I rarely hike in the Eastern High Peaks. That's partly because I don't want to deal with overflowing parking lots and eroded trails, but it's really that the high peaks have lost some of wildness and solitude that I seek. The peaks are rugged and scenic, but after decades of overuse, and the efforts made to harden the landscape against that overuse, some of the wild has been lost. At times, the High Peaks feel like an open-air gym with scenery.
But winter changes everything. And heading out for the Upper Works trailhead, on the first weekend of February, I was hopeful that I'd at least be able to find a place to park. Turns out, over-crowding was really not a problem. I didn't see a soul on the trail, and the two cars that were in the parking lot when I got there were the only ones there at 5:00 pm when I drove away. Between deep snow, a terrible weather forecast, and Superbowl Sunday, the hiker hordes took the day off.
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| A beaver meadow along the trail to Flowed Lands. |
My planned destination was Indian Pass. I expected the going to be tough, and that reaching the pass might be a stretch. But I'm generally more interested in the journey, than in the destination, so going part way was an option. This plan crumbled just a half mile from the parking lot when I reached the point where the Indian Pass trail diverges from the main trail to Lake Colden and Mt. Marcy. The trail towards Indian Pass was unbroken, not even a crazy post-holer had gone that way. Sure, where are those hiker hordes when you need them?
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| Looking over the Flowed Lands towards Lake Colden. Mount Colden frames the view on the right. When you can see it. |
Over 100 inches of snow has fallen in the Adirondacks this year (2018-2019), and on the first weekend of February, most of it was still there. A few steps up the un-tracked trail confirmed my suspicions; even with snowshoes the unbroken trail would require plowing through deep soft snow the entire way. Traveling solo this was not gonna work. That's when it struck me! I had not been to the Flowed Lands since the 1980s and a visit was overdue. The fact that the trail going that way was well-packed was just a bonus. In the end, even with that well-packed trail, the nine mile round trip on showshoes, with a light freezing drizzle falling the entire time, made for a tiring day.
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| The well packed trail, a short distance from Flow Lands. The snow was three to four feet deep. |
Flowed lands is not a natural lake. A dam was built in the mid 19th century to provide additional water to the iron mining and smelting operations at Tawhaus. That dam created a lake with great views of Mount Colden and the Macintyre Range. Until the dam was breached in 1984, out of concerns that it would collapse, Flowed Lands was a popular hiking destination on the southern approach to Mt. Marcy. Without the dam, the area has slowly returned to the string of small ponds and wetlands that naturally form along this level stretch of the Opalescent River. For a few years after the dam went out the "lands" were a muddy mess, but it makes no difference in the winter, and with the passage of over 30 years the wetlands can stand on their own.
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| The Henderson Memorial at Calamity Pond. The circumstances surrounding the death of David Henderson have been recounted in numerous histories of the Adirondack region. |
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| Bobcat tracks (I think). The larger tracks were two to three inches across. I should have set something down to provide a scale. Two sets of tracks are seen in the photo and I'm unclear on what the animal made the second, much smaller set. |
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| Cliffs near the Flowed Lands Lean-To. |
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| The Flowed Lands Lean-To. Deep snow. |
