I've become quite interested in the unblazed trails of Harriman, and over the past couple of months have tried incorporating a good percentage of them in the hikes we've been
doing in the park. For today I put together a circuit that traverses unofficial unblazed trails for about 90% of its nearly seven mile length.
We parked at the Lake Sebago boat launch and took the ski trail (which begins in the lot) east, crossing over Seven Lakes Drive before reaching the woods road Pine Meadow Road. Here we turned right and took this road all the way east to where it splits in two: Pine Meadow Road East and Pine Meadow Road West, at the eastern end of the Buck trail. Two weeks ago we reached this intersection from the Buck trail and took the West road. Today we took the East road, and headed south to the tri-road intersection seen on the NYNJTC map for Southern Harriman east of Minsi Swamp. Since we were making good time we decided to continue on the PM Road East (the middle trail) south to the site marked "Ruin" on the map. There we encountered the ruins of a stone shelter built against a rock. We backtracked to the tri-road intersection using the eastern-most woods road. At the tri-road fork we turned left on the western-most road (labeled Conklin Road on the map). The road ends at the southern tip of Lake Wanoksink. Here we crossed over the earthen dam and then continued clockwise around the lake on a very rugged unmaintained trail until we reached Pine Meadow Road West. We continued north, past Monitor Rock, eventually taking an official blazed trail (the Seven Hills trail) north back to the car. Total distance hiked today was 6.7 miles, in just under 4 hours.
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At the Sebago boat launch lot |
Beginning of ski trail |
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It just stopped raining |
Tennis court of Sebago camp |
Cabins at Sebago camp |
Creek from Lake Sebago |
Gravestone of Abram Waldron |
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Boundary wall |
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Moss on ski trail |
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Intersection with Pine Meadow Road |
Heading west on PM Road |
Local resident |
Rocky surface |
Looking east down PM Road |
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Underground cable warning |
Lined with Mountain Laurel |
[Photo by Laura] |
Puddles from earlier rain |
Photographing reflections [Photo by Laura] |
TMI trail crossing on PM East Road |
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Beautiful swamp on PM East Road |
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Gorgeous tree branches |
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Heading south on PM East Road |
Very wet in places |
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Swamp |
Cascades off PM East Road |
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Culvert on PM East Road |
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Swamps abound |
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The tri-road intersection |
View south on PM East Road |
View north on PM East Road |
Ruin |
Inside the ruin |
Slab at entrance |
Heading back on eastern-most road |
View looking north |
Minsi Swamp ... |
... with concrete structures |
View west on Conklin Road |
Giant rocks on Conklin Road |
Stream from Lake Wanoksink |
On SE tip of Lake Wanoksink |
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Lake Wanoksink and concrete structure |
At southern tip of Lake Wanoksink |
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Pipe along unmaintained trail |
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Another abandoned structure |
View of lake from southern tip |
On rocky unmaintained trail |
Another view north |
On the SW bank of Lake Wanoksink |
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Stone bridge SW of lake |
Rocky road west of lake |
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Cascades of Diamond Brook |
[Photo by Laura] |
Raging after the rains |
Tricky crossing |
Descent on Seven Hills trail |
Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |