CYCLE ADIRONDACKS RIDERS` FIELD GUIDE

CYCLE ADIRONDACKS RIDERS’ FIELD GUIDE
Prepared by the Wildlife Conservation
Society Adirondack Program
mile 9
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Saranac
Lake
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Forest H
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mile 52
mile 62
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mile 26
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Tupper Lake
Cranberry Lake
Star Lake
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ADIRONDACKs
Day 1 - Saranac Lake to Star Lake
Distance - 68.3 miles (109.9k)
Total Climbing - 3,297 ft (1,005m)
elevation profile
START
WATER
LUNCH STOP
FORTIFIED WATER
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
1,750
1,600
1,450
1,250
0
5
14
Miles 3.36 - 5.72, 253 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 2%
28
5
41
Miles 27.7-30.4, 174 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.22%
55
5
68.3
Miles 38.1 - 39.9, 219 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 2.4%
Day one has lots of woods, water, and rolling climbs. The route starts northwest
on a small road through the eighty-thousand acre Saranac Lake Wild Forest.
This was an early addition to the Forest Preserve and contains old-growth
and classic Adirondack wildlife habitat. It then turns south, following upper
Saranac Lake, and then west, along the Raquette River into Tupper Lake. The
first rest stop is along the lake shore at mile 28.
The route continues goes west, over the Raquette River and Dead Creek,
and by Catamount Lake. The streams here are lowland boreal, with spruce
and tamarack on their shores, and several of the park’s largest open bogs lie
just to the south. Farther west it passes the Cranberry Lake Wild Forest and
enters the village of Cranberry Lake. The lake one of the wildest in the Park;
75% of its shoreline is state land and like all state land in the Adirondacks,
protected by the forever-wild clause of the state constitution.
At fifty-five miles the route leaves the main road and turns northwest on
the Tooley Pond Road, following the a wild, flatwater section of the Oswegatchie River. This is another boreal segment, rich in wetlands and wildlife.
The Adirondack Park one of the few places in the Northeast that contains
extensive boreal habitat; stop and look around, look for loons, admire the
forests and the river.
The Tooley Road turns south through the Benson Mine, once one of the
largest iron mines in the Northeast. It ends at Rt. 3; Star Lake, the end of day
one, is three miles to the east.
1 DEC Fish Hatchery
A NYS Department of Environmental Conservation facility that produces
about thirty thousand pounds of landlocked Atlantic salmon a year. The
indoor visitor center contains a pool containing salmon, a monitor showing
brood fish in a pond, and other exhibits on fish propagation.
2 Follensby Clear Pond
A small, scenic pond surrounded by public land, open for camping. It has a
completely undeveloped shoreline, a warm-water fishery, and good loon
habitat. The swimming is great.
3 Fish Creek Campground
A large DEC campground with 350 campsites; with Rollins Pond, just to the
west, one of the most popular in New York. Just to the north and also popular,
the St. Regis Canoe Area, the only wilderness canoe area in the state.
4 Tupper Lake Waterfront
Tupper lake began as a railroad town, became a lumber town, and remained
industrial until the last of the mills along the waterfront closed in 2012. It
now celebrates this history with its Adirondack Woodsmen’s Days, held in the
waterfront park, and featuring, chain-saw carving, monster trucks, greased
poles, and the biggest tug-of-war in the park. The old-time woodsmen wished
for chainsaws and monster trucks but did not have them.
5. Piercefield Flow
An impounded section of the Raquette River, downstream of Tupper Lake and
separated from it by the Setting Pole Dam, offering fishing and fine flatwater
paddling. It was dammed for electric power in 1899; the original power plant
is still in operation. Snags from the forest flooded by the dam are visible in
the shallows of the lake.
6 South Branch Grass River
The Grass River is one of five rivers flowing northwest from the Adirondacks
to the St. Lawrence. All were used for log drives in the nineteenth century.
The logs were driven to mills at the edges of the park and in the valleys just
beyond it.
7 Cranberry Lake and the Five Ponds Wilderness Area
Cranberry Lake is an artificial lake, first dammed to supply water for log drives
in 1867. It switched from river drives to railroad logging about 1900 and
remained a major mill town until 1930. It is now a summer colony and one
of the gateways to the hundred-thousand acre Five Ponds Wilderness, first
suggested as a conservation area by Bob Marshall in 1935. WCS has partnered
with Cranberry Lake and Star Lake to develop the popular Cranberry Lake
50, a long distance hiking trail around the lake.
8 Oswegatchie River Road
River Road follows Oswegatchie River, which flows northwest to meet the St.
Lawrence River ib Ogdensburg. Chaumont Pond is a log-drive pond, which
partially floods a large lowland-boreal swamp called Chaumont Swamp, good
for plants and birds. Look for loons here.
9 Newton Falls
Founded by James Newton, who built a sawmill and paper mill here in 1894;
reached by the Carthage & Adirondack Railroad in 1896. The paper mill closed
in 2000, reopened under new ownership in 2007, and closed again in 2011.
Benson, the next junction to the south, was an iron-mining town. You will
see the strip mines, the concentrating plant, and the Carthage & Adirondack
tracks. The mines operated from 889 to 1918 and from 1940 to 1978. When
they closed, the town collapsed. Mill towns and mining towns were common
a hundred years ago; most have had similar stories.
3
mile 10
1
Harrisville
2
3
mile 20
Star Lake
812
mile 40
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4
Croghan
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5
West Martinsburg
6
mile 51
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mile 62
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East Rd
Boonville
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9
10
ADIRONDACKs
Day 2 - Star Lake to Boonville
Distance - 76.3 miles (122.9k)
Total Climbing - 3,086 ft (4,966m)
elevation profile
1,550
1,050
800
500
3
START
WATER
LUNCH STOP
FORTIFIED WATER
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
3
0
15
Miles 47.6 - 55.12, 559 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.4%
31
46
62
77.3
DAY TWO starts with a fifteen-mile downhill, off the highlands of the western
Adirondacks and into the Black River Valley. The valley is excellent farmland
and was first settled short settled in the early 1800s. The highlands are rockand
forests, and were still wild in 1860.
The route starts west, crosses the Black River Valley and then turns south
along the eastern edge of the Tug Hill Plateau where we will be for the next
two days. The plateau is moderately high, cold and snowy in winter, and
wet in summer. It was farmed briefly and unsuccessfully a century ago and is
mostly young forest. Its area is 1.2 million acres, a fifth of the Adirondack Park.
After the lunch stop at mile 40, the route turns southeast, moving up the
the foothills of the Black River Valley. It passes through Indian River, Croghan
and Lowville, climbs about five hundred feet to the afternoon’ s high point
at the Snow Ridge Ski Area, and then descends gradually for the last fifteen
miles to Boonville.
1 Blue Line
The Blue Line is the legal boundary of Adirondack Park, established by the
legislature in 1892. The state lands within it—and similar lands within the
Catskill Park—make up the Forest Preserve and, since 1894, have been protected by Article 14 of the state constitution, which requires that they be kept
forever wild and forbids the sale of land or the cutting of timber. Few, if any,
places in the world have this level of protection.
2 West Branch of the Oswegatchie River—Grandview Park
All three branches of the Oswegatchie begin in the Five Ponds Wilderness.
This stop has big rocks for sitting and pools for bathing.
3 North American Maple Museum
Maple syrup production is a traditional and sustainable use of the forest. It
was formerly an important cash crop in the farm economy; now it is moving
north to Canada as the climate warms. The museum will be open for tours.
4 NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Sub-Office
The NYS DEC is the state’s environmental management and regulatory agency.
This one office was formerly a nursery, suppling seedlings to the Civilian
Conservation Corps for reforestation. There is an arboretum and, if you have
a head for heights, a 1930s fire tower and observer’s cabin.
5 Wind Turbines
The large wind farm near the east scarp of the Tug Hill Plateau is the Maple Hill
project, owned by Iberdrola, a Spanish multinational. It contains 195 turbines
on 21,000 acres and can generate 320 MW at peak. The towers are 260 feet
high; the blades are 390 feet high at the top of their sweep. The wind farm
employs 35 people and makes a significant contribution to the local economy
but, like most extractive industries sends most of its profits elsewhere.
6 Whetstone Gulf State Park
The largest and most dramatic of the Tug Hill gorges, cut by glacial meltwater
and currently known for rare plants and spectacular views. The park road
continues about a mile into the gorge, and a six-mile rim trail circlers it.
7 Black River Valley, Wildlife Connectivity
Wide-ranging species like black bear, moose, and bobcat use the Black River
Valley to cross between the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau. To protect
this connection, the Tug Hill Land Trust has been working with WCS, the Tug
Hill Commission, and The Nature Conservancy to secure conservation easements on private lands in the wildlife corridor and adjacent highlands. Thus
far, over 16,000 acres of working farms and forests have been protected.
8 Snow Ridge Ski Area; Lake-effect Snows
The central Tug Hill Plateau is the snowiest place in New York, receiving over
200 inches of snow in an average year and over 400 in a deep-snow year.
Montague holds a New York State record with 77 inches in one day, and
Redfield another record with 120 inches in seven days. The heavy snows, and
persistent cold associated with them, support a significant winter sports industry, dominated by snowmobiling, but with alpine and nordic skiing as well.
9 Hulbert House
An 1812 hotel in Boonville where generals Grant and Sheridan once stayed;
also a celebrated ghost-hunting destination on the Genesee County Chamber
of Commerce’s Historic Haunt Trail.
10 Black River Canal Museum,
The Black River Canal was built to connect the navigable segment of the river,
between Carthage and Lyons Falls, with the Erie Canal at Rome. The route
was formidably steep, with a total rise and fall of 1079 feet, and required 109
locks in 34 miles. It opened in 1855 and remained in use until 1820, the last
of the Erie Canal’s feeders.
The museum sits at the junction of the main canal, now largely filled in,
and a smaller canal which brought water from a dam on the Black river in
Forestport.
mile 15
High
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Constableville
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Williamstown
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Camden
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ADIRONDACKs
Day 3 - Boonville to Camden
START
Distance - 78.2 miles (125.1k) Total Climbing - 3,328 ft (1,008m)
LUNCH STOP
elevation profile (long option)
1,700
1,300
850
425
3
3
0
WATER
4
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
5
16
Miles .4-10.39, 634 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.2%
FORTIFIED WATER
31
4
47
Miles 14.43-19.66, 524 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.9%
62
5
Miles 46.6-48.96, 200 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.6%
78.2
DAY THREE, Boonville to Camden, is the westernmost part of the tour. The
route goes west from Booneville, loops north to Constableville and West
Leyden, and then northwest, in one of the wildest segments of the tour, to
Redfield. From Redfield it goes south to Williamstown, and then south and
east to Camden. The full route is 78 miles; by cutting off the Constableville
loop it may be shortened to 53 miles.
The route goes through four watersheds—the Black River, Mohawk River,
Fish Creek (Lake Oneida) and Salmon River— and a 1,3000-foot elevation
range and will be one of our most varied days for geography and landscape.
Booneville and Constable are in the Black River foothills. The country is
fertile and rolling, with incised stream valleys and many glacial features. It is
both fine farmland and an important wildlife connection. The drainage here
is north through the Black River to Lake Ontario.
West Leyden, another foothill town, is also farming country. Here the
drainage is south, through the Mohawk River to the Hudson.
West of West Leyden the route climbs the southern edge of the Tug Hill
Plateau: high, wet, swampy country, aligned northwest-southeast drainages,
thin soils, cold, snowy winters. The drainage is south, through Fish Creek to
Lake Oneida and then into Lake Ontario. The land is good for wildlife and poor
for farming; much of the land here was farmed briefly and then abandoned.
The route remains within the southern Tug Hill Plateau for the rest of the
day, but the landscape and drainage change. Osceola and Redfield are in
the Salmon River watershed, draining west into Lake Ontario. The hills are
rounder here, with more glacial features. Williamstown and Camden are in
a narrow glacial valley, drained by the West Branch of Fish Creek, about five
hundred feet below the plateau. The topography here is typical of central New
York—glacial, dissected, complex, unlike anything else we will see on the trip.
1 Mohawk Hill
Mohawk Hill, between one of the high points of the Tug Hill, and one of the
most scenic points in the whole tour, lies between West Leyden and Constableville. It has fine views of the Adirondack Park to the east, the Mohawk Valley
to the south, and the Black River Valley and Tug Hill escarpment to the north.
2 West Leyden: Headwater of the Mohawk River
The wetland area to the east of the rest stop is the headwaters of the Mohawk
River, which runs south and east to join the Hudson north of Troy. Its valley is
one of the three lowland routes through the Appalachians and so played a
major role in the geography and settlement of the continent. It is the route
through which midwestern animals and plants spread north after glaciation;
the connector, and warpath, between the homes of the Iroquois and Mohawk
nations; the corridor through which Europeans spread west, usurping the
lands of both nations; and the route of the Erie Canal, which gave New York
commercial access to the continental interior.
3 Conservation Easement and Invasive Species Protection Zone
The East Branch of Fish Creek, at the bridge near Swancott Mills State Forest
and just before the hamlet of Swanscott Mills, and the Tagasoke Reservoir,
just to the south, are part the the drinking water supply for City of Rome and
the Tug Hill Invasive Species Protection Zone. The water comes from the Tug
Hill Plateau to the north. The creek and its watershed are protected from
subdivision and development by working forest conservation easement. The
easement, the first on a working forest in New York State, was the result of a
large conservation effort in the 1990s.
4 Old-Growth Forest
Just before the lunch stop is one of the few old-growth forests on the Tug
Hill. The Adirondacks, because of their terrain and inaccessibility, have large
amounts of old growth. Outside the Adirondacks there is very little. Intact
forests like this offer critical wildlife habitat, help store large amounts of carbon, and provide buffers to the impacts of climate change.
5 Osceola, Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame
Osceola gets between two hundred and three hundred inches of inches a
year, and is known for Nordic skiing. It is also the headquarters for the New
York Old Tyme Fiddlers Association (traditional music, nontraditional orthography) who will provide entertainment during lunch.
6 East Branch Salmon River
The Salmon River is the largest southeast tributary of Lake Ontario, and,
for both Europeans and Native Americans, was an important route from
the Mohawk Valley to the lowlands on the east shore of the lake. It is also
an important spawning habitat for the landlocked Atlantic Salmon of Lake
Ontario. Conservation agencies and organizations are working in this region
to restore habitat and aquatic connectivity for fish species by ensuring safe
passage through culverts and restoring water quality.
Old Forge
9 10
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Forestport
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mile 36
Camden
mile 22
mile 15
69
Lee
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Lee Center-Taberg Rd
Day 4 - Camden to Old Forge
Distance - 75 miles (120.7k)
Total Climbing - 4,519 ft (1,377.4m)
elevation profile
1,800
1,350
9,00
450
3
2
N
Rd
ben
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ADIRONDACKs
Westernville
START
WATER
LUNCH STOP
3
0
15
Miles 21-30.5, 1128 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 2.3%
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
4
29
4
FORTIFIED WATER
44
Miles 51.6-60.4, 418 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 0.9%
59
75
DAY FOUR heads east across upper Mohawk Valley, turns north at Steuben,
climbs Bowen Hill, crosses the Black River Valley and parallels the river downstream to Hawkinsville, and then turns northeast, into the Adirondacks and
up the Moose River watershed to Old Forge. The steepest climb, 1,100 feet
in 10 miles, is in the morning. The afternoon begins with a gentle descent
followed by a long gradual climb.
The afternoon route, through the Sand Flats State Forest and up theMoose River Road, is remote and lovely. The Moose was once a steep and
famous log-drive river. The last drive, from the Moose River Plains to Lyons
Falls, was in 1948. Now, still formidably steep, it is one of the east’s premier
whitewater rivers.
1 Delta Reservoir
Delta Reservoir, on the upper Mohawk River, was constructed in 1908 to
supply water to Rome. The village of Lake Delta, at its western end, contains buildings that were moved from under the reservoir. Delta Lake State
Park, on the south shore of the reservoir, has camping, picnic areas, hiking
and cross-country ski trails, and a beach. The reservoir is stocked and has a
warm-water fishery.
2 Steuben Memorial
Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, whose memorial is here, was a Prussian
officer who became a general in the Continental Army, wrote its first training
manual, and served as George Washington’s chief of staff. He received a land
grant from New York State after the Revolution, summered in a log house
here until his death in 1794, and is buried in a grove near the memorial.
3 BREIA Trails at Alder Creek Gorge, Egypt Road
The Black River Environmental Improvement Association is a not-for-profit
corporation, funded by the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Family Foundation,
that creates and maintains trails and cabins for skiing, snowshoeing, and
mountain biking. Access to the trails and facilities is free. BREIA has over
fifty kilometers of trails and at three locations, making it one of the largest
nordic centers in the state.
4 Black River, Forestport
The Black River originates in the southwestern Adirondacks, flows west
twenty-five miles to Forestport, and then flows north and finally west another
hundred miles to Black River Bay on Lake Ontario. It is a wilderness river with
very private canoeing in its upper parts, a whitewater river in its lower gorge,
and a hard-working, impounded river, with seventeen mill dams, in between
5 Punkeyville State Forest
One of the state’s newest state forests, located along the Black River north of
Forestport and protecting about a mile of shoreline. Punkeyville, meaning
midgetown, is a old name for Forestport; it was chosen by the students at
the Forestport Elementary School.
6 Boonville Airport
A private, VFR airport with two grass strips, owned by a a group of local pilots. It opened as a flight school in 1945; many of its students were veterans
getting flight training through the G.I. Bill.
7 Sand Flats State Forest
A 2,500-acre state forest on reforested potato farms, suffering, as many
plantation forests do, from blight, insects and decline. Recently replanted,
and in the process, helped set a record by planting 1,622 in an hour, or one
tree every 2.2 seconds.
8 Adirondack Park Boundary, Moose River Road
The park boundary—the Blue Line—is also the legal boundary between two
different approaches to managing state lands. Outside the Blue Line the state
lands may be actively managed, which means trees may be cut, crops may
be grown, vehicles may be used, and unwanted lands may be sold or traded.
Inside the Blue Line the state constitution requires the lands be permanent
and wild. In practice this means that selling and trading are forbidden and
that active management and vehicle use greatly restricted.
Both sorts of land have both ecological value. But it is worth noting that
the lands outside the Blue Line are ordinary managed forests, like many
others in many states. Those inside the Blue Line are a three-million-acre,
interconnected wilderness with an old-growth core, unique in the world.
9 TOBIE TRAIL
A 14-mile bike and pedestrian pathway connecting Thendara, Old Forge, Big
Moose, Inlet, and Eagle Bay. It uses roads, trails, and an abandoned segment
of the railroad spur into Old Forge.
10 Northern Forest Canoe Trail
A 740-mile canoe trail that starts in Old Forge and ends in Fort Kent, Maine.
It is like a canoe version of the Appalachian trail, only shorter and harder. It
uses 22 rivers, some traversed upstream, 58 lakes, and 53 miles of portage
trail. Forty-five days of paddling and carrying is a fast trip; 21 days three
hours is the record.
Big Moose Station
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Eagle Bay
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Old Forge
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ADIRONDACKs
Day 5 - Old Forge Layover Option
Distance - 43.6 miles (70.17k)
START
Total Climbing - 2,691 ft (820.2m)
LUNCH STOP
elevation profile
1,900
1,750
1,650
1,525
5
5
0
5
9
Miles 12.3-15.26, 136 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 0.9%
17
5
WATER
FORTIFIED WATER
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
5
26
Miles 17.75-19.0, 138 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 2.0%
35
5
43.6
Miles 20.11-21.79, 190 ft gain, Avg. grade 2.1%
DAY FIVE is a layover day, with an optional ride to Big Moose. The trip is and
out-and-back, about 44 miles total, and can be done in half a day.
The route is mostly on back roads, with nice shade, relatively little traffic,
and a reasonable number of bumps and potholes. The first twelve miles, head
south and east from Old Forge, follow the south shore of the Fulton Chain.
The route then follows Rt. 28 around the east end of Fourth Lake from Inlet
to Eagle Bay; heads northwest, across state land and several ridges, to Dart
Lake and Big Moose Lake; and ends at Big Moose Station. The twelve miles
to Eagle Bay are relatively flat, the next ten quite hilly.
The shores of the Fulton Chain are private and continuously developed.
There, are, for example, over 500 buildings along South Shore Road between
Old Forge and Inlet. The largest private landowner is the Adirondack League
Club, a hunting and fishing club founded in 1890. It holds 47,000 acres of
land south of Old Forge,and is the private largest club, and the largest noncommercial landholder, in the Park. The other properties are much smaller,
often an acre or less.
Big Moose, like Old Forge,was a hunting and logging settlement after the
Civil War. It came a tourist destination and summer colony when New York
Central Railroad reached it in1892. The railroad owners and their peers—
new money in those days, old money today—bought large private estates
near the railroad or built “great camps” on the lakes. W.W. Durant, one of the
developers of the railroad, built a road from Big Moose to Raquette Lake to
serve the camps there. J.P. Morgan, not to be outdone, built the Raquette
Lake Railroad to serve them better.
Besides being, for eight years anyway, the gateway to the first great camps
around Raquette, and Sagamore lakes, Big Moose figures prominently in
two other Adirondack stories. The first is as the locale for Theodore Dreiser’s
American Tragedy, based on the murder of Grace Brown by her lover Chester
Gillette while they were vacationing there in 1906. Grace and Chester worked
in a shirt mill in Cortland; they came here on vacation and went out in a boat.
She drowned and he was executed at Auburn Prison.
The second, equally sensational, is as the first lake to provide conclusive
proof that acid rain could change lake chemistry. The southwest Adirondacks
have been heavily impacted by acids from coal-burning power plants to the
west and south. The scientific community believed that the acids acidified the
lakes and altered their ecology. The power industry, against all the evidence,
claimed that they had always been acid. The proof—sediment cores in which
biological markers of acidification were linked to chemical markers from fossil
fuels—came from Big Moose in 1984. This was the first chemical history of an
acidified lake. and a landmark advance in the political fight against acid rain.
It was not, however, the last time an industry would deny scientific evidence
and gain political advantage by doing so.
Long Lake
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Blue Mountain Lake
mile 24
Raquette
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mile 39
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28
3
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Inlet
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Old Forge
2
mile 13
N
ADIRONDACKs
Day 6 - Old Forge to Long Lake
Distance - 64.1 miles (103.1k)
Total Climbing - 3,768 ft (1148.5m)
elevation profile
2,100
1,925
1,725
1,525
5
START
WATER
LUNCH STOP
FORTIFIED WATER
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
5
0
13
Miles 36.5-38.2, 358 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 4.0%
25
38
51
64.1
DAY SIX is a day of lakes and lake chains. It runs up the Fulton Chain,
crosses to the Raquette River watershed, runs along Raquette Lake and Blue
Mountain Lake, and then heads northwards to Long Lake. A side excursion
on the North Point Road goes to Buttermilk Falls and the outlet of Raquette
Lake and adds about 16 miles, bringing the total mileage to 64.
The morning is a gradual climb, followed by a short, steep climb up a just
before lunch and a steep descent after it. The North Point Road has a gentle
climb on the way in and a gentle descent on the way out.
Each of the lakes has its own history and personality. Old Forge is a gateway
town: giant hotels in the 19th century and theme parks, motels, and intense
lake-shore development in the 20th. It is, in a sense, a model of what the
Forest Preserve was created to prevent.
Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lakes are natural lakes, much less developed, in wilderness settings. Formerly they were destinations for old money;
now they have cottages and campgrounds but few year-around residents.
Long Lake lacked water or rail connections and was too remote for old
money. It was guide-and-guideboat country in the 19th century and only
developed, and only in a limited way, after it was reachable by auto.
Surrounding all these lakes, and making them special, are remarkable
forests and wetlands. The forests are old, interconnected, and protected.
Some have never been logged, many barely logged. The wetlands are intact,
peaty, and very private. They are home, at least till warming drives them out,
to some of our rarest and most northern species.
1 Fulton Chain, Seventh Lake
The Fulton Chain was created when to the Middle Branch of the Moose River
was dammed in 1871, raising the water level and connecting the first five
lakes. Another dam connected the sixth and seventh lakes. The dams provided
water for the log drives on the Moose River and made the lake chain navigable
by steamboats. Old Forge rapidly became, and remains, the gateway to the
central Adirondack lakes and a major tourist destination in its own.
The Fulton chain is navigable by canoe, with short carries, to Raquette Lake
and, with longer ones, beyond it to Forked Lake, Long Lake, Tupper Lake, and
the Saranac Lakes. It is the start of both the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe
Trail and the Adirondack Classic, a three-day, 90-mile race.
2 Cathedral Pines
A stand of about a dozen large white pines along the south shore of Seventh
Lake, a few minutes in from a trail-head marked by a small brown and yellow
trail sign.
3 Raquette Lake Waterfront
Raquette Lake is a natural lake, surrounded by old-growth forests and with
corridors of lowland boreal forest along its bays and inlet streams. It started
as ahunting destination in the 1850s and then became a high-end summer
colony for the American plutocracy in the 1880s. The log-faced chalet architecture developed here by W.W. Durant and his peers spread through the
private Adirondacks, and has come to be called the great camp style.
4 Lowland Boreal Forest and Bog, Raquette Lake South Inlet
The channel here is bordered by floating mats of sphagnum, dwarf evergreen
shrubs and sedges, grading shorewards into open black-spruce tamarack
swamps. These are characteristic habitats of the central and northern Adirondacks, occurring on almost every low-gradient river. They are deeply
northern and are home to characteristic boreal species like leatherleaf, dwarf
cranberry, spruce grouse, and palm warbler. They are also threatened; they
are at the southern edge of the boreal and, here and elsewhere, some of their
most characteristic species are decreasing as the climate warms.
5 Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake
A much honored regional museum devoted to Adirondack history and
culture. It was, in large part, the creation of the scholar and philanthropist
Harold Hochschild. It has boats, paintings, the cabins of a recluse and a writer,
a remarkable research library, and, saved from the woods, the last engine of
the Marion Carry Railroad, which Hochschild rode on when he was twelve.
6 Blue Mountain
The tall mountain east of Blue Mountain Lake, with spectacular views and
badly rutted trails. Also the divide between the Hudson and St. Lawrence
watersheds; the center of old Township 34, about which Hochshild wrote
a masterpiece of Adirondack history; and the home of small population of
Bicknell’s thrush, a boreal species at risk from climate change.
8 North Point Road, Old-Growth Forests
The North Point Road runs from Deerland, at the south end of Long Lake,
southwest along the Raquette River and Forked Lake to the outlet of Raquette
Lake. The forests here are some of the oldest in the park and have spectacular
individual trees. Some have never been logged, some were logged for softwoods over a century ago. They are not, however, intact or safe. Acid rain,
beech disease and an unexplained decline in the number of old red spruce
have changed them over the last century; climate change and invasive insects
threaten them in this one.
mile 51
5 6
86
7
186
30
short option
52.7 miles
8
9
Saranac Lake
mile 38
mile 25
3
3
3
2
5
4
Tupper Lake
30
1
mile 10
5
N
Long Lake
ADIRONDACKs
9
Day 7 - Long Lake to Saranac Lake
Distance - 65.3 miles (105.1k) Total Climbing- 3,409 ft (1,039m)
5
5
0
WATER
LUNCH STOP
elevation profile
1,950
1,800
1,600
1,425
START
FORTIFIED WATER
FINISH
REST AREA
1 POINT OF INTEREST
CLIMB
NATURALIST
5
13
Miles 4.04-7.15, 286 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.7%
27
5
41
Miles 28.4-30.4, 196 ft Gain, Avg. Grade 1.8%
54
65.3
DAY SEVEN starts at Long Lake, near the center of the park, goes north to
Paul Smith’s, near the northern boundary, and then circles south to Saranac
Lake. The route is west of the high Peaks and entirely over 1,500 feet elevation. It lies on the central dome of the Adirondacks, a region of large lakes
and wetlands and, appropriately for the last day, has big water, deep woods,
and spectacular views.
The central Adirondacks are water-dominated, and the rivers and lakes are
the major landmarks. The route starts on the Raquette River goes northwest,
crosses Big Brook and Bog Stream, climbs a drainage divide, runs along the
west shore of Tupper Lake, and meets the river again at Simon Pond.
After Tupper the route goes west into the Saranac River watershed and,
reversing Day One, goes north by Upper Saranac Lake, Fish Creek and Follensby Clear Ponds, the St. Regis Canoe Area, and Lake Clear. It then enters
the St. Regis watershed and goes by Upper and Lower St. Regis Lakes to Paul
Smiths. There it turns southeast, re-enters the Saranac River watershed, passes
Lake Colby, and ends in Saranac Lake.
A cut-off that is available at Lake Clear Junction (Rt. 186, mile 44). It saves
12 miles but misses Paul Smiths and the St. Regis lakes. The cut-off rejoins
the main route by Donelly’s Soft Ice Cream, who still use their original 1953
ice-cream machine, make one flavor each day, and have perhaps the best
view of any ice-cream stand on earth. Saturday is chocolate twist.
1 William C. Whitney Wilderness Area
One of the park’s newest wilderness, and a popular canoe area. Whiteney was
a 19th century coal and oil magnate in the classic style—farms, mansions, race
horses—who, as Secretary of the Navy, brought the U.S. into the age of steel
ships and, as a gentleman hunter, bought 68,000 acres in the Adirondacks
as a wilderness estate. His descendents unwildernessed it rapidly, also in
classic style. When the timber ran out, they sold half to the state. The woods
are now recovering; lakes and wetlands are spectacular.
2 Raquette River Charismatic Mega-Wetland
others for a month of hunting, fishing and conversation. The land passed to
the McCormick family, ardent conservationists, and from them to the Nature
Conservancy, the current owners.
4 Wild Center
The Adirondacks’ newest museum and one of its most imaginative, with live
exhibits, trails, an elevated outdoor walkway, and an important education
program. Also a regional leader in promoting green technology and promoting climate action and a valued partner of WCS.
5 Paul Smith’s College
The Adirondacks’ only four-year college, with programs in natural resources,
hotel management, culinary arts, and business. Named for Apollos Smith,
a hotelier, raconteur, and land trader who made his fortune here in the late
nineteenth century. His son, Phellp’s Smith, gave the land and money to start
the college; it admitted its first class in 1946.
6 White Pine Camp
A beautiful great camp on Osgood Pond. Built by Archibald White in the
1920s, used as the summer White House by Calvin Coolidge in 1926, passed
though a succession of owners, including Potsdam State Teachers College
and Paul Smith’s College, and restored and open as a private inn.
7 Harrietstown Hill
Open farm country northeast of Lake Clear, with one of the best views in
the northern Adirondacks. Loon Lake Mountain is just east of north, Duncan
Mountain northeast, Bloomingdale Bog and Whiteface east, and the northern
High Peaks—Mackenzie, Barker, Scarface, Ampersand…—to the southeast
and south.
8 Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium and Cottage Row
Tupper Lake is an artificial lake, formed in 1850 by damming the Raquette
River. The damming flooded a complex of bogs fens in the area called Simon
Pond. The result is a large and handsome deepwater marsh, used among
others, by loons, eagles, ospreys, bitterns, ring-neck ducks, bats, moose and
many others. The pull-off here a well known birding stop.
The sanitarium was founded by Dr. Edward Trudeau. Trudeau was diagnosed
with tuberculosis in 1873, came to Saranac Lake to recover, opened a practice
here, and, from European models and his own experience, came to believe
in the therapeutic value of clean cold air, rest, and exercise. He opened the
sanitarium in 1885 and the Saranac Laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis,
now the Trudeau Institute, in 1894.
3 Follensby Pond Track
9 WCS Adirondack Program Headquarters
Follensby Pond is a medium-sized, undeveloped lake surrounded by 14,000
acres of forest. It was where, when the Adirondacks were still roadless and
wild, William Stillman brought Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louis Agassiz, and seven
The WCS office, home to your hosts for this tour and the only conservationscience organization in the Adirondacks, is along the shores of the Saranac
River, just before the lunch stop and end.