Northville Lake Placid Trail: The Long Lake Spur

The subject of this post is a new trail. The route is called the Long Lake Spur and it provides a convenient connection between the 140 mile Northville Lake Placid trail and Long Lake village. The trail replaces the 1.5 mile road walk previously used by many NLPT thru hikers to visit Long Lake for a respite from the trail, or to pick up packages at the Post Office. But the trail is also a prototype project for the Adirondack Community Based Trails and Lodging System initiative. The idea there is to bring something akin to hut-to-hut backcountry travel --popular in Europe and a few places in the U.S.-- to the Adirondacks.

The Three Brooks Ski Trail (purple) loops off of the Northville Lake Placid Trail (dark purple) with ends about one mile apart. The new spur trail to Long Lake Village is shown in dark red. For those familiar with Long Lake, the new trail comes out at into the Mt. Sabattis Recreation Area at the top of the hill. A downloadable version of this map (PDF) is found here.

The new trail is actually a spur off of the Three Brooks Ski trail. The Three Brooks trail forms a loop with the NLPT. Previously, it was little used and it received little maintenance. As part of preparing the new route, the Three Brooks trail has been brushed out and new signs and markers have been added to show the way.

New signs at each of the intersections make the route clear.

The new spur trail comes out at the top of the hill behind the Mt. Sabattis Recreation Area in Long Lake. The Long Lake Post Office, along with lodging and food services are found the bottom of the hill, a quarter of a mile away. Code Dog gives the new trail a five paw rating and the new trail will be popular with local residents as well as long distance hikers. 

Wolf Pond (Vanderwhacker Mtn Wild Forest) - New Trail

Several new trails are planned for the the 20,000+ acre Boreas Ponds Tract and surrounding Forest Preserve lands. At least one of those new trails has been completed. The Wolf Pond trail runs from a parking area on the Blue Ridge Road (directions) to Wolf Pond; a one way distance of just over two and half miles.

Mount Algonquin and Mount Colden dominate the distant view across the pond. You'll need to cross the outlet stream to get the best view.  That's easy when the water is low and an informal high water bridge (logs over the stream) is found a short distance downstream from the outlet.  

There are no signs at the road, and no trail register, but the trail has been cleared and it is well marked with red disks. This trail, and Wolf Pond itself, lie entirely in the Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest, but the newly blessed Boreas Ponds management plan includes this trail as part of a larger loop trail to be built in the future.

And Wolf Pond is a more than worthy destination in its' own right. The pond is picturesque --with great views of the high peaks-- and the trail passes through appealing stands of spruce, fir and cedar with significant numbers of towering White Pine mixed in. My guess is that the largest spruce and Balsam Fir were probably cut in the years before the state acquired this tract. But, for whatever reason, the loggers did not cut the Pine or Cedar. Maybe because the really big Pine had been taken out before that. There are many White Pine in the 36-40 inch range (diameter at 4 feet above the ground), but few, if any, are bigger than that. If some early cutting left pine that were less than 24 inches, and that logging took place 100 years ago or more, it could produce the distribution of trees we see today. Regardless of how we got to this point, the forest this trail passes through is composed almost entirely of mature or rapidly maturing conifers. This is a really attractive walk.

In addition to the trail, a brand new lean-to is situated near the pond. Making the walk on a Monday in late August it's not too surprising that the pond was deserted. But once the trail signs go up, and more people know about it, this trail and lean-to will almost certainly gain in popularity. The only negative is that for most of the way you are less than half a mile from the Blue Ridge Road (which the trail parallels). And the pond itself is barely a mile from the road as the crow flies. The result is that you can occasionally hear truck traffic on the road.

The brand spanking new Wolf Pond lean-to. Well built and situated in a nice spot about 100 yards back from the pond.

Looking across Wolf Pond towards Boreas Mountain. From near the lean-to.

A closer view of Algonquin and Colden with Avalanche Pass in between.

At least one pair of loons is in residence on the pond.

Directions:

The trail starts at the large parking area where the Blue Ridge Road crosses the Boreas River. The trail heads into the woods from the northeast corner of the clearing where a small sign points the way.

Pigeon Lake Wilderness: Old Growth Forest

What does it mean to say that a forest is "old growth"? Well, some of the trees must be old, obviously.  But how old, and, are all the trees old? My definition for "old growth" is that it means roughly the same thing as "never logged". But that might be softened in some cases to include "lightly or selectively logged" or, "logged, but that was a really long time ago". It's an imprecise term.

Using the first definition --never logged-- the Adirondacks contain some the last old growth forests found in the eastern United States. And the Pigeon Lake Wilderness Area stands out as one of the best places to see for yourself what the Adirondack forests looked like a couple of hundred years ago.

From Google Earth. The route taken starts at the trailhead (far left) and makes a circuit that includes 5 named lakes. Numerous variations on the route I followed are possible.

I recently walked a 13 mile route that included visits to five named bodies of water: Windfall Pond, Queer Lake, Chub Lake, Constable Pond and Mays Pond. Exceptional trees, among the largest I've seen in the Adirondacks, are present all along this route.

Queer Lake from near the LeanTo. Queer Lake is cut into several sections by two pennisulae that  

But, you don't need to walk all day to see the old growth. Big trees appear almost immediately as you walk the trail to Windfall Pond from the large parking area on Big Moose Road (three miles west of Eagle Bay). By itself, the presence of large trees doesn't mean that it's old growth. Maybe the area was logged selectively, or maybe it was logged in the early days of Adirondack logging. That was 150 years ago, and many Adirondack tree species reach nearly maximum size in that amount of time. No, it's the size and variety of tree species seen in the Pigeon Lake Wilderness that make it so special.

Forest scene near Windfall Pond.

There are numerous large hardwoods; trees with a diameter of 36 inches or more four feet above the ground; Maple, Yellow Birch and Black Birch, among other species. These big, old, trees are spectacular, but large hardwoods are present throughout the Adirondacks. The clue that this place is different is the presence of large Red Spruce scattered among the hardwoods.

A large Red Spruce. This tree measured 26 inches in diameter. Spruce of this size are scattered throughout the forest between Windfall Pond and Chub Lake. Hardwoods, Hemlock and Pine can reach diameters over four feet. But Spruce over two feet in diameter are uncommon and the largest Red Spruce ever found in the Adirondacks measured just 37 inches.

From historic records we know that Spruce represented up to 25% of the trees in a typical un-logged Adirondack forest. But those big Spruce were like gold nuggets to loggers. The wood was straight-grained, easily cut, and resilient. Spruce was also the best species for paper pulp so it was highly sought after for both lumber and paper making. Plus, softwood logs are lighter and more buoyant than comparable hardwood logs so they were easier to handle and could be floated to the mills. In many places where mature hardwood stands are found today, the big softwoods are totally absent.

This 1903 USGS Topographic map of the area that today makes up the Pigeon Lake Wilderness. This area is notable for what is missing. There are no roads leading into the interior of the area. 

A second clue that the Pigeon Lake area is different is the dearth of old woods roads. Much of the Adirondacks, even places that we think of as being wild and remote, are criss-crossed by old, abandoned, roads. Early USGS maps (from around the year 1900) show roads penetrating into every corner of the region and many wilderness trails follow routes that were originally used to haul more than hikers. And logging usually resulted in the creation of dense networks of skid roads. Where logging was more recent, the Whitney Wilderness is a good example, there can be so many skid roads that following the trails becomes difficult. Old abandoned roads are notably absent in the Pigeon Lake area.

This Yellow Birch is one of the largest trees I've seen in the Adirondacks. It measured 50 inches in diameter.

A good sized American Beech (just over 30 inches in diameter at 4 feet). This is not a huge Beech tree by historic standards, but Beech Bark Disease has killed nearly all the Beeches of this size. This tree looked relatively healthy. Whenever I spot a Beech that has somehow survived BBD I look to see how the young beeches that surround it are doing. If they also appear to be healthy, it might be that the parent tree has some resistance to BBD. In this case, the smaller beeches surrounding the big all appeared to be diseased.

Chub Lake. The trail between Queer Lake and Chub Lake is little used and some of the best old growth stands are found in that section.  

The aptly named Windfall Pond.

The West Mountain Trail runs for nearly two miles alongside a complex of wetlands and ponds. This trail leads to Pigeon Lake and eventually reaches West Mountain; the prominent Mountain just west of Raquette Lake.

Rock River

The Rock River emerges from Lake Durant and covers roughly three miles to the point where it enters and exits the northwest corner of Rock Lake. It then flows an additional six miles to its' intersection with the Cedar River. This is uncommonly flat terrain, and the change in elevation over that nine mile distance is less than 200 feet. That flatness, as much as anything, defines the character of the Rock river. This is a slow, meandering, stream and its' most interesting feature is the 100 acre marshland it flows through as it enters Rock Lake.

But there is a trail. Starting at a large parking area on Route 30, (between Indian Lake and Blue Mountain Lake) the trail follows the route of a long abandoned 19th century road now marked as a snowmobile trail. The current path is well marked, but ingrown, and with little to motivate visitors it's safe to say that it does not get a lot of use.

This USGS topographic map from 1903 (1:65250) shows the road (double dashed line) that the modern trail follows. The GPS track of my route is the green line (a couple of short side trips are seen).

In years past a second snowmobile trail intersected the current trail forming a loop with trails that reach Indian Lake Village. That, along with a marked back country campsite at the river, might have brought a few more visitors, but both have now faded back into the forest (the snowmobile trail is abandoned and the campsite has grown in and is now a meadow).

The 1997 USGS topographic map (1:24500) shows an intersecting snowmobile trail and a designated back country campsite near the river. Both have now returned to the forest.

This lack of purpose and use is OK. Indeed, it's what drew me to this route. This trail is a quiet path through a forest that is generally mature second growth with old growth trees present in a few places. At just over six miles for the round trip, and with relatively little elevation change, this pleasant walk is definitely off the beaten path.

Light streaming into a hot, humid, forest. Nearly an inch of rain had fallen the night before, and an early morning fog shrouded the forest. 

A new Beaver dam exists (aug. 2018) near the point where the Rock River Trail reaches the river. After two months of dry and unusually warm weather the river was quite low. The beaver will to do a lot more work if this damn is going to survive next year's spring flood. The top of the dam is several feet below the high water marks seen on the nearby banks.

A Rock River flows through uncommonly flat terrain and is bordered by lovely meadows that are dry for most of the year.

The Central Adirondacks Trail Guide (McMartin and Ingersoll) says that it's possible to rock hop across the river near the point where the trail ends. But I didn't see a place where it would be possible to cross without at least a little wading. That said, the river was only a few inches deep at this point just upstream from the trail end.

The river just at the trail endpoint.