Big Hill Shelter, Harriman State Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/22/2019	5.7 miles	3 hours 37 minutes	915'	1.7	579.1

Map: NYNJTC Harriman-Bear Mountain Southern - Trail Map 118
Parking: Route 75
Directions: Take the Long Path west. Cross a woods road at a pipeline, and continue on the Long Path. Arrive at Big Hill Shelter. Take the yellow blazed Suffern Bear Mountain Trail southwest for a ways. Return the same way.

It was another cold morning. I find it hard to get motivated to go outdoors when its 20 degrees out. But it was supposed to warm up to above freezing today, so we went out in the afternoon. And it actually turned out to be quite comfortable, with no wind. We headed out to southern Harriman with both dogs. Again, I wore a 25 lb backpack to train. We crossed a river, and of course Trek decided to go wading in it. He loves to go in water, even when its this cold. The trails were a bit less icy than in Ward Pound Ridge. We only had one tricky section - a hill of rock slabs that climbs to the shelter, that had solid ice on it. Even my spikes weren't always gripping well. At the shelter we saw a large Asian group cooking a fancy lunch. They were eating some delicious smelling soup out of large bowls. It made me hungry! We stopped just past the shelter and pulled out our thermoses of rehydrated soup from Harmony House. It's a treat to have a warm lunch, and I don't mind the extra weight, since I'm trying to purposefully carry a heavy pack. We based our turnaround point on sunset, rather than a specific destination. When we reached the shelter again, the group and all of their food was gone. It looked like such a great meal! We carefully descended the rock slabs, grabbing on to brush on the way down. I saw some butt slide marks, so some other people must have chosen that way down. I considered it, but there would be nothing to slow you down / grab onto if you went down that way. Near the end of the hike I did 5 short hill repeats without my pack on, to get some extra training in.

This is the tricky section. A think layer of snow over a sheet of ice.