Woodhull FT approach

[Hoser]

Hi - curious on this approach, from CNY Hiking site (which is an awesome site btw:

"You can also drive your vehicle along the road on the right of the large McKeever parking area. This stone dirt road is called Wolf Lake Landing Road. You could drive this road up to another parking area that cuts a lot off from the long hike, although it's still at least a 9+ mile round trip hike. You can still use your bike from this trailhead as well. Take the blue marked Remsen Falls Trail a short 0.1 miles to the main Woodhull Mountain Trail. Turn right and follow the blue marked Woodhull Mountain Trail, which utilizes an old railroad bed for nearly four miles."

So, drive about 3 miles, then bike how many? and hike how many miles?
Any gates or seasonal road closures (other than natural like snow of course)?
What kind of bike? Gravel bike ok? Or true Mt bike needed? Is it really pretty flat ? What else do I need to know? Probably a spring trip, pre-black fly, not now during hunting.

Thanks!

[2505]

From http://www.adkhighpeaks.com/forums/f...od-dull-8-7-15


Investing the time to trek fifteen miles to climb this particular mountain sounded silly in my opinion. Thankfully, the unique feature of the long trek to Woodhull is that the first 5.5 miles of the approach is on a multi-use trail that you can bike in on. That biking probably shaved a good hour and fifteen minutes of walking in each direction. But... I am not a mountain biker. Repeat... I am not a mountain biker. The equipment I brought with me to accomplish this task was my crappy old Huffy I purchased at Walmart for like $79 over 15 years ago. In a past life I used it as a beach bike when I spent a lot of time on Cape Cod. The forks are bent, the brakes don't work too well, it weighs far too much, and the salt air had its way with the various finishes. And taking it off-road yesterday revealed its major design flaw: the shock from every bump it hit in the road shot up through my "undercarriage" until I didn't think I could stand it any more. Horribly uncomfortable but I only needed to make it eleven miles with this heap before returning it to my sporting goods graveyard.

The road, or should I say left rut and right rut, is almost flat the entire way. A few very small ups and downs but generally flat. Though flat, it's bumpy, rocky, full of branches, grown-in in places, and generally miserable. What the road lacks in comfort it makes up for in... hmmm... I guess it doesn't make up for it. The ride in on the bike is a total snooze but it's straight-forward and it goes by quick enough. Covered the 5.5 miles in a snail-like 50 minutes and finally reached the end of the road. You know you're there when you come to a small clearing with a large boulder on the left side then go down a small incline to a brook with a bridge spanning it. I chained the bike to a tree in the woods and proceeded on foot. In hindsight I should have left it unchained and hoped a deep woods bike thief would steal it.

The climb to the summit/ fire tower from the bridge is 2.0 miles with 750 feet of elevation gain. There's nothing tricky or difficult about the trail. In fact, the most interesting things along the way are the trail markers. Let's see... blue, yellow, bottom of tin cans painted red, and long metal rectangular ones. Bridge to summit in exactly 45 minutes.

[Hoser]

Very helpful thanks! Anyone know about gates and/or driving down the gravel road to the interior lot, cutting some biking? On the other hand, if the gravel road is ok, maybe biking would be ok, and different!

[montcalm]

I think you can park at the Remsen falls parking area and that will cut off about 5 miles RT.

The gravel road is not gated during the summer and is very good to drive on. You can drive almost all the way to Woodhull lake before you hit some more gates.

[Hoser]

Excellent!

[bridgeman]

The road is open to Woodhull Lake through hunting season or until overtaken by snow, then the gate is closed at the main lot 1/4 mile past the RR XING. The gate is reopened in the spring after frost is out of the ground.

From the main lot, if you stay left there is another lot close by on the old road bed. You can walk or bike from here, or drive the road towards Woodhull Lake 3 miles to the small parking area for Remsen Falls on the left. There is a gate which provides access to a handicap site near Remsen Falls. From here it's about 2.6 miles to the end of the old road and about as far as you can go on the bike. The bridge mentioned is over Ravens Run. Two miles to the summit of Woodhull Mountain from here. If you follow Ravens run downstream to the confluence with Moose River, there is a nice grassy campsite on the bank of the river.

I've skied, biked, walked and ran the old road in all kinds of weather and don't ever remember running into other people beyond Remsen Falls.

[Banjoe]

I've tried skiing this twice but lack of broken trail in very deep snow stopped me both times. I made it to Remsen Falls on one attempt and since I was camped at Bear Lake it made for a nice round trip. If the weather cooperates I hope to make another attempt by bike in November.

[DSettahr]

When I did Woodhull, for added flavor I combined it with an overnight on Woodhull Lake. There is a very nice lean-to there, not far from the end of the road at the north end of the lake.

Also, while the Nat Geo maps don't yet show it, there is a relatively new lean-to nearby on Bear Lake. I stayed there on a later trip (when I hiked up into the area from North Lake to the south). That is also a nice lean-to, set back from the water but the fire pit is built up against a broad boulder in front of the lean-to.

Perhaps most conducive to turning Woodhull Mountain into an overnight, there is also a designated tent site near the base of the mountain. At the end of the old road portion of the hike (the spot where most people on bike abandon their bicycles and continue on foot), there is a stream crossing and an old clearing. The designated tent site is located a short distance upstream (south) from the trail. Fair warning for those planning trips here in the fall- when I visited the area 8 years ago, it was pretty obvious at the time that the site gets used for a permit hunting camp during hunting season.

There's also 2 or 3 designated tent sites at Remsen Falls on the Moose River, a short walk in from the road to Woodhull Lake. There is a lean-to on the north side of the river here, but you'd have to ford the river to get to it (or carry in a boat to cross with).