Moreau Lake State Park: Wondrous Lake Bonita Trails

It was just 24 months ago that 750 acres formerly held by the now closed Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility were formally added to Moreau Lake State Park. Since then a new parking area for hikers and three new trails have been built. That's a pretty good pace for these sorts of things but what makes this a truly impressive effort is that these new trails are really well thought out. Moreau Lake State Park now offers hikes ranging from a couple of miles to a "grand loop" covering nearly 15 miles without any retracing of steps (you can bet an account of that walk will appear on this blog in the future). My most recent outing, covering nine miles, took me past two attractive lakes, over ledges and past cascades and through an attractive and varied forests. There are good view along the way of the Hudson River and the southern Adirondacks.

An overview of the Moreau Lake State Park trail system. The heavy blue line, starting at the bottom left, is the route described in this post. The other colored lines seen on the map represent other trails in the park. For scale, the route represented by the heavy blue line covers a distance of just over nine miles. The two sections closest to the bottom of the image are new trails added as part of the Lake Bonita expansion.

The newest trail leaves the Lake Bonita Loop Trail near the spillway at the north end of the lake. From there it's about 1.5 miles to a to a junction with the West Ridge Trail. At the time of this writing that junction is unmarked but the trail itself is well marked (parking is on the Corinth-Wilton Mountain Road).

The Western Ridge Trail is one of the primary access trails that lead up onto the Palmertown ridge and the Park's main trail system. The Palmertown Ridge is interesting from both geological and ecological perspectives and evidence of the last glacial period lies heavily on this landscape. It is generally believed that the ice sheets of that last glacial period retreated from this area between twelve and fifteen thousand years ago with mountain glaciers persisting into the more recent end of that range. That's a long time by human standards but not even the blink of an eye in terms of geologic time. Walking the trails on the Palmertown ridge always reminds me of this. There are many places where soil lies just a few inches thick on top of deeply scarred bedrock.

A rock outcropping along the new trail from Lake Bonita to the Western Ridge Trail.

The geology of the Palmertown ridge strikes me as being somehow different from similar landscapes in the southern Adirondacks. For example, the ridge crossed in the first couple miles of the Northville to Benson section of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail has some characteristics in common with the Palmertown Ridge. The Northville ridge is a little higher but ecologically similar; an Oak-Hemlock forest. But the landscape has a different feel. Could it be the distinction between being part of the Canadian Shield (the primary geologic formation of the Adirondacks) as opposed to rock that has been pressed up against the shield. I'm imagining that as a possibility for the Palmertown Ridge. The most likely explanation is that this is my imagination run wild. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the geology of the region will let me know.

In any case, the terrain encountered on the Palmertown ridge is unexpectedly rugged and, according to my GPS, the total elevation gain for the route I walked was 2200 feet. There's just a single significant climb so nearly all of that elevation gain comes from the relentless ups and downs you encounter along the way.

The shore line of Lake Anne. This small, shallow, lake is ringed by an ecologically interesting marshy shoreline. 

One point of specific interest for me was a stand of spruce on the northwest shore of Lake Bonita. I had noticed the trees on my previous visit. But that was a day of our only major snow fall of the year and with darkness approaching I took no time to investigate. Still, I did notice two things:

1. The trees were some kind of Spruce (I was not sure of what variety) 
2. The trees looked out of place

Taking a closer look under benign conditions confirmed both points. My first impression had been that this was a stand of Norway Spruce; a widely planted import to the Adirondacks. When Norway Spruce grow in the open --as the do in various places in Saratoga Spa State Park-- they exhibit a distinctive branching pattern that makes them especially easy to identify. However, when growing close together under constrained conditions Norway Spruce can look a lot like other Spruce varieties that are native to this region. However, there is one identifying characteristic that trumps all others. Norway Spruce have long cones that are much larger than any other spruce from around these parts. These trees are Norway Spruce.

A lovely cascade crossed by the new trail section that runs from Lake Bonita to the Western Ridge Trail.

From the first overlook on the Western Ridge Trail. This popular destination is barely a mile from the parking area on Spier Falls Road. It's a bit more than 2.5 miles from the new parking area on Corinth Wilton Mountain Road. The view is of the Spier Falls reservoir on the Hudson River and the Southern Adirondacks beyond.

Lake Anne. Late Winter.

This open glade on the ridge line near the Western Ridge trail was probably open meadow just a few decades ago. The trees are Chestnut Oak. A common species on this section of the Palmertown ridge. This species somehow favors the edges of steep ridges. I'd love to more about the history of the forest on this ridge.   

Winter Outings 2017

Moreau Lake SP: Heavy Snow
Northville Lake Placid Trail: To the High Point
GPS Accuracy: This is what I've been talking about

Moreau Lake State Park: Heavy Snow

I have not been posting much recently because I have not been able to get out but on successive January weekends I got away for quick jaunts to visit a couple of favorite haunts. The first outing was to Moreau Lake State Park on a day when over a foot of snow fell. Over the six hours I was on the trail eight to ten inches of snow fell and by late afternoon tracks I had made in fresh snow in the morning had vanished.

Looking out from the lean-to at Lake Anne. For a time the snow was falling at a rate that accumulates several inches per hour. You might think that the video has been speed up in some way. It has not. 

The route. Note the red line leaving Lake Bonita. There looks to be a new marked trail going off in that direction. Also, my route does not follow the actual trail in several places. I tend to wander around investigating areas that catch my eye. The marked trail is easy to follow. 

It appears that the new parking area on Corinth Mountain Road will be kept plowed and open in the winter and that provides convenient access to new trails in the southern part of Moreau Lake State Park. I followed one those new trails to Lake Anne. From there a previously existing trail joins up with the Park's main trail system at junction S9 (if you are using the Park's official trail map).

The trail to Lake Anne (opened in the summer of 2016) passes through lands added to the park following the closing of the Mount MacGregor Correctional Facility. Intriguingly, on my way back to the car I followed the loop trail around Lake Bonita and it looks like another new trail has been added leaving the northern end of Lake Bonita next the spillway. If it goes where I think it might go it could make for a nice loop hike connecting with other trails that can be reached from Spier Falls Road. I'm planning to get back soon to take a look.

A Hemlock glade in winter. Snow fell heavily throughout the day.

Lake Bonita from near the trail that circles the lake. This is from the southern end of the lake looking north.

Lake Bonita again. This time from the far shore looking roughly from the east to the west.

Northville-Lake Placid Trail to the NLPT High Point

My second outing was on the Northville-Lake Placid Trail south from the Rte. 28n junction just east of Long Lake village. This trail head is less than a mile from a family home in Long Lake and I've walked this route many times. However, this outing was different. A series of storms over the previous two weeks had dropped three feet of snow which was then softened up by two days of unusual warmth (60+ in Long Lake in February? That can't be right). Higher up the snow was even deeper; three to five feet depending on the slope and the drifts.

Video from near the place where I turned back. I didn't actually make it to the highest point on the ridge turning back a quarter mile or so short of the height of land. I had passed my turn back time and the going in very deep, soft, snow was sloooow to say the least So following a quick lunch I headed back down.

The trail was partially broken to the point where the Three Brooks Ski trail joins the NLPT but past that junction no one had left a mark in the deep snow. Breaking trail while climbing makes for slow going and it took me 4 hours to cover four miles. Coming back down was a lot faster although fatigue started to counter the benefit of having a broken trail to follow. Seven hours on show shoes in deep snow is a full day. I was using a pair of lightweight snowshoes that were not very well suited to the conditions. This was one time when my larger Sherpa snow shoes would have been a better choice.

Starting out the day was bright and sunny. The Black Spruce Bog near the trail head is a consistent source of good photos and, for those interested in Adirondack ecosystems, one of the easiest places in the park to see this type of bog. Larger bogs are found to the north and west but this is one of the southernmost instances of this type.  

Near the place where the NLPT crosses Sandy Creek about a mile from the trail head.

Sandy Creek. This photo was taken the day before the hike on a short reconnaissance walk to judge conditions I would find the following day.

The Long Lake Spruce bog in early morning.

GPS Accuracy: This is what I've been talking About

I've written about GPS accuracy in the past but nothing beats an example. The screen captures that follow (from Google Earth using historic imagery as the basemap) show how "accuracy" varies when using common GPS devices in the woods.

Legend:

• Yellow Line: The trail as represented in the downloadable DEC Hiking Trails file. I don't know how DEC created the trails file but in many areas it shows only an approximation of route the trails actually take.
• Cyan Line: The track captured by my Garmin GPSMap64 GPS Receiver. This was an out and back hike, so the two lines represent the trip up the mountain and return trip back down. Because I was snow shoeing in deep snow the two tracks should, in theory, overlap. I stayed in the trail I broke on the way up on the return trip.
• Orange Line: The track captured using the GPS app on my phone. The two lines show the out and back routes as described above.
• The Red Line is a high accuracy representation of the route. You can't see it in these images but the trail in the area shown follows an old woods road and it is possible to make out the route in the Google Earth imagery. The red line was traced from the image and should closely follow the actual route on the ground.
• The horizontal green line; For scale, the green line represents a distance of 60 feet on the ground.

A section of the route overlaid with two sets of GPS tracks (the out and back tracks from two separate devices). The yellow line is less accurate representation from the DEC Trails download. The red line closely follows the actual route as traced from the image. 

Same as above with the less accurate tracks captured using the phone GPS hidden. The blue lines --tracks captured by a good consumer grade GPS unit-- vary by an average of 20 feet. The absolute variance from the traced representation of the trail (the red line) is also on average in 15-30 foot range. Larger variations might be the result of wandering off the trail at certain points.

For context, more of the followed route. The yellow "bulge" in the middle is a side trail off of the NLPT main route. The straight orange towards the bottom of the image is where the phone based GPS lost the GPS signal for a period of time. The straight line connects the points where the phone lost and later regained the signal.