Thursday, February 21, 2019

Weekend at Camp Nawakwa

One of the Ramblers is a member of Camp Nawakwa, a private camp at Harriman State Park, and she runs an annual winter camping trip there.

Camp Nawakwa

(Both "backpacking" and "camping" are a little inaccurate, I suppose. We backpack in, but then stay in cabins. The main cabin has electricity, but no heat, while the sleeping cabins just have four walls and a roof. So, "luxury" winter camping?)

We hiked in on Saturday morning. The trail was very icy, and I wouldn't advise anyone to be on the trails without microspikes under those conditions. Mind you, we saw plenty of people over the three days who didn't have them. It may be hard to believe that, given the photo above - but the amount of snow varied dramatically depending on the direction the slope was facing, etc. And the trails were actually icier than the surrounding woods, thanks to previous hikers packing the snow down.

After settling in, we took a very short walk around camp, and I didn't wear my spikes, which was a mistake.

Camp Nawakwa

On Sunday, we took a longer hike, covering some trails that I must have been on before but did not remember well. There was some pretty nice scenery.

Camp Nawakwa

Monday the weather was still cold but now also raining/sleeting/snowing. We only had to hike out, though.

It was a nice weekend, although quite cold. My new winter sleeping bag worked great, especially with a couple of blankets from the main cabin added!

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Hiking the John Muir Trail

(No, not THAT one.)

John Muir Trail at VCP

While hiking the "real" JMT would be awesome, today's hike was on the John Muir Trail in Van Cortlandt Park. It's two miles less and considerably easier than the famous one.

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park recently reblazed the trail, and I wanted to see if it would be easier to follow than it was previously. The answer is yes, it is much easier to follow.

My entire hike was about 7 miles. Nothing killer, but better than sitting on my butt all day.