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

Wilcox Lake via Pumpkin Hollow

By the late 19th century the area north of Great Sacandaga Lake was dotted with hamlets and farms. Most of those homesteads are now gone -reclaimed by the forest-- but some of the forest roads that once connected them remain in use as trails. The Pumpkin Hollow trail to Wilcox Lake follows one of those routes.

Image One: From the Stony Creek USGS Historical Topographic map. 1:62500, 1910 Edition. The route to Wilcox Lake follows an old woods road from Willis Lake (on the left) to Wilcox Lake (top right).  

The 1994 ADK Guide to Trails of the Southern Region makes four observations about the Pumpkin Hollow trail to Wilcox lake:

1. The trail passes through an attractive and maturing second growth forest.
2. With the exception of eroded areas around Wilcox Lake the trail is in excellent condition.
3. Parking at the end of the Pumpkin Hollow road is iffy. Good parking can be found at the Murphy Lake trail head but that option adds 1.5 miles (each way) to the route.
4. There might not be a bridge over the Wilcox Lake outlet and crossing the stream in times of high water can be difficult.

As of July 2015 three of those four considerations remain true. This is a wonderful hiking route through an exceptionally attractive forest. The area around Wilcox lake does show scars from past motor vehicle access but the damage is fading. The choice on where to park remains the same but the bridge is not a problem. There is a good bridge over the outlet stream.

As part of the Forest Preserve the area around Wilcox Lake is classified as Wild Forest; a designation that allows for uses that are prohibited in wilderness areas and the Pumpkin Hollow trail is maintained (and marked) as a snowmobile trail. The ADK Guide notes that in past times vehicles reaching Wilcox lake from the Bakertown area caused extensive erosion on the hillside leading down to the lake. But I saw no sign of recent vehicle use and the eroded areas are recovering.

Image Two: Large Sugar Maple along the trail

The Trail and the Forest

The Pumpkin Hollow trail passes through an impressive, maturing, second-growth forest. With so many large trees present it appears that this area somehow escaped logging and fire reaching back into the 19th century. The forest contains a mix of species including Sugar Maple, Ash, White Pine, Hemlock, Birch and Beech.

Image Three: It's difficult to capture the 'feel' of a forest in an image (I'll have to work on this) but this is a rapidly maturing northern hardwood forest. For scale, the large tree on the right has a diameter of around 30 inches. This area contains trees that must be more than 150 years old. 

I found this forest to be particularly appealing because it looks like what I expect an undisturbed northern hardwood forest to look like. The presence of large trees of multiple species creates a dense canopy that limits the amount of light reaching the forest floor and that results in a relatively open forest understory. You can also see an open understory where stands of large Hemlock and White Pine are present but a mature hardwood forest has a different feel. When a large hardwood comes down it creates a big opening in the canopy and a variety of tree and shrubs species rush to take advantage of that. Over time these openings appear in a random pattern and you end up with a patchwork of open forest and dense little thickets. That is what I expect a climax stage northern hardwood forest to look like. Some areas along this trail have that appearance.

Particularly interesting is the presence of American Beech trees that have survived the initial kill-off caused by Beech Bark Disease (BBD). One Beech, with a diameter over 30 inches, may be the largest standing Beech I've seen since I started looking for them. Image Four shows this tree and while it looks pretty healthy my photo captured the tree's "good side". The back side of the tree shows extensive signs of BBD. One unfortunate aspect of BBD is that relatively healthy looking trees oftentimes fall victim to Beech Snap (Image Five). This happens because the disease weakens the trunk of the tree. So large trees with heavy canopies become vulnerable to breaking off in heavy weather. Beech snap is characterized by standing Beech trunks broken off cleanly 8 to 20 feet above the ground. Once you know what to look for you'll start to see these "snapped" Beech trees where ever mature Beeches were formerly present.

The large tree pictured in Image Four got me thinking about an intriguing possibility. This is the second large Beech I've seen that bears the unmistakable scar of a lightening strike. Could it be that a lightening strike kills the fungus (or the insects that spread it) giving the tree a better chance of fighting off BBD? If it takes being hit by lightening to survive then clearly it is not easy to be a Beech tree.

Image Four: A Large American Beech

Image Five: Beech Snap. Large Beech trees that appear to be holding their own against BBD can fall victim to Beech Snap. This occurs when a weakened tree is unable to support the weight of  its' canopy and the trunk snaps.

The Pumpkin Hollow trail also passes through an area where very large and old White Pines are seen. A number of trees with diameters greater than 36 inches are present and a few are approaching 48 inches. Trees of that size must be more than 150 years old and could be more than 200 years old. This got me thinking about the well-known Pine Orchard located just five miles north of the Pumpkin Hollow Pine stand. I've not yet visited the Pine Orchard but it would be interesting to compare measurements of trees from both areas. If the measurements show that the two sets of trees got going at about the same time it might shed some light on the history of this forest.

Wilcox Lake

Despite concerns about vehicle access and erosion Wilcox Lake is an attractive and worthwhile destination. As mentioned, eroded areas near the lake are starting to heal and the shoreline is in good shape. According to current maps there are two lean-tos at Wilcox Lake though that could change. The one that I visited is in bad shape and could topple over at any time. 

Image Six: Wilcox Lake

Image Seven: The eastern lean-to at Wilcox lake. It looks like the bottom tier of logs from this lean-to rotted out and that layer of logs was somehow removed. The current structure is not connected to the floor and the walls are leaning precariously. It looks like it could fall down at any moment.

Parking

Image Eight: You can park at the Murphy Lake Trail head on Pumpkin Hollow Road (far left) or you can drive past Willis lake and try to make your way to the small parking area found where the red and blue lines meet on the map.

You have a choice to make when deciding where to park. There are signs and good parking at the Murphy Lake trail head on Pumpkin Hollow Road. As seen on the map (Image eight) this parking area is at the far left where the red line begins. If you start hiking at that point you'll walk the road past Willis Lake and up a couple of hills. After a mile and a quarter you'll come to a couple of camps on the left. Just past the second camp the road narrows and gets much rougher. From there it's another 1/4 mile to a small parking area and the DEC barrier at the start of the trail part of the Wilcox Lake trail (roughly 5.5 miles to Wilcox Lake from there).

Or, you can drive that same route. From Willis Lake to the camps the road is in pretty good shape but there's no clearly safe place to park along that section. Once you pass the camps the road is not at all car friendly and the last hundred yards or so before the parking area is extremely rough. I inched my Subaru Forester toward the parking area and found a decent place to pull off just at the point where I couldn't go any further. Which was good because backing out was going to be very difficult.

Siamese Lakes Wilderness - Big Shanty River Driving Camp

Memorial Day; May, 25th, 2015. A thirteen mile round trip hike into the northern half of the 114,000 acre Siamese Ponds Wilderness. From Rte. 28 in North Hudson, turn (west) at the DEC sign for the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and Thirteenth Lake. Follow the signs to the "Old Farm Clearing" trail-head. There is a large parking area.

The "Old Farm Clearing" trailhead is a major access point for the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. My plan was to follow the main Sacandaga East Branch trail approximately seven miles to the suspension bridge that provides access to to the ponds for which the Wilderness area is named. There's a Lean-to near the bridge but nothing special about that location. It just seemed like a good turn around point and seven miles (each way) was fairly ambitious for this time of year.

I  didn't make it quite that far. Over the past few years my hiking mode has evolved into a slow (but steady) ramble through the forest. I peer into the woods looking for trees that are not like the others, plants that shouldn't be where they are, birds, other wildlife, unusual rock outcropping, signs of past human activity, elves and whatever else catches my eye. I take a lot of little side jaunts when I spot something interesting. So even though I left the car at 9:30 I had not reached the lean-to by my 1:30 turn around time. I figured I had maybe three-quarters of a mile left to go on the seven mile distance.

Not reaching the lean-to was of no concern but I was on the lookout for a sign for the "Big Shanty Lumber Driving Camp" mentioned in the 1994 edition of the ADK Guide to Trails of the Central Adirondacks. I didn't have the book with me but I thought it was located about a mile from the lean-to. If that was true, then I should have reached it. Of course, it might have fallen down or it might have been removed by a Hun or Vandal. And not knowing exactly where it was located, or even what it looked like, I might have simply missed it.

Oh well, time to turn back. Except, I could see a small clearing just 50 another yards down the trail. This one looked to be no different than a half-dozen others passed along the way. But why not, I decided to go just that bit further. And there it was, 20 feet off the trail. Just as the ADK book described it, large and rustic.

Big Shanty River Driving Camp, 1890.

I'd love to know the story behind this sign. Based on the rate of decay in the Adirondack forest it couldn't be more than 30 or 40 years old. But that's just a guess. If anyone knows more about this sign, and who put it up, please leave me a comment.

As for the rest of the hike, it was your standard late May outing in the Adirondacks. I participated in the annual Black Fly Count. And having encountered only a few thousand I can say with confidence that Black Fly numbers are way down this year. Or maybe the little buggers are just bidding their time. Waiting for warmer and wetter weather.

The Old Farm Clearing. There was some kind of tree farm surrounding this location and the clearing is well on its' way to filling in.

There are stands of  large hardwoods, including this Maple, along the trail. What I would call large second growth. Based on size and the bark I'd estimate this tree to be at least 150 years old. If so it would have been a small tree when this land was logged in the later part of the nineteenth century.

From the bridge over the East Branch of the Sacandaga River. Very low water following six weeks of dry weather.

East Branch of the Sacandaga (looking north) from near the Big Shanty sign.

Flood plain of the East Branch a couple of miles upstream from the Lean-to and suspension bridge. Very low water 

There are a few very large White Pine scattered through the forest along the river. This tree has to be 150 years old or older. How did it escape the loggers saw? Maybe they weren't interested in White Pine at that time.

Geyser Creek to the Kaydeross

Most visitors to Saratoga Spa State Park experience Geyser Creek by strolling to see the impressive travertine deposits along its' banks or as the lovely stream that flows through the Geyser Creek picnic area. Fed by deep springs, the creek's waters are cool and attractive on even the hottest summer days. From the picnic area a trail follows the stream to the bridge that carries the park East West Road over the creek. At that point Geyser Creek is 20 feet wide and it typically carries a good flow of water. Downstream from the bridge you can see that the the creek flows into a swampy area, but there is no hint that within a quarter of a mile the stream will have all but vanished into that swamp. Water does flow out the other side, but that flow is in the form of seeps and trickles that add to the Kaydeross at various points. Some maps show Geyser Creek as a continuous line from the bridge to the Kaydeross, but don't believe them. There is no single, reliable, channel.

For much of the year bushwhacking into this area is a daunting prospect. Two small ridges punctuate the marsh but most of the area between the Park East West road (on the north) and Northline Road (on the south) is relentlessly wet, muddy, overgrown and buggy. During times of high water it's an impassable quagmire. The few people who visit the area mostly do so from the Kaydeross Creek. I've written previously about floating this stretch of the Kaydeross and a determined explorer could leave the creek at any number of points. As the crow flies it's just over two miles from the Canoe Launch at Gray's Crossing (Northline Road) to the launch site on Driscoll Road. The creek, however, takes four miles to cover that distance and the elevation differential is less than 20 feet. This is a flat landscape.

But there is one time of year when it is possible to enter the area on foot. In the dead of winter you can readily cross the frozen muck and mire to get a closer look at the topography and forests if not the impressive variety of flora and fauna seen during the warm weather months. Figure One shows a scene looking across the Kaydeross during the blizzard of Feb. 8, 2015. It was snowing hard.

Figure One: The banks of the Kaydeross during the blizzard of Feb. 8, 2015. Snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour adding to the already deep snow pack. 

Lest you think I'm being overly dramatic talking about the conditions as a "blizzard'. You can judge for yourself from this short video. Watch the video in full screen to get the full effect.

Figure two shows my route. The snow pack was deep and airy so I left the parking near the Rte 50 Park entrance with my show shoes on. I first followed the Wetlands Overlook trail and then an abandoned road to reach the closed (and capped) Park Landfill. From there another abandoned Park road leads southwest into the forest. After a short distance I left the old road (on the left) bearing south and downhill to the edge of the swamp. I followed a route I had worked out ahead of time across the marshes and a small ridge to the Kaydeross. This route was selected to allow me to stay on State land though it's a somewhat arbitrary point in the winter. The trip covered only three miles for the round trip but with the deep snow and harsh conditions it seemed further.

Figure Two: Route from Rte. 50 parking to the Kaydeross
Map Image from Google Earth

Figure Three was made from the Ecological Communities map in the Saratoga Spa State Park Master Plan. The map legend is shown separately in Figure Four. This map also shows the outline of the State Owned lands and my route is represented by the prominent red line.

Figure Three: Ecological Communities - Saratoga Spa State Park south of the park East West Road. The red line shows my route.
Map Image captured from the Park Master Plan

Figure Four: Ecological Communities Map Legend
Image captured from the Park Master Plan

The Ecological Communities map shows the area to be a matrix of wetland community types with forest and successional fields mixed in. This is a rich ecological mix with the oxbow lakes and vernal pools being especially noteworthy. A vernal pool is an area that is reliably wet each spring but also completely dry for at least part of the year. That means no fish will be present and no fish makes vernal pools an attractive breading habitat for amphibians. Two vernal pools are shown on the map but there are certainly more. One reason that wetland complexes like this are so interesting is that the conditions are highly variable and the lines between community types are constantly being redrawn.

The weather on this day was harsh so most birds and beasts were keeping a low profile, I did see White-Tail Deer and common winter birds; Crows, Juncos, Blue Jays, a Hairy Woodpecker and a Pileated Woodpecker. In warmer weather this area is particularly rich in bird life and it is a designated Bird Conservation area. This is as good a place for bird watching as can be found in northeastern New York.

And my destination for this hike was not selected at random. I knew that the remnants of an old dam can be seen about half way between Grey's Crossing and Driscoll Road. You can find the location in the maps above because my route ends there. But the distinctive 90 degree change of direction taken by the Kaydeross at that point makes it easy to spot on any map. The broken down spillway creates a rapids and, even in this very cold winter, that's enough to maintain a small area of open water (Figure Five). As I approached the edge of the creek two White-Tails dashed into the woods. The ice around the open water was covered with deer tracks and we might surmise that they come here to drink.

Figure Five shows the spot but the flat light and deep snow make it difficult to see the outline of the former structure. I wonder when the dam was in use and its' purpose. I have not found much in the way of specific information about the dam or this area in general. If you know more, or have sources for this information, please leave a comment.

Figure Five: Open water below the old dam on the Kaydeross.

Ground Truthing in the Fishing Brook Range

The sequence of images below show progressively closer views of a small mountain in the Adirondacks. In images three and four I've outlined an area of special interest; an area that I know to be a dense spruce thicket. I know that because on a recent Saturday (Oct. 2014) I was there; trying to bushwhack to the top.

Viewing my route in Google Earth, and applying my newly gained knowledge, it's relatively easy to differentiate among the different types of cover found along this ridge. There are thickets comprised mostly of stunted and densely packed Spruce and there are areas where mature deciduous trees dominate. Images three and four clarify the distinction with outlines around the dense thickets. Outside of the outline you can make out individual trees. Inside there are thousands of small trees, mostly spruce, jammed together in a nearly impenetrable thicket.

Image 1: The Fishing Brook Range. The pink line is the boundary between Forest Preserve and private land. The distant marker is the summit of Fishing Brook Mountain. (Source: Google Earth)

Image 2: The contrast between thickets and the more open deciduous forests starts to be visible. The tops of individual trees can be seen in the more open areas. (Source: Google Earth)

Image 3: The dense cover areas have a distinctive look when compared with the surrounding forest. (Source: Google Earth)

Image 4: A closer view from a slightly different angle. A practical route along the ridge would stay to the left and avoid the thicket areas such as the one marked by the outline. (Source: Google Earth)

Ole 3400

I had set off to try to reach the top of the unnamed 3400 foot peak south east of where the Northville Lake Placid Trail (NLPT) reaches its' high point near Long Lake. The trail crosses a ridge at just over 3000 feet and it’s a pleasant 3.5 mile walk to this height of land (south from Rte 28N). I've hiked in this area many times and I've been intrigued by the ridge that runs from the trail to the summit of Fishing Brook Mountain. Getting to the height of land by trail is easy. But from there it's a 4.5 mile bushwhack to the summit of Fishing Brook Mountain. Along the way are several smaller peaks and a couple high elevation ponds that I'd like to see close up. This is wild and little visited country.

Image 5: Along the ridge on a previous outing. October 2013.

Image 6: Spruce thicket along the ridge.

My recent hike was a test of the feasibility of making a longer trip along the ridge. And a test run turned out to be a wise thing to do. I didn't make it to the top of even the first peak along the ridge. Just a mile from where I left the trail I was turned back by rough terrain, the limited daylight of a late October day, and those spruce thickets previously mentioned and shown in image six. 

I did keep a GPS track of my hike and when I overlaid the route I followed on the satellite image the areas to avoid became visible. The spruce thickets look different than the areas where the forest is more open. I might have guessed at these distinctions before the trip but now I have no doubt. If it looks like the areas outlined in images three and four, go around. And this is not too surprising. In the Adirondacks, the ecological transition zone between 3000 and 3500 feet tends to be a particularly difficult place to travel. A lesson that I relearn every few years.

As for Fishing Brook Mountain, making the summit by following the ridge is rather serious undertaking. A much more feasible route would be to stay at a lower elevation in deciduous forests on north side of the ridge. Image seven shows the area as seen from the south. The red line on the left is the NLPT and the light red lines delineate the boundary between Forest Preserve and private lands. Based on my ground truthing the lighter green areas are deciduous forests while the darker greens are conifer dominated forests.

Image 7: The area as it would appear if viewed from from an airplane flying south of the ridge line  Route 28N is visible along the top of the image. Long Lake is off image to the left; Newcomb to the right. (Source: Google Earth)

Satellites and Sensors

Digital images like the ones we view in Google Earth are actually a form of sensor-gathered data. A digital camera contains a light sensitive sensor divided into a grid of cells organized into rows and columns (commonly called pixels). When an image is made the sensor assigns a number to each cell. These numbers represent the color and intensity of the light striking each cell and those numbers are saved to a file. When you view the image the numbers are converted back to the appropriate colors for display. Modern image sensors have millions of cells and can differentiate among millions of distinct colors.

Larger sensors record values for more cells and this is one of the factors that determines the quality of a digital image. Generally speaking, more expensive cameras contain larger sensors and produce higher quality images. But sensor size is not the only factor that determines image quality. The lens system of the camera focuses the light on the sensor so lens quality imposes a limit on the amount of detail that a sensor can resolve. For satellite imagery the number of pixels in the sensor, and the quality of the lens, are main limiting factors on the level of detail we can see in the final images.

Ecological Succession and Environmental History

For the purpose of picking better hiking routes we can analyze the data simply by viewing the imagery in Google Earth (or other similar systems). Combined with a bit of on-the-ground experience it's relatively easy to see differences in the types of ground cover and terrain. But what about more subtle distinctions? What if I wanted to differentiate among the ecological communities present in an area? The distinctions between communities can be subtle and it oftentimes comes down to recognizing species assemblages that we are not going to visible in satellite imagery. We can make broad assessments from satellite gathered data; the communities present in a spruce thicket will be different from communities found in deciduous forest. But recognizing the more subtle distinctions requires additional data and commonly that data has to come from poking around on the ground.

My interest is in ecological succession and how ecological communities change over time. At any given place, the assemblage of species present will be governed by soil, climate, topography and disruption. You don't find flamingos in the Adirondacks but you do find different types of trees on north facing slopes as compare to south facing slopes just a short distance away. Over time the communities present at a location will reach an equilibrium but even that climax state shifts over time in response to changes in the larger environment. On top of this, very few locations in the Adirondacks are at the equilibrium state because of disruptive events that include logging, fires, storms and disease outbreaks. The Adirondack forests we see today are not what existed 250 years ago.

The north side of Fishing Brook Mountain bears forests at varying stages of succession aligned with the effects of disruptive events that have occurred in the last 120 years. Most of the ridge has been logged, some places more than once. There have been fires of varying sizes. There have been storms such as the hurricane of 1950, the derecho storm in 1995, and the ice storm of 1998. And currently the forests are being altered by non-native diseases and insects. In particular, Beech Bark Disease has killed the majority of large American Beech trees previously present in this area.

The variable matrix of forest stages present on this ridge became evident to me as I struggled along the ridge on my hike. In places I would break out of the dense thickets into open areas with a low cover comprised mainly of ferns and a canopy dominated by large Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis).  Neither of these community types are likely to be climax communities and the pattern of occurrence seemed unnatural as well. Teasing out the sequence of events and transitions that led to the current pattern is in the realm of environmental history. To me these little patches have an interesting story to tell. This is a topic I plan to return in upcoming posts.

Note:

There are several recognized communities that include Yellow Birch but the stands on this ridge are most likely the result of some past disturbance.

 

Spatial Data: Pattern and Process

The topic for this post comes from an article I've just read titled; Data Science and Prediction. In the article Vassant Dhar provides a brief overview of data science and new thinking about the relationship between theory and evidence. Dhar states the idea nicely saying that data science is different because it rests on the premise that the data can reveal the interesting questions. Traditional data analysis works the other way around starting with theory and looking to data for evidence to support or dispute the theory. Data science look for patterns in data and then ask if there are interesting questions those patterns might answer. This approach is not entirely new. The history of science is full of stories where an unexpected pattern in data led to new discoveries. What is new is that we now have a lot more data to analyze. Anyway, it's a good article, well worth reading.

The broad topics discussed in the article; data science and "big data" are of great interest to me. In fact, these topics are the central themes of my other blog. That's right, I have a second blog and it is called Pattern and Process.

Pattern and Process can into being first and it is intended for a different audience. Still, if you are reading this you might find it interesting. It's all about the technical issues and concerns that go along with research methods designed to find patterns in data; especially data that has a geographic or spatial context.

While I'm on the topic of influences and resources, I've also been reading In Search of Swampland by Ralph Tiner. This book provides a surprisingly readable introduction to the hydrology and biology of swamps (let's be honest, it's not the most exciting of topics). Central to the discussion is that swamps come in many

different varieties. This led the broad use of the term wetland to categorize lands where the presence of water changes both the form and the function of the place. This would be one of those rather dry academic subjects if it weren't for the regulatory protection of wetlands by governments at various levels. I'm sure I'll return to this topic at some point, there are marked wetlands in various parts of the Hemlock Forest, but for now the book is highly recommended.

One more book that will provide insight into the topic(s) of this blog is Forest Forensics, A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels. Read this book and a walk through a forest in the northeastern United States will never be the same. Many forested areas in the northeastern U.S. were cleared land in the middle of the 1800s. This book helps you recognize and interpret clues that can tell the history of of how the land was used in the past and when that use was abandoned.





References:
Dhar Vassant, Data Science and Prediction, Communications of the ACM, 12/2013, Vol. 56 No. 12

Pattern and Process ( http://dataliterate.blogspot.com/ )

Tiner, Ralph; In Search of Swampland, Second Edition; Rutgers University Press, 2005

Wessels, Tom; Forest Forensics, A Field Guide to Reading Forested Landscapes, Countryman Press; September 20, 2010

Swamps I have Known

I like swamps. I must be easily amused. Or maybe it's oddly amused. Either way, it must come with getting older because I don't remember thinking this way when I was younger. One of the reasons that I like the Hemlock Forest is that the area contains several different wetland types. Still, when you come right down to it those areas are pretty similar. So along with the swamps and bogs of the Hemlock Forest I've been visiting a larger (and wilder) swamp found in the central Adirondacks just east of Long Lake - what I call the Shaw Pond Swamp (not sure if there is a more official name). I've also made a couple of trips to Lincoln Mountain State forest just outside of Saratoga Springs. The Lincoln Mountain forest covers about 1000 acres and it contains a less common swamp ecosystem; a red-maple black-gum swamp. I'll be writing more about these areas in future posts but for now some photos will have to suffice.

Dec. 24th 2013 near the margin of the Shaw Pond Swamp.

The area includes Shaw Pond, which is not far being a swamp itself.  The "swamp" includes a progression of bogs and swamp habitats of various types. View the Map in Google Maps.

The USGS Togopgraphic map of the area names Shaw Pond and Shaw Brook. Access is from the trail leaving NY Route 28 just east of Long Lake. This is the Northville-Lake Placid Trail so the trail goes both north and south from the parking lot. The swamp is a quarter mile south of the parking area.

Early winter is a good time to explore Adirondack wetlands.

The open swamp is visible here through the trees. There is a large area of flooded forest. (12/24/2013)

Back at home, looking at photos and working from memory I've been trying to figure out what kind of swamp this is. I think that it is a Larch Swamp but I need to go back and verify that. The value of taking good notes cannot be overemphasized.

Beaver are rarely faulted for a lack of ambition. Beaver have damned Shaw Brook just below the bridge the NTP crossing. As of Dec. 2013 the bridge is passable. That won't be the case if the water backs up much further.

Same area, the day before the dusting of snow seen in the photos above (12/23/13).

Same area in October of 2013.

Lincoln Mountain State Forest

Lincoln Mountain State Forest from Google Earth

One of several boggy ponds at Lincoln Mountain State Forest

A boggy flooded forest at Lincoln Mountain State Forest

The same swampy area as above from a different vantage point