At the summit of long mountain The first weekend of October found the scouts of Garden City' Community Church's Troop 56 climbing the slopes of Harriman State Park. The scouts used their navigational skills to find their way along the Menomine trail to Stockbridge stone Shelter. After setting up camp the scouts cooked their own meals over an open fire. As the sun set beyond the mountains it gave way to a clear night sky featuring a plethora of planets and stars which unfortunately cannot often be seen from Long Island.

After cooking breakfast the next morning and breaking camp, the group strapped on their hiking packs and hiked a short distance before discovering a cliff with natural caves which called out for exploration. After the caves were fully and totally explored the hike continued along the Long Path and eventually to the Torrey Memorial, for Raymond H. Torrey, one of the founders of the Trail Conference and an early supporter of the Long Path. The Long Path is a 347 mile long-distance hiking trail running from George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey to Altamont, New York, in the Albany area. The Long Path is named after Walt Whitman's line about "the long brown path that leads wherever I choose" from his poem Song of the Open Road. The setting provides a panoramic view from atop of Long Mountain looks over Turkey Hill Lake, Harriman, and onto the Shawangunk Ridge. On the morning of their ascent the clouds were still below the mountain's summit before being burned off by the mid-day sun. Somehow after the troop descended from Long Mountain back to the parking lot the boys still had enough energy for a quick football game before heading home.

Hiking the long path

Setting up camp