A place for hikers with dogs to share tips, experiences, favorite hikes, concerns.
Some general guidelines to keep in mind, suggested by a staffer at New Jersey DEP:
The general rule is pets are permitted within the outside day use areas of the parks/forests as long as they are held on a leash (maximum length - 6 feet) and you clean up after your pet. Pets are not permitted in buildings, on swimming beaches or in swimming waters, all overnight facilities (with the exception of the pet friendly campsites), golf courses or botanical gardens.
In the Catskill Forest Preserve, dogs may be unleashed, except for in campgrounds, where they must be leashed.
Dog & Pet Waste on the Trail
Red Cross, Beech Trail and Long Path Loop from Lake Skannatati
i hike daily in harriman with
Our dog, Tora
New Jersy Wildlife Management Areas
Dog owners should be aware of this page if they intend to use NJ WMA's for training.
Lost dog-- Sterling Forest State Park
Was this dog ever found?
Wow a really nice idea
loosing a dog in a park
Dogs on Leash
Good advice. If you do have a
nice idea to keep your dog on a leash
Well first of all normally i
So, how did your first
Dogs and snakes
I'd like to know more
concern about snakes......and bears
Re: concern about snakes and bears (below)
some people aren't helping the situation
Especially if people keep leaving food on the trails. I can't count the number of orange peels and candy wrappers i've picked up while hiking. Might be time to step up the efforts to spread Leave No Trace principals...
some sort of warning sign along the trail might help
Thx a lot for the info Michael K7!
Me and my wife have been on overnight trips in the Harrimans a few times now (all when snow was still knee deep on the mountains) and have never come across any signs of bears, nor any signs ABOUT bears! Any inexperience hiker won't even know that they are in bear country and should be practicing bear precautions, or even what kind of precautions they are. Initially I thought maybe that's because there're no bears in Harriman-Bear region, now I realize there are bears. I just can't understand why there isn't a single warning sign about it.
I too have seen half consumed fruits and used tissues (assuming they were used to after food) discarded along the trial and once a half bag of chips in the shelter. You're abusolutely right about it's time to step up the effort to better inform and educate hikers/campers before bears in Harriman get bolder and begin to "enjoy" people's left-over, and god forbid, eventually people.
I'm just really glad to know that bears in the park are still afraid of human and hope that our fellow humans are intelligent enough to know that we should keep it that way...