[Journal entry for August 17, 2017; Chipmunk Mountain, Harriman State Park, New York] Chipmunk Mountain is a broad hill just south of Stony Brook. Its crown is mostly bald, I guess from fire, with wide rock ledges and blueberry meadows and some solitary trees. It is crossed by two trails, Seven Hills (blazed in blue) and Hillburn-Torne-Sebago (HTS blazed in orange), which intersect on the hill’s northern flank. A near-vertical cliff abruptly cuts off the southern flank.

I parked at the Reeves Meadow Visitors Center, off of Seven Lakes Drive, and took the Reeves Brook Trail (blazed in white). It follows Reeves brook, which flows in a valley southwest of Chipmunk Mountain. The brook passes through very rocky terrain that I believe to be of glacial origin. In the spring, when the water is high, it is full of cascades and small waterfalls. Today its flow is but a trickle. I passed several beautiful patches of Cardinal flower (Lobelia Cardinalis). These brilliantly red flower stalks decorate the park’s stream banks in late summer. I connected with the Seven Hills trail just below the cliff, and took the trail steeply up a crack in the cliff, to a broad rock ledge at the top. This ascent is one of the two or three steepest and most challenging in the park. I climb foot-over-foot, having no trouble yet placing each step with care, for a fall could prove fatal. One at the top, I sat on a boulder on one of the west-facing rock ledges, admiring the scenery and waiting for a cloud to stop blocking the sun, for I wanted bright sunlight for my photography. The view is very pretty, with green rolling hills below me to the west and a few solitary Pitch Pines on the cliff edge.

The cloud eventually drifted away and I stood up. Looking down, I noticed to my chagrin that I had been sitting next to a Diamondback Rattlesnake, which was coiled up and motionless in a little hollow at the base of the boulder. The snake looked to be about four feet long and about three inches in diameter at its widest point. Rattlesnakes are rare in the park; in thirty years of hiking in the park I have spotted only six. But they are memorable! I moved slowly away.

Resuming my hike on the Seven Hills Trail, I entered the bald section of the hilltop. One rock ledge is naturally marked by a group of glacial erratic boulders of orange quartzite. I left the trail and bushwhacked east, mostly keeping to rock ledges but occasionally wading through meadows of blueberry, fern and sweet fern. The rocks and vegetation were all vividly lit up by the late afternoon sun and were very beautiful. I spotted a Black Swallowtail butterfly flying amongst the Blueberries. I climbed a rounded knob of rock, perhaps ten feet high, that I supposed was the summit of the hill. A little later, I came to the HTS Trail and took it back south. This trail is more wooded than is Seven Hills, though still very beautiful. I passed by a meadow full of Goldenrod with their bright yellow flowers in full bloom.

A little later, I came to the intersection of HTS with the Raccoon Brook Hills Trail (RBH, blazed in black). The intersection is naturally marked by a group of large boulders, one of which is a glacial erratic of finely-laminated gray Catskill sandstone. RBH crosses a dramatic rocky ridge with a small stand of Pitch Pines, and passes by a south-looking overlook called the Pulpit, before descending down the cliff. The path is steep, but nowhere nearly as challenging as the route taken by Seven Hills.

I rejoined the Reeves Brook Trail at the base of the cliff and took it back to the Visitor’s Center. The sun was now close to setting and many tree trunks and vertical cliff faces glowed orange with its light. I spotted a few White Tail deer. I reached my car well before the light has faded. 3:00.