We hiked the 9.4-mile Section 5 on October 25, 2026, a crisp autumn morning, with the leaves at peak color. Hiking days don’t get much better.
We met with two cars at the Lake Skannatati parking lot in Harriman State Park, where the section ends. I got there before sunrise and captured the fall foliage, with mist lifting off the still, mirror-like water and lavender dawn skies.
We left one car there and drove the other to South Mountain County Park in Mount Ivy, where we set off headed north. The start of the section included some road walking, including crossing under the Palisades Interstate Parkway. Immediately after, you enter the woods and parallel the highway for a mile, at one point crossing high above the South Branch of the Minisceongo Creek on a relatively narrow stone arch.
Cheesecote Mountain Town Park
After about 2.5 miles, we reached Cheesecote Pond within Cheesecote Mountain Town Park, which the town of Haverstraw purchased from New York State for a dollar in 1971. The water was still, reflecting the palette of colors along the shore.
Letchworth Village Cemetery
About a mile later, after passing under a power line cut, the trail skirts the Letchworth Village Cemetery, where hundreds of numbered stakes mark the grave sites of asylum patients from a facility that closed in 1996.
Wandering through the lonely cemetery, which was used by Letchworth Village from 1914 until 1967, several questions come to mind. Why did Letchworth, comprised of 2,000 sprawling acres and with seemingly plenty of space to spare, choose to locate its cemetery over a mile away from campus? Why did it place the cemetery in the woods, far away from view? Why did it bury its patients, many of them children, with anonymous numbers instead of the simple dignity of a name? Was it trying to hide something?
Harriman State Park & Big Hill Shelter
After the cemetery, the trail crosses Call Hollow Road and then officially enters Harriman State Park. The next 2 miles or so are the biggest climb of the section and a good reminder of how out of shape we were.
Near the peak of the climb is the Big Hill Shelter, a stone shelter built in 1927, with limited views to the south and east.
Flight 6231 Site
About three-quarters of a mile later, the Long Path passes the site of the crash of Flight 6231. A historical marker was placed there in memory of the three crew members, the only people aboard, who were killed in the crash. Some apparent remains of the plane have also been collected and placed near the plaque.
The plaque reads in part:
On Dec. 1, 1974, a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 flying between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Buffalo, N.Y. encountered atmospheric icing and crashed on this site. Flight 6231 was operating a ferry flight, having been chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts football team. Three crew members, the only people aboard the aircraft, were killed in the crash. The accident and subsequent federal investigation prompted changes in cockpit design and advancements in commercial pilot training still practiced by airlines today.
The next three miles were lovely walking in the woods with occasional road crossings.
Lake Skannatati
Eventually, we reached the parking lot by the 36-acre Lake Skannatati. What was an empty lot when we arrived in the morning was now jam-packed with leaf-peepers like us.
The views along this section weren’t particularly notable; not every section can have epic views. But it was such a great day for a walk in the woods, surrounded by the reds, oranges and yellows of autumn.
And perhaps what I appreciate most about the Long Path is that it passes by all kinds of interesting places, like the Letchworth Village Cemetery and the site of the Flight 6231 crash that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about.