[Journal entry for July 27, 2013; Sterling Valley, Sterling Forest State Park, NY] I drove up to Sterling Forest State Park in the late morning of a partly sunny and rather humid day and parked at the Visitor’s Center. I then hiked a loop through the woods east and north of Sterling Lake.

I started by heading north from the Visitor’s Center on the Sterling Lake Loop Trail (blazed in blue). This trail mostly follows woods roads, one segment of which is a narrow raised causeway through a swamp – possibly an old mining road. Wineberries (as variety of raspberry) are ripe and plentiful along the edges of the trail. I then took the Pine Meadow Connector (blazed in orange) westward and the Pine Meadow Trail (also blazed in Orange) northward. It passed an area with a couple of old mining pits and piles of mine tailings. The tailings seemed to consist only of overburden; I saw no fragments iron ore. The trail crossed a power line right away a little further north. I paused to examine a rusting, abandoned machine on a stand near one of the transmission poles. It was connected by a hose to an inverted can hung from a pole and so seemed to be a pump for an outdoor shower, though its exact purpose remains a mystery to me. A little further north, I passed a wetland on the east side of the trail. I bushwhacked over to it. It was full of mostly-leafless bushes and had extremely uninviting, duckweed covered grey water. However, it was not lifeless, but had signs of beaver and was home to very many large frogs, which squeaked unhappily as they jumped into the water, disturbed by my passage. They did not immediately submerge, but scampered along across the surface of the water until they were six or eight feet out into it.

A little further north, I came to the intersection with the Sterling Valley Trail, at the southeastern edge of a larger and much more beautiful wetland. I took an informal trail to a grassy vantage on the bank of the small inlet brook and spent a few minutes admiring the view. Neither the brook nor the wetland is named on my hiking map, and my subsequent attempts to determine them have not been successful. The edges of the wetland are overgrown with grass, pickerelweed and some Phragmites, but the central part is open water, with occasional patches of water lilies. The lilies are in bloom, with white flowers. Two beaver lodges are built out in the water. One is old and overgrown with grass, but the other seems to have been built more recently. My presence disturbed a White Tail Deer, which was grazing out in the wetland but noisily waded to shore when it detected my presence.

I bushwhacked along the edge of the wetland, though a stand of Hemlock trees full of deadfall. (I’m amazed that any of the trees still live, for so many such stands have been wiped out by the Woolly Algid scale insect infestation). I went as far as the beaver dam at the outlet stream. It is a substantial structure and raises the water level of the wetland by several feet. I then bushwhacked along the outlet stream, negotiating rather too many patches of Poison Ivy. The upper section is in a narrow gorge and is steep and full of cateracts flowing over large, angular blocks. Several beautiful patches of Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) decorate its banks. The lower sections are wider, with the water flowing over a broad bed of mostly smaller stones. I sat on a boulder for a few minutes, admiring the green reflection of the canopy, above. I then rejoined the trail and took it southwest. It continues to follow the brook, which widens out again into a wetland just north of the point where it flows into Sterling Lake. I climbed down to the shore of the wetland once, and sighted a Great Blue Heron flying above its surface. I then rejoined the Sterling Lake Loop (blazed in Blue) and took it south, back towards my car. I made two brief stops, one at Cricket Pond, a wetland high set high above Sterling Lake, and another in a partial clearing that affords something a view of Sterling Lake, though through trees. This area is rather too full of blackberry and other thorny plants, from which I accumulated rather too many scratches on my arms and legs. About three hours.

I drove Long Meadow Road northward on my way home and made three stops before connecting with Route 17 in Tuxedo: a wetland on the west side of the road by a power line crossing, where I sighted a Great Blue Heron; Four Corners Lake, a small and rather eutrophied lake, also on the west side of the road, impounded by a dam at its north end; and Indian Kill Reservoir, a much larger and much more beautiful lake near the intersection of Long Valley Road with Route 17A.

Immediately upon returning home, I showered, washing with a strong detergent to guard against developing a Poison Ivy rash.