Stony Brook

Stony Brook, Harriman State Park (1/8/2011)

This is the Hike of the Week for 1/6/2011 as described on the NY-NJ Trail Conference site. Harriman got another half foot of snow yesterday and we were clearly the first hikers on at least half of this 5+-mile hike (if you don't count various animals). So while the going was a bit slower than normal in some places, the fact that the snow had not yet melted on any of the trees or bushes made the entire park look as if powdered sugar had been sprinkled all over it. Perfect timing made this one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done in this, my favorite park. Ironically, about 2/3rds of this hike is blazed either in pure white (the White Bar trail, the Kakiat trail) or with a small red square in a larger white blaze (the T-MI trail). Pure white snow, sticking to the sides of trees, made it a challenge to find the blazes once or twice!

Total distance hiked today was 5.4 miles in just over 3.5 hours.

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