Bald Mountain Shelter loop, Harriman

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/6/2019	3.8 miles	2 hours 20 minutes	455'		79.6

Map: NYNJTC Harriman North map
Parking: Kanawauke Road
Directions: Cross street from parking area and take the White Bar Trail. Turn right on the Nurian Trail, also white blazed. Turn left on the Ramapo Dunderberg Trail. Pass Bald Rocks shelter on the right. Turn left on yellow blazed Dunning trail. Turn left on White Bar trail. Turn right to stay on White Bar trail where Nurian trail splits off. Return to parking area.

We decided to take Krummholz for a hike after his class. I decided on a hike past Bald Mountain shelter. I'd like to do a short backpack soon with Trek to try out my new tent and sleeping pad. We've previously tented near the Fingerboard shelter in Harriman, but that shelter has a major bear problem now, so I want to avoid that. I couldn't remember the layout of the area near the Bald Rocks shelter, so I figured today I could check it out. I think we actually checked it out before, when I was looking for an easy backpack we could take Moxie on - but decided that some of the climbs would be too hard for her at her age - so we did the Fingerboard Shelter with her instead. The Bald Rocks shelter has lots of tent sites, but is a popular area - we saw a couple people in the shelter and maybe 7 tents set up already when we walked by at 5pm. I remembered what I decided on as my preferable tent site - it has a small bit of privacy on one side. So yes, I think this would be a great easy backpack for Trek and I to do together. There is no water source right at the shelter though. It looks like there is one a half mile away. Since its such a short hike, it looks like you should just carry in all the water you need.

On today's hike we had Krummholz drag a long line. It worked better than expected. Its a bit awkward when passing people, but amazingly it rarely got caught on anything. We are working on recalls. Having him drag a long line will make it easier for me to have him not visit anyone. It will also help me when he decides to chase a squirrel. Yes, he's discovered squirrels. Ack. Today he almost caught one. While he was looking for it, I was able to step on his long line. I had him come, and then I released him and the two of us went to look for the squirrel together (a second reward, okay because the squirrel was already safely up a tree). Today I worked on recalls where he is trotting away from me, and is not paying attention to me. They were on the slow side. So, we definitely need to spend a lot of time on this step. He met an off leash boxer today - the interaction went very well. The boxer had a nice temperament, and Krummholz got some sniffing in & was wagging his tail and trying to initiate play nicely.