Timp Return

This past Saturday I returned for another night on the Timp. This go-round I took another trail from the southeast & I went with my good friend and I guess you can say hiking mentor, Tribes.  We hiked in on the 1777 trail to Timp Torne trail to reach the summit. Just a really good night to be sleeping on a mountain. As a matter of fact, this was the best sleep I ever had outdoors. Big props to Big Agnes. I love their air core pads. 2.5 inches of awesome comfort. I slept till 8:30am and really didn't want to get out of my bag. We started another fire to warm up around 9:30am and ate some chow.

We decided to hike to West Mtn Shelter, then link up with the Ramapo Dunderberg (Kamikaze) back to the Timp Torne trail. Somewhere around 11am we hit the trail. It was a beautiful day to be hiking. We came to Cat's Elbow on the Kamikaze trail and stopped to enjoy the view and I chowed down some more on my gorp,cheese and pepperoni. 10 minutes later as we were sitting there,  a doe came within 20 feet of us and didn't even see us or care we were there. It was awesome, just watching her act completely normal, relaxed, unstressed. After a few minutes the doe moved on and out of view and then we hit the kamikaze trail again.

Kamikaze Trail

Taking our time and enjoying the scenery we eventually reached our startpoint around 2:30 in the afternoon and headed home. It was a great overnight hike in a park that keeps getting better.

Supermoon & The Timp

Saturday after work a friend & I headed to Harriman State Park for a nice overnight hike to enjoy the largest full moon in 18 years. We both agreed on hiking the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) from Seven Lakes Drive to West Mountain Shelter. We arrived short of 5pm and were on the trail. We hiked for about an hour or so before reaching the shelter and seeing at least 8 tents and what appeared to be a scout troop of kids. After a short discussion we decided to hike on another mile to set camp on Timp Mountain.

Timp Mountain in the distance.

 Another 35 minutes of hiking. We reach the Timp. Unreal. We had this mountain all to ourselves. The choices for setting camp seemed endless and all so close to the summit. Just short of sunfall we had our tents set in this nice nook surrounded by rock walls & boulders which blocked the wind quite nicely for the most part.

Then came the moon. As Charlie Sheen would say "Epic!".  I swear it almost looked like a second Sun for that first hour or so. Glowing bright orange and just looked enormous. We were both in awe and so grateful to be sleeping on a mountain that night. Later on as the Moon rose the shadows of Timp mountain and others were amazing, Moon shadows. Great conversation throughout the night enjoying the views from the summit and also sitting around a nice bonfire where we set camp. Sometime around midnight we went to our tents to get some sleep.

After a a good sleep under the moon & stars I awoke around 8am. Mike was already up and wandering around camp. I just laid in my tent for a little while and enjoyed the cool crisp air while being snug as a bug in a rug.  We decided to hangout on the Timp for awhile and just enjoy the joy. The views from this mountain are amazing, even better then West Mountain.

We hit the trail to head back in the very late morning. We hiked back out the way we came. No matter how many times I hike a trail I always find something new I have not noticed before. Our hike ended in mid afternoon and we headed home. We both agreed that we will be back to the Timp.