[Journal enrty for November 3, 2014; Lake Wanoksink, Harriman State Park, New York]. I parked at the public boat launch by Lake Sebago, off of Seven Lakes Drive, in the mid-afternoon. The lot had been repaved and somewhat enlarged since my last visit and the view of the lake was more open that I remembered it. I viewed the lake for a few minutes. While the season of fall foliage is now nearing its end, the leaves that remain are beautiful shades of amber and brown, with occasional reds – especially from bushes along the lakeshore – thrown in.

I crossed Seven Lakes Drive and took the Seven Hills Trail (blazed in blue) across Conklin Mountain. It rises steeply through high woods that are fairly open underneath. The ground is covered mainly by rocks, fern and low-bush blueberry. I descended the far side to where the trail crosses Diamond Creek. Very little water was flowing today, for the fall has been quite dry. A large rocky knoll, called Monitor Rock, is located besides the trail. I explored the side of it that faces the trail, which has a vertical scarp perhaps twenty feet high. A small overhanging section forms a shallow cave. I crawled in, for it is only about four feet high, and sat in it a moment. The floor is covered with angular boulders, so I think this is not a cave in which one could easily be comfortable.

I then continued on, crossing another hill and joining with Pine Meadow Road, a major woods road that connects several of the lakes in this part of the park. In a few minutes I arrived at Lake Wanoksink, at a point near its dam. I bushwhacked though a few hundred yards of woods until I reached its shore, at a point just north of the spillway of its dam. Along the way, I passed several small concrete structures that II suppose to have been part of some old water works. The dam is a long earth-filled affair and the spillway is concrete and stone, built on top of rock ledge. Judging from the tracks of bulldozers, some repairs on underway. They are needed, for I judge its condition to be poor, as some slumping of earth appears to have occurred.

I took an informal path northward along the lakeshore, through dense high bushes with only occasional view of the lake. The fall foliage, while well past peak, was nevertheless very beautiful. A flock of about twenty Buffleheads paddled by, following the far shore. I struggled though the Mountain Laurel and Highbush Blueberry for about half a mile, to a wide rock ledge that afforded a nice view of the northern end of the lake. I then retraced by path, crossed the spillway and walked the dam to the southern end of the lake. An informal trail runs along that end, between the lake and Pine Meadow Mountain, to its south. I passed a very pretty Scarlet Oak tree, with its leaves a deep red.

I bushwhacked up onto the summit of Pine Meadow Mountain, which is really just a small hill with a bare rock ledges exposed on its summit. It affords a nice view of Lake Wanoksink. The ledges, which are surrounded by Blueberry, Sweet Fern and the occasional Pitch Pine are very beautiful in their own right, too. I then descended back to lake level and took an informal trail over to Pine Meadow Lake, the lake immediately to the south of Lake Wanoksink.

The northern shore of Pine Meadow Lake consists of an irregular scarp built of jagged and very large boulders. I believe it to be a relic of the Ice Age, one of the many south-facing scarps in the park created when glaciers tore away hillsides. This scarp is unusual for being right on a lakeshore and is really quite spectacular. Today it was very well lit by the sun. The normal tan rocks had taken on a ruddy hue, for the sun was getting close to setting. I walked as far as the dam, which affords a nice, open view of the lake and its rock formations. I then took Pine Meadow Road back towards the Seven Hills Trail.

I took one detour, to visit the wetland through which the Lake Wanoksink outlet stream flows. Today, I approached it by bushwhacking through the narrow strip of woods between the road and the wetland, rather than a disused woods road that is farther to the north, as I usually do. I encountered a small boulder cave whose existence I had hitherto fore overlooked, among the rock ledges near the edge of the wetland. I will investigate it further, someday.

The daylight was getting pretty dim. I hurried back up along the Seven Hills Trail and reached Lake Sebago and my car just as the sun was setting.

About 2:45.