Popolopen Torne, Harriman State Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/08/2019	4 miles	3 hours 2 minutes	821'	1.6	569.5

Map: NYNJTC Harriman North
Parking: Brooks Lake Park
Directions: Take the red and white blazed trail on the left side of the parking lot. Turn right on the 1777 Trail. Pass the first turn onto the TT trail. Take the second right turn onto the TT trail. Hike up to Popolopen Torne. Return the same way.

We were looking for a Harriman hike with more elevation gain than yesterday. I was hiking with a 25 lb backpack for training. I left Trek at home, and only took Krummholz. Another cold but sunny day. This time I wore long underwear bottoms to make sure I stayed toasty. The trail was icy - I brought my microspikes but managed to not use them for most of the hike. Glen didn't bring his, which ended up being a mistake. The hike begins on a wide trail in a rather urban area. This part was fine. we leap frogged with a group of 16 students from Rutgers. Most of them didn't have "real" backpacks, but every single one of them was wearing microspikes, which was great to see. I'm guessing their outdoors club provides them. The small hills with the 25 lb pack were hard....hopefully one day this heavy pack thing gets easier.

We turned onto the Popolopen Trail....then I remembered this hike. It has a lot of rock scrambling up rock slabs. Oh my. Luckily the rocks weren't icy. The rock scrambling was a bit intense. There was one spot I started worrying that I wouldn't be able to get up, but we've done this hike successfully before, so I knew I can. I ended up taking off my backpack and hoisting it up, so I could scramble without it. That made a big difference. Phew! Krummholz did awesome. He did some sliding on the rock, but managed to not tear up his pads. The rock was pretty "sticky" so that helped with climbing it. At the top is a large cairn with rocks painted for veterans. The view is great up there. We planned to go down the other side, which we thought would be more gentle and easier. We went a few feet on the trail, and saw that it was an icy mess with steep drop offs on both sides. Glen had no microspikes, so there is not way we could have done it. We ended up hiking back the way we came.