Main stream near crossing point in beaver vly

The following is an account of day two of my epic hike from Wanakena, NY to Stillwater Reservoir, Cranberry Lake and then back to Wanakena. The entire trip required backpacking via trail into the heart of the Five Ponds Wilderness, a lengthy bushwhack to the northern terminus of the Red Horse Trail and another trail hike, and then a short bushwhack to Gun Harbor on Stillwater Reservoir. The trip back followed a similar route except heading to Cranberry Lake before returning to Wanakena. The second day consisted of hiking by trail a short distance followed by bushwhacking along a stream to an pond within the interior of the Five Ponds Wilderness.

Woke to wet and windy conditions with dark foreboding skies overhead. The rain from the night before had soaked the ground and all the low-lying vegetation around the Wolf Pond lean-to, luckily the wind rid the tree foliage of most of its wetness. I listened to the weather report on the radio and got only a glimmer of hope as the forecast was for rain in the AM, shifting to just a chance of rain in the afternoon. Oh yeah, and windy. Oh, joy. With the skies continuing to darken, I decided to stay put at the lean-to for the morning and reevaluate the conditions around noon. As the morning continued, the skies alternated between lightening up and darkening but around 11 AM some of the clouds broke and I even witnessed some rays of sunlight hitting the ground behind the lean-to. I scrambled to get my stuff packed and set off for the bushwhack portion of my trip at around 12:15 PM.

I returned to junction of the Cage Lake Trail with the Five Ponds Trail and turned south on the trail toward Sand Lake. After following the trail through a mature mixed forest, I continued on through a wet area that required navigating on slick and moss covered logs. While precariously crossing the logs, the sound of rushing water was clearly audible well before reaching the Wolf Pond inlet crossing. Although in the past this roaring stream was easily crossed despite its threatening roar, this was definitely not the case this time. The stream was not very wide here but it flowed through a small flume before cascading over a tumble of rocks on a very steep slope before meandering through a forest toward Wolf. There was no bridge here, not even a log or two to cross on. Usually it is an easy jump down from one rock to another but at this time the water levels were considerably higher and the intensity of the flow was only surpassed its roar as it flowed over the rocks. To cross I would have to jump down to a moss-covered rock that was sloping toward the water where the flow was its most intense right just before flowing down through the boulders to the valley below. Instantly I recalled my frequently given speech about risk management to those who question the wisdom of bushwhacking alone and it kept replaying in my head as I contemplated the current predicament I found myself in. Could I make the jump with a 40+ lbs pack and not slip down the sloped rock into the flow and be carried over the edge through the jumble of rocks where my limp and lifeless body would be left for others to discover? Or would I have to cancel my trip and spend the next week hiking through a trail system I have hiked countless times before?

Finally, after several minutes of contemplation, an idea came to me. Duh, just bushwhack upstream and cross at a less dangerous place. Since I was going to follow the stream almost the entire way to the Riley Ponds anyway, this minor detour would have little impact on my route. The vegetation and blowdown were very dense here on this side of the stream so I moved down the trail back toward the trail junction to the mature and mostly hardwood forest existed beyond the wet area (point 1 on accompanying map) and chose a bearing directly to where three different streams came together upstream. This should be the easiest place for a crossing, I told myself. When I reached the northern most tributary I started thinking about turning back for the day; the stream was still raging and there were no clear crossing places. Finally I was able to cross on a large downed log spanning the width of the stream even with its currently expanded banks (point 2). After crossing the first stream, I continued south skirting the multitude of puddles present with the intention of crossing the second tributary. Soon I encountered the main stream (point 3) without ever realizing I crossed the second tributary (perhaps those puddle WERE the second stream). I followed the main stream through the forest until just before it entered a beaver vly where I was able to cross on a wet log practically at the water level (point 4). This put me on the west side of the main stream heading south toward the Riley Ponds.

Beaver vly along stream

As I headed south, I traveled through two different mushy beaver meadows each containing numerous areas of crushed grass. The crushed grass was clearly the bedding areas of white-tailed deer given their size, the number of them located in close proximity to each other and the deer feces scattered about in the grass. At the northern edge of the second beaver meadow I stopped and ate my lunch off in the woods where I could find a relatively dry spot to sit down on (point 6). By the end of lunch it was 3:30 PM and I still had quite a way to go before reaching the upper Riley Pond. There was an occasional small blowdown to contend with as I continued south staying in the forest bordering the stream where wet herbaceous vegetation was at a minimum. The skies alternated between patches of blue sky and threatening dark clouds as I continued following the stream southward. The occasional breaks of sun did a great deal to boost my spirits.

Upper Riley Pond

After crossing the Streeter Fishpond outlet (point 9), which was a very small stream here, I continued up through the drainage from upper Ripley Pond (point 10). This drainage contained a small trickle of a stream (not present on the USGS topographical map), which I crossed numerous times as I approached upper Ripley. By 5:20 PM I arrived at upper Ripley (point 11), a small pond surrounded by conifers, including some large white pines along its northern shores. A hooded merganser and another unidentified duck were observed floating out in the water while spring peepers and green frogs called along the shores. The mosquitoes seemed especially vicious here. I scouted along the northeastern shore for a good campsite but found only fairly dense spruce, with it getting denser closer to the inlet stream from lower Ripley.

My eventual campsite was in the conifers, set back a good ways from the northeastern shore (point 12). It was on a slightly sloped site that looked surprisingly level when I first selected it. By 8 PM the skies were mostly clear and despite the weather forecast of 30-40% chance of rain until Thursday, I remained optimistic that tomorrow would be a nice day.

Silly me.

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