Pharoah Lake Wilderness: Rock Pond

It's easy to forget that nearly a million acres of the Adirondack Forest Preserve lie east of the Northway (I-87). The eastern section includes Lake George, Schroon lake and the New York side of Lake Champlain; all significant attractions. But, for hikers, the undisputed crown jewel in the east is the 45,000 acre Pharaoh Lake Wilderness (PLW). The PLW encompasses mountains with open summits and boulder strewn slopes. Nestled among those peaks and ridges are some of the most attractive lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks. And the area was settled --and logged-- early on, so a matrix of surprisingly mature second-growth forest blankets the landscape. I've hiked in the PLW before but my last visit was over 20 years ago. So my recent walk to Rock Pond --4.5 miles via the Short Swing Trail-- was an eye opener. The Pharaoh Lake Wilderness is an outstanding hiking destination.

Honey Pond. A semi-permanent, shallow, pond. The size of the pond varies based on the vitality of the local beaver population. As of December 2017 the outlet is solidly dammed and the pond has flooded sections of the Short Swing trail  (getting around the wet areas is not difficult).

At these latitudes the late December sun never gets very high in the sky. This picture was taken near Lillypad pond at about 1:00 pm. 

As mentioned, I've hiked in the PLW before and this was a favorite destination for family hikes when our children were children. In fact it was at Pharaoh Lake, nearing the end of an epic, six day, family backpacking trip that our nine year old daughter uttered one of the most memorable lines in our family history;

"We've been here for a week, we are out of food, and our parents don't care."

We were getting low on food and she and her brother were sick of our freeze-dried fare. She used that line to extract granola bars from passing day hikers. Once Elle and I caught on we had to put a stop to her "gathering" activities. But I have to admit, we were all pretty sick of backpacker food at that point and I was tempted to let her keep trying.

Rock Pond has an attractive rocky shoreline. Via the Short Swing Trail and Lillypad Pond trail, it's about 4.5 miles to reach the western end of Rock Pond. A mile-long trail goes around the pond and a shorter approach can be made from Putnam Pond.

Major trails enter the PLW from several directions and easy access is part of the appeal of the PLW. Two trail with good parking are found along NY Route 74 between Paradox Lake and Eagle Lake. Other trails depart from the State Campground at Putnam Pond and several trails enter the PLW from the south. The PLW trail system is extensive so long looping routes are possible. There are 14 lean-tos located within the boundaries of the PLW, most sited near the numerous lakes and ponds.

Lillypad Pond lean-to. 

Lillypad Pond

The GPS track showing my route to Rock Pond is shown in light blue. The orange lines represent trails are represented in the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's downloadable trails map. The trails map is available as a KML file that can be viewed in Google earth. It can be downloaded from the DEC website.    

The map image shows my GPS track (light blue) overlaid on a trails layer (orange) that can be download from the New York State DEC website (displayed using Google Earth). I was curious why the GPS track is not more closely aligned with the trails from the DEC map layer. I would expect the GPS track to be accurate to around 30 feet. But the gap between my track, and the trails map layer route, are separated in places by as much as a quarter mile.

There are several potential sources for this type of discrepancy. One is that trails are commonly re-routed. A closer look at the start of the route (below) shows an example of this. It used to be that there was no parking at the trailhead for this route. There was a parking area .3 miles away but you walked along Route 74 to reach the start of the trail. Route 74 is a busy road, so a few years back DEC added a bypass trail through the woods. The map below shows that the DEC trails layer has not been updated to include this new section. The GPS track shows the highway bypass but the trails layer shows the route starting at the old entry point on the highway.

  
This provides a clue as to the source of the discrepancies between the GPS track and the trails layer route. It may simply be that the trail maps for the PLW have not been updated in some time. If those routes were drawn pre-GPS they were probably hand-drawn on a background map. That approach results in a lower accuracy.

DEC Roads and Trails (from the New York State GIS Clearinghouse)

Pharaoh Lake Wilderness DEC Site

Little Tupper Lake; The South Shore Horse Trail

The South Shore Horse Trail* starts at a large parking area just east of Little Tupper Lake on the Sabattis Circle Road (Hamilton County Rte. 10A). At the rear of the parking area a sign reads simply, "South Shore Trail 4 Miles". And that pretty much describes the route. This scantily marked trail follows  abandoned logging roads into the emerging wilderness south of Little Tupper Lake. I walked the route on a snowy day in early December and winter is a good season for hiking in the Whitney Wilderness. In warmer months, this trail will be wet, in-grown and buggy.

One of several beaver disturbances that must be crossed along the way. Bands of heavy lake effect snow were falling on the day of my visit.

A large beaver pond just a mile from the road. When the water level is down you can easily cross the stream. At other times the dam itself can be crossed.

There is no specific destination for this walk in the woods. Signs point the way where old logging roads intersect but, after four miles, the trail simply fades into the forest. Leaving you two hundred yards short of Little Tupper Lake. You can access the lake shore at several points along the way but, right where the trail fades, reaching the water is a messy proposition. A tangle of blowdown, thick vegetation and beaver swamps will stand between you and the shoreline.

The full route shown overlaid on black and white imagery from 1994. The South Shore Horse trail is in orange. The short side trip to the unnamed pond is in Yellow. The possible extension to Doctors Pond is purple.

Beaver meadows near where the trail ends. To reach the lake pass this area on the left.

Little Tupper Lake looking southwest from a point near the end of the South Shore Trail.

I've previously written about the the network of trails that follow the northern shoreline of Little Tupper and provide access to the ponds southwest of the lake. Those routes, like the South Shore Trail, pass through, young, second growth woods. Most of the lands that make up the Whitney Wilderness were logged heavily in the years leading up to acquisition by the State and these woods will need decades to return to a pre-disturbance condition.

From another point on Little Tupper Lake, the view is towards the southwest.

While these two trail systems are in many ways similar I think that the South Shore Trail is more appealing. The South Shore route passes a series of swamps, marshes and beaver ponds all of which add interest to the route. Both routes have been blocked by beaver impoundments at multiple points, so plan on some wading at times of high water.

This small unnamed pond can be reached by bushwhacking from the trail. It appears that this pond is slowly filling in and appears to be headed for bog status in the future. Based on the vegetation that is present this is probably a good location for looking for boreal bird species.  

An interesting short side trip can be made to visit a small pond that is slowly transitioning to a boreal bog. There's no trail to the pond but it's easy to find. At the 2.5 mile point the trail enters a large clearing where a small sign points out a 90 degree left turn. Just after reentering the woods a large abandoned culvert pipe can be seen left of the trail. This is a good place to head off to the east for the side trip to the pond. The pond is less than 200 yards away and can be reached in five minutes, even accounting for the blowdown and thick growth. The pond is entirely surrounded by bog vegetation: Labrador Tea, Tamarack, and insectivorous Pitcher plants.

If you are looking for something a little more adventurous, the South Shore Horse Trail could be used to set up a visit to Doctors Pond. A remote and little visited body of water lying in the southeast corner of the Wilderness. A possible route would leave the South Shore Horse Trail at an intersection where a sign --nearly lost in the encroaching forest-- says simply, "Trail". This intersection is about four miles from the parking area and just a quarter mile from Little Tupper Lake. A unmarked logging road bearing southeast from this intersection could provide the basis for such a route.

The possible route extension to Doctors Pond is represented by the purple line. This screen capture from Google Earth is overlaid on historic imagery from 1994. The many logging roads (abandoned with the state acquired the land in 1997. 

After just a quarter mile this abandoned road runs into a complex of beaver ponds along the outlet stream that joins Stony Pond with Little Tupper Lake. From the point where the old road is blocked, it should be feasible to head west (towards Little Tupper Lake) to work around the wet areas. Rejoining to the old road on the far side, it appears that it could be followed for a mile to an intersection with other abandoned roads that ran from Little Tupper Lake to Doctors Pond. The total distance for this add-on is a little more than two miles and you would be wise to expect the route to be muddy with lots and lots of blowdown. Even so, following these abandoned roads is generally easier than bushwhacking.

NOTE: If you attempt a route like this you need a good map, a compass and knowledge of what you are doing. Navigating in country like this is much harder than it seems. 

* The official Whitney Wilderness map produced by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation shows this trail as the Stony Pond Trail. Not a great name given that Stony Pond is on Private Land and cannot be reached from this trail.