Rockefeller State Park Preserve
Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of data on this hike. It was the Saturday afternoon of Fourth of July weekend and I think I just needed to get out of the house for some time with Mother Nature.
If I recall correctly, I took Brothers’ Path (BP) around the east side of Swan Lake and then back up the west side of the lake.
Overall, I considered this more of a walk through and near wooded areas than a hike. All of the paths I ended up on were dirt or gravel carriage paths with little canopy and it sometimes felt like walking down a quiet street. It was still great exercise and it was outdoors, but I'd much prefer being more enclosed by woods than this. Now that I have a better lay of the land, I'm going to do more research about Rockefeller State Park Preserve to see if there are more traditional hiking trails. There are over 45 miles of paths here, so there is plenty to explore on future visits!
Our annual friends trip to the AMC Harriman Outdoor Center landed us in Stone Lodge this year — private bathrooms, a kitchen, and a level of comfort the shared-facility cabins can't match. Between the boats on Breakneck Pond and the buffet dinners, the real draw was the trail: a long push up the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail past a Big Hill lean-to, the Jackie Jones Mountain fire tower, and the crumbling ORAK ruins. Sunday brought something quieter — a memorial on the Long Path for the victims of Northwest Orient Flight 6231.
I helped lead a group of Club Getaway guests up the Collier's Climb Trail in Emery Park, near Kent, CT. The route to the summit of Leonard Mountain is a steady incline — not incredibly steep, but consistently at an angle and rarely leveling off. At the top there's a view of the surrounding mountains and valleys, partially obstructed by summer foliage. We went on an exceptionally hot, humid day and stopped a few times for water. We had hoped to descend a different trail, but a recent storm had left it blocked by downed trees, so we retraced our steps for a 2.29-mile out-and-back.
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