Hikers find dead body in Harriman State Park

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Yowza, first had me thinking it might be that lady that has been missing from a NYC nightclub for two weeks but the article mentioned 60 year old white male. The suspect is from Wallkill (Orange County)...

Does anybody know what mountain.. All the article says "the mountain" like there is just one. :rolleyes:

Jay
 
That's the name of the trail, but it goes over a bunch of "mountains" like West, Pyngyp, etc etc..

The trail is named that because it goes from Bear Mtn to the (town of) suffern. There are multiple access points and trailheads. It's over 24 miles long...

Jay
 
Jay H said:
That's the name of the trail, but it goes over a bunch of "mountains" like West, Pyngyp, etc etc..

The trail is named that because it goes from Bear Mtn to the (town of) suffern. There are multiple access points and trailheads. It's over 24 miles long...

Jay
Click to expand...

Shows what I get for thinking! :rolleyes:

Oh, and Tom - glad to hear it wasn't you!
 
Yeah Tom, whew :)

More info:

http://www.lohud.com/article/2008812150335

Ya know, I wonder if this is on the Suffern side, the article above mentions suffern...

When I did the SB-M traverse this past summer, just before we hit the end of the trail in Suffern, coming down, I noticed somebody with a tarp and hammock setup... very close to the end of the trail. The article mentions somebody actually living there... wonder if this is just a coincidence... I thought it was a very odd place to setup camp, being so close to the thruway and Route 59, it would of been pretty loud in the daytime... Spooky...

Jay
 
Tom Rankin said:
Well, it being a 24 mile trail, it's hard to say. In any case, I was on Bear Mountain Saturday, but it wasn't me! :eek:
Click to expand...

Are you kidding me! Like we would ever find you with the spots that Laurie knows. Keep paying that insurance she talked you into..keep payin.;):D
 
Another article:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081215/NEWS/81215014

I can't think a body at the Bear Mtn side of the SBM would go unnoticed for long! However, the southern terminus is quite quiet for the most part....

Makes me wonder if the campsite we saw which does match the location mentioned in the article was a "permanent residence" No camper in their right mind would want to camp there due to the proximity of the NYS Thruway. However, if one had to live there and get to the train/bus station, go for food, then it would be a good location cause it's close to both the park and ride, as well as downtown Suffern. And the last 1/3ish mile of the SBM is on a rocky steep downgrade til you hit the end, which could explain with the freezing rain we got on thursday, those rocks could easily have gotten iced over and the man could of slipped and fell. Really sad though.

Jay
 
Eeek! Creepy and sad at the same time. I'm supposed to do the S-BM this coming weekend. Maybe it's better I change plans... :eek:
 
That is very sad. When I read the news my first thought was of the many hikers I know and whether it could be one of them. The thought that this poor man might have live and died there alone is even more poignant.

I have never liked that area of the S-BM because it is so close to the Thruway - traffic sounds and smells pervade the woods for at least a mile . There are always lots of fire rings and trash lying around although I never saw anything resembling a more permanent encampment - too busy either running north at the start of an S-BM hike or too busy running to get to the trail's end after starting at Bear Mountain.

I do hope they identify the man and get in touch with any family. My condolences to them.
 
Nordkop Mountain is a popular palce for people to hike up to the outcrops with views of the Rt 17, 287 and 87 interchange and party.....hence all the glass.
It is also close to a bus and a train station with access to the city.
I think maybe last year or so some remains were found of a missing hiker in that area it turned out to be a man in his 60s.....maybe a heart attack if my memory serves me correctly.
Hillburn which is on the westside of the interchange from nordkop has a very interesting history as it is home to the Ramapough indians.
heres some wiki info i copied

The Ramapough Mountain Indians (also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation) are a group of approximately 5,000 [1] people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road in Mahwah, New Jersey. As of January 2007, the Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation is Dwaine Perry.[2]

Until the 1970s, the tribe was frequently referred to as the "Jackson Whites", which, according to legend, was shorthand for "Jacks and Whites". Folk belief was that they were descendants of runaway and freed slaves ("Jacks" in slang) and whites (including Dutch settlers and Hessian soldiers) who had supported the English during the American Revolution. They fled to frontier areas of the mountains after the end of the war. There is no documented proof of slaves, freed or runaway, nor of Hessian soldiers' marrying into the tribe.
 
If I had a dollar for every dead body body that I was led too on the edge of a tra......... :eek:

Just kidding. Another crappy story of a life lost. It souds like probably just a natural event that is part of the cycle of life, but still, to the family. it is a lifetime of rich memories and enduring sadness that will cover them in grief for the forseeable future.

Condolances to them and thier sadness. Unfortunatly, for the rest of us, it becomes a "wonder where that happened" event.
 
Dead manfound in HSP

I read a local news article that said the man was found near to the southern terminus of the trail in the town of Suffern. Also, I was just up there a week ago and several people mentioned it to me.
 
Kind of reminds me of an article I dug up from the NY Times archive from 1888:

A Hermit's Death

He Lived Thirty-Five Years on the Green Pond Mountain.

Middletown, N.Y., Jan. 28. -- An eccentric and a somewhat noted person was found dead a few days ago in the lonely cabin which he had occupied as a hermitage for more than 35 years on the Green Pond Mountain Range, near the northern borders of New Jersey. His name was David Day, and his age at death, as near as can be estimated, was about 70 years. A fox hunter who by chance called at his solitary hut found him lying dead and cold on the rude trestle which he occupied as a bed. He had evidently died quite suddenly, without much suffering, and of natural causes. In so far as the people roundabout knew he had no relatives or near friends. He left no money or possessions to speak of, and was buried by the town.

Day was a man of good abilities and fair education, and during the period of his hermit life he exhibited a wonderful knowledge of the nature and medicinal qualities of the wild plants of the forests. In fact, during these years he supplied his simple necessities by the exercise of his skill in gathering herbs, roots, and barks for medicinal purposes. Every botanic medicine dealer and every physician of that school in New York City and New Jersey knew "Old Dave Day," and most of them, at one time or another, were his customers. If any extremely rare sample of the fields or forests was wanted he was the person who was intrusted with the task of finding it.

In his early manhood he worked for a number of years as a hatter in the shops at Orange, N.J., and was free of eccentricities and in demeanor not unlike other young men. The story goes that when he was approaching middle age he fell in love with a very young girl, who engaged to marry him; but when the day appointed for the wedding was near at hand she jilted him, and ran off with and married a young fellow nearer her own age. It was then that Day gave up working at his trade and withdrew from association with his fellow-men to the mountain solitude where the long years of his after-life were spent and where he died, as he had lived, in utter isolation and loneliness.
Click to expand...

-- NY Times, Jan. 29, 1888.

If any of you are familiar with the area, there is a Green Pond Mountain in New Jersey, that extends into New York as Bearfort Ridge and Bellvale Mountain, in Wawayanda State Park, Abram Hewitt State Forest and Sterling State Forest. There's also a Green Pond Mountain in Harriman. I'm not sure which one the article is referring to but I'm guessing the former.
 
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The article only mentions near the border, I guess that could be either side.. though they mentioned "range", not sure how accurate that is... Neither is that remote though, but I have hiked around GP mtn in NJ and I'm sure I've gone by the one in Harriman but I'm not familiar with that one off the top of my head.. Thanks for the article, I've never heard of the guy. RIP.

Jay
 
Alas, no, I have not found any followup articles, which is frustrating. I do hope they found his family and that he was sent onward with dignity.
I never saw the man there although I hiked there a lot. I saw a number of odd people hanging out at that end of the trail over the years.
 
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