June 28, 2025. Intern Fieldtrip. Dallas, Mike Kaplan and I have done this fieldtrip to Harriman State Park annually for the past three years. Mike picks up the students in the morning and shows them sights near the Hudson River, and then meets Dallas and me at Silvermine Picnic Area for lunch and a hike up Stockbridge Mountain. Dallas and I arrived at the Picnic Area a little before noon. The morning has been a little drizzly and the parking lot is almost empty and the picnic pavilion is completely empty. We selected a picnic table and prepared the lunch: pitas with hummus, vegetables and sauce, croissants with jam, strawberries and sparkling water. After a relaxing lunch, we hiked the Menomine Trail (blazed in yellow), first along Queenboro Brrook, then by Lake Nawahunta, and finally, up to the hiker’s shelter at the summit of Stockbridge Mountain. We made several brief stops along the way: a recently eroded spot along the bank of the brook; Nawahunta Dam (from whence we could see a beaver lodge on the Nawahunta lakeshore); the Lewis Mine (where we tested blocks of iron ore with magnets), beaver-gnawed bushes along the Nawahunta lakeshore, a “beheaded” stream and old waterfall on the flank of the mountain, a glacially-plucked scarp near the summit of the mountain, and finally the gneiss ledges at the summit. The clouds cleared during our hike and we enjoyed a few minutes of laying in the sun outside the shelter. The sun quickly warmed the air up to an oppressive temperature, but a mountaintop breeze brought us some comfort. We then headed back. We inspected several gneiss ledges with glacial striae as we descended the Menomine Trail. We spotted several American Toads as they hopped across the trail. Mike drove the students back to their dorm at Dominican University. Dallas and I drove home separately, put the leftovers away and washed the dishes. 4:00.