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