On the Appalachian Trail: from the Elk Pen to the Lemon Squeezer

Brigid and I, along with Maria Abonnel, Kathy Americo and Karen Riner  had a great walk on the Appalachian Trail in Harriman State Park and  Through the Lemon Squeezer way back in October of 2007. Hard to believe it was that long ago!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our latest day hike, this past Friday. This time just Brigid, myself, and Maria. We set out from the Elk Pen, on the A.T., about 2.3 miles south of the Lemon Squeezer.  I did some videoing at the Lemon Squeezer, which I’m working on editing and will soon post. We took a different return trail back to the Elk Pen – just for variety – about a 3 mile circuit on the Arden-SurebridgeTrail.

The walk was tougher then I remembered. The rise in altitude was from about 700′ at the Elk Pen to maybe 1250″ at the Lemon Squeezer.

Brigid took most of these –

Loads of trees were down – including this recently split tree, which has the distinctive white rectangle blaze of the Appalachian Trail.

For our mycologist friend Kathy – the only mushroom we saw on the trail –

 Some campers at a beautiful spot just off the Trail at Island Pond. Unless the rules are different in Harriman State Park section of the Trail, they aren’t supposed to be camping here. The only camping allowed on the A.T. in NY State is at the recognized campsites. Like here  My solo overnighter … . I suspect the rule gets “stretched” fairly frequently.

We arrive at the south end of the Lemon Squeezer, and then a close-up of the south entrance. To see more, you’ll have to wait for the video, or hit the link at the top of this post.

 

and the walk back out –

On the way out we ran into the only person we’d seen on the Trail, with the exception of the campers. As I was talking to him he said “look at the snake” and pointed behind me. There was a five foot black rat snake (Aptly named because they like to, well, eat rats). Very common, I’ve seen them before. I should have video’d – only took two photos and here’s one of them –

And this is the big old oak tree back at the Elk Pen. As you can tell from some of the pictures the lighting Friday was very tough – contrasty. This is the best I could do with the tree, and it doesn’t really do it justice.

The Lemon Squeezer is a great spot. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, and Brigid wants to go back and do more photography and videoing.