[Journal entry for August 6, 2014; Queensboro Lake, Harriman State Park, New York] It’s a beautiful sunny day. I drive to Harriman State Park and park at the Hiker’s Lot on Perkins Memorial Drive. I then walk along Queensboro Lake, which is on the north side of Route 6 just past the exit for the Drive.

Queensboro Lake is well below road level, a medium-sized lake edged by water lilies and surrounded by steep low hills on its northern and western sides. I first viewed the lake from the road. It is ringed by bushes and wildflowers. Only in a few spots could I find an unobstructed view. The center of the lake is open water. Some sort of metal grating – a water inlet, perhaps – has been installed in the middle of the lake. I can see the top of the dam at the east end of the lake. It is a straight edge beyond which is no water. A tallish brick building stands beneath the dam. Beyond it, in the distance, I can see the rocky peak of Popolopan Torne.

I bushwhacked down to the lakeshore, visiting in succession two small peninsulas. The first bordered a marshy cove, across which I could see Bear Mountain. The second was larger and more interesting. I stood on a rock ledge at the end, surrounded by blueberry bushes, gazing across to the other side of the lake and the hiss beyond it. The peninsula faces several small islands. Three Canada Geese sat on one extremely tiny grassy island that was just a few feet across. The west side of the peninsula looks out onto the phragmites marsh that fills that end of the lake.

I then returned to Roue 6 and walked back east to Queensboro Road, which runs along the east side of the lake and provides access to the dam and the brick building, labeled BM-111, beside it. The dam is concrete. The outlet stream flows east and is a tributary of Popolopan Creek. I crosses a small bridge over the stream and walked over to a large field of Black-eyed Susans, a beautiful and dazzling yellow lit up by the sun. I also toured a small pond near the field of wildflowers.

I then walked Perkins Memorial Drive back to the car. About an hour and a half.