Harriman State Park, by train, could be a lot easier to access if Metro-North would add some weekend excursion packages.
UPDATE: We couldn’t get Metro-North or the local government to provide a hikers’ shuttle — so we started one ourselves! Here’s the link to the new shuttle service (on weekends only).
Wouldn’t it be great if Metro-North offered a bus shuttle service to the hiking trailheads in Harriman State Park on the weekends?
A single bus in the morning, and one in the late afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday, would meet hikers at the train station and the one or two locations near the trailheads, in the park.
I was thinking this after I discovered that Metro-North did (in 2011) offer, as one of their “getaway” packages, a discounted rail ticket to Garrison station, with a bus transfer to Bear Mountain from the Garrison station to Bear Mountain. (Of course, it’s just under a mile to walk from the Manitou station, across the Bear Mountain Bridge to the park, but that’s not for everyone!)
They didn’t offer this excursion for 2013. In fact, there were no excursions to Bear Mountain or Harriman State Park for hikers.
But I hope they’ll add something for trail hikers from New York City, to help them access more of Harriman State Park and the Appalachian Trail, more easily, without exhausting themselves first.
I’d like to see a shuttle from the Sloatsburg station to Reeves Meadow Visitor Center, or from Tuxedo to the start of the Ramapo-Dunderberg trail, or from the Harriman Station to Elk Pen, eliminating the two-mile hike from that station to the Appalachian Trail.
These aren’t too far for a bus but could make quite a difference to hikers, and especially to campers who may be carrying large packs.
