Sunshine Pond

I journeyed back into the heart of the Pepperbox Wilderness of the Adirondack State Park to once again try my luck at the Audubon Society’s Birdathon. The Birdathon is a challenge to locate as many bird species as possible in a single 24-hour period. This would be my second attempt to perform the Birdathon in the Pepperbox Wilderness. The first day included a walk along a dirt road, a hike using an old hunters trail and a bushwhack to Sunshine Pond for the night.

Date: May 20, 2011
Length: 3.0 miles
Difficulty: Easy

Another late start had me arriving at Stillwater Reservoir at about 5 PM just after a recent rainfall. The sky was dark with threatening clouds as I drove down the Necessary Dam Road until reaching the trailhead parking at its terminus. It started lightly raining so I took my time with some last minute planning.

Signs of the wet early spring were everywhere. The Beaver River was flowing about a foot or two below the bottom of the bridge and the current looked fairly swift judging by the ripples left along the bridge supports. In the forest surrounding the handicapped-accessible campsite there were several puddles of water, while in the outhouse the pit was filled water. I searched around for a handle to flush it but found none.

It took me roughly 30 minutes to get packed up and ready to go. The black flies came on quickly as if they were eager to get a taste of the fresh meat before their prey moved on without them. Finally the rain started tapering off and an occasional patch of blue sky would appear briefly before being gobbled up by the gray clouds. It appeared a little too much like the beginning of last year’s Birdathon trip for comfort.

With the rain stopped and some ephemeral blue sky appearing I started up Raven Lake Road at about 5:30 PM. My goal was to get in and set up camp between Sunshine and Deer Ponds before sunset and try to get to bed early to be ready for an aggressive day of bushwhacking and birding on the day of the big event.

Beaver River Bridge

The hike started by crossing the bridge over the Beaver River and heading north along the Raven Lake Road. Raven Lake Road is a limited access dirt road meandering northwest to a private inholding on Raven Lake. It is the demarcation line between the Five Ponds Wilderness to the east and the Pepperbox Wilderness to the west. The road continues on well past Raven Lake as a trail allowing access to many lakes and ponds of the southwestern Five Ponds.

The mile hike up the road passed swiftly even though I took my time to ensure I was fully stretched out before hitting the old hunter’s trail I was using for the second segment of my trip. Based on my plans the hike in was about evenly split between the Raven Lake Road, the old hunter’s trail and a bushwhack to the peninsula between Sunshine and Deer Ponds.

It was a little passed 6 PM when I arrived at the hunter’s trail on the west side of the road just passed where the road crosses a major stream and before a large meadow appeared to the west. Given the late hour I did not dawdle here and started up the trail to the north soon after arriving. The trail is easily followed near its southern terminus but becomes a little more difficult as one heads northwards.

Within 20 minutes I was at a beaver pond nestled within a grove of spruce/fir. Since I have passed here numerous times and daylight was quickly dwindling, I did not bother stopping for long.

As I continued northward there were a few places I had to stop and look around for slashes cut into the stems of trees to find where the trail continued. Despite the difficulty following the path in several places I started to approach a second pond within a short amount of time.

Raven Lake Road

At this point I knew the trail crossed through a boggy and open wetland at the southern end of this second pond but before I reached this point I left the path and headed east through a hardwood forest. Typically, I lost the trail along the western end of this second beaver pond and then ended up pushing my way through thick coniferous forest to get to Sunshine Pond. So this time I decided to attempt to stay to higher ground (and potentially easier to traverse hardwood forests) east of the beaver pond.

This plan worked out quite well as the going was much easier. I clipped the edge of a smaller pond to the east and found a long busted dam had provided me with a very easy to traverse beaver meadow filled with old stumps. The open area was dry enough that I could follow along the edge for its entire length.

After leaving the beaver meadow, the going was fairly easy as I stayed parallel to the elevation contours until reaching the southern end of Sunshine Pond. It was 7:40 PM and after viewing the pond for a few minutes I set my mind to finding an adequate campsite for the night. On the ridge between Sunshine and Deer Ponds I found an opening within the tree canopy, which based on the emerging vegetation is usually full of bracken ferns during the summer. I set up my campsite for the night in a small flattish area near the edge of the clearing.

Beaver Meadow in Pepperbox Wilderness

While setting up my tarp I noticed through an opening in the canopy a rainbow over Sunshine Pond. At about the same time I also heard thunder to the north. Unfortunately I was not able to make it through my entire dinner before it started to rain and I had to retire under the tarp to finish the remainder of my meal.

Soon after finishing my dinner the rumbles of thunder became more intense and the lightening lit up the now totally dark skies. The storm must have been traveling swiftly since the rumbles of thunder became more distant and soon after I retired into my sleeping bag at around 9 PM.

Southern Sunshine Pond

I wanted to get an early start tomorrow for the Birdathon, hoping to do better than the previous year’s count of species. With an aggressive route planned for the big day, I was certain it would be a very long day.

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