Sterling Forest State Park trails are featured in an all-new--and for the first time, all-digitally-produced--Trail Conference-published map.

Using the most sophisticated technology available, this map will guide you along hiking trails traversing over 20,000 acres of parklands featuring mountainous cliffs, dense second-growth woodlands, lakes and marshes, and which offer dazzling vistas of the New York-New Jersey Highlands and beyond.

This five-color map, printed on waterproof, tearproof Tyvek, covers this popular hiking area in southern Orange County, New York--and celebrates the successful culmination of a 15-year effort to preserve Sterling Forest for public recreational use, originally spearheaded by former Trail Conference Executive Director Joann Dolan and her husband, Paul.

Included on the map are all marked trails, parking areas, viewpoints, access points, mountains, lakes, mines and woods roads. The NY-NJ Highlands Trail is also located on the map, as are the contiguous publicly-owned parklands of Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park, and Passaic County-preserved lands across the state line in New Jersey. A section of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail also traverses Sterling Forest State Park.

"After working for more than 15 years to protect Sterling Forest, the Trail Conference is especially happy to produce this state-of-the-art digitized map. It is the first comprehensive map of Sterling Forest available for the public," stated Jan Hesbon, Conference Executive Director. "This beautiful map will be treasured by hikers and other recreational users of the forest."

New production process yields visible improvements

The Sterling Forest trails map is the TC's first all-digitally-produced map. Not only are there are visible changes in the map's appearance, but vast "invisible" changes in how the map is produced.

Formerly, traditional cartography processes, which involved hand drawing the trails, were used to create our maps. Since 1975, we had used United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps as the base for the hiking maps. Many USGS maps are so old that we needed to make numerous corrections to update them for our use. Additionally, the cartographic process involved was painstakingly tedious and time-consuming: each color used on a map required a separate layer to be drawn, and the map information was added and subtracted layer by layer.

Within the last four years, computer programs for both drawing and digital technology have improved so much that it is now possible to produce a high-quality map completely by computer. Instead of starting with data that first needs correcting, the Trail Conference can now start from available electronic data which is accurate and complete. For example, digital elevation maps (DEMs) show the land's elevation on a 10-meter grid measured from aerial photographs. This information is then used in two different computer programs. One creates the shaded relief which interprets the land's slopes onto a map. The other draws contour lines at a selected interval; in the case of Sterling Forest, at 50-feet intervals. The USGS also produces digital line graphs (DLGs) with features such as roads and streams recorded as line segments with lengths, directions, and feature codes. All these programs are integrated to produce the base map on which the trails can be overlaid.

Locating trails is now done electronically, too. In November 1999, thanks to partial funding from a Greenway Conservancy for the Hudson River Valley grant, the Trail Conference was able to purchase a commercial-grade global positioning system (GPS) unit. The readings the GPS collects while its operator is hiking a trail can be corrected to an accuracy of 2-5 meters.

The Sterling Forest trails map required the efforts of many. Special thanks are due to Herb Chong for his computer wizardry and technical know-how in assembling all the electronic data into the base map, to Chris Cesar who developed the data collection system, and trained others in the techniques, to John Jurasek, Steve Kelman, and Joe Bohmer for their field-checking efforts, and to John Gebhards, Jim Gell, Gary Haugland and Jeff Hutchinson for field data. Steve Butfilowski designed the reverse side of the map, and Daniel Chazin and JoAnn Dolan wrote the reverse-side informational text.

The Sterling Forest trails map retails for $7.95 (Trail Conference member price is $5.95), plus .80 shipping. 

New York State to buy 1,300-acre tract on Shawangunk Ridge

Links Long Path and Shawangunk Ridge Trail

[photo Nick Zungoli]

On the heels of National Trails Day, New York Governor George Pataki announced that the state will purchase a 1,300-acre parcel along the Shawangunk Ridge to preserve a major hiking trail connection of the Long Path and Shawangunk Ridge Trail.

The parcel contains a three-mile length of the 340-mile Long Path, and the Long Path's link with the 36-mile Shawangunk Ridge Trail, part of the Long Path system. The long path currently extends from the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to John Boyd Thacher State Park on the Helderberg Escarpment just west of Albany. The Shawangunk Ridge Trail traverses the geologically-unique Shawangunk Ridge between High Point State Park in northwestern New Jersey and Minnewaska State Park Preserve.

"The `Gunks hold a special place in the minds of hikers, and this land's preservation is wonderful news," said former Trail Conference President Neil Zimmerman, who closely monitored the project. "The Trail Conference has been involved for 7 years with the Open Space Institute and the Trust for Public Land working to place this property in the public domain. And now this beautiful section of the Long Path will be protected in perpetuity."

The Open Space Institute (OSI) and the Trust for Public Land (TPL) reached an agreement with the Lands and Forest Corporation to sell the property to the state for $1.2 million. This project was initially brought to OSI's and TPL's attention by the NY-NJ Trail Conference's Trail Lands Consultant John Myers. The purchase will be financed through the state's Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act. The land will be acquired as a state forest and used for passive public use, such as hiking, hunting, camping, and bird watching. A management plan will be developed by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

OSI is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting land in New York State. In less than two decades, it has protected over 70,000 acres, creating and adding to parks and preserves throughout New York.

TPL, founded in 1972, applies its expertise in negotiation, public finance and law to protect land for public use and enjoyment. It has helped preserve more than 55,000 acres in New York State since 1981.

A Remarkable Landscape

Located in the towns of Mamakating and Wawarsing in Sullivan and Ulster counties, the land itself crests at an elevation of almost 1,800 feet, and provides expansive vistas of the Spring Glen/Route 209 valley and rolling hills extending to the west. From the crest, the elevation falls off in a series of rugged steps nearly to the valley floor itself, providing challenging hiking. An old state highway, the remnants of the relocated Route 52, and a former town road, Old Mountain Road, allow a more sedate ramble from ridge top to the valley. This remarkable landscape supports outstanding biodiversity: on the property is an extensive dwarf pitch pine forest community, one of only two such examples of this forest community in the world, and eight rare natural communities, 27 rare plant and seven rare animal species.

The acquitsition borders on and provides improved access to a detached parcel of State Forest Preserve land on top of the Shawangunk Ridge south of Ellenville, as well as connecting other major public lands on the ridge. Cox Road will be the primary access point and parking area.

The Shawangunk Ridge/Minnewaska State Park area is one of 131 priority conservation projects identified in the State Open Space Conservation Plan. The protection of the Ridge has long been a top conservation objective of the Trail Conference, the State, the OSI, and the TPL.

In addition, The Nature Conservancy, the nation's largest non-profit conservation organization, has identified the Shawangunk Ridge as one of the country's "last great places" in recognition of the unique ecosystem and rare and endangered species found throughout the ridge.

In 1996, Governor Pataki proposed and voters approved the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act which authorizes $1.75 billion for a variety of important environmental programs, including water quality improvements, open space protection, local solid waste management, restoration of brownfields, and projects to improve air quality.

Since 1995, the state has invested more than $200 million from the Bond Act and the state Environmental Protection Fund to preserve more than 270,000 acres of land throughout New York identified in the state open space plan.

A Visit to the Historic Trapps Mountain Hamlet: A Walk back in time

By Stella Green

Let us take a walk back in time and imagine this small mountain community isolated on the Shawangunk Ridge. Picture what life must have been like for these stalwart, resourceful folk. Not for them the easy life of electricity, central heating, automobiles, and other modern conveniences. Even medical attention for a sick child was a convoluted process. The family needing help put a lantern in the window. The closest home then did the same, so that the alert was passed down to the family nearest to Minnewaska. Someone from that homestead then ran to fetch a doctor.

Life was hard. Summers were devoted to blueberry and huckleberry picking, hunting, walnut and chestnut gathering, cultivation of kitchen gardens, and the production of gristmill stones cut by hand from thick pieces of bedrock. Winter activities included making hoops for barrels by the men, and weaving on hand looms for the women. Some residents were employed by the mountain hotels at Lake Mohonk and Lake Minnewaska.

The homes lacked running water, so the inhabitants (probably the children) were forced to drag what they needed up the steep, and in the winter slippery, slope from the Coxing Kill. Pastures for stock were cleared and the rocks used to make low walls to contain sheep and horses. These walls can still be seen on the property. Addition of split rail fencing on top of the rocks made them high enough to keep animals in their place.

This area in the Shawangunk Trapps was once part of a large colonial grant made in 1730 called The Groote Transport (Dutch for "great land transfer"). The existing State Highway 44/55 was completed in 1929, following the route of the old Wawarsing-New Paltz Turnpike and destroying some Trapps home sites. The Trapps people, some fifty families, moved up to the ridge during the late 1700s from the Rondout Valley in an endeavor to find less crowded conditions. Their community included a store, the Trapps Chapel (built in 1881), a one-roomed schoolhouse (built in 1850), and a lodging house and tavern.

Further down the Coxing Kill at Split Rock stood a water-powered sawmill, the Enderly Mill, and a blacksmith shop. Many of the boards and beams used in the construction of Trapps Hamlet houses were produced here.

One Hamlet home, the Van Leuven Cabin, continued to be occupied by the Van Leuven family into the 1920s, when it was bought by the Mohonk Mountain House. In the 1960s it came into Mohonk Preserve ownership. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Appalachian Mountain Club rock climbers leased the Cabin which became known as the "Appie Cabin."

Recently the Preserve decided to renovate this historic home as a museum, and to create a walking path to it. The house first appears on the assessment rolls of 1889, and was occupied by Anna and Eli Van Leuven and their children. It is small, two-storied, and in remarkably good condition. Inside, the visitor can see that newspaper was used for insulation, then covered by wallpaper. There were no stone houses in the hamlet; all were built without studs or beams and completely supported by the vertical planks still visible here. Outside the front door stands a large boulder, part of it cut away to make an outdoor work surface. The piece cut out was used as a support under the front door; nothing was wasted.

The Trapps Hamlet Path passes by the Fowler burial ground, whose oldest recognizable headstone dates from 1866. Death was a frequent visitor to families in the hamlet. The flu epidemic of 1918 took its toll, and Mrs. Enderly, already widowed when her husband was killed in an accident, lost six of her twelve children to this outbreak.

We should all commend the Mohonk Preserve for its vision in protecting and restoring, rather than demolishing, this historic site. 

The Mohonk Preserve has produced a booklet, Trapps Mountain Hamlet, An Interpretive Walk through a Vanished Shawangunk Community, available at the Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center. The booklet costs $1, which is refundable upon its return. The trail, approximately 1.5 miles round trip, begins at the entrance booth of the West Trapps Entry parking lot. Nonmembers of the Preserve must pay a day-use fee. The trail is easy, though not wheelchair accessible. Handicapped access is provided to the cabin from Route 44/55. Parking here is limited and should not be used by those able to walk the trail.

Hiking with Children

by Daniel Kriesberg

Giving a child the freedom to play, discover, and explore is the most wonderful gift we can share. Childhood is for exploring. And what better place to do it than outdoors? Children will only care for nature if they feel a part of it. Parents can be guides by giving them freedom and opportunity to discover nature; the best way is to take a hike. A hike may last several hours and cover a few miles, or only fifteen minutes and a hundred yards.

Hiking with young children shows us there is wonder in the commonplace. When a child hugs a tree, waves to geese flying by, or talks to a worm, they are demonstrating a connection most of us have lost. Hiking with a child puts us back in touch.

Each moment and place has something worth investigating; every hike is an adventure. One time it may be climbing a giant rock, another finding a secret place, seeing a deer, or splashing through water.

Getting started

First decide where to go. Don't be jaded by thinking it is only worth it if you can go to some large wilderness area. The goal is not to cover ground, but to have fun. Hiking with children will be at his/her own pace. Your first hike should be to a familiar place. If you are traveling or trying something new, talk to local hiking clubs, park rangers, or others familiar with the area. Get a guidebook and study the maps.

Pick a place that suits your child's needs. In summer, lots of shade is important. Pick trails that are flat and easy to walk. It is a good idea to have a few places to stop and safely let your children roam. A stream, lake, or pond is fun, or maybe a field full of butterflies to chase or rocks to climb. Be mindful of any hazards.

It is amazing how children can find something new even in a place they've been before. Don't be afraid to go to the same place more than once.

Supplies

A good day pack or fanny pack can easily carry what you need. Food, water, and clothes are the most important. Carrying extra food and drink is not nearly as much of a problem as carrying too little. It takes a lot of energy to explore the world! Take frequent breaks. A great snack is GORP (good old raisins and peanuts, with some M&M's thrown in). Enough water can be the difference between fun and misery.

Extra clothes are a good idea; you never know what will happen. Rain gear can help a fun family outing stay bearable. In summer, children need protection from sun and bugs, so use lots of suntan lotion and bug spray. Stay away from strong chemicals such as DEET. Use products made for babies and young children. Try to keep a hat on their heads. Water shoes are a good idea. You never know when the urge to wade will overcome a child.

In cooler weather, use layers of clothes to allow flexibility. A fleece jacket and rain gear are good for fall, winter, and early spring. Wool socks are better than cotton. It is worth the money for a good set of long underwear.

A simple first aid kit kept in the bottom of the bag is well worth its weight. It is also a good idea to bring a pocket knife, toilet paper, matches, a whistle, and a compass in case of emergency.

Above all, bring your common sense and listen to what it tells you. Respect the place you hike, the weather, and when your child says enough. Some days it just doesn't work; go home and come back another time.

Children can't love the outdoors by staying inside watching television or playing computer games. Even a small natural area can be the setting for a wilderness adventure. Your greatest influence is by being a model. If you get excited, your child will follow suit. If you model love and concern for nature, then your children will notice. Children learn a lot when they see you pick up litter, or when you answer a question with the phrase "I don't know, let's look for the answer."

In the end the necessary piece of advice is simple: go hiking.

Fun Things to Do

Children have a gift for finding things to do. Trust them. Being outside is a chance to be free. If they need a little encouraging to get going here are some activities to try:

Lift a rock. Rocks are shelters for a lot of interesting animals—insects, millipedes and salamanders. Try to identify the animals or make up names for them. Be careful to put the rock or log back exactly the way it was.

Scavenger Hunt. As you and your child walk along, suggest things for them to find. Some possibilities: a feather, something red, an acorn, something smooth, an animal track, a bird, something beautiful, or a black stone. Kids will have fun sending you in search of something.

Follow the Leader. This classic game can be a lot of fun. Be safe but be creative. Go around trees, over rocks, under branches, jump up and down, and off you go.

Hide and Seek. Pretend to be a predator, such as a fox. Your child can be a rabbit. Give them time to hide and see if you can catch them.

Collections. Children love to collect things. A collection can be made from many different things such as rocks, leaves, twigs, insects or photographs. Keep a list of birds seen, trees identified, flowers, favorite sounds, or whatever else grabs your child's interest. We always have a treasure pocket when we hike.

Fun Stuff to Bring

Besides the essentials listed above, having some of the following can be fun:

Bug Boxes A bug box is a clear plastic box with a magnifying glass for a top. It will bring a whole new world closer to your child's eye. If a bug box is unavailable, any magnifying glass will do.

Field Guides Identification books for animal and plant life will help everyone learn more. Some helpful series are Golden Nature Guides from Golden Press, Crinkleroot Guides from Bradbury Press and the Stokes Natural Series from Little, Brown, and Company. The Audubon Society publishes the First Field Guide series specifically for children.

Paper and pencil Handy items for drawing, taking notes, making maps, writing a poem, or keeping a journal.

Plastic Bags They can be used to bring home treasures.

Binoculars Getting close to wildlife is not easy. Binoculars make them easier to observe.

Toy A favorite toy is a fun thing to bring along. The outdoors is a great place to let a child's imagination run wild

Trowel A small shovel can be used to dig up the soil and find many interesting animals. It can also be used to dig a quick latrine.

Camera Bring a simple camera that a child can use. Let them take pictures of whatever they want.

Next Generation Profile

Jeff Senterman

Sitting here in Greenville, Maine, my thoughts drift back to the moments before I received the Trail Conference's Next Generation Award. If someone told me then that in seven years I would graduate from a small college in northeastern Vermont and move to Greenville in northern Maine to work, I would have probably laughed it off. At that age I had no grand plans, no real thoughts of what I would be doing in the future. My work with the Trail Conference was a way for me to feel more mature and to give me a sense of being a part of something. It also gave me the opportunity to have a hand in the management and maintenance of the trails that I loved from a very early age. When I first became involved with the Trail Conference, my future thoughts were of going to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, becoming a chef, and living happily ever after. Getting a job working to protect the environment never even crossed my mind. So I continued volunteering within the Trail Conference. Then I received the Trail Conference's Next Generation Award and a dim light bulb turned on in my head.

The idea came to me that maybe there was some kind of future in work like this, maybe the kitchen was not all that it was cracked up to be. As I sat there listening to Eddie Walsh (a previous Next Generation Award winner) talk about all the things I had accomplished, two different feelings ran through my head. The first was absolute fear, knowing that I would have to go up and receive the award (for those of you at that annual meeting, perhaps you remember my dumbfounded and mumbled "thank you" as I accepted). Second, and more importantly, I felt accomplishment and pride: I was amazed with all that I had accomplished and imagined so many more things I could do. By the time I was a senior in high school, I knew where my heart was. It was not in a restaurant, but outdoors working to protect and preserve the environment. My decision was made, the path was charted out. I went to college and dove head first into my chosen major, environmental science.

As graduation approached, I started the job search that most college seniors begin. What would I do if I could not find one? After graduation, I returned to the Catskills and continued working at a job I'd held the previous summer as an Assistant Forest Ranger. As luck would have it, just as the season was winding down in the Catskills, I was offered a position with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission. I accepted and was hired as the Somerset County Project Analyst and made the jump to Greenville. So now the story comes full circle. The work I did on the trails taught me about our environment and our duty to protect that environment in any way we can. I know that my parents and the people in the Trail Conference have instilled in me a respect for our natural resources and an everlasting love for the outdoors. That is how I got where I am and now I understand that you do not need to have a road map for you life. Passions lead you in the direction of your future and eventually you get to a point where you are doing something that means something to you. I consider myself lucky that I have gotten to a point like that so soon in my career.

I may not remain in Maine, but I know wherever I go, the foundation of service and work I laid down with the Trail Conference will serve me well.

Book Review

Health Hints for Hikers

By Albert Rosen, M.D.

You don't have to be a hiker to develop leg cramps, but it sure helps. Usually referred to as nocturnal leg cramps because they frequently start after you are asleep, they can occur during a hike, especially if you are in pretty sad physical shape and out on a hike that is a bit more than you can handle. They can also occur after a hike and before bedtime. There have been occasions when I've driven home from a hike and had to stop the car and walk about a bit until the pain subsided. These cramps can affect the muscles in the calf and the foot. The toes may curl which can lead to difficulty in walking.

A preventive as well as curative measure is to stretch the muscles of the foot and calves, and walking around can help too. There are several medications that are recommended to prevent cramps such as quinine in 200-300 mg doses, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin E supplements. There are two schools of thought about these preventive measures: one school thinks they help and the other thinks they don't. Take your choice.

Joe Bord, an active hiker, informed me that he had success preventing cramps by drinking tonic water. As you know, this is the mixer which is used in the famous gin and tonic. The ingredient in tonic water which prevents leg cramps is quinine, and the amount is relatively small. He drinks a glass at lunch from time to time, or in place of a soft drink. If the tonic water doesn't do the trick, add the gin. However, don't drive with this combination. The consequences are such that it would be safer to have the cramps. No one was ever arrested and lost their driver's license because of leg cramps!

Trail News

Trail Conference grant helps enlarge AT corridor

Side trail proposed through property

In a classic example of a successful Appalachian Trail Countryside Initiative, 60 acres of undeveloped land within 100 feet of the AT was purchased to preserve the Trail's viewshed, form a protective buffer, and consolidate ownership to curtail illegal all-terrain vehicle incursions.

Trail Conference Appalachian Trail overseer Mike Rea first suggested public acquisition of the 60 acres—think of it as the "hole in a donut" around Cascade Lake. The Town of Warwick was supportive, but could not finance the entire purchase price. Using some of the proceeds from a sale of donated lands in New Jersey, the NY-NJ Trail Conference and Appalachian Trail Conference Land Trust each contributed $4,500, totaling 1/3 of the purchase price. The Town of Warwick was prepared to finance the remaining $18,000, or the final two-thirds of purchase price, but a private citizen stepped forward with the funds. In December 1999, Warwick accepted the land donation for inclusion in its Cascade Lake Town Park.

"Although the AT is a national recreation resource, it is also a local resource," said Mike Rea. "Warwick's support of increasing local parkland while protecting the AT demonstrates their understanding of, and commitment to, the partnership that exists de facto between the AT community and the Town."

Trail Conference AT volunteers plan a side trail to the Appalachian Trail through the newly-acquired parkland, offering another means of access to the Bellvale Ridge and AT in southwestern Orange County, NY.

Harriman gets summer crew for trail repairs

Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park will have a summer trail crew this year to address the considerable damage to the park's trails by last year's Hurricane Floyd.

To respond to the damage, Mr. and Mrs. Shelby Davis of Tuxedo Park, NY, donated $21,000 to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to fund a Student Conservation Association (SCA) trails restoration project this July. SCA will field a crew of two supervisors and eight members who will work on a four-week turn-key program schedule established by PIPC staff and the Trail Conference. This generous donation is gratefully appreciated by the entire hiking community—and especially by the Trail Conference's over-worked West Hudson Trail Crew.

White Bar Trail relocation: Harriman-Bear Mountain

Storm King State Park Clean-Up Update

Annual Trail Maintenance Workshop trains over 100 volunteers

The Annual Trail Maintenance Workshop held on April 29^th at Silvermine in Harriman/ Bear Mountain State Park was a great success, with everyone expressing a sense of accomplishment and skill-learning.

Over 100 volunteers participated in one of three courses: Basic Trail Maintenance, Trail Construction & Restoration, and Chainsaw Safety & Palisades Interstate Park Commission Certification.

Many thanks to Chief PIPC Ranger Tim Sullivan for his organizational help, and to all our classroom* and field instructors: John Blenninger, Jack Driller, Chris Ezzo, Claudia Ganz, Susan Gerhardt, Suzan Gordon, Mary Hilley, Bob Marshall, Mike Rea*, Monica Resor*, Ike Siskind*, Pete Tilgner, and Larry Wheelock*.

A special vote of appreciation to Trudy Schneider and Marilyn Siskind for the great refreshments they prepared and served in both the morning and afternoon.

- Pete Heckler,Chair

West Hudson Trails Committee

Reminder: Long Path Section in Shawangunk Closed

The section of the Long Path from the western end of Mud Pond to its junction with the High Point Trail (see the Trail Conference's Shawangunk Trails map #9, grid C-3) has been closed by the landowner. Please do not trespass on this private land. Discussions are still underway about a possible relocation. When a reroute is established, notice will be published in the Trail Walker, and noted on our website at www.nynjtc.org.