[Journal entry for April 17, 2011; Pound Mountain, Harriman State Park] Today is fairly warm, in the low 60’s Fahrenheit, and partly sunny – sweater weather. In the late afternoon, Dallas and I drive to the end of Johnstown Road in Sloatsburg NY, which follows the northeast bank of Spring Brook. The brook is roaring, owing to the heavy rain that fell last night. We stop for a few minutes and I walk down to its edge. It is full of rapids and standing waves. One low spot along the road appeared to have flooded at high water, but is now only a little wet. We then continue on to the circle at the end of the road and park. A stream, unnamed on my map, joins Spring Brook at the circle, coming from the west.

Two trailheads converge at this parking lot, the Kakiak Trail, blazed in white and the Blue Disk Trail, blazed in blue. We take the latter, which heads west, following first a gas pipeline right-of-way, and then diverging and following an old road through wooded countryside full of large boulders. The roadbed is more of a streambed today, and we walked along its edge.

After about a half mile, we come to the steep southern flank of Pound Mountain. The trail ascends through a steep cleft, crossing a small stream several times. This southern flank of Pound is one of the glacially-plucked scarps that date back to the Ice Age and is called Almost Perpendicular. The stream is flowing briskly, making a pretty little waterfall and many smaller cascades. About halfway up, the cleft widens out into a valley and the stream morphs into a languid wetland. The trail continues steeply up along the edge of a rock wall on the east of the valley, and then levels out into a broad overlook that commands a superb view to the west and southeast. The view to the southwest is best, for it looks out onto the other wooded hills of Harriman State Park, including Halfway Mountain and Ramapo Torne. A group of hikers are resting when we arrived and we chat with them a bit. They are just finishing up a long day hike.

The rock of the overlook is amphibole gneiss. Its surface must once have sported a glacial polish, but little of it remains; the rest has been weathered down a few centimeters. The summit has a fire ring; it looks to be a pleasant spot to spend the evening (at least if the wind is not blowing). The southeastern side of the overlook is a sheer cliff, but the plucking has created several terraces that make the cliff edge somewhat more beveled. Being protected from the wind, these terraces sustain some interesting vegetation, including grasses, bushes and small pine trees. I prowl around them a bit while Dallas relaxes at the top. We stay on the overlook about twenty minutes, during which time the northern sky became increasingly cloudy. We leave while Pound Mountain is still in sun, so as to be able to enjoy the sparkle of the stream on its flank.

The trip back to the car was all downhill and took only a few minutes. Near the trail head I found a chunk of iron ore (mostly magnetite) along the trail that weighed several pounds. I suppose that it came from the Dater Mine, which is a little to the west of Almost Perpendicular. I don’t know whether it has been transported by the long-ago mining operation, or by a hiker, but I suspect the later. Light rain begins to fall as we approach our car.

About an hour and a half.