West Mountain Loop from Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, Harriman

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/20/2018	5.6 miles	4 hours 30 minutes			47.1

Map: NYNJTC Northern Harriman Bear Mountain Trails
Parking: See directions
Directions: Modified version of https://www.nynjtc.org/hike/west-mountain-loop-anthony-wayne-recreation-area

We were both excited to get out this weekend. We've both been sick, and in addition it's been too cold. This weekend we're starting to feel better and the temps actually got up into the 40's. We have some snow on the ground which is quickly melting, so we brought microspikes, no snowshoes. We had a relaxed morning (I'm trying to at least temporarily give up coffee, so I'm pretty tired nowadays). We got on the trail around 11:30 am. The hike author listed the time as 5 hours, and we know we are generally faster than him, so we were not concerned. We should finish at least an hour before sunset. The parking area was pretty empty. We've actually never parked here before - we prefer to avoid places like this, as they attract tons of people. We only saw a handful of cars, and maybe 3 or 4 couples on our hike.

We started out barebooting it. The beginning of the trip follows a bike path - we read that its the only place in Harriman where bikes are allowed on trails. It was a pretty area with tall pines. We started climbing uphill. We tried to delay putting on our microspikes for as long as possible. Eventually we gave in, as we started having to ascend ice flows. I haven't been using my Hillsounds long (I previously used Kahtoola microspikes), but so far I am really impressed with how well they grip on ice flows. We got a view of NYC and the Hudson River after our first climb. I was feeling great to be outdoors. Then I checked our time. We had only been going 1 mile/hour. Ack. If we continued at that rate, we would finish in the dark. I figured we were just slow because we hadn't been using our microspikes. We put them on and I figured I'd see if our pace increased for our second hour. It didn't. We did 2 miles in 2 hours. This was not looking good. In addition, there was a spot coming up where it sounded like there was a lot of confusion on how to follow the trail (which may not be blazed). We decided to skip the little side trip to West Mountain shelter. We figured that would save us a little bit of time. Then it was 3 miles in 3 hours. This hike has a number of steep descents, which were just slow going. My feet felt leaden - as the temps warmed up, the snow became too soft, it started clumping like crazy on our microspikes so they weren't gripping very well.

The area of confusion was the Fawn Trail. I have a 2015 map, and couldn't match the map with the hike description. We were happy that when we got to the Fawn Trail, the turn off was clear, and the trail was blazed. Woohoo! We followed it for a while, and then hit the AT. We knew it was supposed to cross the AT. The problem was that we didn't see the trail continue on the other side. We decided to head north on the AT. At this point I was getting a little stressed, because it seemed more likely we would be hiking after dark. But luckily after quite some ways, we somehow hit an intersection for the Fawn Trail. What? My best guess is somehow we got off the Fawn Trail and were on another unmarked trail which hit the AT. Luckily we chose to go the right direction on the AT. We turned onto to Fawn Trail, and knew we should be okay now. Once we hit the Beechy Bottom Trail, I knew I could relax. This was a level easy to follow trail, and it wouldn't be a problem to hike after dark. We did end up completing the hike in 4.5 hours, so we did get faster at the end. This was a tiring day for both of us. I think this has been our first hike in snow this year.

Trailhead

A more detailed map of the beginning of the hike

NYC

Bear Mountain

woods road