Split Rock Mountain, April 2008

[wildriver]

I don't post trip reports too often here. But with all this talk lately of the long wait for spring, I wanted to share some notes on where I was this past week.

Before I get into the details, take a look at the pictures first. These were all taken April 15-17, 2008, within the Adirondack Park. No joke.

[wildriver]

These pictures are from Split Rock Mountain on Lake Champlain, between Westport and Essex. I camped off-trail and spent Tuesday through Thursday exploring the entire trail system and a little bit of bushwhacking. The mountain tops out at little more than 1000 feet, and with its proximity to Lake Champlain I figured this would be one of the few snow-free places in the park this week.

I was right, for the most part. The northern trail loop, the one over the mountain, was relatively dry—partly because of the hardwood forest. The southern trail loop, near Barn Rock Bay, has many acres of pine-hemlock forests, and so the snow is a little more pervasive there. Everything on the lake side of the mountain is bare.

I found a patch of open ground near a good view of the lake, a stream for drinking water, and claimed it as my base camp. The only designated sites are along the shore, and only the one at Barn Rock Bay is directly accessible by trail. A second one north of Barn Rock can be reached by an easy bushwhack. I saw no recent campsites anywhere else, and I made sure mine was put back the way I found it when I left.

The ducks are plentiful, and I even heard a few loons. They all seemed to be biding their time until spring reached the interior Adirondacks. The ravens are plentiful. The lake-side ledges are also rattlesnake territory, just like the Tongue Mountain Range in Lake George. Yes, I did see a snake but it wasn’t a rattler.

The vistas of Vermont’s Green Mountains, both from the ledges and from lake level, are the best I’ve ever seen. The mountains looked pretty brown over there—compared to the High Peaks, which as you can see in one of the pictures still have a lot of snow.

[wildriver]

One other note:

If you go, be careful with curious dogs. I saw porcupine signs all over, almost as bad as the Catskills--including a dead one lying near one of the trail junctions. My dog has a long history with porcupines, and came away from this trip with two quills.

She still has one, in fact, because she won't let me come near it.

[Neil]

Exceptional! How many miles of hiking is it from the PA to the water?

[wildriver]

Originally Posted by Neil

Exceptional! How many miles of hiking is it from the PA to the water?

Not many, taking the most direct route. It was about 1.7 miles to the Snake Den Harbor Overlook, about 2.5 miles to Barn Rock Bay. You can probably rack up a good 10 miles doing the loop over Split Rock Mountain. I haven't analyzed all my GPS tracks yet.

You can see a map of the area here, on the very last page. Most of the trails are marked, but not all of the junctions have signs. The northernmost trailhead is a very pretty parking area with no trail (yet). The only developed trailhead is the middle one.

The area is small enough that you by no means need to backpack. I chose to because it's such a long drive for me to get there, so I wanted to linger for a few days. I was very glad I did.

[MattC]

Nice pics, especially the waterfall. I've looked at this place on the Nat Geo map, and it's been on my radar for a while. Ledges directly above Champlain sounds like a winning combo. Spotting a timber rattler would be a bonus. Are the hardwood areas mostly oak forests?

In your last pic with all the large stones, it looks as if some have drill marks. Do you know anything of the history of the area? Maybe a quarry? Or just an old stone wall? In the Shawangunks, large chunks of conglomerate were quarried to make mill wheels. They'd quarry a block, drill around the outline of a wheel, then I believe either pry or blast (or both) the wheel out. The blocks in your photo remind me a little of the unfinished blocks I've seen.

Matt

[wildriver]

Originally Posted by MattC

Nice pics, especially the waterfall. I've looked at this place on the Nat Geo map, and it's been on my radar for a while. Ledges directly above Champlain sounds like a winning combo. Spotting a timber rattler would be a bonus. Are the hardwood areas mostly oak forests?

In your last pic with all the large stones, it looks as if some have drill marks. Do you know anything of the history of the area? Maybe a quarry? Or just an old stone wall? In the Shawangunks, large chunks of conglomerate were quarried to make mill wheels. They'd quarry a block, drill around the outline of a wheel, then I believe either pry or blast (or both) the wheel out. The blocks in your photo remind me a little of the unfinished blocks I've seen.

Matt

The waterfall probably won't survive into summer. There were actually two, but the second was hard to see. Both are formed by a single small stream that forks into equal halves before reaching the cliffs. I expect that once the snow is gone, the stream will dry up. That was a place I bushwhacked to.

There was another stream in the same general area that disappeared into a chasm-like sinkhole, flowed underground for several hundred yards, and came out from under a hill near one of the trails.

Yes, there are a lot of oak forests along the ledges, as well as redcedar and hickory. Quite beautiful, really.

The rocks were from a nineteenth century quarry. At the time they thought the rock was granite, but it's really anorthosite. They built a cable car system to get the blocks down to a wharf on the lake in 1891, and on the very first try something went wrong and 4 men were killed. The company went bankrupt with the compensation claims.

[MattC]

Originally Posted by wildriver

The rocks were from a nineteenth century quarry. At the time they thought the rock was granite, but it's really anorthosite. They built a cable car system to get the blocks down to a wharf on the lake in 1891, and on the very first try something went wrong and 4 men were killed. The company went bankrupt with the compensation claims.

Ouch! What a disaster.

Anyway, thanks for the info. Interesting.

Matt

[DougPhoto]

The trails are excellently marked and maintained. We followed the Snake Den Harbor Overlook to arrive at a geocache site. Found cache in excellent condition. On our return walk we sidetracked on the trail leading to Lewis Clearing Bay. Well worth the trip.

Photos are view from cache site, Champ’s Wake (he is out there), and
Lewis Clearing Bay.