[Journal entry for December 18, 2018; Glycerine Hollow, Black Rock Forest, Cornwall New York] The sky is clear today and the temperature is a little below freezing - conditions that I consider excellent for hiking.

I park at the Hiker’s Lot off of Reservoir Road and take Reservoir Road past the Science Center to Upper Reservoir. The deciduous trees are completely bare now, and only the Pines and Red Cedars provide some green. Icicles hang from many of the rock faces and from branches overhanging Mailley’s Mill Brook. A little snow covers the landscape and clings to the surface of the roads. I take White Oak Road to Aleck Meadow Reservoir. The trunks of birch trees on its shore shine white in the sun.

I then take the Swamp Trail (blazed in blue) towards Old West Point Road. It passes a little seasonal pond, now incrusted with ice. I switch to the Hill of Pines Trail (blazed in white) and take it over the flank of that hill to Carpenter Road, pausing at a broad flat rock ledge at the top of the ridge. The view is mostly obscured by trees, but I can see the great rock face on Butter Hill, a couple of miles to the east, through the bare branches. The trail descends down to Carpenter Road, past prominent rock scarps. I walk a hundred yards west on Carpenter Road, cross Cascade Brook, and then take Go-Down Road southward towards Glycerine Hollow. Today is my first traverse of this old and fading road; I had trouble following it back in March, when the ground was snow-covered (but going in the opposite direction). The road hugs the steep flank of Rattlesnake Hill high above Cascade Brook. I detoured down to the brook and spent a few minutes walking beside its many small waterfalls. I then rejoined the road and took it down into Glycerine Hollow.

Glycerine Hollow is an area of flat swampy land about a fifth of a mile across. Cascade brooks flows through it and Go-Down Road loops completely around it. The wetland is full of grass hummocks. swamp bushes and shallow ponds, all beneath a canopy of deciduous trees. The bushes were of course leafless, but their stems were a pleasant shade of red. I wandered about the edge of the swamp, trying not to get my feet too wet. I then rejoined Go-Down Road and walked completely around the loop. I discovered my mistake of the spring: I had come in from the south along Old West Point Road, which joins the south end of the Go-Down loop, a little above a big waterfall on Cascade Brook. Another road intersects Old West Point Road just below the big waterfall, coming in from the west and crossing Cascade Brook via a stone bridge (a gauging station and repeater station are nearby). Back in March, I mistakenly took this road.

Today I just backtracked up Go-Down Road back to Carpenter Road. I then took the Scenic Trail (blazed in white) over Hill of Pines, the summit of which hosts one of the more beautiful overlooks in the Forest. I enjoyed a few minutes of rest, sitting beneath a Pitch Pine on the summit, and viewing Rattkesnake Hill and the other rolling hills of the Forest. I continued on the Scenic Trail, taking it to White Oak Road and Reservoir Road, and back to my car. Most of the land was in shade, but the tops of the hills were still lit by the late afternoon sun.

About four hours.