Beech Trail, Long Path, Arden Surebridge Trail, Red Cross Trail Loop, Harriman

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/3/2021	8.7 miles	5 hours 18 minutes	988'	2.0 mph	65.4

Map: NYNJTC Harriman-Bear Mountain Northern - Trail Map 119
Parking: Tiorati Brook Road

Directions: Cross street and head south on the blue blazed Beech Trail. Pass Hasenclever Road (woods road). Pass a cemetery on your right. Pass Rockhouse Mtn (woods road). Cross Route 106. At the end of the Beech Trail, trun right on the Long Path. Cross Route 106 again. When you reach Seven Lakes Drive, cross the street and either go directly downhill (you'll have to rock hop across a wide stream), or turn right on the road and then after the road crosses the stream head downhill on the trail. Pass between two lakes. The parking area is normally packed. Continue north on the Arden Surebridge trail. Turnn right on the Red Cross Trail. Crosss Seven Lakes Drive again. There's a nice view of the lake just past the road crossing. Pass Haenclever Road (woods road) again, and immediately find the Hasenclever mine in your right. Continue on the Red Cross trail. Cross Tiorati Brook Road. Stay on the Red Cross trail until it intersects with the blue blazed Beech Trail. Turn right onto the Beech trail and follow back tot he parking lot.

It was a bit chilly today, but sunny, so a great day to be out on the trails. We knew Harriman would be crowded. We originally planned a hike from the Lake Askoti parking area (which this hike passes), but the parking lot was full. Harriman opened up all of its roads on April 1st (some roads are shut down for the winter), so we had more options for finding other trailheads to park at. This hike starts out on the Beech Trail. It passes by a cemetery with 4 marked gravestones, and a handful of unmarked ones. We stopped and I did a very rough sketch of 2 of the gravestones, so I could look up the people after we got home. There was John R. Jones, born 1817, died 1896. And his wife, Highlyann Jones, died 1886. I found this article about the family: https://www.rocklandtimes.com/2013/07/04/hiking-into-history-a-north-rockland-family-reconnects-to-its-roots-in-the-ramapo-mountains/. We same more people as we passed by Lake Skannatati and Lake Askoti. Krummholz went into the lake next to the parking area. Many small fish swam around him, but he didn't notice. We took a break at an overlook over the north end of Lake Askoti (away from the crowds) to have lunch, tieing up Krummholz to a tree, so he couldn't run down to the lake without us. He loves, loves water. We stopped at the Hasenclever mine. The opening is supposed to be 100 feet deep - though you can't tell because it's filled with water. The mine was opened in the late 1700's for iron. There are piles of rock tailings next to the mine. We continued on, passing through an old ballfield (which is weird to see in a park like this). A newer ballfield is next to it. I don't remember seeing the newer one the last time we hiked this trail years ago.

Part of this hike is on woods roads, which I like as I appreciate the easier footing. A few areas near the end of the hike were swampy, but the rest of the hike had dry trails.