[Journal entry for July 30, 2011; Lake Askoti, Harriman State Park]. The afternoon is very sunny and clear, with a bright blue sky, instead of the grey haze that is so common for mid-summer in New York. I park at the lot beneath the Lake Askoti Dam – an earth fill structure - and take a walk around the lake. Seven Lakes Drive crosses the dam and runs along most of the west shore of the lake. I have avoided this lake in the past, on account of the view being marred by the road, but today take an informal path along its eastern shore and found it quite pretty and interesting. The informal trail diverges from the Long Path at the southern end of the lake and winds through laurel thickets, well above lake-level. At one point it follows an old woods road. I climb down to the lake shore in several places and find the view at the water’s edge to be quite pretty; Seven Lakes Drive is not so noticeable. Beaver signs are plentiful and include gnawed and felled trees and a substantial lodge built along the shore in a little cove in the northeast corner. The informal trail is not so clear here and I bushwhack through open woods and, at times, along the lake shore also. A small island with blueberry bushes and several rocky shoals adorn the lake’s northern end, in line with a rocky peninsula that juts out from the shore. Several people are sunning themselves on the rocks and several others are fishing. A stream flows into the lake here and the Red Cross Trail crosses nearby well. I follow the stream northward. It is a mere trickle of water flowing sluggishly among boulders, meandering through a wooded valley carpeted with grass. The stream leads to a small marsh, full of cattail, phragmites and blueberry bushes. I skirt its eastern edge and then cross over its inflow stream and climb back up to Seven Lakes Drive. The afternoon is growing late and the shadows are long. Most of the west shore of the lake is now in shadow, although a few beams of sunlight illuminate occasional boulders and patches of vegetation. I walk down to the lake in one place, following a wide and grassy woods road that gently ramps down to the lake shore. This point commands a good view of the island and shoals. I then continue south along Seven Lakes Drive, back to the car. 1:30.