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.
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Long Path blazes |
Views of ... |
... Lake Skannatati ... |
... from LP |
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Blueberry bushes |
Rocks north of lake |
Young deer lunching |
Lake Skannatati |
Stream to lake |
LP passes huge rocks |
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Heading north on Dunning |
Pine swamp ... |
... to the east |
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Dunning skirts swamp |
Climbing ... |
... on tailings |
Wall at entrance |
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At the shaft entrance |
View out of shaft |
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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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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |