Fri, Nov 14 to Sun, Nov 16 – The Route of Endless Viewpoints, No. Harriman State Park
Leader: Russ Faller
This outing was joint with AMC.
We had a challenging backpack in Harriman State Park.  It seemed that the trail planners picked the most difficult route.  That is, the trails always took the steepest, rocky way up, just to go back down to find another steep, rocky ascent, just to go right back down again.  Although we had only a short distance from Rt. 9W to basecamp at West Mtn., it took a long time.  We were carrying heavy overnight packs.  But it was worth it.  The view, from the West Mtn, Shelter, of the NYC skyline, and especially when the City and Rockland County were all lit up at night, was spectacular.  On Saturday, we day hiked a viewpoint-filled loop which included the summit of West Mtn, the Appalachian Trail, Fawn Trail and Suffern/Bear Mtn. Trail back to our basecamp.  That was also strenuous, with lots of steep, rocky ups, just to go back down for another ascent/descent.  Towards the end, Russ groused when the trail builders took him up a very steep, rocky climb to the top of an unnamed mountain, with no view, only to go back down.  He complained that the trail planners should have taken us around the shoulder of the mountain instead. On Sunday, we picked the easiest way back to our cars.  It seems that we were all tucked out.  We took a longer way, through Doodletown and around to cars we spotted at the Iona Island road on 9W.  This trip touted 27 viewpoints but, since the leaves were down, there was many, many more.  How Many?  We don’t know.  We had stopped counting, Participants were: Manny G, John O, Charles J, (ADK & AMC), Bill S, John H, Allen R (AMC) & the leader.