Abner Brook and the Notch

Overall, the winter of 2016-2017 was mild. Storms in March and April moved the snowfall total towards the average but temperatures for the season were well above normal (1). So entering the last week of April spring was in full control of the southern Adirondacks. Over the past few years I've come to see early spring as a good hiking season with one potential drawback, mud. During the winter months moisture in the soil freezes and it takes a while when spring arrives for this frozen layer to thaw. Rain and snow melt can then saturate the ground above the frozen layer and creates the muddy mire we associate with "mud season". It's not pleasant to hike through and many unpaved roads are closed until May to prevent damage. Even so, if you exercise a little judgment you can get out during mud season in most areas without damaging the trails. Plus, if your timing is good, the Adirondack Protection Force (mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies) will waiting for warmer days to come to launch their assaults on those who venture out.

Brand new signs clarify the options at the junction of the Godfrey Road access trail and the NLPT. 

My day started on the trail that leads from Godfrey Road to the Northville Lake Placid Trail (NLPT). At the trail junction just past the bridge over West Stony Creek I turned towards Woods Lake and the Benson Road. I had walked parts of this section previously. From this end on my way to Three Ponds Mountain and on a different day from the Woods Lake end turning back at Abner Brook. This left a two mile section along Abner Brook that I had not visited and still wanted to see. I planned to hike to the NLPT bridge over Abner Brook and then leave the trail and bushwhack over a ridge and into the valley of Notch Brook. A 19th century road passes up that valley and through a low pass immortalized on USGS topographic maps as "the notch". The old road would provide a route back to the NLPT and back to the car and, if time allowed, I wanted see what the "notch" looks like.

The red line is the NLPT section from Benson Road near Woods Lake (lower right) to the West Stony Creek North Branch Junction (at the sign post pictured above). The dark line is the route described in the story.  

The day went mostly as planned though I didn't go as far up the ridge as I thought I might. This was my first real outing of the season and the effects of winter were weighing on me. As it was, the route covered 10 miles with bushwhacking and route finding. A pretty good stretch of the legs.

Abandoned beaver ponds transition to swampy meadows. Beaver are a keystone species in the Adirondacks shaping the landscape and supporting ecological variety.  

Abner Brook just below the bridge on the NLPT. Abner Brook cuts a meandering path through a relatively flat valley creating ideal habitat for Beaver.  

This was not one of those hikes where a single place stands out as the "best" part of the day. It was, however, a warm, cloudless early-spring day with dry trails and no bugs. That combination is hard to beat. But, a few things are worth noting:

• The Abner Brook Valley contains an extensive network of beaver meadows, swamps and ponds. This valley is a great place to see the full range of effects this creature has on the Adirondack landscape.
• A cluster of large, healthy-looking, Beech trees on the Wallface Mountain ridge
• A ravine with interesting talus slopes and a possible micro-climate
• The tranquil beauty of the upper Notch Brook Valley

A bit of snow remained at the bottom of the small ravine I explored while crossing the Wallface ridge. The steep slope on the southern side of the ravine prevents direct sun from reaching the slope. Creating an environment that will on average remain several degrees cooler than surrounding terrain.

The ravine was perhaps most interesting. One hundred feet deep at most this glacial gouge is barely detectable on large scale topographic maps but quite striking as seen from the rim. The ravine crosses the ridge with an east-west orientation and the south-side bank is steep with a small cliff band at the top. Over the millennia since the last glaciation rocks and small boulders have fallen from the cliff band and created a talus slope. The orientation of the ravine means that even in high summer the sun will not reach the bottom until afternoon and further up the slope there are areas that probably never see direct sunlight. Winter comes early and spring arrives late in this micro-valley. And the talus that makes it rough going for hikers also limits the advance of soil and trees. magnifying the micro-climate effect. This is the kind of place where a botanist might look for uncommon plants.

Notch Brook. Late afternoon. April 24th, 2017. A perfect place for a short nap.

The Benson to Wells road crossed Notch Brook at this point and the abandoned road is easily distinguishable on the far side. Below this crossing (towards Benson) the road is still easy to follow though extensive blowdown results in many detours. Above the crossing the blowdown is even heavier and in places the old route becomes indistinct. I still didn't make it to the height of land in the "notch". Maybe next time.

The Adirondack wilderness is wild but it is not untracked. A cook stove near the abandoned Benson-Wells Road. 

Tree barnacles. Some kind of fungus seen on a downed tree at 1800 feet. Over a small area all the downed trees were covered with this growth. It may be common but I don't recall having seen it elsewhere. Maybe I just haven't noticed. 

Notes

1) Heating Degree Days for Glens Falls New York. In 2017 March was slightly colder than average but January and February were well below the 10 year average.

	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	Normal
January	1112	1199	1545	1521	1361	1207	1490	1341	1624	1324	1273	1450
February	960	1064	1621	1319	1161	1046	1289	1086	1213	1248	1365	1222
March	1118	819	1189	1318	1009	718	1064	783	996	1069	1162	1011

Hoffman Notch

We've recently started taking the Blue Ridge Road when traveling between Saratoga Springs and Long Lake. Going that way I couldn't help but notice the DEC trail sign about five miles from the Northway at Exit 29. When I got around to looking on a map I realized that this was the northern end of the Hoffman Notch trail. I say 'realized' because I could vaguely remember reading about the route in Barbara Martin's mother of all Adirondack hiking guides, 50 Hikes in the Adirondacks.

Much of the first mile of the route at the northern end crosses a flat bottom-land. This is prime beaver territory with every stage of beaver altered landscape present. The various meadows and small ponds provide views of the nearby Washburn Ridge.

A forest scene along the way.

Big Marsh provides good views of the mountains to the east. As of August 2016 beaver have backed the water up so that it covers the trail in a few places.

Numerous signs of past activity, including logging, are seen along the way.

Hoffman Notch Brook is a particularly attractive stream. And in the Adirondacks that's saying a lot.

From the northern terminus the trail runs for a little over seven miles to an even more obscure trailhead west of Schroon Lake. There's no particular destination reached by this trail and, given that both McMartin (writing in the mid-90s) and the current DEC website note that sections of the trail are commonly flooded by beaver activity, it's little wonder that the trail gets very little use.

From the parking area on the Blue Ridge Road the trail descends slightly into the broad bottom land where several brooks join up to form "The Branch" - one of the two feeder tributaries of the Schroon River. This is one of the sections where beaver commonly flood the route but, in early August of 2016, the water was low and the passage was dry. That first mile of trail passes through private land until at about a mile you reach a sturdy bridge over Hoffman Notch Brook. Just past the bridge the trail enters the Hoffman Notch Wilderness. From there the trail climbs gradually into the notch following the brook for much of the way. At about 3.5 miles Big Marsh is reached with good views of the mountains to the east.

The "notch" is valley between ridges. The valley floor is filled by a series of beaver ponds and meadows.

Past Big Marsh the water flows the other way (south) with the marsh providing a primary source for the North Branch of Trout Brook. From there the trail passes by and through a succession of beaver ponds and meadows eventually reaching a junction with the Big Pond trail at six miles and the southern parking area at 7.2 miles.

If hiking through a little visited and rugged landscape --with absolutely no destination in mind-- appeals to you, this route is a hidden gem. So many places to explore and so little time. Sigh.

Whitehouse to Canary Pond; Quiet and Remote

The last time I stood on the suspension bridge that carries the Northville Lake-Placid Trail over the West Branch of the Sacandaga at Whitehouse I was around 10 years old. That was close to 50 years ago.

Image 1: Bridge over the Sacandaga West Branch. The bridge crosses over a rock outcrop in the center of the river (now covered with trees). The total length of the two spans is close to 300 feet. 

That visit took place during a family camping trip to the State Campground on the Sacandaga River just south of Wells. My family was one of a half dozen families who regularly camped together at various campgrounds around the State. My childhood was punctuated by those trips. If I remember correctly, on this particular outing, a couple of the Dads decided to take a bunch of the kids on a hike. The bridge at Whitehouse was new at that time and a 300 foot long suspension bridge over a major river was well worth a look; especially since several of the Dads worked for what was then called the New York State Conservation Department. I don't actually remember the bridge but I know we stood on it because there's a family photo to prove it. What I do recall is that we hiked to a place where a USGS benchmark was set into a boulder alongside the trail. There is a benchmark noted on current maps about a mile north of the bridge on the NLPT so we probably went that way.

On my more recent visit (September, 2015) I did cross the bridge. I was headed for Canary Pond and I thought I might try to go the extra couple of miles to reach Silver Lake from the north. But I turned back at Canary Pond and the nearly 14 mile round trip was plenty of hiking for one day. It took me nine hours to walk that route and a big reason for that was that it was an absolutely gorgeous early fall day with the leaves just starting to turn. I took lots of picture and that takes time.

Image 2: West Branch Sacandaga looking south from the bridge at Whitehouse. 

The human history of the area is described in fascinating detail by Bill Ingersoll in Discover the Southern Adirondacks. As Ingersoll notes, the first settlers to the area arrived in the 1850s and over the roughly 100 year period between settlement and acquisition by the State the land served many uses. The first settlers may have attempted to farm the land but the long winters and thin soil would have discouraged that idea, and from 1900 onward a succession of hotels, hunting lodges and finally a boys summer camp occupied the site. The surrounding wilderness has been owned by the state going back to the late 19th century and the 350 acres where the bridge is now located were acquired in 1962.

The hike south to Canary Pond passes through a rapidly maturing 2nd growth hardwood forest. The Silver Lake Wilderness lies in what was once part of the great northern hardwood forests that covered most of New York State. Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, and American Beech were the dominant tree species and, today, stands of Birch and Maples are rapidly approaching maturity. The Beech are mostly gone; killed off by Beech Bark Disease. This route passes through forests where many trees are approaching 36 inches in diameter with a few larger ones mixed in. There are also stands of Hemlock and I measured one Hemlock on the slope leading up to Mud Pond Notch at 47 inches in diameter.

One of the more interesting sights along the way to Canary Pond was the beaver dam on a small stream between Mud Pond and Canary Pond. This dam is (or was) an engineering marvel. On the day I hiked the route (Sept. 27, 2015), it was very dry; northern New York State had received below average moisture for the year and August and September were notably dry. The beaver had managed to completely block the stream and the outflow below the dam amounted to barely a trickle. As seen in images 3 through 6, the beaver pond was quite large -over 6 acres as measured in Google Earth- and water was backed up to the very top of the dam. Unfortunately for the beaver shortly after my visit the area would receive between three and four inches of rain in a 24 hour period. I have to wonder if the dam stood up to that deluge.

Image 3: Beaver Dam along the trail between Mud Pond and Canary Pond

Image 4: The pond the beaver build.

Image 5: Looking up at the dam from the stream bed. The water in the foreground was standing water in the stream bed. Almost no water was getting through the dam.

Image 6: Looking back across the pond from the far side. The dam,, and the vantage point for the three pictures, is in the farthest distant corner of this shot. On the far shore left of the beaver house. 

I'd be interested to know if the the dam stood up to the heavy rain but I'm sure the beaver will manage, they have been damming this stream for centuries if not longer. Using our ability to view historical imagery in Google Earth we can see that over just the past 15 years the pond pictured above has filled and drained several times. The sequence of images that follows comes from Google Earth showing imagery from 2013, 2011, 2009, and 2006. From this we see that the current large pond was created since the date of the most recent satellite imagery for this area dated from August 2013.

The yellow lines in image seven are the tracks capture by my GPS. There are two lines because one is the track on the way to Canary Pond and the other is the track from my return trip. As you can see, the lines don't overlap, and the difference averages around 30 feet. I keep promising to write more about GPS accuracy, and explain why the tracks differ by that amount, so maybe I'll get around to that soon.

Image 7: The beaver pond/meadow as seen in Google Earth imagery from August 2013.

Image 8: The beaver pond/meadow as seen in Google Earth Imagery from May 2011. You might also wonder why this image is "fuzzy" when compared with the one from 2013. The most recent round of imagery used in Google Earth (as seen in image 7) is at a higher resolution than was previously available.

Image 9: The beaver pond as seen in imagery from May 2009. The beaver had dammed the stream and filled the pond.

Image 10: The beaver pond/meadow as seen in Google Earth Imagery from June 2006. The dam was out and the pond was a grass-filled meadow.

I did eventually make it to Canary Pond, a lovely and remote body of water (Image 11). Along the way you pass Mud Pond, site of a lean-to that is in particularly good shape. Ingersoll says that the appreciation of Mud Pond requires a special aesthetic (images 12 and 13) and for tired through hikers on the NLPT the difficulty of getting to the pond to get water probably does lead to a bit of cursing. But I thought it was pretty enough and marshes look to me like an exceptionally good place for bird watching. By the way, the stream that Ingersoll mentions as a source of water for campers staying at the leanto, was completely dry on the day I was there.

Image 11: Canary Pond

Image 12: Mud Pond

Image 13: The path over the outlet of Mud Pond. A split log bridge passes through and should keep feet dry most of the time.

Image 14: Fall foliage along the Sacandaga West Branch.

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

Little Hoover Dam

Elle and I got out yesterday for a few hours of walking in Lincoln Mountain State Forest. This area is less than 30 minutes from our home and it's both bigger (1000 acres) and wilder than the Hemlock Forest (though it is equally wet and swampy). Lincoln "Mountain" is a bit of a misnomer. The mountain tops out at 1000 feet and it's really just a bump on the Adirondack upslope that lies to the northwest of Saratoga Springs.

The area is crisscrossed with old roads and stone walls and 100 years ago most of it would have been cleared of trees and in active use for various types of agriculture. There are a few places where the trees appear to be older; protected we guess by the general swampiness of the area. There are several small swampy ponds in the area, and seen yesterday (4/20/2014), one was looking particularly pond like (Image One). Image Two, a screen capture of Google Earth imagery from July 2013, shows the swamp with very little open water.

Image One

Image Two

One of our favorite places at Lincoln Mountain is the outlet of this pond/swamp. The main outlet flows from the lower right in Image Two. We walked over to take a look and found just a trickle of water. That seemed odd. Following it upstream for a short distance revealed the reason; one of the larger beaver dams that I've seen. It's difficult to convey the extent of this dam in pictures and I highlighted the "face" of the dam in Image Four. The dam is at least 75 feet long and 4 to 5 feet high in the center. 

Image 5 shows the water backed up behind the dam. The striking thing about this dam is its' height. The dam is four to five feet high in the center. Also, this dam is not the porous structure that you commonly see. Very little water is flowing through the dam. This is clearly a multi-year effort and it could even be multi-generational. As of April 2014 the dam looks pretty solid, but, there's a lot of water backed up behind it and if it were to fail all at once a lot of water going somewhere in a hurry.

 Large beaver dam

The face of the dam is highlighted in yellow

Water backed up behind the dam