Vanderwhacker Mountain and Remnants of an 1812 Military Road

Vanderwhacker Mountain is known for spectacular views. A ledge near the summit provides a wide angle view of the high peaks that stretches from the Sewards in the west, to Giant in the east. On top of that, the fire tower is in good shape and open to the top. The view from the cab covers nearly 360 degrees. Only the vista directly south of the mountain is blocked by encroaching trees.

The High Peaks; from a ledge near the Vanderwhacker tower. From the left: Algonquin, Colden, Marcy, the Great Range Peaks, Nippletop, Dix and Giant.

Adding to the experience, Vanderwhacker feels like a big mountain. At 3350 feet, the summit is sub-alpine, and the last half mile is up a ridge that narrows as you approach the top. It feels very much like the high peaks. All that's missing are the heavily eroded trails and the crowds. I made the three mile walk on a cool and cloudless Sunday in late September; pretty much a perfect day for hiking. I got to the top at noon, stayed for over an hour, and I had the summit all to myself. I did pass a few other lucky hikers (lucky to have such a perfect day for being out in the mountains) still on their way up. Even so, it's safe to say that this is a lightly used trail.

Late afternoon sun lights up a long abandoned beaver meadow. Autumn in the Adirondacks.

One reason that Vanderwhacker is off the beaten path is the road in from Route 28N to the trail-head (just west of the Boreas River Bridge between Newcomb and Minerva). It's only 2.5 miles from the highway to the trailhead, but it's pretty rough in places. No problem for a high-clearance vehicle, and you can defiantly make it in a standard passenger car, but you will need to drive slowly.

From the tower, looking west.
Goodnow Flow is in the center foreground with Fishing Brook Mountain just beyond. Blue Mountain is the prominent peak at the far left.  

From the tower, looking east.
Blue Ridge Mountain and Hoffman Mountain in the center. Mount Mansfield and Camels Hump in Vermont are visible in the distance, upper left.

Dense stands of small Red Spruce and Balsam Fir are common above 3000 feet in the Adirondacks.
If encountered while you are off trail it's usually best to find a way around. Just take my word for it.

The Vanderwhacker Mountain observers cabin. Still standing and in relatively good shape. You come upon the cabin about half way between the trail-head and the summit. But at this point, nearly all of the climb is still ahead of you.

The Old Military Road, now the "Orange Trail"

Starting the drive back out to the highway, my day was about to get even more interesting. Six tenths of a mile from the Vanderwhacker parking area I spotted an unmarked path heading off towards the north. There are no signs or markers, but this was clearly a path, not a game trail. I had to take a look. The spot is easy to find, an immense White Pine --four feet in diameter-- stands a few feet from where the path enters the woods (if you are in-bound, this spot is four tenths of a mile from the railroad crossing). There is even a small pullout nearby where you can park your car.

The "Orange" trail. Perhaps a remnant of a road originally built in the early years of the 19th century to connect Crown Point with St. Lawrence County.

Starting into the woods I soon got reinforcement that this was not just a random path that would fade away after a few hundred yards. I quickly came upon a tree with a prominent orange blaze. This is an old-school blaze; a patch of bark was cut away with an ax and orange paint was applied. It was also soon evident that this had once been a road and, even more surprising, the route has received some recent maintenance. Large blow-down has been cut out and pink surveyor tapes are present in a few places.

This orange blaze is found on a tree 100 yards up the unmarked path  Note the very faint orange paint on the tree below the blaze. Someone has considered this to be the "orange" trail for some time.

I had originally written a paragraph describing how I was unable to find any map or mention to shed light on the origin of this path. Old USGS topographic maps going back to 1900 are my go-to source for this kind of thing and they do not show it. But then a clue did emerge. The DEC Unit Management Plan for the Vanderwhacker Wild Forest notes that a "military road", built in the early 1800s, passes east of Vanderwhacker Mountain and can still be followed today. I'm not certain that this is that road, but it sure fits the description.

I walked the path for one and half miles, then, with the sun dipping towards the horizon, I turned back. This is a very pleasant walk though a maturing second growth forest. This area was almost certainly logged, but the canopy is composed of trees that look to me to be at least 100 years old; with some old growth trees sprinkled in. From my read of the Unit Management Plan this section of the forest probably passed into State ownership before 1900.

The path goes over a couple of small ridges, and passes several beaver openings. If you hike in the Adirondacks you pass a lot of beaver openings; at every possible stage in the progression from active impoundments to meadows returning to the forest. Approaching this opening it struck me right away that this was odd. Something about it made it stand out from the countless other beaver openings I've passed.

Difficult to capture in a photograph, but this beaver meadow is not like the others. The opening extends for a couple of hundred yards down the tiny stream in the center.

It looks like the beaver tried to dam a very small stream. So the little buggers took down a lot of trees, including some large ones. But there are also some large trees tipped up by the wind and few that are broken off ten or twenty feet above the ground, evidence of some kind of wind event. Perhaps the beaver activity flooded and weakened the large trees which were then tipped up by the wind. Then, with the canopy disrupted, additional trees were downed and broken by a later wind storm. There's a lot of guessing going on there but something about this spot is odd.

Evidence of past activity, probably logging. These are seen along the road/path near the beaver pond that didn't fit my eye. Probably wheel rims and axles of some kind.

A large, and aged, Yellow Birch.

September 23rd, 2018. The trees were just starting to change, with most of the fall color season still to come. This Beech tree, and sun, cooperated to setup this photo.

An active beaver dam is backing water up to just off the trail near the start.