On Wednesday, I revisited a path that I hadn't seen in seven years; the County Line Brook path in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area. A late start helped me miss the school buses, but got me to the trailhead on Rt. 8 in Wells around 1000. I psyched myself up for the hardest chore of the day; wading across the East Branch of the Sacandaga River.
To say the water was "brisk", was an understatement. After drying off and zipping my pants back together, I didn't have to travel far to explored the first falls of the day. Right at the confluence of with the East Branch, County Line Brook tumbles over a nice ten foot ledge. You can sense the power as the water escapes the 350' gorge that it has just tumbled through to get to this point.
Adjacent to the first falls is a campsite that hadn't been used recently. All that waterfall noise, I guess.
Just past the campsite is a short path that, within 50 yds, brings you to the old road that heads up the valley.
The unmarked path is very easy to follow and has been impeccably maintained. It was free of blowdown and had "new" corduroy over the larger wet areas.
I occasionally glimpsed old blazes from days gone by
After a mile or so, I came to the second large waterfall. This one dropped in two tiers about the same height as the first. I was impressed on how the brook cut its way through these solid rock structures.
Back on the path, I walked another 20 minutes and came to the third waterfall of the day. Another solid 10-15 footer.
After a quick snack, I set out for my final destination; the large vly just upstream from the third set of waterfalls. First, I had to rock hop over the outlet stream for Buckhorn Lake.
A hundred yards past the creek crossing, the trail approached the southern end of the large vly approximately two miles from Rt. 8. I bushwhacked through some alders and hummocks and had a great view of the western slopes of the Blue Hills and Corner Mt. The colors were a little past, but it was still pretty impressive looking 1500' up to the top of the "Hill".
After gawking at the scenery for the appropriate amount of time, all that was left to do was walk back down the awesome path to the not-so-awesome crossing of the East Branch.
To say the water was "brisk", was an understatement. After drying off and zipping my pants back together, I didn't have to travel far to explored the first falls of the day. Right at the confluence of with the East Branch, County Line Brook tumbles over a nice ten foot ledge. You can sense the power as the water escapes the 350' gorge that it has just tumbled through to get to this point.
Adjacent to the first falls is a campsite that hadn't been used recently. All that waterfall noise, I guess.
Just past the campsite is a short path that, within 50 yds, brings you to the old road that heads up the valley.
The unmarked path is very easy to follow and has been impeccably maintained. It was free of blowdown and had "new" corduroy over the larger wet areas.
I occasionally glimpsed old blazes from days gone by
After a mile or so, I came to the second large waterfall. This one dropped in two tiers about the same height as the first. I was impressed on how the brook cut its way through these solid rock structures.
Back on the path, I walked another 20 minutes and came to the third waterfall of the day. Another solid 10-15 footer.
After a quick snack, I set out for my final destination; the large vly just upstream from the third set of waterfalls. First, I had to rock hop over the outlet stream for Buckhorn Lake.
A hundred yards past the creek crossing, the trail approached the southern end of the large vly approximately two miles from Rt. 8. I bushwhacked through some alders and hummocks and had a great view of the western slopes of the Blue Hills and Corner Mt. The colors were a little past, but it was still pretty impressive looking 1500' up to the top of the "Hill".
After gawking at the scenery for the appropriate amount of time, all that was left to do was walk back down the awesome path to the not-so-awesome crossing of the East Branch.
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