[Journal entry for January 31, 2011; Turkey Hill Lake and Turkey Hill]. Turkey Hill Lake is an anthropogenic impoundment that was created by damming a stream that is part of the Popolopen watershed. It is surrounded by three prominent hills, Turkey Hill to the north, Summer Hill to the south and Long Mountain to the west. The morning is clear and ridiculously warm for January, in the low fifties, Fahrenheit. I park at the Long Path trailhead, off of Route 6 just west of Long Mountain Circle. I take the Long Path (Blazed in blue) a little north to the Popolopen Gorge trail (PG, blazed in red) and take it east, towards the lake. The trail descends steeply downhill towards the lake.

Turkey Hill Lake is “L” shaped and the trail reaches first the bend in the “L”. This part of the lake shore is flat – a good picnic spot that offers a good view down both arms of the lake. The northern arm has several small islands, mostly vegetated with bushes, but some with a few trees. The islet stream connects to its far end. The eastern arm is open water. I can see the dam at its far end. Turkey Hill is directly across the lake from me. I can see the bald summit of Long Mountain to my left and, in the distance, the observation tower on Bear Mountain to my right. The lake is partially iced over, with the eastern arm being mostly open water.

I walk PG eastward along the lake shore, which is rocky and mostly wooded. The land rises steeply away from the lake, up the flank of Summer Hill. I pass signs of beaver, in the form of chewed-down trees and bushes. In a few minutes I reach the dam. It is an earth-fill design, perhaps forty feet high. Its spillway is concrete, but the rest is built mostly of rocks, with stonework facing on the lake side. I cross below the outlet stream below spillway - a tricky business, given the patches of ice on some of the rocks. Icicles and ice-coated twigs are glowing in the sun. I then walk the path on the top of the dam to the other side of the lake. I see a very large boulder with a small overhang or cave beneath me, but I do not investigate.

I then bushwhack up Turkey Hill, following the base of a high rock scarp, one of the many southward-facing cliffs in the Hudson Highlands created by glaciers during the Ice Age. Someone has cached a small transparent refrigerator-type plastic box of candy in a nook beneath a boulder. I’m surprised that some animal has not raided it. The cliff face is mostly gneiss cut by granite dikes. The top of the hill is broad and flat, with several gneiss ridges sticking above blueberry bushes. I can’t tell which one was the summit. My NY/NJ Trail Conference hiking map shows a pond at the crest of the hill and such a pond does indeed exist. It is a small wetland, mostly moss-covered by with some open water, now ice, with a scattering of bushes. I am always surprised at hill-top ponds, but actually they are quite common in the park; I have visited many. I descended the north flank of the hill by an old woods road. It led to the northern tip of the lake, where it narrows at it joins the inlet stream.

I walked along the rather boggy bank until I reached the stream, proper, and crossed it stepping from stone to stone. This area has a beaver pond, raised about two feet above the lake level by a long, sinuous dam. I then walked the west shore of the lake back towards my starting point. The first half is tough going, owing to the lack of any discernable trail and all the dead fall. The last half has a trail and is much easier. The trail passes by the shore opposite the islands and affords a good view of them. The view of Bear Mountain, in the distance, is better than earlier in the day, owing to a more favorable sun angle.

Eventually, I rejoin the PG trail and huffed back uphill to the car. About three hours.