Pine Swamp Mountain

Despite yesterday's constant rain, we took a quick trip out to Harriman's Pine Swamp Mountain today. Seems we're not the only restless hikers who are tired of the three-peat constant rainy October 2005 weekends: along the way on this 5-mile, 3-hour trip we ran into more people than ever before on any trails in this park. Among the many hikers we saw on route were a band of backpackers who'd spent the night out in the rain, a bunch of just-off-the-bus lost looking folks near the trailhead, and two--two!--dads carrying kids in kid-pouches. Trip began at the Lake Askoti trailhead, and we went up Pine Swamp Mountain until we reached an intersection of multiple trails that's aptly named "Times Square." There we stopped to peek at the map and met some older hikers who wanted to help us find our way on the NYNJTC map, telling us that one man in their group had made that map. Since we have logged many a mile out there, we weren't in need of any such help. We were going to head over to Ship Rock but once we made it to the Harriman plains up on Surebridge Mountain, we snapped a couple of photos and returned to the car via New York's Long Path, passing the glacial erractic landmark named Cape Horn.