Indian Hill

Indian Hill, Sterling Forest (8/2/2008)

This is hike #29 ("Indian Hill Loop") from the book 50 Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley.

We did this hike three years ago, almost to the day. This time the weather didn't cooperate. Forecasts predicted thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we thought we'd be done and home before the first raindrop fell. We began hiking at about 9:15 AM. Thunderclaps began when we were descending to the Southfields furnace at about 10 AM. At 10:30 AM, when we were at the pond just off the trail, it began to rain. Then it rained harder. And then harder. At 11 AM, when we were on the ridge the downpour was more powerful than anything I had ever felt. At 11:05 AM it was twice as hard as it was at 11 AM. While it poured on us, the lightning was flashing all around us. It rained incessantly on us, in buckets, non-stop for an entire hour. At 11:30 AM, precisely at the moment when we got back to our car, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We completed the 4.5+ mile hike in just over 2 hours. Needless to say, there are no photos from the second half of the hike.

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