Orange, Kakiat, Ramapo Dunderberg, Tuxedo Mt Ivy, Blue Disc Loop, Harriman State Park

May 10, 2015

Miles: 6.3
Time:  3 hours 2 minutes
Elevation gain: 1,604 feet

Parking: Johnsontown Road

Restrooms: None
 
Map: Harriman-Bear Mountain Maps

Directions:
From parking area, head up the orange blazed trail.
Stay on the orange trail for 1.1 miles.
Turn left at intersection with white blazed Kakiat trail.
Follow Kakiat trail for 1.2 miles where it ends close to a road.
Follow red on white Ramapo Dunderberg trail for .8 miles.
Turn right at intersection with red on white Tuxedo Mt Ivy trail and follow for .35 miles.
Pass Claudius Smith Den.
Turn right onto blue on white blazed Blue Disc trail.
Pass Elbow Brush (we took the easier high route).
Climb up Pound Mountain.
Drop down Almost Perpendicular.
Turn right on white blazed Kakiat trail and follow for .3 miles.
When the Kakiat trail turns right, stay straight on the orange blazed trail.
Return to parking area.

Hike description:
Warm, muggy, buggy day. Left Glen at home sleeping, and Moxie at home napping. I wanted to get started on the early side. I brought Trek along. Was hoping to do a hike twice as long, but the weather wasn't cooperating. I didn't want Trek to overheat, and I knew I would move slowly in the heat. I decided to make a shorter loop so that we would miss the worst heat of the day. There were a few stream crossings, but I carried tons of water, so that I could give Trek extra if he ran out. The Kakiat trail is pretty noisy from car traffic. The rest of the hike was pretty quiet. Pound Mountain has a reasonably good view. Despite the heat, lots of people out hiking. When I passed the Reeves visitor center on the way home, I saw tons of cars there as usual. I think I'm more bothered by the heat than other people.

Harriman was a good place to hike today - low fire danger. Both NJ and the Catskills have been high fire alert areas this week. The funny thing was - I was hiking along, and all of a sudden smelled smoke. What the hell? I was a bit nervous, until I came across Claudius Smith den. Oh yeah, people have fires there, and it just smells smoky. No need to panic. There was no fire, it was just windy and it made it smell smoky. Good thing I didn't call 911 :)