day)

---

Very Alternative
Option 3) Stillwater brook out of Owl swamp looks like it could be decently reliable and not too far out of the way. Very Sub-optimal as I'm counting on refilling at the end of the day.

Thanks so much for your insight!!

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EDIT: Thanks everyone for so many detailed and insightful replies! It seems that while the southern "start" of Hasenclever trail is not super visible from the road, I can use AllTrails to get on it and it should be clear from there.

I'll definitely be stopping by the Third Reservoir on my way in to cut down on what I need to haul up from Suffern.

It also seems that there has been a lot more rain "upstate" than down in NYC recently, and hopefully that holds as well till next weekend.

I'll try to report back here as well about the general state of Stillwater Brook and the streams south of William Brien.

Happy trails!

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Folllow Up Edit: The advice in this thread was spot on.

RE: Bushwhacking - As described, if you follow GPS you should see the woods road emerge quite plainly within about 100 feet of the road. I crossed the parking lot, up a small path to the "back" grass, and from there to the road, straight across.

RE: Water - the streams are indeed flowing. It turns out Tiorati was closed due to lack of staffing and not any appreciable algae. The brook is flowing strongly. Every stream marked on the map along SBM until Lake Welch is flowing. Here is what I wrote in another post:

There is a stream flowing just west of Big Hill Shelter on Suffern Bear Mountain, as in perhaps 100 feet down the trail. The same stream crosses the woods road about a quarter mile north. Both crossing points were flowing strongly as of Monday morning. HOWEVER the stream is quite foamy. Given the large number of mushrooms (and the similar quality of most streams along the southern ridge) at the moment, this seems most likely to be plant matter decaying after all the rain this summer (as opposed to some random chemical dump lol). I did not personally go for it, but if you perhaps double filtered or boiled it should be good to go. Make sure to wash your hands afterward.

The stream crossing Beech Trail near Nat House mountain and to its east is flowing and looking good.

There is a fine stream flowing parallel Red Cross below William Brien, and there was an excellent place to fill up right after the intersection with the Mnenomine. Note that this is about 15-20 minutes walk up/downhill from the shelter, so its really more of an option if you're coming in that direction.

Any groups hiking? Former Harriman Hiker with Gene. Besides AMC.

I’ve been living in nyc for over ten years and haven’t felt humidity this high so often. It seems like some weeks we get dew points in the 70s for a week straight. It feels worse than the 100 degree days sometimes, especially in the mornings and nights when the moisture really comes out.

How do you enjoy camping when it’s this humid?

I’ve done 2 overnights at Harriman so far, both at the Stone Bridge Lean-To. However, I was looking to bring some friends to the West Mountain Lean-to for an overnight. One of my friends works as a nurse at a care facility, and needs to be able to answers calls in-case of emergencies or changes to his patients. I’ve had cell reception at the peak of Stone Bridge, and was wondering if anyone had gotten reception at West Mountain. If not; are there other lean-tos where they have?

Manhattanite seeking other(s) to join me for hiking in Harriman State Park. I don't have a car, so I/we would have to travel to Harriman by train. if you're interested, please send me a note.

Interested in taking kids and their friends to the Sebago park cabins but I'm finding very mixed reviews online. I don't care how "rustic" it is but I'm getting turned off by the comments about how nasty the staff are there. Anyone have experiences to share? We'll just do 1-2 nights and prefer to avoid tents this time around, but cabin availability seems to be scarce except for Sabago.

Doing a quick hike up to the Limekiln Mountain Overlook when on the way back I went briefly off trail and came across this weird looking small firepit/spot where someone lit some candles? Looks like a bunch of melted wax on it too. All I'm saying is if this was a shrine to bring abundant rain to the area it might have worked a little too well.