[Journal entry for September 10, 2016; Doodletown Brook near Iona Marsh]. I parked off Route 9W near the bridge over Doodletown Brook, where the brook flows into Iona Marsh. The day was hot - about ninety Fahrenheit - sunny and very humid. The brook was flowing, though only sluggishly, for but little rain has fallen lately. I visited the pool just upstream of the highway, a deep and wide hole set beneath tall trees. An old concrete dam blocks the river just above the pool. It has a head of about ten feet, but its reservoir is completely silted up, forming a gravel plain level with the top of the dam. I worked my way slowly upstream, following the stream bed. The terrain is varied: some sections of the valley are narrow canyons with high rock walls; others are flat and broad plains with bushes such as the thorny barberry. Large blocks, some ten feet across or more, litter some sections, making them almost impassible, while others are gravely and easy to traverse. The stream winds among the rocks, making small cataracts. I saw little wildlife, except for chipmunks and a black rat snake. After about an hour of slowly picking my way, and getting my feet rather too wet, I reached the falls, which have a drop of perhaps twenty feet. The flow was modest and broken up into two separate ribbons of water, making a sight that was pretty but subdued. I climbed up out of the valley to the Old Ski Trail, which crosses the brook just above the falls. I sat for a while on a stone beside the bridge at the top of the falls. I then took Dunderberg Turnpike back to the car. It is an old woods road that follows the north side of the valley in which the brook flows. I passed the ruins of the Grey’s Barn – just a stone foundation on which cling vines. Honeysuckle was in bloom and the fragrance of their white blossoms filled the air along the road. I soon reached old 9W. I met Karl Coplan, who were standing with his dog Lupi by the highway bridge and chatted with him for a while. He was waiting for hiking friends to arrive and was intending up to Bald Mountain. About one and a half hours.