Belated President’s Day Weekend, Groundhog Day and
Valentine’s Day greetings from Harriman Hikers!
***NEWS***
*Screwy Weather is Normal Weather*
We hope everyone is enjoying this (so far) balmiest,un-precipitative
(barring the Feb 12th blizzard!) winter we have seen in some years!
We would like to thank all of you that have come to join us hiking
in spite of it being sooo hot;-)
We would like to mention that, while our goal is to hike “every Sunday,
year-round, rain or shine”, we do like to exhibit a little
forethought, responsibility and common sense regarding our activities,
specifically, regarding our cancelling the Feb 12th hike.
A little rain never stopped us, and hiking while it is snowing would not be
inconceivable except for the fact that everyone has to actually get
to the hike safely and be able to return home afterward.
The Feb 12th blizzard happened to coincide with vehicle travel windows
associated with the hike, so we called the hike off. (“The Perfect Storm?”
😉 The roads were in very bad shape most of the day so we feel we
were prudent cancelling.
In the event in the future that we have severe weather possibly making
hiking(or getting to/from the hike) unfeasable or unsafe please check
the website early Sunday morning before you leave; we will always update
www.harrimanhikers.org
with relevant info regarding same.
If there is snowfall mid- to late-week, be sure to check the web site for
announcement of the possibility of a Saturday snow-shoe hike
get-together in addition to the regular Sunday hike.
—
***FREE SATURDAY HIKE IN MARCH***
Ed is planning a FREE Saturday Hike March 25th so please mark your
calendar. Please note that Ed’s Saturday Hikes are generally a little
more ambitious(10-12 miles) than our regular Sunday hikes, so
please be sure you are in shape! Usual meetup for Ed’s Saturday
Hikes are 10:00am sharp in the public far end of the Mason Jar
Restaurant on Rt. 202 just off Rt. 17 in Mahwah.
—
*New Hikes!*
If you have been hiking recently you will have noticed that we are
trying many new trails and routes- We plan to continue to add new
hikes, especially as the weather warms up into spring and weather
and trail conditions improve, offering us more opportunities to explore.
We are trying to figure out a way to keep an online hiking journal.
Something involving GPS and online maps free for public use might
be very kewl as long as it doesn’t take professional computer
programming skills to use. We welcome any ideas or suggestions-
please email us
harrimanhikers@gmail.com.
—
*Speaking of Ambitious Hikes…*
Steve has been talking up the most “ambitious” hike we have ever
heard of, organized by the THC, along the NY/MA border, in May,
29 miles in one day, overnight camping at the start point for an
early start. Sounds like he is going for it! If you are interested,
talk to Steve on a hike. Registration is limited and it would be safe
to say this hike would not be for anyone except the most serious
hiker in very good physical shape. Please note this hike is outside
our organization and does not affect our regular, intermediate
level (7-8 mile) Sunday hikes here in our area.
—
*YOUR News*
If you have news you would like to share with the group, please
email us at
harrimanhikers@gmail.com.
If appropriate and relevant, we will be happy to include your
announcement in our newsletter and/or on our website.
—
*New Pix*
We have some new hiking pictures on the website in the Photo Gallery
courtesy of regular photo contributor Doug Williams.
We would like thank Doug once again for sharing with us.
photo gallery:
Photo Gallery
—
*Needed: Pictures of People in Odd Clothing;-)*
We still need some detail pictures of people in Winter hiking gear
to accompany publication of our Winter Hiking Tips article
Harriman_Hikers_Guide_to_Winter_Hiking
in Real Travel Adventures Ezine http://www.realtraveladventures.com/.
Between the weather and Rich going away all the time to go skiing
we may have to ‘dress up’ for this;-) If anyone is so inclined, take
pictures amongst yourselves of your gaiters, crampons, layers,
boots, toboggans, gloves, mittens, ear muffs, handwarmers and so
on and email us the pictures at [email]harrimanhikers@gmail.com[/email]. If we use
your pictures we will make sure you get a photo credit.
If you have any kind of hiking pictures you would like to share with
the group please email them to us at
harrimanhikers@gmail.com
—
*People You Should Know!*
>New York/ New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC)
http://www.nynjtc.org.
This non-profit organization is the party responsible for blazing
(and maintaining) most of the trails we hike on weekly.
Volunteer opportunities are always available including trail maintenence.
Additionally, there are substantial discounts available toward
merchandise sold by NYNJTC and by local outdoors retailers
such as Campmor and Ramsey Outdoor. If you buy a reasonable
amount of outdoor clothing and gear during the course of a year,
you can effectively pay for your NYNJTC membership in discounts!
—
Friends of the Palisades
www.friendsofpalisades.org/
Mission Statement:
“With the desire to raise increased awareness of the Commission
and its work to protect open space and offer recreation and education
programs as well as to improve our facilities, the Friends of
the Palisades was created with the following mission:
“This corporation is established exclusively for charitable objectives
to receive and maintain funds and apply such funds for the
improvement of and activities in the Palisades Interstate Park Commission,
and for the purposes of promoting and expanding the preservation of
natural, historical, and cultural resources in the Park for the
benefit of the public.”
—
Thendara Mountain Club
www.thendaramountainclub.org
Thendara Mountain Club is located in a group camp near Tiorati Circle
atop Hasenclever Mountain and is open year-round.
Approved membership, which includes completion of safety and service workshops
is required and the club and its facilities are maintained on a cooperative
basis. The dues are extremely reasonable and the club appears to offer many
extra outdoor recreation opportunities right in Harriman State Park.
In addition to a year-round lodge that offers overnight accomadations on a coop
basis, Thendara Mountain Club has lake and swimming access as well
as canoes and sailboats available for use by its members.
Please check em out and let us know what you think.
—
*Website Features*
In addition to our
Photo Gallery,
which seems to be a favorite, there are other features of
http://www.harrimanhikers.org that you might not have known about:
Syndicated News:
We have syndicated news feeds from many (mostly outdoors related)
sources that are updated hourly that available for free reading right on our website. We syndicate our own blog, which is a journal of sorts of items that dont quite
fit on http://www.harrimanhikers.org.
If you have a blog yourself (it must relevant somehow to Harriman Hikers) or
you would like to start one for syndication on the website, let us know- we can
help.
If you have a favorite website with an RSS or XML feed that seems appropriate
for inclusion in our Syndicated News let us know and we will try to syndicate
it.
Links:
we have a BIG links page full of ALL KINDS of interesting places you can go on
the web. Check it out! If you know of a website with some sort of
relevance to us that you think is interesting or especially if you think they
might want trade links with us- let us now [email]harrimanhikers@gmail.com[/email]
Harriman Hikers Guide to Winter and Cold Weather Hiking:
Harriman_Hikers_Guide_to_Winter_Hiking
We highlighted this page in a previous newsletter but we think it is really
good so we are mentioning it again- check it out!
Great Places to Hike: This is a block that links us to a hiking database
maintained by http://www.localhikes.com.
Check it out!
Just look on our homepage in the
(start in the Directory and Other Info blocks) and start clickin’! (Dont worry,
you wont break the website;-)
There is even a Hike Leader Emeritus link:
to the news article about the ceremony we had for Gene in case you forgot what
he looks like. (He’s never in the NH pix he sends us! 😉
—
Lawdy! it’ll be March next time we shout out- where does the year go? Till
then, remember:
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
-Mohandas Gandhi”
Ed Burdzy, Hike Leader
Greg Paret, Hike Leader
R. Richard Hobbs, Webmaster
—
Harriman Hikers
A North NJ Singles Hiking Club
Established 1974
http://www.harrimanhikers.org
Harriman Hikers 