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.
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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 |
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Raccoon tracks |
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Views as we ascend |
Laura climbing |
And climbing |
Taking a break |
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Route 287 looking south |
View south |
View west |
View south from first viewpoint |
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More climbing |
NY Thruway |
Route 287 |
[Photo by Laura] |
View west |
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Laura's Kahtoola microspikes |
Coyote tracks |
Weasel or mink tracks |
View SE |
NY Thruway looking SE |
View from second viewpoint |
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We'll be back here for lunch |
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Abandonded chairs |
Packed snow from here on |
Gasline cut looking west |
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Zoom-in of house in cut |
Rhododendron |
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Power line cut looking west |
Looking east |
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Playful field sparrows |
Loads of saplings |
[Photo by Laura] |
Huge rocks at Kitchen Stairs |
Descending from Kitchen Stairs |
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Back at power line cut |
View east of NY Thruway |
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Rhododendron |
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Bear tracks! |
Bear tracks |
About a 2-foot stride |
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Rabbit tracks |
View east from off-trail look-out |
Quarry |
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That's a shiny building |
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[Photo by Laura] |
Our awesome lunch spot! |
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Katoolahs rule! |
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Ice under snow |
Final descent |
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Icicles |
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Back to the trains |
Route 59 looking west |
Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |