T Lake Falls - West Canada Lake Wilderness - 7/30/17

Today Leesa, Rev and I took up the quest to go to T Lake Falls in the West Canada Lake Wilderness. I had heard talk about it for years from friends and it was high time to check it out.  A perfect weather day was in order and we had our plan in place.

We chose to just do an out-and-back day trip, but a camping trip would have worked fine as well. Rather than take the trail to T Lake and the reportedly dangerous herd path from the top of the falls to the bottom, we chose to start from the southwest; starting at the end of Mountain Home Road (just off of Route 8, west of Piseco Lake).  The road is drivable all the way to the end (even in a two wheel drive car with average clearance).  Continue past what looks like a small parking lot.  It has posted "No Parking" signs.  The road ahead looks questionable, but it's not bad.  Soon you'll enter forest preserve lands.  You can drive past The Floe and a fork in the jeep road just before Mad Tom Brook. We observed 4 designated camping sites there.  One of them still had a smoking fire ring with red coals in it, but nobody in sight...  These sites would be a good starting point if you'd like to have any easy car camping start point.

The unmarked trail (the South Branch trail #97 on the National Geographic Northville/Raquette Lake Adirondack Park map) is the left fork.  The right fork crosses the South Branch and heads towards privately owned Pine Lake.  We parked and started down the left fork.  Three pickup trucks were parked at the fork, but no campsites were taken.  We expected to see the owners of the trucks someone along the way.

A foot bridge (the one and only) near the start of the unmarked South Branch trail.

The unmarked trail is an old woods road for 3 miles.  There are some spots that appear to be continuously muddy, but you can bypass the quagmire sections.  At about 2.2 miles, we noticed a faint herd path branching off to the left (near Wagoner Brook).  It may go to a place called Fisher Camp (which a number of people put as their destination in the log book), but not sure about that. Another trip will determine that.  At the three mile mark, the South Branch appeared once again, and now it was time to cross.  We found a group of about 10 backpackers here taking a break on their way out.

The water level was moderate and we were able to rock hop across the South Branch without getting our feet wet.  Immediately on the other side was an illegal campsite (too close to the water), but it was a nice spot and it looked like it had been used quite often. 

The unmarked trail was now gone.  The Nat Geo map shows a short head path heading east following a drainage and we followed that path for perhaps 0.2 miles where we came to a faint herd path fork and a tree with 3 ribbons on it.  It was time to take the left fork to resume the northeasterly bearing, keeping the South Branch on our left.

   

The South Branch (looking downstream from where we crossed).

The South Branch (looking upstream from where we crossed). 

After another 0.2 miles or so, we came across the one and only place where the head path was hard to follow Which Hobble and ferns obscured the faint herd path and we lost it for a couple minutes.  We just kept heading northeast and we soon regained it.  We had veered left of the herd path for a few moments.  Along the way we saw some old metal trail markers and a fair amount of pink ribbon.  In the last couple miles, we saw extremely fresh hatchet blazes on the trees.     

This is what the old metal trail markers looked like. 

Hatchet Jack's handiwork.

Soon we were wedged between the South Branch on the left, and steep incline on the right.  No getting off track anymore.  We passed an oxbow in the South Branch and saw another illegal campsite (once again too close to the river and no "camp here" disc).  This was at the 4.5 miles mark in our trek.

We continued on and eventually hit the T lake Falls outlet and it was time to climb the short distance to the falls.   We were happy to see that nobody was at the falls when we got there.  What a glorious spot.  It was amazing to have such a beautiful spot to ourselves on a perfect weather July weekend day.  With stream running a little higher than normal for this time of year, the falls had a good amount of water spilling over the top.  

    

A first look...

Wow!

Rev... our non-water dog.

What was exciting for us was that there is a nice pool of water for swimming at the base.  It was a little chilly when first getting in, but once in, it didn't feel bad.  The water was probably seven feet deep in the middle.  What was neat was that the water entering the pool was warm from having traveled down the sunny rocks.  Leesa and I swam for awhile.  Rev is not a swimmer, so she just watched and had a drink. 

Leesa... enjoying the water pool at the base of the falls.

We felt good as new after the refreshing swim.  We got out and had lunch and then got back in for one more swim.

Some claim that this is the highest total drop waterfall in New York State.  Niagara Falls is about 170 feet.  OK Slip Falls is about 250 feet.  There is discrepancy as to how big the drop is at T Lake Falls, but it is impressive.  At least 4 persons have died here from slipping at the top and plunging down the length of the falls to the bottom.  Apparently from the top you can't see much, and the arc in the rock continues to dive down and people edging forward make the mistake of waling on wet rock.  When they start to slip, it is too late.  We were quite comfortable with our approach from the bottom and had no desire to look at the scene from the top.     

  

The walk from the end of Mountain Home Road to the falls taking the heard path that we followed was 5.9 miles one way.

In case you get to the falls and there are too many people there for your liking, there is a much smaller, but decent sized swim hole and small waterfall just downstream from the large falls.

  

The consolation falls and wading area...

After our 2nd swim, we headed back using our same route.  We had started at 10 AM and it was now 3 PM and time to leave.  It took us exactly 3 hours to return to the car.

The South Branch... just upstream from the oxbow.

Campsite at the oxbow.

This was on the knoll at the oxbow... the only evidence of humans we saw other than the head path.  

Our rock hopping spot on the South Branch.

If spectacular waterfalls are your thing, and you don't hike a 12 mile round trip hike with the herd path and bushwhack time, this trip is well worth your time.  Doing the trip in July/August is definitely a bonus for the swim you can take when you get there! 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  11.8 miles (along our heard path route)

Hike Time:  6 hours (plus time at the falls)

Total Vertical Gain:  ~ 1250'

The route...

The route shown on the Nat Geo map

Blue Ridge Mountain (3860') - Indian Lake - West Canada Lake Wilderness - 9/6/15

There are many Blue Ridge Mountains in the Adirondacks (and even on the ADK Hundred Highest list), but the one I chose to hike on Labor Day weekend was the one that lies southwest of Indian Lake in the West Canada Lake Wilderness.

It was a hot day but we started early.  Leesa joined me and of course our dog Rev.  We had camped the night before at a designated site near just off Jessup River Road near Perkins Clearing.  The route I chose started out on the Callahan Brook Trail (unmarked herd path) which begins just behind campsite #1 near Mason Lake.  We let the campers occupying site #1 that we would be starting our hike there early the next morning.  We saw that they had dogs and we didn't want to have all the dogs in a barking contest without them knowing what we were doing there.

This route involved one known obstacle; namely the Miami River.  I knew we would be able to wade across it since it had not rained in weeks.  We were on the trail at 7:30.  The herd path was relatively easy to follow.  It probably gets hard when fresh leaves or snow are on the ground.

After 30 minutes we came to the Miami River.   The herd path ends at the river bank.  We made the mistake of crossing immediately at the end of the trail.  We were able to cross on a small beaver dam, but that only brought us to a marsh surrounded by water.  We crossed back over the river headed north along the east side of the river. After perhaps a few hundred yards we found a more substantial beaver dam that did indeed reach the far end of the river.  Our only problem was that there was a short wade in the river to reach the beaver dam and Rev refused to swim.  She doesn't like it.  Anyway, Leesa crossed at this location and I found a nearby spot immediately south where Rev and I could make two shallow crossings to get to the beaver dam and then over.  All was good.  

  

The first crossing which led to the marsh.

The beaver crossing that we used.

Looking back at the beaver dam crossing.

We lost some time figuring out how to sucessfully cross the river, but we were back in business. Next, we headed north towards Freemont Brook which would be our guide towards the mountain.  We reached the brook at a nice little water hole and Rev gladly succumbed to wading in to lap up some water.

My primary reason for taking this route was to explore the 1944 plane wreck site of a C46 cargo plane along the way.  This large cargo plane had crashed into the east side of the mountain killing all three men aboard.  I like visiting these sites.  Its always an eerie feeling thinking of the horrer that occurred at each wreck site.

Freemont Brook

Freemont Brook

The wreck is high on the mountainside and would not be seen except by hunters or people searching for the site.  We had no problem finding it.  There were pieces everywhere.  Several memorial flags hung from the wreckage and a memorial plaque was affixed to the plane in 1997.

  

Pitcures of the C46 wreckage

Leesa opted to stay at the plane wreckage and poke around while I continued on to claim the summit. I took Rev with me and we took off.  45 minutes later we were on the summit.  We passed over a false summit which bore a little thick growth at the far end.  A small dip and reclimb and we were on the true summit.  We passed one opening in the trees where we could see the impressive profile of Snowy Mountain to the north. 

    

The true summit didn't offer any views and we didn't poke around any further since Leesa was waiting for us back at the plane wreck.  We did find an old metal pipe hanger strap at the summit which once held a summit cannister.  It now housed an empty beer can.

The summit of Blue Ridge Mountain (3860')

The new contents of the metal strapping

We left the summit and found ourselves back to Leesa in 30 minutes.  I was running low on liquids so we had to drink sparingly until we returned to Freemont Brook.  In order to reach the brook more quickly, we dropped straight down the mountain instead of the diagonal climb that we had done on the way up.  This worked well and we were at the brook in no time.

The walk back to the Miami River seemed to take a long time in the heat of the day.  Common house flies seemed to be buzzing around us in great numbers and would land on us when we stopped.  That kept us moving.

After recrossing the Miami River at the same location, the herd path was a nice quick walk out. 

Looking at the Miami River with the beaver dam in the background.

The highlight of this trip for both of us was finding the plane wreck.. In some ways it was like a big geocache; and in fact someone had placed a geocache at the wreck location.  That probably brings some additional visitors to the site, although many people may not want to walk that far.  We found it well worthwhile.

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  9.6 miles

Hike Time:  8.5 hours

Total Vertical Gain: ~ 2500'

  

The route (Click image to enlarge)

Pillsbury Mountain - West Canada Lake Wilderness - 5/18/14



 

We happened to have a near perfect day today to climb Pillsbury Mountain in the West Canada Lake Wilderness.  It was 50 degrees at the start and 55 at the finish.  We were accompanied by blue skies and nice breezes and no bugs.  This was much better than yesterday, when we were attacked by black flies most of the day.

 

Pillsbury rises to a height of 3579' and is on the list of the hundred highest mountains (#82) in New York.  There is a trail to the top and a fire tower that that still exists.  You cannot go into the cab at the top (it is locked), but you can climb to the top flight of stairs.

 

Parking is accessed by a seasonal gravel road which is typically open from early May until early December.  You can park at a clearing called Sled Harbor (which we did), or you can do what everybody else did and drive the remaining 1.1 miles to the trailhead parking area indicated on the map.  The last section of road is fairly rough, but there were 2 wheel drive cars with average clearance parked at the trailhead.

 

We took 20 minutes to walk the last section of road before beginning the foot trail to the summit.  It was a nice walk. 

 



The final stretch of road leading to the trailhead 

 

At the trailhead are actually 2 trails:  one leading to Pillsbury Mountain, and one leading toward Pillsbury and/or Cedar Lakes.  We signed in for Pillsbury.  There were 5 cars at the trailhead, but no-one else was headed to Pillsbury.  I was surprised.  We didn't see anyone on the trail all day. 

 

Trailhead register

 

 

Our destination

 

The trail immediately goes downhill for .1 miles, then crosses the Miami River before the uphill climb begins.  The trail is marked by red foot trail discs.

 

Foot bridge over the Miami River

 

The Miami River

 

White Trillium

 

I should know this flower name, but I don't

 

Once across the Miami River the trail climbs approximately 1300' in 1.6 miles.  There was some water on the trail in spots, but nothing too bad.  We made good progress and we found ourselves on the summit 1.5 hours from the time we left the car.

 

I climbed the tower first while Leesa stayed below with out dog Rev.  Rev had started to climb the stairs with me, but we turned her around.  It wouldn't be safe for her.  There are no views from the summit of the mountain itself, but once you are a couple flights up on the firetower, views open up to the east.  As you get near the top, views open up in all directions.  I especially liked the view to the North of Snowy Mountain and Lewey and Indian Lake.

 

 

Looking North from the firetower

 

A zoom look and Snowy Mountain from Pillsbury firetower

 

 

 

Pillsbury firetower

 

After I came down, Leesa ventured halfway up the tower before she had enough.  She's not to keen on heights, and the missing chicken wire that safeguards the steps sealed her decision to limit her views to those from the mid-point. 

 

Leesa enjoying the sun at the base of the firetower

 

We stayed on the summit for 30 minutes and had a snack and gave Rev some water.  The observers cabin still remains on the summit, but it is all boarded up.  

 

 

 

 I found to of the 3 geodetic survey markers, but the third and been removed by someone.

 

 

 

A survey marker originally near the observers cabin had been removed by someone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our route down was a quick return via the same route.  This would be a nice trip to take kids on.  The trail is not excessively steep.  From the trailhead,  it is only 3.2 miles roundtrip.  We enjoyed it.  It was a new peak for us, and another firetower which we had not been.  We thought about continuing our hike by heading towards Pillsbury Lake, but decided to head home and caught up on a couple things before starting the work week.

 

Hike Stats:

Hike Distance:  3.2 miles roundtrip (or 5.0 from Sled Harbor)

Hike Time:  2 hours, or 2 hours, 40 minutes from Sled Harbor)

Total Vertical Gain:   1300' (or 1700' from Sled Harbor)    

 

 

 

The route (click image to enlarge)

 

The National Geographic map