Five Ponds Wilderness - The High Falls Loop

The people of the State of New York claim ownership but make no mistake, the Five Ponds Wilderness is the kingdom of the Beaver. That's what makes Five Ponds so great. It's real wilderness: wet, muddy, buggy, overgrown and generally inconvenient.

I recently (Sept 2015) hiked the route known as the "High Falls Loop". With a couple of short side jaunts that hike covered 17.1 miles; very close to my limit for hiking miles in one day. There are challenges, and the general messiness that defines the place, but Five Ponds is also an uncommonly flat area. The elevation differential between Cranberry Lake and High Falls is just 100 feet and the area's defining feature, the Oswegatchie River, follows a meandering path through a broad valley. Long stretches of the trail follow a track originally built to support a logging railroad and that solid base makes for fast and easy walking.

High Falls Loop showing my GPS track (blue). The complete loop includes a half mile of road walking between the two trail heads near the village of Wanakena. The yellow line shows the trail south to the five small ponds after which this area is named. The gray lines show the routes of historic trails abandoned following the 1995 storm that caused extensive blowdown throughout this area. (Image capture from Google Earth)

The Five Ponds Wilderness is all about the water. There are lakes, ponds, streams and the Oswegatchie River. Then there are swamps, bogs, and marshes of every size, shape and variety. And if that's not enough there are Beaver ponds at every possible stage of succession. 

A wet meadow. The Five Ponds area is noted for its' open meadows including the large open area known as "the plains." The plains is classified by the New York Natural Heritage project as a boreal heath barrens; an uncommon ecological community type. The area pictured is a wet meadow just north of the plains. 

High Falls on the Oswegatchie River. This is the falls at a time of very low water. August and early September 2015 have been unusually dry.

I started the day heading south on the High Falls Loop East Trail. This popular trail connects Wanakena with Janacks Landing on Cranberry Lake and it provides access to various trails and destinations in the northeastern quadrant of the Five Ponds Wilderness. It is also the shortest formal trail to High Falls. The route covers 6.1 miles to a trail junction where you follow a half mile side trail to the falls. A sign near the falls reads "Wanakena 9 Miles". That's the distance if you return by continuing around the loop on the west side trail. Which is what I did. The two trailheads are less than a half mile apart on South Shore Road in the Hamlet of Wanakena so the loop hike is easy to manage without the need for two cars.

The Oswegatchie River from High Rock

As mentioned, a good part of the route follows a grade originally built to support a railway. The rail lines were laid just after the turn of the 19th century by the Rich Lumber Company to enable timber harvesting on the 16,000 acres the company owned south of Wanakena. I haven't seen references to exactly when the rails were removed but the state acquired the land in 1916 and it's likely that the company took the rails with them when they departed. By that time the forest had been heavily logged and intense fires had swept the area. Much of the High Falls Loop trail passes through a second growth forest that is roughly 100 old. After the state took ownership of the land the railway grade was converted to a truck trail. That woods road was abandoned when the Five Ponds Wilderness was created and and the route became the west side trail.

Along with the falls, a highlight of the trip is the unique ecological area known as "The Plains"; a large open area that was present before the logging started. The Plains is classified by the New York State Natural Heritage project as a Boreal Heath Barrens.

Looking into the "plains" from the south. An uncommon combination of environmental and ecological factors has apparently kept this area from being reclaimed by forest. At least at the rate that might be expected,. However, it seems likely that over a longer period the trees will recolonize much of the area and the plains will fade into the surrounding forest.

As mentioned, much of the route is on a relatively smooth and level trail that makes for fast walking.
But there is one recurring challenge. The route has recently been flooded --or currently is flooded-- by beaver activity at more that a dozen locations. The wetter terrain lies mostly in the southern half of the route but the one place where I was not able to avoid wet feet is less than a half mile from where the west side trail joins the road in Wanakena. The trail crosses over a slightly raised causeway between a swampy area and a made-made pond and Beaver have damned the culvert that allows a small stream to flow through. The result being that the causeway itself was completely flooded (Image 4). Short of backtracking and bushwhacking around the entire mess there was no way to avoid walking through the water. Given that I had already walked over sixteen miles, and that I was ready to be done hiking, I just plowed on through. Had I started the loop on this trail the story would have been different. Getting wet feet at the start of a long day presents a significant problem. Looking back I realized how many places I had just barely made it through while staying dry. If you hike this route expect to do some wading and plan accordingly.

It looks like you could stay dry by walking in the grass on either side so you'll have to take my word for it; there was no way through this section without getting wet feet. A man-made pond is just out of the photo on the right and the water visible in the trail is the edge of pond backed up by the Beaver. That water is coming in from the left and the grass there stands in several inches of water.

One of the many places where the path crosses a beaver dam.

One of the reasons I really wanted to hike this route was to finally get a first-hand look at the havoc wrought by the infamous Derecho storm of 1995. That storm, on July 15th 1995, caused extensive blowdown throughout the Adirondacks and the forests of the Five Ponds Wilderness were particularly hard hit. Just over 20 years have passed since the storm and evidence of the event is starting to fade. The route passes through several areas where nearly every large tree was knocked down; evidenced by the lack of large trees and by the tangle of large decaying logs lying everywhere. Equally striking is the bright sunlight that reaches the forest floor in these places. Areas where the canopy was knocked down are now filled with saplings of the pioneer tree species that fill in whenever an opening appears in the forest.

Following the 1995 storm trail crews cut through hundreds of downed trees to reopen the trails.

The trail crosses a mud hole on this log. The log sways a bit and you need to be sure footed. It was dry on this day but this crossing could be quite daunting when it is wet.

That 1995 storm figures in my family history as well. The storm passed through just after sunrise on a Saturday and we were planning on attending a family reunion in Long Lake on Sunday. We live in Saratoga Springs and we experienced the storm as a notably severe thunderstorm. During the day on Saturday we heard reports that the storm had been much more severe in the mountains and that several campers had been killed by falling trees. Driving up on Sunday morning we could hardly help but notice the many trees down along the roads but, it was not until we got to Long Lake, and heard my Dad's story that the uniqueness of the event came into focus. Dad was then a member of a hunting and fishing club that leased the area around Rock Pond (south of Little Tupper Lake, now part of the Whitney Wilderness). He had arrived at the cabin the club maintained near the pond on Friday and planned to drive out to Long Lake on Sunday morning to attend the reunion. Shortly after the storm passed it became clear to him that that was not going to happen. The cabin where he was staying, and, his pickup parked nearby, were both unharmed, but several miles of woods roads lay between him and pavement and large downed trees lay across the entire route. I don't recall exactly what he did on that Saturday but probably got into his canoe and went fishing thinking that other club members (some of whom are also members of our family) would eventually arrive.

Instead, the silence of Sunday morning was broken by a float plane coming in for a landing on Rock Pond. Another club member had flown in to make sure he was OK and he hitched a ride back to Long Lake by plane. Hearing his tale of experiencing the storm in the forest was harrowing enough but the human tragedy was brought home when we reached the Lake Eaton campground for the reunion. A camper trailer crushed down to the axles sat forlornly in the parking area.. No one was killed at Lake Eaton but a camper did die at Lake Lila; a place where we have camped several times.

Following the storm much dismay was expressed over the loss of old-growth timber in the Five Ponds region; many large, old, trees were toppled. But storms like this have blown through the Adirondacks many times before and will continue to do so in the future. From the perspective of a human lifetime this is significant forest event and, for a few families, a deep tragedy. But in 100 years direct evidence of the event will have vanished and unless we do something really stupid the forests will go on. And the beaver won't care.

Adirondack Life: Lowdown on the Blowdown