I've spent lots of time in Harriman since moving to New York, but some corners of it are harder to reach via public transit. This includes the area around Lake Welch on the southeastern side of the park. I have passed through before - at least once, when I did the SBM end-to-end, but I haven't explored much.
In fact, I even violated my rule of "never pass up a fire tower" when doing the SBM! So I wanted to visit the fire tower. I also wanted to see St. John's-in-the-Wilderness, a small church that my hiking club has visited, but I've never made those trips.
Starting from the parking area at 106, I headed south on the Suffern-Bear Mountain trail. The water was really high, with a lot of ice, and there were a few dicey stream crossings. After passing the Orak ruins, I approached Jackie Jones Mountain. A large radio tower is actually visible before the fire tower.
The tower was open, even the cab, so I enjoyed the views (not so much the graffiti) before continuing on. I passed Big Hill shelter, where a hiking club was setting up lunch, then turned onto the Long Path. There is a memorial to a flight that crashed.
I didn't so much miss the turnoff to the chapel as I missed the turn the main trail took to avoid the turnoff, which worked out just fine. The chapel was cute from the outside.
From there I followed the road (very low traffic) to the paths around Lake Welch. The sandy beach was closed for the season. Then it was back into the woods to catch a short bit of the SBM back to the parking area.
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