Hike Reviews
October 06, 2019
Good workout !
Enjoyed this loop today . Thanks Daniel for the great trail description ! Not too much water in the brooks but lovely views and not many people.
May 05, 2018
Great until it wasn’t
First, I would recommend taking a picture of the trail map which is on the cork board at the visitors center. We had no issues going from the white to the blue to the black. This part of the hike is beautiful, moderate with one very steep section on the black at “pulpit” and very well marked. The place where we got messed up was on the transfer to the orange. We must have gotten turned around and ended up going the wrong direction on the orange. After a while we realized this and because i had a pic of the map, we were able to find our way back to the visitors center via the blue trail -making our hike 7.5 miles instead of 5. If we had done the trail as described, I think it would have been perfect. Just be careful at the black/orange junction.
July 03, 2015
What in Orange Blazes?!
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;">First off, thanks to Daniel for the great trail description.</p>
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;">I made this loop in late June 2015 on a Monday (perks of being a freelancer), setting out at about 2:30PM. In the lower portion of the trail along the creek I came across a few folks. Further up along the white blazed and white and black blazed sections, I was all along except for one group of 3 German hikers. They were the only people I'd see until I descended back down along the orange blazed trail. Plenty of wildlife (white tails, squirrels, birds of prey, smaller birds, and tons of grasshoppers & crickets, no snakes even though I was looking). </p>
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;">Speaking of the orange blazed HTS trail...</p>
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;"><em><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 14.5920000076294px; background-color: #edefd9;">It then climbs an escarpment, first steeply, then more gradually, passing two southwest-facing viewpoints. Near the second viewpoint, a large rock, known as The Pulpit, juts out by the cliff edge. After a short descent, the RBH Trail climbs to reach a junction with the orange-blazed Hillburn-Torne-Sebago (HTS) Trail on an open rock ledge (the junction is marked by paint blazes on the rocks).</span></em></p>
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;"><span style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;">I could'nt find the blazes at all until AFTER the gas line cut. I bushwacked my way through what is indeed dense mountain laurel thickets until reaching the pipeline cut. Granted, I didn't have a map, but I backtracked twice to no avail before moving on.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;"><span style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px;">All in all, one of the better hikes I've had in the area.</span></p>
May 27, 2013
Hike is on Map 118
<p>This hike is on Map 118, Southern Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park.</p>
May 25, 2013
Which map is this trail on?
<p>Is this hike on map Harriman-Bear Mountain South (118) or North (119)? I would like to download the pdf map, but don't know which one to get. Thanks</p>
December 30, 2011
visually gorgeous but noisy
<p>There must be a target practice area nearby because our entire hike was marred by the sound of someone shooting what sounded like a rifle in the not-too-far-off distance. The noise was constant and irritating -I don't think I'll do this hike again for that reason. If you are not bothered by this sort of thing, then by all means hike this beautiful area! Wonderful long flowing, gently sloping waterfalls over fabulous rock formations. Beautifull vistas at certain points. No sign of woldlife, probably because of the constant NOISE!! I would be interested to know if other people have had a similar experience with this area. If so, maybe we need to try to find a way for them to contain the noise that ricochets off every blasted surface in the area.</p>
June 10, 2011
Some advice for crossing the gas pipeline on the HTS trail
<p>I completed this hike on an unseasonably warm May 31. It was refreshing to end my hike with a cool walk along a rushing Stony Brook. We spotted a Fowler's toad and Northern Water Snake on our hike.</p>
<p>I occasionally lost sight of the orange blazes on the HTS trail, especially on mountain ridges where there were few trees and the blazes on rocks were hidden by undergrowth or faded.</p>
<p>As you across the gas pipeline on the HTS trail, look to your left for a rock cairn. That will direct you to the continuation of the trail.</p>