Trails:

30 minute, easy walk 

6/23/2005.  On a very nice day, dog Sonar and I parked on the shoulder next to the trail entrance.  There is an entrance way (where Japanese barberry is a real problem) and then there are three dead-end trails.    The first trail is on the right heading between a hill on the left and wetlands on the right.  It dead-ends after a short walk.  The second trail also goes off to the right.  It heads up a hill and partially around the hill; private property blocks any further extension.  The third trail keeps going straight from the entrance way path.  It goes a short ways up to Finch Road.  There is a sign on the road saying "Welcome to North Salem".  There is also a trail sign with a horses's head.  It is part of the North Salem Bridal Trail system.  

If I could make a suggestion I would suggest that the trail maintainers make the two yellow trails (highland land lowland) meet.  All that would require is making the highland turn and go up the hill and then back down to the wetland trail.  This would make a nice loop.   Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

Sources:

Catalog of Ridgefield Open Spaces: http://www.rosaopenspace.org/catalog/index.html#Blacksmith%20Ridge

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

*  =  plant blooming on date of field trips, 6/23/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)    
Carya tomentosa (mockernut hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)  
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Pyrus sp. (crab apple)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Tilia americana (American basswood)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs and Subshrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)   --- lots
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)     *
Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)  
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Ilex verticillata (winterberry holly)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lyonia ligustrina (maleberry)     *
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)   *
Spiraea alba var. latifolia (meadowsweet) 
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)
Viburnum dentatum (smooth arrowwood viburnum)
Viburnum lentago (nannyberry viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis labrusca (fox grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Agrimonia sp. (agrimony)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)    * 
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Arisaema triphyllum (jack-in-the-pulpit)
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Cardamine impatiens (narrow-leaved bittercress)
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum (ox-eye daisy)     *
Cirsium sp. (thistle)
Coreopsis sp. (coreopsis)     ?
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
Galium aparine (cleavers)
Galium circaezens (wild licorice)
Galium mollugo (wild madder)     *
Geranium maculatum (wild geranium)  
Hesperis matronalis (dame's rocket)     *
Impatiens sp. (touch-me-not)
Lemna sp. (duckweed)
Lycopus virginicus (Virginia bugleweed)
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)  
Medicago lupulina (black medick)     *
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel)     *
Pedicularis canadensis (wood betony)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonatum pubescens (hairy Solomon's seal)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed)     *
Polygonum virginianum (jumpseed)
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)     *
Prenanthes altissima (tall white lettuce)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)     *
Solidago caesia (blue-stemmed goldenrod)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion)  
Thalictrum pubescens (tall meadowrue)
Trifolium pratense (red clover)     *
Trifolium repens (white clover)     *
Veratrum viride (swamp hellebore)
Viola sp. (violet)

Rushes:
Juncus tenuis (path rush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered type sedge)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Scirpus atrovirens (dark-green bulrush)

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Glyceria striata (meadow mannagrass)
Leersia sp. (white grass)  
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass))
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Poa compressa (Canada bluegrass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Adiantum pedatum (maidenhair fern)
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern))
Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern)
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)

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