I am sure we are here...I think

Last Sunday Katie and I went up to Harriman State Park to hike, that was about the extent of our planning. The information available on the internet for park maps, trails, directions, etc. left much to be desired so we basically got a general idea of where the park was and just went up there. We entered the park at the southern end and drove up Seven Lake's Drive north to Tiorati Lake.

Apparently it was the last day to buy keys that let you enter many of the ponds and boat launches in the park so there was a rush on the information center that we found. We also got there at about 12:05 and the information center was closed from 12-1pm so it felt we were just about doomed at the start. There was a woman standing outside having a smoke who informed me of the lunchtime closing, and had just told the same thing to a couple eager boaters. I didn't want to be rude and point out the fact that the transaction I was looking to enter with her would take all but 2 seconds: she hands me map, I hand her $4. She recommended that I look at the map posted on the wall to decide where I want to go and if I wanted a map for myself I would have to wait until 1pm or drive to the next information center and buy one there. A bit annoyed but trying hard not to show it and immediately be slapped with the "New York City-ite" stigma, I walked over to the map on the wall and try to make sense of this park and plan our excursion. After staring angrily at the map for a few seconds, I considered just taking that one, and jiggled the lock that enclosed it in it's Plexiglas housing. No luck.

Two minutes later the ranger rounded the corner of the building and came up to me. She explained that they were working their little park ranger tails off with all of these boaters and needed a break from it for an hour, and she was just waiting for them to leave before she could run in an grab me a map. Much appreciated, I understood, got my map.

After a quick review of the park, we got our bearings, found where the Long Path (LP) and Appalachian Trail (AT) ran through the park. Most people know about the AT but the LP is a trail that runs north from New York City up to the Adirondack State Park I believe. I had never hiked along the AT (or the LP for that matter) and wanted to give it a go so we mapped out a loop to hike and set out on our adventure.

We found pretty quickly that the trail markings are not easy to identify at first and if you don't remind yourself to keep checking for upcoming markings, you will quickly find yourself lost in the woods and remembering the first time you saw the Blair Witch Project. I don't know why; I have seen a lot of movies with people being lost in the woods and slaughtered, even Grizzly Man gave me the chills to some extent. Ok, so maybe it didn't, but I figured I would make reference to it because I thought briefly about how whacked out that guy was; that gave me the chills. For some reason though, Blair Witch just seizes my thoughts and the hair stands up on my arm. Anyways, this happened to us within the first 10 minutes of hiking. We were following the trail, designated by blue paint splashes on trees, walking along a seemingly well-trodden and carved path and next thing you know, no splashes. It didn't take much for us to find our way back but this was only the first time we kinda sorta got lost, and certainly not the last time we took a wrong turn.

There were some beautiful views, we made friends with some deer, ran into some rough weather for part of the day but for the most part it was a great trip. I won't bore anyone with the details because for us it was great but a relaxing day walking around in the woods is not the best story when retold. Bottom line I guess is that we had a good time, we will go back, and we will be encouraging some of you to join us, whether you are "outdoorsy" or not, you will enjoy yourself.

See below the loop we made, of course I mapped it in Google Earth when we got home, also in a Google Pedometer tool online. The pic is from Google Earth, my new best friend.