Pine Swamp & Surebridge Mines



Pine Swamp & Surebridge Mines, Harriman State Park (7/25/2013)

On Christmas Eve of 2010 we decided to fit a quick hike into our busy holiday schedule to visit what is possibly the most impressive mine in all of Harriman, the Pine Swamp Mine. At that time the rocks in the mine were a bit icy so it was too treacherous to climb up the shaft very far. I returned today with my friend Andy and we climbed just about as far up as we could and the view down the shaft to the opening was quite impressive. With more time on our hands today we were also able to visit the Surebridge Mine along Surebridge Mine Road, a woods road just NW of Time Square. That mine was basically a hole in the ground, nowhere near as amazing as the Pine Swamp Mine.

We parked in the large lot at Lake Skannatati and headed west on the Long Path, turned right on the Dunning trail and headed north. Across from the Pine Swamp (on our right) we found the steep, unmarked tailing-ridden path leading up to the Pine Swamp mine which we climbed and explored for at least 20 minutes. Outside the mine, we continued climbing, searching for the "sky light" hole that was high above us while we were inside the mine. The view of the swamp up there was terrific. Instead of descending far back down to the Dunning trail we decided to continue climbing and bushwacking west where we once again found the LP which we took north to Times Square. From there we headed west on Arden-Surebridge trail then north along the unblazed Surebridge Mine Road where we had a pleasant lunch up on a hill overlooking the swamp. After a quick visit to the mine we headed east on the Bottle Cap trail before heading south on the Ramapo Dunderberg back to Times Square. We headed east on the Arden-Surebridge trail to the amazing three-lake view and then took a faint, unmarked path back down to the car.

Total distance hiked today was nearly 6 miles, in nearly 4 hours, a good part of this exploring the Pine Swamp Mine.

(Click on the thumbnail to bring up a bigger image in a pop-up window)


Long Path blazes

Views of ...

... Lake Skannatati ...

... from LP



Blueberry bushes

Rocks north of lake

Young deer lunching

 

Lake Skannatati

Stream to lake

LP passes huge rocks

 



Heading north on Dunning

Pine swamp ...

... to the east
 



Dunning skirts swamp

Climbing ...

... on tailings
 


Wall at entrance


At the shaft entrance

View out of shaft
 



Andy climbing ...

... to the top

View from the top
 


Rocks are lit ...

... by the "skylight"

Andy heads ...

... back down
 


View of "skylight"

Andy is out

A zoom to Andy posing

Water at the entrance
 


Bushwacking up, with swamp below

"Skylight" from above

Climbing

Views of trees abound
 


We bushwacked over ...

... the ridge

Nice view of Harriman's forests

Thick tufts of ferns
 


Andy almost waist-deep

Moss

Very fragrant fern

Times Square
 


That tree grew on stone!

A-SB looking NW

Wildflowers

Surebridge swamp vegetation
 


Lunch overlooking Surebridge swamp

Snake skin on Surebridge Swamp road

A very green Surebridge Swamp Road

Surebridge Swamp mine
 


Bottle Cap trail

Loads of Sandy damage on Ramapo-Dunderberg

Climbing on R-D

And more climbing
 


And more climbing

Lane along whaleback

Glacial errata

Now downhill on R-D
 


Northern end of Dunning

Stream across A-SB

Mine north of A-SB

Heading to ...
 


... the view!

Lakes Skannatti and Kanawauke

Lone fisherman

 

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