Adirondacks Part 2

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Macomb Reservation State Park had been working out well as our home near the Adirondacks. Since the first part of our stay was over the Fourth of July, it got close to full for a few days but then went back to ~50% occupancy. Having had a busy day of hiking and sightseeing in Lake Placid, we were looking for a less strenuous day of exploration. The town of Willsboro is only about a 25 mile drive from camp. The Boquet River Nature Preserve has a little over 100 acres close to downtown with a few miles of hiking trails. There are also about a dozen geocaches hidden in the preserve, so we felt it would be a good choice. Parking for the trailhead was not super obvious but we found it and started the hike. It was a rather hot and humid day so the fact that we were mostly in the woods, it was tolerable. Of course being near the river meant that there was water and plenty of bugs. We got in a few miles of hiking and found 7 of the 10 caches we attempted.

Trail Along Boquet River

After a day of rest, we headed out for a more substantial hike. The Bear Den via Flume Loop trail is listed as “hard” and just under 1700 feet of elevation gain. It is one of many trails that are near the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center partway between camp and Lake Placid. Since this will be a challenging hike for us, we get a fairly early start and are on the trail just after 9:30. The trail starts out with the loop portion of the hike. It wasn’t clear it matters which direction the loop is done so we head left to go in a clockwise direction and get to enjoy the views of the West Branch Ausable River.

River View

Fly Fishing the River

There is a section of the trail that has a small pond on one side and the river on the other side. It appears that the pond is the handy work of beaver and almost seemed to be above the trail. There were a few wet or muddy sections but nothing too bad.

Beaver Pond?

Nice Pond Reflections

About 2/3 of a mile in, the trail diverges with the river and begins to climb in elevation. We hadn’t really studied the trail that much so at 1 mile when we came out into a huge parking lot, we were a bit surprised. It appears to be one of the parking lots for the ski resort and houses a lot of equipment and supplies in the non-winter months. It wasn’t perfectly obvious where the trail continued on the other side of the parking lot, but our trail map helped us make a B-line to the official start of the Bear Den Mountain Trail. It also looks like there were some hiker vehicles parked here which would have made for a slightly less hard route.

Mushroom

Ski Resort Parking Lot

We have only gained about 300 feet in elevation so far which means we have nearly 1400 feet more in the 1.5 miles to the summit putting it at an average grade of almost 18%. As we started up, we kept noticing the trail markers reminding us this is a “more difficult” route. My legs and lungs were in complete agreement!

Trail Marker

Bridge in Woods

Small Stream Flowing

I was able to find plenty things to take pictures of on the way up to give me the opportunity to catch my breath. The colorful mushrooms sprouting out of the small slits in the bark of a fallen white birch tree we quite unusual.

Mushrooms in Birch Bark

Decorative Fungi

More Orange Mushrooms

The last stretch to the summit had some very steep rock climbs to get up and over. Fortunately they were nice and firmly anchored in the ground and had good traction it wasn't like we felt we were going to slip and fall. It took us about two and a half hours to get to the large rock outcropping that was the summit of Bear Mountain but the views were amazing and the effort seemed worth it.

Chris Agrees - More Difficult

View from Bear Den Summit

Across the valley is Whiteface and Little Whiteface Mountains. We could see the ski runs and the char lifts as well as some large structure on the top of Whiteface. We sat down and enjoyed our PB&J sandwiches as we took in the views. We spent nearly an hour relaxing in the sun on what was a perfect weather day.

Building Atop Whiteface Mountain

Chris at Lunch Spot

Jack Poses with Whiteface and Little Whiteface in Background

We had the mountain to ourselves. We didn’t see anybody on the trail as we came up or the whole time we were enjoying the view. We even made it down to the split where we headed left to continue clockwise on the loop portion of the hike before we ran into another hiker. She was coming back from a hike to a different peak and wanted to make sure she was heading the right way. We told each other about the summits we had done but we all felt one summit of this magnitude was enough for a day. We enjoyed the backside of the beaver pond and discovered that some of these trails in this part of the woods are open to mountain biking and almost looked like trails we could handle. The frog in a shallow puddle was one of my favorite pictures of the hike.

Intricate Fungi

Butterfly Lands by Trail

Frog Blends In

As we got back to the car, even though we were dead tired, we were drawn to the sound of the river near the parking lot. While investigating from the bridge, we noticed there was a hiking trail on the other side of the river so we decided to to check it out.

View of River from Bridge

Water Gushes Through Chasm

The water had cut a deep chasm in the rock and was rushing thru it with incredible force.

More Falls

Much Calmer Here

As we continued down stream, we started to hear some voices and scream in the distance. Then we hear what sounds like large splashes. Given how forceful the water was through the flume section, it didn’t seem likely there would be anybody willing to jump into the water. But as we come around one bend, we see what had to be nearly 30 young kids and a handful of adults. They were playing in the water but a large number of them were climbing up the rock ledges on the opposite side of the river from us and taking turns jumping in.

Large Group at River's edge

Jumping from Cliff

From our vantage point, it wasn’t at all clear that there was a deep enough pool of water beneath them to be diving into, but one after another, they would jump, scream and splash while the adults looked on. It looked like the highest point that they jumped from was on the order of 20 to 25 feet. We sat and watched for several minutes before we take the third mile or so hike back up the hill to the car. This was a very tiring but beautiful hike.

More Cliff Diving

Long Line Waiting Their Turn

After the long hike, we probably needed a day off, but the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryll was headed our way and the weather was to get messy for a day or so with potential flooding. So we take advantage of the nice weather the day before it arrives to tackle a hike to the southwest of camp about a 15 mile drive. Silver Lake Mountain Trail is listed as 1.8 miles out and back with 900 feet of elevation gain. There were a few other cars at the trailhead when we arrived and started the ascent. Even though there were rocky sections and some parts with mostly tree roots to avoid tripping over, it seemed to be easier than yesterday’s hike. We passed several groups of hikers heading down and they all told us the views were worth the effort. The strange thing was we seemed to count more people heading down than there were seats for in the vehicles below?

Starting Up Trail

Exposed Rock Trail

Rocky and Steep

Steep with Roots

We pushed on and eventually made it to the first large outcropping with a view of Silver Lake below. We took the opportunity to have lunch here, find the one geocache nearby and pick lots of wild blueberries. We were able to make use of one of our spare baggies to serve as a container for them. These wild berries were fairly small so it took a great deal of picking to even get a cup or so.

First View of Silver Lake

Small Pond Should Have Moose!

Blueberry Bush

Our Meager Blueberry Haul

Our trail map showed that the trail continued along the edge of the cliff for another half mile. We found the opening to a much fainter trail and start our journey.

Minor Trail to Second Overlook

Mushroom

It turned out that a similar rock outcropping existed here as well but this viewpoint provides for a clearer view of the lake below. In the distance we can spot the summit of Whiteface Mountain again.

Better Silver Lake View

Whiteface Mountain

We head back down and run into a few more hikers that had come up by now. It was an easy walk back to the car to have lunch before driving over to the nearby Silver Lake Bog Preserve.

Butterfly

Entrance Sign at Bog

This trail starts out as a nice boardwalk over the bog. There wasn’t a lot of wildlife but we did spot a small snake skimming on top of the water. There was a geocache hidden near a bench on the boardwalk. But after spending 20 minutes looking for it and nearly falling in the water attempting to see underneath the boardwalk, we gave up and continued to the trail section of the 2.2 mile out and back hike.

Snake on Water

Start of Trail to The Bluffs

There was only about 300 feet of elevation gain but it was steep enough at points to make it slow going. At the bluff is a great view of Silver Lake below.

Mushrooms Along Trail

At the Bluffs

There is a nice wooden staircase that leads down to another rock outcropping with a better view. We enjoy a snack and slowly work our way back the trail and boardwalk to get back to camp and see what Beryll has in store for us.

Set of Stairs

Silver Lake

The storm did give us a fair amount of rain as it came through the park but nothing too drastic. However when we check the news, St Johnsbury Vermont received nearly 5 inches of rain in just 24 hours and had caused some major flooding. Why would we care about a different town? Well we have reservations for the month of August in a campground in the area. From what we can tell of road closures in the area, it looked like our campground might have been spared but we will need to call since we will be there in just over 3 weeks.