DSettahr
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My friend Sarah and I just completed the High Falls Loop plus a side trip up Cat Mountain over two days earlier this week.
We started on Wednesday by taking the Dead Creek Trail from Wanakena. This trail follows the grade of an old logging railroad until it reaches Cranberry Lake, and was in pretty good shape and easy going. We encountered a porcupine on the trail who didn't really pay us much attention. I guess with protection like they have, you can afford to be indifferent to what you encounter in the woods. After Cranberry Lake, the trail becomes a bit more rugged and muddy, but is still in fairly good shape.
We took a quick side trip down to the lean-to at Janack's Landing. It looks like this lean-to gets a pretty high level of use, which isn't surprising seeing as it's right on Cranberry Lake.
After Cranberry Lake, the trail climbs to the junction with the Cranberry Lake 50. Here, we took a 1.5 mile side trip east on the CL50 to climb Cat Mountain. Along the way we passed Glasby Pond, which has a designated camp site on it. It's an alright site, nothing spectacular though. Cat Mountain itself is an easy climb with switchbacks near the top- we didnt even need to drop our packs. The mountain was well worth the 3 miles it added to our hike in to High Falls, the views from the top are pretty decent. To the east, we could see vague outlines of the High Peaks in the clouds.
We returned to the junction with the Dead Creek Trail, and continued west on the CL50 through The Plains. We could see old boardwalks out in the plains from the old trail, but it looked like it would be difficult to follow. The trail through this section again was somewhat muddy in spots, but overall in good shape and easy to follow. Upon hitting the High Falls Truck Trail, it was an easy half mile to High Falls itself.
Upon reaching the falls, the water was low enough that we were able to get across to the other side to check out the lean-to there. (Definitely wouldn't attempt this during high water, or even plan on being able to cross the river here!) It's located a little bit downstream of the falls. There are a lot of herd paths on the western shore that made finding the lean-to there a bit confusing.
Upon returning to the eastern shore, we set up camp in the lean-to there. One thing about High Falls: there is no firewood anywhere. Thanks to the microburst, all of the dead wood on the ground is nearly 15 years old, and is rotten and wet. The new growth has not yet reached the stage where it starts to heavily out compete itself resulting in tree mortality, so very few trees have died or lot limbs within the last 14 years. High Falls also looks like it gets a fair amount of camping use, judging from the number of campsites nearby the lean-tos, which doesnt help the situation any more.
In the morning, we got up and spent some time taking pictures of the area before we packed up and headed out. We decided to take the Truck Trail back. This follows the bed of a railroad grade the entire way, and is incredibly flat. It does however go through some very nice pine, fir, tamarack, and spruce forests. It was flooded in a couple of spots, but we were easily able to get through all but one of the flooded spots by walking on branches that hikers had placed in the flooded areas or crossing on beaver dams. The one spot that we couldnt get through, we were able to bushwhack around on high dry ground easily enough. We passed a couple of nice campsites at spots where the Oswegatchie River came close to the trail.
We stopped for lunch at High Rock, which is interesting in that it seems to be the only significant land form surrounded by excessive flatness. There was a decent campsite there, but it definitely was not protected from the wind, which was starting the pick up. The day had started out nice and sunny, but was now looking ominous.
We made it back to the trailhead just as the skies opened up and it started to pour. Perfect timing!
This was my first trip into the Five Ponds Wilderness. I really liked the forest cover there- white pine is one of my favorite trees and it was nice to see so much of it scattered around. There is still a lot of evidence of the microburst- we could see hilltops covered in dead trees from the summit of Cat Mountain, and there were fallen trees everywhere through the woods. At High Falls during dusk, the whole area felt very ominous and foreboding, which was kind of cool. The trails, however, were all very clear and in excellent shape for the most part. Junctions were well marked. Trail markers were few and far between, but the trails are so easy to follow that markers aren't really needed for navigation.
Does anyone know where at High Falls the hotel was? We were able to spot the northern terminus of the trail to it (where it left the Truck Trail north of High Rock) but we couldnt find the southern terminus (where it rejoined the Truck Trail just north of High Falls).
Pictures Here!
We started on Wednesday by taking the Dead Creek Trail from Wanakena. This trail follows the grade of an old logging railroad until it reaches Cranberry Lake, and was in pretty good shape and easy going. We encountered a porcupine on the trail who didn't really pay us much attention. I guess with protection like they have, you can afford to be indifferent to what you encounter in the woods. After Cranberry Lake, the trail becomes a bit more rugged and muddy, but is still in fairly good shape.
We took a quick side trip down to the lean-to at Janack's Landing. It looks like this lean-to gets a pretty high level of use, which isn't surprising seeing as it's right on Cranberry Lake.
After Cranberry Lake, the trail climbs to the junction with the Cranberry Lake 50. Here, we took a 1.5 mile side trip east on the CL50 to climb Cat Mountain. Along the way we passed Glasby Pond, which has a designated camp site on it. It's an alright site, nothing spectacular though. Cat Mountain itself is an easy climb with switchbacks near the top- we didnt even need to drop our packs. The mountain was well worth the 3 miles it added to our hike in to High Falls, the views from the top are pretty decent. To the east, we could see vague outlines of the High Peaks in the clouds.
We returned to the junction with the Dead Creek Trail, and continued west on the CL50 through The Plains. We could see old boardwalks out in the plains from the old trail, but it looked like it would be difficult to follow. The trail through this section again was somewhat muddy in spots, but overall in good shape and easy to follow. Upon hitting the High Falls Truck Trail, it was an easy half mile to High Falls itself.
Upon reaching the falls, the water was low enough that we were able to get across to the other side to check out the lean-to there. (Definitely wouldn't attempt this during high water, or even plan on being able to cross the river here!) It's located a little bit downstream of the falls. There are a lot of herd paths on the western shore that made finding the lean-to there a bit confusing.
Upon returning to the eastern shore, we set up camp in the lean-to there. One thing about High Falls: there is no firewood anywhere. Thanks to the microburst, all of the dead wood on the ground is nearly 15 years old, and is rotten and wet. The new growth has not yet reached the stage where it starts to heavily out compete itself resulting in tree mortality, so very few trees have died or lot limbs within the last 14 years. High Falls also looks like it gets a fair amount of camping use, judging from the number of campsites nearby the lean-tos, which doesnt help the situation any more.
In the morning, we got up and spent some time taking pictures of the area before we packed up and headed out. We decided to take the Truck Trail back. This follows the bed of a railroad grade the entire way, and is incredibly flat. It does however go through some very nice pine, fir, tamarack, and spruce forests. It was flooded in a couple of spots, but we were easily able to get through all but one of the flooded spots by walking on branches that hikers had placed in the flooded areas or crossing on beaver dams. The one spot that we couldnt get through, we were able to bushwhack around on high dry ground easily enough. We passed a couple of nice campsites at spots where the Oswegatchie River came close to the trail.
We stopped for lunch at High Rock, which is interesting in that it seems to be the only significant land form surrounded by excessive flatness. There was a decent campsite there, but it definitely was not protected from the wind, which was starting the pick up. The day had started out nice and sunny, but was now looking ominous.
We made it back to the trailhead just as the skies opened up and it started to pour. Perfect timing!
This was my first trip into the Five Ponds Wilderness. I really liked the forest cover there- white pine is one of my favorite trees and it was nice to see so much of it scattered around. There is still a lot of evidence of the microburst- we could see hilltops covered in dead trees from the summit of Cat Mountain, and there were fallen trees everywhere through the woods. At High Falls during dusk, the whole area felt very ominous and foreboding, which was kind of cool. The trails, however, were all very clear and in excellent shape for the most part. Junctions were well marked. Trail markers were few and far between, but the trails are so easy to follow that markers aren't really needed for navigation.
Does anyone know where at High Falls the hotel was? We were able to spot the northern terminus of the trail to it (where it left the Truck Trail north of High Rock) but we couldnt find the southern terminus (where it rejoined the Truck Trail just north of High Falls).
Pictures Here!
