Quote Originally Posted by howardny View Post
I ended up having a super nice hang in Harriman - much bigger than I remember. had some bears and rattle snakes come through the camp but otherwise very chill. I went on the AT and camped near the William Brien shelter. Few other people on the AT camped out near by and was pretty nice. would recommend.
Yep, Brien shelter area is very popular and you are rarely alone in the summer and certainly not on a weekend. On one occasion last year MikekiM and I were passing thru on a summer weekend and there must've been 25 separate camps in that area, maybe more.

Seems there are more and more bear sightings in Harriman these days. This year alone I've had 3 myself and there have been several years in the past with zero. They really won't bother you. The first one this year was a fairly large male right on the trail near Lake Nawahunta and he had no interest in me. He was browsing along the trail and ran a bit when he saw me, then apparently thought "What the heck?" and continued munching on something as he ambled along the trail. Eventually, around a bend, he silently slipped into the woods and was gone, just like that. I scanned and watched my backside as I continued out but did not see him again. Somebody told me he's been raiding the dumpsters at Silvermine Lake.

I did a day hike with a neighbor of mine yesterday and there were signs up in the Bald Rocks area that the shelter and surrounding area are closed for camping due to problem bear activity. A couple of years ago the park folks installed a bear-proof food hang (cable) at Fingerboard shelter because of a bear problem there that was getting pretty bad.

I'm definitely going to be more diligent about my food hangs than I've been in the past.