[Journal entry for November 10, 2014; Beaver Pond Brook, Harriman State Park, New York]. Just before sunset on this clear afternoon, I parked off of Route 106 at the eastern border of Harriman Park, by the lot near the bridge over Minisceongo Creek. I then walked west along the highway. The fall foliage is mostly gone now, yet a few individual trees remain whose pretty colors came late and are still vivid. Furthermore, many bushes, such and Blueberry and Winged Burning Bush, still have deep red leaves. I took a short detour to Lake Welch Dam, so as to have a view across the lake. A small island full of Blueberry bushes is especially pretty.

I continued west along the highway, crossing the causeway that cuts off the narrow southern section of Lake Welch. This lake was impounded when the dam was built in 1942, flooding the much smaller Beaver Pond, an adjacent swamp and the nearby hamlet of Sandyfield, New York (which is no more). Beaver Pond Brook, which feeds Lake Welch and which connects to its southern end, still bears the defunct pond’s name. The name, Beaver Pond, now signifies a pond adjacent to Lake Welch that is formed by a pedestrian walkway cutting off a corner of the main lake, near the public beach and campground.

The water level is low and a wide band of rocks and mud are exposed on the shoreline. The exposed shoreline eases my access to the brook, for the woods here are full of Mountain Laurel and nearly impassible. I walk the lakeshore until I reach a canal that cuts across what once must have been a peninsula, turning it into an island. Fortunately, the water is low enough that I can cross using stepping stones that someone has laboriously arranged at a shallow spot. Beavers have built a small dam across the canal right on top of the stepping stones. Their lodge, a large shaggy pile of sticks, is nearby.

I continue along the shoreline. This southern arm of the lake slowly narrows as it morphs into the brook. I clamber around a very large boulder that is taking up the entire beach and, shortly thereafter, reach the brook proper. Beavers have built another dam, this one substantial enough to raise the water level about a foot above lake level and to create a substantial beaver pond. I walk along the dam and then pick my way though bushes and grass until I reach a boulder that provides a good view of the pond. The sun, now very close to setting, is casting a ruddy light onto the hummocks of grass in the pond and on the bushes and trees along its bank.

I try to walk along further upstream, but the boggy bank is full of Mountain Laurel and is impassible. I make my way inland about a hundred yards to an old power line right of way. Mountain Laurel is growing here too, but I find a deer path that’s manageable and take it north. I come to Lake Welch near the canal, which is east to cross at this spot. I then circle about a wide bay, and reach Route 106 at the western edge of the causeway. I hear the shrill cry of an osprey and, a moment later see the bird itself fly by.

I walk back along Route 106. The evening is very still and the reflections of sky and trees in the surface of Lake Welch are very beautiful.

About two hours.