Bearfort Ridge Recap


Wonderful Weather, Wonderful Hike

Given it was the middle of August, Sunday's weather was as good as one could possibly hope for.  I am not sure the temperature reached the 70s and there wasn't a drop of rain the entire time.  This was especially fortunate as the hike duration clocked in at just under 6 hours.  Each GPS tracker is a little different, and this time mine displayed 8.1 miles with 1300 feet of elevation gain.

The highlights were numerous:
  • Never ending rock scrambles, most of them simple, but a few were challenging enough to make you pause and plan your route before proceeding.
  • A changing terrain featuring a lot of scrub pines, exposed bedrock, minor stream crossings, rocky ledges, and one low lying wetland.
  • We also caught a glimpse of the NYC skyline, some partook in ledge hopping, and we all enjoyed the views above greenwood lake.
Here is the full photo album (also permanently linked on the right) and below I cherry picked some of my favorites.  If any new pictures are sent in I'll be sure to add them.

One of the first scrambles, and a hint of what was to come

Stacey on the rock, taking the first group photo (nice job Gibbs)

I don't recall where this was, lol

Exposed bedrock and scrub pine makes for a happy hiker

The small wetland / swamp

Brian was first to cross the fissure, but Sheila followed soon after

The fearless six (what's a good synonym for fearless that begins with S?)
The selfie pictured above

One of the high points on Bearfort Ridge
Cantharellus cinnabarinus 

He needs no intruduction

Teamwork!  The last difficult scramble 

Up, up, up....

...to the Greenwood Lake viewpoint

Hoping for a future NYNJ Trail Conference map modeling career later in life

Research!  This is the Eastern Newt in it's juvenile stage

The team photo - again with Stacey taking one for the team and snapping the pic

And finally, when we all had to put Brian in his time-out hole.


Location: Abram S Hewitt State Forest

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