[Journal entry for April 12, 2015; Indian Hill, Sterling Forest State Park, New York]. The temperature has risen significantly since yesterday and the wind has calmed. They day is sunny and warm, with temperatures in the sixties, Fahrenheit. I park in an old gravel quarry off of Orange Turnpike, west of its intersection with Bramertown Road and take the Indian Hill Trail (blazed in yellow) southward. I pass through a grove of tall Hemlock Trees. At first I am hoping that they will survive the onslaught of the Woolly Adelgid, for I see to evidence of this tiny but deadly insect pest. However, later in the day I encountered several infected trees nearby, so I suppose they will eventually succumb. Too bad!

I pass a hillside with a vertical scarp, about fifty feet high and with many large angular boulders scattered below. It is one of the many south-facing scarps in the park that were formed by glacial plucking during the Ice Age. The trail ascends the hill and works its way up to an overlook on a ridge full of tall White Pine trees. I can see a pond below me. I have been unable to determine its name, but it is the one near the intersection of Orange Turnpike and Bramertown Road.

I continued on the trail, which took me east and down into a valley with rivulets and small wetlands. The voices of Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs were very boisterous. Some of the aquatic plants seemed pretty green, suggesting to me that I was seeing spring growth. However, the grass hummocks that stood up from the water were brown. I soon came to a larger stream and, leaving the trail, bushwhacked upstream a few hundred yards to the small pond that was its source. This pond, perhaps a fifth of a mile long, is impounded by a low concrete dam on its southern end. I walked around the pond, encountering an enormous maple tree – probably dating from an old ornamental planting - on its eastern shore. A few of the trees that overhung the pond were budded and some turtles basked on a log that extended above the water’s surface.

I then returned to the trail and took it north, up the steep flank of Indian Hill. I climbed up through ravines in another south-facing scarp until I reached a broad overlook that looks southwards, towards Wildcat Mountain. The trail follows the eastern edge of the mountain and passes several wide rock ledges that look eastward, across the valley of the Ramapo River, to the hills of Harriman State Park.

The trail then descends down into the valley north of Indian Hill. The many rock walls in this area are a reminder that these hills were once heavily farmed. At the bottom of the valley, I came to a disused east-west trending woods road lined by two substantial rock walls. Each was three feet high and six to eight feet wide and consisted of well-fitted boulders up to several feet across. The amount of labor that went into building them must have been enormous! The trail crossed the road but I decide to take the road westward and rejoin the trail when it looped back south, a quarter mile to the west. Though now eroded, the road was well-built, with culverts lined with flagstone that carried rivulets under it and wide entryways to allow traffic to and from what at time must have been adjoining farms.

I reconnected with the Indian Hill Trail and took it southward, back towards the parking lot. I came across a sign at the edge of a field saying that the area was being modified to restore the habitat of the Golden-winged Warbler. Apparently these birds, classified as a “species of special concern” have declined as old fields have slowly reverted to woods. The restoration has recreated these old fields by removing the taller trees. I came to an intersection with a woods road that paralleled the edge of the restored field, and walked it for several hundred yards. The field was as advertised – an open area overgrown with bushes. I hope the warblers like it; a hiker like me would find it impossible to traverse!

I found several ruined buildings near the restored field. I could see by looking in the windows that the larger one, which was about the size of a suburban house and of wood frame construction, contained rows of cages on its walls. The smaller one had three concrete walls and one of chain link fencing. I supposed it to be an animal pen.

I made a short detour to examine a wetland that was adjacent to the buildings. I then walked the final short distance to the car. It was along this leg that I spotted a Hemlock infected with Woolly Adelgid.

About four hours.