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Beaver Pond Campground
Harriman/Bear Mountain State Park
- Dates: August 10–12, 2007.
- Site Number: 6F (Platform)
- With: The MKC Buddies
- Vibe: Forest camping on a grassy field, fresh water swimming lake within camp; gravel/paved road; sites close together.
- Weather:
- Friday: drizzly night
- Saturday: a perfect sunny day and a warm night
- Sunday: another sunny day, slightly humid.
- Pros: Very accessible to New York City; Guarded beach; All sites level (some with platform).
- Cons: Very NOISY!!! Sites could be cleaner; No vegetation between close sites; Wood vendor.
- Verdict: Avoid in the summer. Maybe it could work for spring or fall camping when a quieter crowd is more likely.
Recipes:
Roberta's Bean and Corn Salsa
Johnny's Chicken & Rice
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Steve's Review:
This could be a lovely spot. Nestled in the Hudson Highlands area of the Appalachians, the campground is situated next to Lake Welch, a popular day-use destination due to its proximity to New York City.
The park is only 40 miles or so from the GW Bridge and this may actually be part of the problem. The basic flaw of this site was the noisy crowd here. I live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; while I'm used to a relatively high level of background noise, I camp to get my dose of peace and quiet. Not here!
We left the Upper West Side at 5:35 PM in heavy traffic and arrived at 7:00 on a Friday night! That's close! We set up the tent amid a steady drizzle. The sites were close together on grassy field with a canopy of tall leafy trees. On the one hand, the canopy definitely makes you feel that you are out in nature, but the lack of vegetation between sites puts people in close contact, although the individual sites were not small. Ours had a wooden tent platform.
The close contact isn't necessarily a bad thing if your plan is to camp with several other families at adjacent sites. And that's just what we had in mind! We were joining four other families we've known through the pre-school that our kids went to. Now, mind you, the oldest kids were there five years ago; we still keep in touch and count the parents and kids we met there among our closest friends. The rain delayed our friends until Saturday morning, so we were the only family in our group on Friday.
Other groups were in full-swing. Instead of pitching one tent per site, there were clumps of tents together. Between the shrieking kids running wild and frequent car alarms, the noise level was high, and it persisted well after the quiet hour of 10 PM. After trying to fall asleep, at 12:30 PM I finally got dressed and went over to a nearby group and asked them to lower their voices. They said they would, but it was an hour before things really quieted down.
I don't mind if people stay up late and have a good time. There's a way to do that, however, that doesn't bother others—basically, you speak in low voice and avoid unnecessary noise. This group was playing music from a boombox, laughing loudly, clapping and yelling to the person next to them. It would have helped if the park rangers had made regular rounds in the electric carts between 10 and 11 PM.
A second problem we encountered was the firewood guy. As at many parks, there's a private vendor who swings by in a pickup truck selling camp firewood. At $5 for ten pieces, it seemed like a decent deal. Problem was, the wood was all wet. Most of the time, you buy wood and it's in a plastic bag or wrapped in plastic sheeting. This was just sitting in his truck. It had been a rainy week, especially Monday when New York City received three inches in one hour! Though he assured me that the wood would burn if I doused it with a little lighter fluid, we had trouble all weekend burning this stuff! (A bundle I bought at Stop & Shop looked drier, but burned no better.) We used a lot of twigs to get some embers going, and even though there was plenty of heat, we had very little flame. Putting the (wet) wood in the "fire" basically boiled the wood. It would turn black and shrink, but with no flame. Weird! Anyway, I guess we were "lucky" to get what we got because the woodman went AWOL on Saturday night.
On the plus side, our fellow campers arrived Saturday. There were nine kids in all, between the ages of six and ten: Ben & Gordon; Nikhil & Arun; Graeme & Zachary; Leo & Nina; and Milo! It was great to see them play together. There was swimming at Lake Welch, fishing, jumping in the tents, frisbee, catch, ghost stories and, of course, lots of running around. They were obviously having a great time. The nine parents were obviously having a good time, too: Steve & Roberta; Pradeep & Lakshmi; David & Alexandra; Racine & Maria; and Paul. After most went to sleep, David and I went to a clearing to try to watch the Perseid meteor shower. We saw half a dozen shootin' stars, some quite bright. We also saw two white-tailed deer grazing no more than 25 feet away!
As Saturday night drew to a close, I was a bit apprehensive about how well everyone would sleep. As it turned out Friday's group was a bit more subdued, but another group arrived Saturday to take their place. Instead of a boombox, this group serenaded the campsite with acoustic guitar and singing into the wee hours. They were obviously drinking—a big no-no in state parks—as evidenced by the numerous beer cases at their site. The rangers were somewhat more visible this night, but not when they were most needed. At any rate, I was too zonked to get up and do anything about it.
Sunday was another great day for the kids. We all booked Sunday night and this allowed us to have a leisurely day of hanging out, instead of trying to vacate the sites by 11 AM. I now believe in Karma: The group that had kept us up Friday night was surrounded by Park Police on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't entirely clear what was happening, but we saw one gentleman posing for police photo and the rangers and police were there for quite a while talking with him. While this was happening, one of the officers noticed the cases of beer at the Saturday night crew's site (which wouldn't be that hard to do given the fact that sites were sitting on a grassy field...). No one was there at the site at the time, but when the occupants returned from the lake, the police returned and had a chat with these guys. I have no idea what the outcomes were, but I do admit to a feeling a little smug twinge of joy...
We eventually packed up and got out of there. The toughest part was packing the tons of food we had left over. That, and getting David's car to start. The rangers, it turns out, have a booster pack at the ready for this occasion. We left the camp at 6:03 PM and—no lie—we were parked at our house by 7:30! This despite traffic on the Tappin' Zee. Not sure I'm eager to try this place again, but on balance, it was a great weekend, despite the lack of sleep.
—SBW
