Nordkop Mountain II



Nordkop Mountain II, Harriman State Park (2/7/2009)

We hiked the northeastern part of Nordkop Mountain two weeks ago. On that day we parked in the Kakiat parking lot in Montebello, New York and took the Suffern-Bear Mountain trail west from its intersection with the Kakiat trail. We got as far west as the power line cut and took that power line cut back. This time we hiked the southwestern part of the mountain. We parked at the Suffern train station just off Route 59 and hiked the Suffern-Bear Mountain from its trail head on Route 59 (just north of the NY Thruway overpass) to the Kitchen Stairs, before turning back. There wasn't much snow on the trail at road level, but after we got to the peak of Nordkop, with two absolutely spectacular (but noisy) viewpoints, the snow was at least 5 inches deep for the remainder of the hike.

We hiked about 4 miles in less than 3.5 hours, lots of it spent climbing.

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


The Shamrock Hotel in Suffern

The Suffern depot

Walking under the NY Thruway

The trail head is at this wall


At the trail head on Rt. 59

NJ Transit trains in rear


Raccoon tracks

 


Views as we ascend

Laura climbing

And climbing
 


Taking a break


Route 287 looking south

View south
 


View west

View south from first viewpoint


 


More climbing

NY Thruway

Route 287

[Photo by Laura]
 


View west


Laura's Kahtoola microspikes

Coyote tracks
 


Weasel or mink tracks

View SE

NY Thruway looking SE

View from second viewpoint
 



We'll be back here for lunch


 


Abandonded chairs

Packed snow from here on

Gasline cut looking west

 


Zoom-in of house in cut

Rhododendron


Power line cut looking west
 


Looking east



Playful field sparrows
 


Loads of saplings

[Photo by Laura]

Huge rocks at Kitchen Stairs

Descending from Kitchen Stairs
 



Back at power line cut

View east of NY Thruway

 



Rhododendron


Bear tracks!
 


Bear tracks

About a 2-foot stride


 


Rabbit tracks

View east from off-trail look-out

Quarry

 


That's a shiny building



[Photo by Laura]
 


Our awesome lunch spot!



Katoolahs rule!
 



Ice under snow

Final descent

 


Icicles


Back to the trains

Route 59 looking west
 

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