[July 9, 2018, Continental Road, Black Rock Forest, Cornwall New York].  I parked at off of Route 9W at the Peck’s Road in Cornwall New York in the evening.  I walked a little north to a side street called Old West Point Road and took it south until I connected with Continental Road, a disused woods road.  The trees in this area are rather bare from caterpillar damage.  I saw no green leaf fragments on the ground, nor any caterpillars, so perhaps this damage dates from earlier in the spring.  Gypsy moths (if indeed that is what caused the defoliation) often experience die-offs during wet spring weather from Entomophaga maimaiga (fungus) infections.

Continental Road rises steep up through the woods, paralleling the deep valley of Canterbury Brook (though not offering any views of the brook).  The roadbed is deeply eroded in places and covered with ankle-high vegetation, among which is an unfortunate amount of Poison Ivy.  A slender footpath winds up the old roadbed, avoiding the worst terrain.  A tributary of Canterbury Brook (the Sphagnum Pond outlet stream) crosses the road about two thirds along the way.  A few minutes after selecting the left (eastern) fork of the road, I arrived at the Two Gates intersection.

I made a brief visit to a wetland along the Sphagnum Pond outflow stream.  It was nicely lit up by the evening sun.  I was hoping to see some birds, but the biting flies were fierce, and I did not linger long enough to see any.

Back on the road, I met a hiker with two dogs who reported seeing a mother Black Bear with two cubs, over on Old West Point Road (meaning the woods road of that name south of Upper Reservoir and not the suburban road that I had taken earlier today.

I then took the Stillman Trail (blazed in yellow) up to the summit of Black Rock Mountain.  It has a fabulous north-looking overlook, floored with tan (not black!) Highland gneiss and decorated with Blueberry Bushes, Scub Oak and Pitch Pine.  I could see the rolling hills of the Forest and Schunemunk Mountain to the west, Shawangunk Ridge (with its white cliffs) and the more distant Catskill Mountains to the north, an arc of the Hudson River (around the city of Newburgh) and (by peering through some vegetation) Storm King and Beacon Mountains to the east.

The sun was getting low when I arrive at the summit at about 8PM.  I sat down on a rock and enjoyed the view.  Shadows lengthened as the sun slowly sank towards the horizon and the rock ledges became progressively more shadowed and orange in color.  It set around 8:30.  The Hudson remained brightly visible for a while, its waters reflecting the purple of the sky. I did not linger long.

I took the Stillman Trail back down off the mountain.  Then I took Hulse Road (a woods road) back to may car.  It parallels Continental Road (with Foh Hill between) and though it is a little longer, is well-maintained and easy to walk, even in twilight.  Fireflies were dotting the air with their specks of green light in a sparse layer about waist high that faded off into the woods.  The walk back took about a half hour.  The light was almost gone by the time I reached my car.

About 3:00.