[Journal entry for April 11; Spruce Pond, Sterling Forest State Park, New York] It’s a beautiful sunny and breezy spring day, with temperatures in the mid-forties Fahrenheit. I parked off of Route 17A, just west of the Route 17 in Southfields NY and took the Wildcat Mountain Trail (blazed in white) northward, up onto Wildcat Mountain. It passes a substantial cliff and then ascends up a valley, following a little stream that is the outflow of Spruce Pond. I admired several sets of small waterfalls, the largest of which is about ten feet tall. The stream has plenty of water today and the falls and cascades are lively. The blazed trail jogs away from the stream at the top of the falls, but I continued along it, following an informal trail that parallels the stream. It crosses the hillside above Spruce Pond and leads to an old camp at the pond’s northern end.

I poke around the camp’s main lodge, a substantial wood building with a large fireplace. Alas, the camp was abandoned many years ago and the lodge is falling to pieces. Much of the wood planking on its sides has fallen off or been carted away and I can look right through the structure. I take a camp road that leads down to the lake, a road that I guess once led to a floating dock. It’s gone now. The pond is about a half mile across in its longest dimension. Its northern and southern ends are flat and marshy but its eastern and western shores rise quickly out of the water onto steep hillsides full of Blueberry and Mountain Laurel bushes with hardwoods further upslope. I can see an old lean-to on a ledge on the opposite hillside. The lake appears to be natural; I see no dam impounding its waters.

I bushwhacked along the northern shore of the lake and climbed up onto the hillside to the west. I discovered three lean-tos, all dilapidated built on bnatural terraces on the hillside. I would feel uncomfortable sleeping in such a rickety structure on account of the possibility of it collapsing on me. Nevertheless, the lowermost lean-to seems to have had recent use. I continued up to the ridge crest and then a long traverse that led first past rock ledges decorated with boulders and bordered by Red Cedar trees and on to an overlook. The view of the hills to the south is very nice. The distant trees still have the bareness and tan color of winter. I could detect none of the redness that they take on as they bud.

I rejoined the Wildcat Mountain Trail and resumed my northward route. I passed a small seasonal pond. The air was full of the sound of frogs. I could recognize two types: the shrill song of the Spring Peepers and the more duck-like quack of the Wood Frog. I walked around the pond and the resumed my trek. A little further along the trail, I came to a small pond impounded by a very stout dam made of fitted stones, some of which must have weighed several tons. Unfortunately, trees have been allowed to grow on the dam and one had toppled, pulling a bit of the dam down with it. The roots of two other trees intertwined with the rocks, forming in places a rectangular grid – a picturesque situation but one that is causing the dam to deteriorate. The stone seems to have been quarried in pond’s bed, for its sides are steeper than expected and its banks littered with rubble. I walked a few hundred yards up the inlet stream, a beautiful mossy ribbon of water ascending through the woods up the hillside. Several of the Beech Trees overhanging the pond are in bloom. Their minimalist flowers were the only blooms of spring that I encountered on today’s hike. After completing my circuit, I walked a hundred yards down the outlet stream to a wide grassy meadow. Looking back uphill, I could see that the stream was following a straight channel that had been dug for it in the earth.

I came across several old foundations as I approached Orange Turnpike, one of the east-west roads through this part of the park. I then crossed the Turnpike and visited Southfields Furnace, one of the old furnaces that supported the now-defunct iron works that used ore mined from these hills. It is set adjacent to Mombasha Creek, a lively stream with a low but picturesque waterfall located immediately adjacent to the furnace. The furnace is made mostly of brick and stone and is falling to ruin. A fair amount of conservation work has been done, including the installation of supports to prevent the structure’s collapse. I crossed the creek via a pedestrian bridge, climbed down to a rock ledge adjacent to the waterfall, and ate my lunch. I poked around the ground and found several examples of magnetite, the primary ore of iron mined in this area, and of slag, one of the waste products of the refining process.

I then walked up Orange Turnpike, following Mombasha Creek to where it exits a small pond, located near the intersection Orange Turnpike with Bramertown Road. The exit stream runs through a narrow channel in a rock ledge, making a bit of a waterfall. I had the sense that this channel was anthropogenic, but could find no tool marks to support this hypothesis. Beavers have built a series of dam extending out from the channel into the lake into the swampy shallows. I bushwhacked along the shore of the pond, until I found a open spot where I could get a good look at the lake as a whole. Most of its shores are very bushy, but the northern section hosts a large colony of Phragmites.

I then took the Long Meadow Extension Trail (blazed in green) back south. It runs along a wide and straight woods road and is not very interesting. I made a short detour up onto a ridge west of the road, decorated with tall White Pine Trees. It afforded a nice view westward towards the Mt. Peter Ski Area, whose single ski slope still has snow. I joined the Townsend Trail (blazed in orange with a green stripe), which follows a paved service road as it ascends Wildcat Mountain but then diverges as a footpath. It visits several overlooks that afford beautiful views towards the south and west. I followed this trail as it swung north and descended into a valley of a little stream, taking it to its junction with the Wildcat Mountain Trail near the little pond with the stone dam. I then took the Wildcat Mountain Trail back south. I had walked part of this trail earlier in day, but had missed a section because of my Spruce Pond bushwhack. I discovered that it ascended up onto a ridge full of tall and beautiful White Pine and ran past two long stone ridges that afforded great views. The first looks out upon Indian Kill Reservoir and the second upon We-Wah Lake. Finally, I passed at the waterfall on the Spruce Pond outlet stream and a little later arrived at my car.

About six hours.