Flora of Terrace Pond - June 19th 2025
My aunt who lives nearby always warned me about Terrace pond, the trail itself is tough but has elements that locals tend to avoid: located off the haunted highway, owned by the Newark City Watershed, lot is patrolled by an illegally operated tow truck, Bog mosquitos, Venomous snakes, and most recently a tourist trap where urbanites who can't swim keep drowning. Nonetheless I used my day off to hike with my friend and nearly passed out myself due to the high humidity
1. Starting the trail off Clinton Road the mossy cove forest between hills is covered in Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) 2. The trail breaks into a gas-line cut where sun-loving Whorled Loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) was boardering the edges 3. Up the hill, Bristly Sarsaparilla (Aralia hispida) was the only thing flowering on the harsh rocky balds which the trail cuts through. 4. Terrace Pond has a known local fat snapping turtle that likes to rest on the "shoreline" 5. Interestingly adjacent to Terrace pond in the cliff faces were the largest specimens of Cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana) I've ever seen. 6. Near the (elevation) limit of it's range Striped Maple (Acer pennsylvanicum) seeds in the mountains around West Milford where 7. Pink Lady's Slipper Orchids (Cypripedium acaule) are seeding as well. 8. Bristly Sarsaparilla flowering while growing in our region's famous Purple Puddingstone, a conglomerate of sandstone, shale, with quartz embedded. 9. Finally an odd boggy mountaintop wetland called beaconhill lake marks the southernmost point of the loop trail