I’ve been to California Hill a couple of times before. It’s less than a five minute drive from our house. The first time I went it had recently rained and I didn’t get very far. A sort of vernal pond had completely covered the trail and I couldn’t figure an easy way to get through/around it. So I turned back. The second time I got a bit farther: a little past the powerlines in the picture below. Even then I had to stop because of a waterlogged/muddy trail. This time I managed to go for quite a bit longer. I don’t know how much farther this trail goes, at at least we enjoyed a one hour walk (30 minutes out and 30 minutes back). Hunting is allowed here so you need to be aware of the hunting seasons.

When I looked at the picture above I thought it was suffering from lens distortion, but having been back I now realize the the vertical post actually is bent.

Parts of the trail are a bit hilly as the name might suggest.

Powerlines over an un-named lake/pond. (UPDATE: I now believe this body of water may be called Wawayanda Lake). We manged to get past this lake.

On the way back to the car I noticed this obviously man-made structure. It’s different from many walls that you see around here (including on California Hill). It’s rectangular in shape with one side open and the stones with which it was built are quite large (see below) and rather regular. Not the kind of thing you would just dig up and then pile into a wall. Maybe it was an animal pen of some kind? Or maybe even part of a dwelling? Who knows?

Detail of the stone structure above.