On Monday, I asked:

Near a stream by the Red Trail at the High Mountain Park Preserve, I saw several rocks with small holes in them.

Anyone know what's going on?

William Paterson University Geology Professor Martin Becker writes:

The rock does not appear to be a vesicular or amygdaloidal basalt.

It is also more rounded and not angular as one would expect from the local Preakness Basalt Formation.

The surface color is not a good match either for weathered basalt.  

I think it is a glacial erratic and piece of the Oriskany Sandstone of New York State and what you are looking at are one of two things:

a) non-quartz minerals that have chemically and physically eroded away leaving behind the “holes”

b) remains of ichnofossils in the form of “holes” or “tubes.”  

Prof. Becker asked me to do a test on the rock. Will try to do so...  (Thanks, Prof. Becker!)

The Paterson Rambling Club was founded in 1904. The group's first hike was to the summit of High Mountain -- after they had taken a trolley to Haledon.  Joseph Rydings, the group’s leader, wrote many essays about the group's hikes over the years, and “certain choice annals” were collected in his book Country Walks in Many Fields in 1934.

Here is Rydings’ essay about High Mountain, prefaced by a note from the book's Introduction.

I did a hike to the summit of High Mountain yesterday with a friend -- and saw a 20-foot-high solar-powered star near the top. I am told there used to be a huge star on the summit years ago.

Not sure who did it, or how long it will remain. If you can tell me more about it, would love to know.

The view was as great as ever.

P.S. Someone took it upon themselves to cut down some scraggly trees that blocked the view to the east on Nature Conservancy land.

A good idea, but hope they got permission. It ain't the Wild West.

Fellow Celery Farm volunteer Bruce Davis hiked a bit of High Mountain on Monday, enjoying the last gasps of fall foliage on a beautiful autumn day.

A surprising amount of water, too.

We parked in the Red Trail Parking Lot and hiked the Red Trail to the White Trail -- a new way for us.

We did not see or hear any Wild Turduckens, but they are typically found closer to the summit.

You can read more about High Mountain here.

You can read an article about High Mountain that I wrote for Autumn Years here.