Wawayanda Lake Loop

Wawayanda Lake Loop, Wawayanda State Park (1/15/2011)

This is the Hike of the Week for 6/4/2009 as described on the NY-NJ Trail Conference site. Two weeks ago we did a loop on the eastern side of Wawayanda Lake. At that time we contemplated looping the entire lake but there was a fair amount of snow on the ground and the going was slow. Today we returned to reassess, beginning at the Pump House trail. While the going was a bit slow on that trail (which is almost the entire first half of the hike), we managed to finish that part within about 90 minutes. So, having made it to the point of no return, we decided to continue, and ended up looping the entire lake in the snow.

The last leg of the described hike is on the Wingdam trail. Having done that entire trail two weeks ago we decided to continue on the Laurel Pond trail until we got back to the lake. Ironically, by doing so, while we looped the entire lake we didn't really see it except at the beginning and end. It was frozen solid, speckled with a smattering of ice fisherman. The temperature when we started the hike was 14 F but increased to a sweltering 29 F during the 3.5 hours it took to do the 6.7 miles.

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