William Blake Pond is located near Thirteenth Lake in North River, NY and is part of the 114,000 acre Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area. It is a popular hiking destination. In the early 1900s the water from the pond was piped downhill to Frank Hooper’s Vanning Jig. The jig used a lot of water to separate garnet from the hornblende and feldspar stone in which it was encased.
But exactly who was this William Blake for whom the pond was named?
The Siamese Pond Trail Improvement Society and community volunteers repaired the accessible trail and picnic area at Thirteenth Lake in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness this fall. The trail was severely eroded during the 2019 Halloween storm. DEC purchased the necessary materials while volunteers supplied wheelbarrows, rakes, and a bucket loader.
The .1-mile hardened path from the Thirteenth Lake trailhead to the shore of Thirteenth Lake provides access to an accessible hand launch and four accessible tent sites.
DEC thanks the Siamese Pond Trail Improvement Society for their continued commitment to trail work and community improvement and the local volunteers who helped complete this project.
DEC photo
A student at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is conducting a capstone project about daily use of Siamese Ponds Wilderness. The research is focused on scenic quality of wilderness and wilderness use by residents and visitors.
The survey is anonymous and can be found here.
Again this early morning
I leave the kitchen light off
as I eat my cold cereal with milk
to re-mind me of our long ago
days at our Adirondack cabin
that promised an imminent
fishing trip to the backwoods
with each year’s hoped-for surprise
finds of new beaver work there
thrilling to Trout’s tug on our line
in this communion of the saints
my brother Matt holds the chalice
and then produces the bread
from his shoulder-slung creel.
Peaked Mountain, with an elevation of 2,919 feet, is a modest sized mountain located north-west of Thirteenth Lake in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Just before the creek (0.85 miles), the trail turns away from the lake and follows up the stream valley on a generally gentle grade. This part of the hike is a very nice walk in the woods. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, on Thursday, July 13th, 2017. The meeting will include the renewal of a general permit for utility companies operating in wetlands, amendments to the Blue Mountain Wild Forest, Jessup River Wild Forest and Siamese Ponds Wilderness management plans, and the Buck Pond and Caroga Lake state campgrounds.
Also, the Adirondack Watershed Institute’s boat launch stewardship program and a discussion of aquatic invasive species invasion pathways, and a presentation by Dave Mason and Jim Herman on the past six years of strategic planning vision ideas. » Continue Reading.
Although most of the Adirondack hut-to-hut discussion lately has focused on Boreas Ponds as the state considers the classification of the Forest Preserve land, another route is much closer to becoming reality: the North Creek-Indian Lake traverse with a Hudson Gorge rafting trip.
Jack Drury of Leading E.D.G.E, who with Joe Dadey and Duane Gould prepared the 2015 hut-to-hut plan for the five towns of Long Lake, Newcomb, Indian Lake, Minerva, and North Hudson for the Department of Environmental Conservation, called it the low-hanging fruit of the report and believes it will be ready by summer 2018. » Continue Reading.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released Draft Amendments for the Blue Mountain Wild Forest Unit Management Plan (UMP) and the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and Jessup River Wild Forest UMPs. DEC and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) are reviewing the two Draft Amendments concurrently and holding a combined, joint public comment period on the proposals in the Draft Amendments.
According to DEC : “These UMP amendments propose projects that will provide safe access to communications facilities, protect important wildlife habitat, and improve the outdoor recreation experience within all three units. These amendments also propose new trails that connect the Forest Preserve to local communities, as recommended by three regional trail plans recently completed by DEC and its partners: North Country National Scenic Trail – Adirondack Park Trail Plan; Conceptual Plan for a Hut-to-Hut Destination-based Trail System for the Five Towns of Long Lake, Newcomb, Indian Lake, Minerva, and North Hudson; and Great South Woods Complex Planning Strategy and Recommendations.” » Continue Reading.
To really understand this story, you have to bear in mind two distinctive things about North Creek.
One, it butts up against the mountains much tighter than most Adirondack communities. Start on the path that runs beside Town Hall (within sight of the Hudson), and within minutes you’re climbing steeply up Gore Mountain, entering one of the largest wilderness complexes in the Park. » Continue Reading.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people from the Adirondack backcountry.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers in the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people from the Adirondack backcountry.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers in the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.
After 10 years of planning, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has approved the Adirondack Park Trail Plan for the North Country National Scenic Trail (NC-NST), effective October 10.
The plan routes the projected 4,600-mile National Scenic Trail through the middle of the Adirondack Park. The NC-NST traverses the northern tier of the United States between Crown Point State Historic Site on Lake Champlain and Lake Sakakawea State Park on the Missouri River in North Dakota. About 2,700 miles of the trail have been completed so far. Within the Adirondack Park, the trail is expected to be about 158 miles long when complete, between Forestport in Oneida County and Crown Point. » Continue Reading.
In geological lore Crane Mountain is a monolith, “one rock.” From our Mateskared cabin porch in Bakers Mills Crane is “the view.” Up close and personal, Crane harbors a pond. The summit once had a staffed fire tower, but aircraft surveillance and then satellite monitoring made it obsolete.
Until I saw Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California, I found it difficult to grasp Crane as one rock, partly because forests and blueberry plants cover much of Crane. When I sit up there and look across the pond to low cliffs on the far shore, wonder if this diverse scene can be set on one rock? But is not all Earth one rock — its bump-and-grind lithosphere, at least? We are all campers and sojourners on one rock? » Continue Reading.
Never leaving a man behind is a common motto in the military world; it is even incorporated into the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Creed. The saying is equally apropos for Adirondack backcountry adventurers, whose hobby has some commonality with the military way of life, except for the lack of gravitas. Although the prospect of leaving behind a comrade is unmatched in seriousness, it is not the only situation where leaving something behind in the backcountry arouses feelings of loss and guilt.
Despite the appropriateness of the motto in the backcountry, it rarely has much bearing on most adventures. Although groups separate on occasion, sometimes with disastrous results, this is not a common occurrence for most people. At least, I hope it is not; otherwise, rescuers would be constantly crawling throughout the backcountry, and/or bodies would be more common than deflated Mylar balloons.
» Continue Reading.
There are still signs of fall in the lower elevations of the Adirondacks. On Sunday I explored Peaked Mountain and Peaked Mountain Pond in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. The trail starts from the shores of Thirteenth Lake and branches off to follow a beautiful stream towards Peaked Mountain. The hike is about six miles round trip. I’ve been there twice and have yet to see more than a few people on the trail.
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