Burnt Bridge Pond and the Dog Pond East Leg

Burnt Bridge Pond is reached from a prominent trail head on Route 3 a few miles east of Cranberry Lake. It's 6.6 miles to the lean-to situated on a small bluff on the west shore of the pond. It's a nice spot.

The extensive marsh on the west end of Burnt Bridge Pond. From near the lean-to.

The trail to Burnt Bridge Pond is not especially compelling but the pond itself is very attractive. Looking across the pond from near the lean-to.

A portion of the route to Burnt Bridge Pond also serves as the northern leg of the 13 mile "Dog Pond Loop". That route connects several remote ponds and the western segment passes close to Cranberry Lake in several places. The trail also passes through stretches of forest that are notable for having been lightly logged if they were logged at all. In addition to visiting Burnt Bridge Pond I added a 2.5 miles side trip south on the eastern leg of the Loop (and back). This was to visit one of those old growth stands.

At three miles from the road, you reach the northwest corner of the Dog Pond Loop trail at a place known as the potato patch. Meadows at that location were once used to grow potatoes for the logging camps that dotted the region. The forest is now reclaiming the potato patch which is filling in with trees and brush. 

Starting on Rte. 3, it's three miles to reach the northwest corner of  the Dog Pond Loop trail at a place known as the Potato Patch. So that's three miles to the loop, thirteen miles around, and three miles back out. On dry summer day that might be doable, but nineteen miles seemed a bit ambitious for late October. Which makes it ironic that the route I took ended up covering 19.2 miles. That meant getting back to the car at 7:00 pm having walked the last mile or so using a flashlight.

My route (blue line) to Burnt Bridge Pond with the side trip south on the Dog Pond Loop. I followed the loop trail to the point where it passes a beaver meadow that provides the first trickle of what will become East Creek. That's also the point where the climb up to the notch between Dog and Bear mountains begins. The yellow lines are trails as delineated on Department of Conservation maps. The disconnect in the trail is where an old route encountered private land. The new trail bypasses that section. The difference in the image (brown on the upper half, green below) is because the imagery available in Google Earth is from two different times of year.

Even though continuing around the loop would have covered the same distance, it would have required a lot more effort. The Dog Pond Loop is a wilderness trail that passes through rugged country. The route to Burnt Bridge Pond is a snowmobile trail that follows an abandoned logging road so long stretches are relatively easy walking. The full dog pond loop will have to wait for another day.

Along the east side of the Dog Pond Loop

Along the east side of the Dog Pond Loop

After leaving the potato patch the trail to Burnt Bridge Pond passes through youngish second-growth hardwoods and, to be honest, this section of trail is fairly dull. The route passes a number of old logging clearings and the most interesting stretch is through a section of forest where the ground is littered with old disintegrating logs. Many of the larger trees (18-24 inch diameter) in that stretch are broken off well above the ground leaving the trees damaged but still living. Most the rotting logs are oriented on an east to northeast axis. This area clearly experienced a blow down event and given the log's state of decay it seems likely that it was the 1995 storm.

The Dog Pond loop section, south from the Burnt Brook Pond trail, is much more interesting. Less than a half mile from the junction you reach a crossing of a brook that feeds Burnt Bridge Pond from the west. That crossing exhibits what is sometimes referred to in trail guides as "extensive beaver activity." In this case meaning that the bridge over the brook is sitting in the middle of a beaver flooded area (Oct 2016). It's probably possible to find a way around the flooded area on the downstream side or you can cross one of the beaver dams. The one just above the bridge is reasonably easy to cross but doing so while keeping your feet dry will pose a significant challenge.

Flooded bridge on the Dog Pond Loop eastern leg

Upstream from the bridge the beaver flooded area is quite large.

South of the crossing the trail quickly enters mature forests that were lightly cut or, perhaps in places, not cut at all. The trail passes over a series of gentle ridges with a number of spots where the work of the glaciers is readily visible. There are old growth trees present in this section and in particular I noted the presence of old growth Hemlock. I was not really expecting to see Hemlock and the composition of this forest is different from higher elevation areas to the south and east. It appears that this would have been primarily a Beech-Maple forest with Hemlock in the wetter more sheltered places. Very few spruce are present. Maybe because conditions were not favorable or maybe becasue those were the trees cut from this area of forest.

An old growth hemlock. The ski pole is over four feet tall.

Dog Pond to Curtis Pond and How I Introduced a Bear to the Grateful Dead

The little used Otter Brook trail provides access to trails east of Cranberry Lake and ultimately to the heart of the Five Ponds Wilderness. Starting at a gate and small parking pullout on Otter Brook Road (Four miles beyond Horseshoe Lake; Accessible from Rte 421 South of Tupper Lake) the trail follows an abandoned logging road for two miles to a junction with the Chair Rock Flow trail. This is the point where you would turn off if your intent was to journey into the Five Ponds region. The other way leads to a second trail system known as the Dog Pond Loop. I went that way, passing Dog Pond and Irish Pond before reaching Curtis Pond. Returning the way I had come made for an eleven mile round trip.

Otter Brook Trail and the region east of Cranberry Lake. (Map Image from Google Earth)

Approaching Dog Pond. Beaver have created a series of small ponds in the gully where the trail previously ran. 

 

Irish Pond between Dog Pond and Curtis Pond. Irish Pond may be the most scenic of the three named ponds you pass on this route.

The first section of this route passes through a recovering forest with ample evidence of the logging that took place before the state acquired the land. The route follows an abandoned logging road which is filling in rapidly with ferns and grasses or with brush and small trees depending on how might light is coming through the canopy. The road was well built, so the trail is easy to follow, but this section shows no signs of regular use.

A section of trail flooded by beaver activity.

Which gets us to the bear. Rounding a corner where the trail enters an old logging clearing you can look out over a large beaver meadow. As I entered the clearing my eye was drawn to movement about 100 yards away. The source of that movement was a full grown Black Bear. You don't often see bears out and about during the daytime and, even less common, this one didn't react at all to my arrival. The bear's head was down and it was digging at something. It was clear that the bear had no sense that I was there.

This was largely the result of the unusual weather conditions. Normal, I probably wouldn't hike this route in early July. Hiking the swampy --buggy-- country of the western Adirondacks in July can be a test of one's patience. But a strong cold front had moved through the area the night before with heavy rain and wind. The forecast called for blustery winds for most of the day and on that basis I had decided to give this route a try.

One of several unnamed beaver enhanced ponds passed along this route.

And that prediction was holding up nicely. A steady breeze with occasional strong gusts kept the bugs at bay and I realized that it had also prevented the bear from detecting my approach. I was straight downwind from the bear and it had not heard me coming. Even so, after a minute the bear gave up on the digging and ambled into the forest at the edge of the meadow. Which presented a problem. If the bear continued on the same path it would cross the trail about 100 yards ahead of me. With thick brush crowding the trail on both sides I could see maybe halfway to the point where that meeting might be expected to take place and it then occurred to me that the bear and I might meet at a point with limited visibility and with the wind blocking news of my arrival by sound or scent. That did not seem like a great idea.

Reflecting on this I decided that my best bet was to make a lot of noise; to reduce the chance of a surprise encounter. As I started walking I shouted a couple of times, and whistled, but it's hard to decide what to shout. That's when I thought of the music player in my phone.

Firing up the music app the last song that had played was the Grateful Dead classic Ripple. Perfect! What better song for a windy, gloomy, day with a bear lurking in the woods. I set the song to playing at the highest volume my phone could muster and continued on with a watchful but less nervous eye on the woods. After walking for a few minutes I had nearly forgotten about the whole affair when I come upon a large pile of bear poop right in the middle of the trail. Not exactly steaming, but clearly deposited since the rain had stopped only a few hours before. I hope the bear enjoyed the brief musical interlude that I provided.

An old growth Yellow Birch. A tree like this is certainly a couple hundred years old and maybe older even than that.

The rest of the hike was uneventful and it was indeed a good day for this route. The wind blew steadily and the route grew more interesting with each passing step. Past Dog Pond the trail reaches a second junction at a place named Proulx Clearing. I headed southeast towards Curtis Pond or you could turn to the north to connect with the trails near Cranberry lake and eventually Route 3. Along the way to Curtis Pond the trail passes several remote ponds as it passes through mature forests on land that has been owned by the state for well over 100 years. Irish Pond is particularly attractive and a small point provided an idyllic setting for lunch.

Less than a half mile past Dog Pond the trail reaches a junction at a place called Proulx Clearing. Site of an abandoned lumber camp.

A Tamarack swamp just a hundred yards from the start the trail. The route passes at least a dozen swamps and beaver ponds in addition to the larger named water bodies.