Description:

This hike follows the Sterling Lake Trail, marked with dark blue plastic blazes. From the visitor center parking area, turn left and proceed west along the paved road you followed to reach the visitor center. At the bottom of the hill, turn right and continue along paved West Sterling Lake Road, closed to public vehicular traffic. Soon, you'll pass some concrete and brick structures on the left side of the road. These are remnants of the former mining operations in the area. Sterling Forest was once a center of mining activity, with the first mines opened in the 1700s. The last active mine in the area closed down nearly 100 years ago.

Just past these ruins, the road begins to run alongside Sterling Lake, with views across this beautiful lake. After the road curves to the right, the paving ends. Continue ahead on a woods road, which continues to run very close to the shore of the scenic lake. The blazing in this section is sparse, but the woods road that you are following is clear and distinct.

After about a mile of walking, you'll reach a fork in the road. Take the right fork, which continues along the lake. The yellow-blazed Sterling Valley Trail joins from the left, and you will now be following both yellow and blue blazes. Just beyond, you'll pass a former boat-launching ramp and then bear right at another junction in a cleared area. Soon afterwards, the trail crosses an earthen causeway, with broad views over the lake. A quiet, picturesque pond is to the left.

The trail now goes slightly inland and climbs over a rise. After descending through a mountain laurel thicket, it again emerges on the lakeshore at a small sandy beach, with two fallen pine trees overhanging the water. It crosses another earthen causeway over an arm of the lake, with a beaver lodge on its east side. At the end of the lake, the trail bears left and heads north, running parallel to the narrow arm of the lake.

When you reach the end of this arm, follow the blue trail as it turns sharply right onto another woods road (the yellow trail continues straight ahead). The blue trail proceeds south along this grass-covered road, which climbs gently and continues to run above the level of the lake. You can catch some glimpses of the lake through the trees on the right. After about a mile of pleasant walking on this grassy road, watch for a sharp left turn. Here the blue-blazed trail leaves this wide woods road and heads southeast along a rougher woods road, which soon begins to climb rather steeply.

Just beyond the crest of the rise, the blue-blazed trail turns right, leaving the road, and descends on a footpath. Be alert for this turn, as it is easily missed. The trail turns right on a wide dirt road and follows it for 50 feet, then turns left, leaving the road, and continues to descend more gradually to a paved road, which it crosses. Before reaching a second paved road (County Route 84), the trail turns right and crosses a wetland on an earth-and-rock embankment of a former mining railroad. It bears left at the end of the embankment, then soon turns right and continues along a wide dirt road, passing several old trailers.

When the road curves to the right to end in a paved parking area, continue straight ahead, following the blue markers. The trail soon emerges onto a paved road. Turn left and follow the road a short distance back to the visitor center, completing the loop.