[Journal entry for January 2, 2021] Dallas and I hike in the Sourland Mountain Preserve, which is a few miles east of Flemington New Jersey. It’s a mostly wooded tract of land that encompasses a low northwest-southeast striking ridge. The ridge is due differential erosion between a layer of tough volcanic rock (diabase) and the softer sandstone and mudstone of the Newark sedimentary basin, which in this area are juxtaposed by a north-south striking normal fault. We parked at the main lot off of East Mountain Road. It was very crowded, owing to this being a holiday weekend during the Pandemic, and we counted ourselves lucky to get one of the few remaining spots. We began our hike on this partly sunny day by visiting a small but picturesque pond (really an impoundment) in the plain east of the mountain. We then headed uphill, first following a pipeline right-of-way, but soon transferring to the Orange Trail. It headed gently uphill through hardwoods with rather too much Barberry bushes beneath. The trail’s muddiness must be due to more than the recent rain, for the worst spots were bridged by puncheons. Both the surface of the trail and the woods are strewn with rocks – mostly grey sandstones and black mudstones with indistinct layering. We then turned left onto the Yellow Trail, which continued uphill. We stopped for a break, sitting on a large boulder in an open area a little off the trail. Continuing on, we went left onto the White Trail and then immediately right onto the Red Trail. It crosses Roaring Brook - a lively little stream – in a very rocky area. We had to pick our way carefully, to avoid slipping on all the moss. I detoured to one of the larger boulders and climbed on top. Its shape reminded me of Pride Rock in the Lion King movie. Continuing on, we soon reached the Texas Eastern Pipeline right-of-way. We sat on one of a line of large rocks at its edge and had lunch and hot tea, brought in a thermos. Some of these rocks were diabase, the first that I noticed so far on the hike. The views from the right-of-way are fairly limited, but looking eastward and downslope along axis, we could see the land below us. We walked the right-of-way downhill and eastward until just beyond the spot where Roaring Brook crossed it through two large orange pipes set at ground level. Here we rejoined the White Trail, taking it north. At first it parallels Roaring Brook, which at this point flows in a steep ravine, perhaps ten feet deep, cut into soil. I make several detours to view it. The sun is shining, as it has intermittently done all day, and lighting up the green moss-covered rocks and the tan trunks of the trees beautifully. We reconnected with the Yellow Trail and, later, the Orange Trail and retraced our route back to the pond. We used its waters to clean some of the mud off our boots, before getting into our car. Dallas, who had been logged our hike on her phone, reported its length to be 4.5 miles. About 2:30.