Aerial photos of Duck Hole draining

With water recedes, mudflats are starting to appear in Duck Hole. Photo by NYSDEC.

In the current issue of the Adirondack Explorer, we ran a debate on whether the state should fix the dam at Duck Hole in the High Peaks Wilderness. Now that the dam has been breached, the debate is whether the state should rebuild it.

This afternoon, we obtained several aerial photos taken after the rains of Hurricane Irene broke the dam. They were shot Monday by Kris Alberga, a forester with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The top photo shows Duck Hole as one looks southeast toward Preston Ponds. Much of the water has drained, exposing numerous mudflats.

The photo to the right shows water running over the broken dam. This is the start of the Cold River, a tributary of the Raquette. The structure on the right is a lean-to.

Waters flow into the Cold River at the broken dam. Photo by NYSDEC.

The photo below shows Duck Hole as one looks north toward the Sawtooth Mountains. The narrow bay is the Roaring Brook inlet.

Tom Martin, DEC’s regional forester, told me earlier today that he expects Duck Hole will dwindle into “a couple of small ponds with wetlands around them.”

Martin said he didn’t know whether DEC will rebuild the dam.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said most hikers would like to see the dam rebuilt. Others question the wisdom of maintaining such a structure in an area classified as Wilderness.

When I have time I will post the debates that ran in the September-October issue of the Explorer. Tom Wemett of ADK’s Northville-Placid Trail chapter wrote in favor of repairing the dam. Bill Ingersoll, the guidebook writer, took the opposite side.

A view of Duck Hole looking north. Photo by NYSDEC.

31 guests stranded at Adirondak Loj

The West Branch of the Ausable undercut this section of Adirondak Loj Road. Photo by Phil Brown.

Since Hurricane Irene drenched the High Peaks region, more than thirty guests have been stranded at Adirondak Loj, unable to leave due to a washout on the only road to the rustic inn.

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), which owns the Loj, hopes that the road will open in a day or two, but with so much devastation around the region, nothing is certain.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the ADK, said a few guests opted to walk out, but most are waiting for the road to be repaired enough to allow them to take their cars. As of today, there were thirty-one guests (and about fifteen cars) at the Loj.
“They’re as hopeful as we are that [the roadwork] will be done tomorrow or the next day,” he said.

The Loj and ADK’s High Peaks Information Center are located at the end of Adirondak Loj Road, which starts on Route 73 outside Lake Placid village. The ADK property is the most popular starting point for trips in the High Peaks Wilderness Area.

The rains of Hurricane Irene swelled the West Branch of the Ausable River and washed out a section of the five-mile-long road.
Woodworth said Essex County expects to reopen one lane of the road this week. At some time in the future, the one lane would be replaced by a temporary bridge, and eventually the temporary bridge would be replaced by a permanent bridge.

He did not know when the bridges will be installed. The county built a new bridge this year at another stream crossing. A temporary bridge had been in place for a few years at that location.

Hikers also cannot drive to the Garden in Keene Valley, the trailhead used to access Johns Brook Lodge, ADK’s interior inn. The road to the Garden parking lot is washed out.

At this point, though, the lack of vehicular access to the Garden and the Loj is largely immaterial as the state has closed the eastern High Peaks Wilderness (as well as the Dix Mountain Wilderness and Giant Mountain Wilderness). It’s uncertain when the Wilderness Areas will reopen, but they will remain closed through Labor Day weekend.

Moreover, Route 73, the main route to Keene Valley and Lake Placid from the south, will be closed for weeks, if not months.

The road is officially closed from the junction of Route 9 north to Route 9N in Keene, according to Carol Breen, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. However, we are told that people are driving between Keene and Keene Valley, despite a roadblock. The worst damage on the highway occurred south of Keene Valley, in the St. Huberts area.

Breen said DOT will repair the road before winter. She said DOT expects to repair a washout on Route 9N, which connects Keene and Jay, in a few days.

Vinny McClelland, the owner of the Mountaineer in Keene Valley, said the closure of the Wilderness Areas and the road washouts have dealt a double whammy to local businesses.

“This is usually the biggest week of the year. This will have a major impact on the town,” he said.

McClelland said the Mountaineer, which sells outdoor gear and clothing, sustained only minor damage from the storm, but its outlet store up the road was severely flooded and lost most of its merchandise.

Note: earlier reports said there were twenty-five guests at the Loj.

Roaring Brook carved a new channel under Route 73 near St. Huberts. Photo by Tom Woodman.

 

Bad news for the backcountry

Erosion on the Marcy Dam Truck Trail near South Meadow Brook. Photo by Phil Brown.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is starting to get assessments of storm damage in the backcountry in the High Peaks region, and the news is not good.

“Every place we’ve looked bridges are gone, trails are eroded, and there’s lots of blowdown,” said Tom Martin, the department’s regional forester.

And eroded may be an understatement. When DEC workers headed up the Van Hoevenberg Trail above Marcy Dam, Martin said, they found “a three-foot gorge where the trail used to be—it’s just gone.” The Van Hoevenberg is the most popular route up Mount Marcy, the state’s highest summit.

Likewise, the trail up “Misery Mile” to Avalanche Pass has become a gully. “It’s gone,” Martin said.

DEC has just begun its inspection of the backcountry, but Martin suspects that any trail near a brook or on a steep slope has sustained similar damage. He noted that the first bridge on the Klondike Trail, which goes from South Meadow to Johns Brook Valley, was washed a half-mile downstream. “My guess is that we’ve lost the vast majority of our bridges in the interior,” he said.

He also said the rains from Hurricane Irene created “more than a dozen–and probably a lot more” new slides in the High Peaks. “It’s going to take weeks to figure out what went on in the backcountry,” he added.

The rains created the large slide on the right on Wright Peak. Photo by Phil Brown.

The cleanup and rehabilitation work will take months. Martin expects that some trails are too damaged to be repaired and will have to be relocated. He said he didn’t know if all the bridges will be replaced.

Martin also said he didn’t know if DEC will repair the bridge over Marcy Dam or the dam at Duck Hole. “I don’t have any idea,” he said. “These are questions we haven’t thought about yet.”

Located on the Van Hoevenberg Trail, Marcy Dam is perhaps the most popular crossroads in the High Peaks Wilderness. Hikers who start at Adirondack Loj had used the bridge to cross Marcy Brook on their way to Mount Marcy and other backcountry destinations.

Martin said the rains from Irene washed out not only the bridge, but also the dam’s “flush boards,” which maintained the impoundment’s water level. As a consequence, the Marcy Dam pond has lost much of its water, exposing mudflats.

Duck Hole, the source of the Cold River, also has been largely drained. “We anticipate it’ll turn into a couple of small ponds with wetlands around them,” Martin said.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said he hopes DEC will repair the Marcy Dam bridge. Meanwhile, he added, ADK is exploring the possibility of reopening another trail (closed for years) that connects Adirondak Loj to the Marcy Dam Truck Trail. The truck trail and the Van Hoevenberg Trail follow the opposite sides of Marcy Brook to the dam. (I hiked the truck trail yesterday as far as the dam and found it in fairly good shape, despite some erosion and a few washouts.)

Woodworth also said most hikers would like to see DEC rebuild the Duck Hole dam. He thinks ADK would support a reconstruction, but other projects may take a higher priority.

Following are links to our earlier coverage (with more photos) of the damage from Hurricane Irene:

After Irene, where can you hike?

DEC closes High Peaks trails

Marcy Dam bridge washed away

After Irene, where can you hike?

The rains of Irene created a new slide on Wright Peak. As viewed from Marcy Dam, it is located to the right of the two Angel Slides, which were created during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Photo by Phil Brown.

With the most popular Wilderness Areas in the Adirondacks closed, many people are wondering where they can hike this Labor Day weekend.

Forest rangers have yet to reconnoiter all of the backcountry, but it’s believed that the central and western Adirondacks largely escaped the wrath of Irene.

Yesterday the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced that the eastern High Peaks Wilderness, the Dix Mountain Wilderness, and the Giant Mountain Wilderness would all be closed during the holiday weekend. The three areas probably encompass more than 175,000 acres. The western High Peaks—which constitutes more than half of the High Peaks Wilderness—remains open.

DEC said Irene’s heavy rains severely eroded trails, washed out bridges, and felled trees throughout the Wilderness Areas, creating hazardous conditions.

As the Explorer reported yesterday, the bridge over Marcy Dam—on the most popular trail to Mount Marcy—was washed out. The dam remains intact, but the water in the impoundment has dropped, revealing mud in the middle of the pond.

The bridge over Marcy Dam was washed downstream. Photo by Phil Brown.

DEC forester Kris Alberga flew over the High Peaks region and discovered that the dam at scenic Duck Hole was breached, draining that pond. Duck Hole is the source of the Cold River. It is (or had been) one of the favorite campsites of hikers on the Northville-Placid Trail.

Alberga also reported new slides on numerous High Peaks, including on Wright, Colden, Basin, Haystack, the Wolf Jaws, Giant, and the Dixes. I was able to take a photo of the new slide on Wright Peak yesterday before DEC closed the region. As viewed from Marcy Dam, the slide is to the right of the existing Angel Slides, a popular destination for backcountry skiers. The new slide appears to be longer than the existing slides.

Rob Davies, DEC’s director of Lands and Forests, said the eastern part of the Adirondacks received the brunt of the storm. “The western part of the Park fared very well in the storm,” he said. “That may be an excellent place to look for people who want to get out and recreate this weekend.”

For example, DEC spokesman David Winchell said the Moose River Plains seems to have weathered the storm well. He expects that the adjacent West Canada Lake Wilderness did also.

Presumably, tracts farther west also remain accessible. On Sunday night, my son and I drove through much of the western Adirondacks, from Woodgate to Saranac Lake—via Route 28, Route 30, and Route 3—and saw very little storm damage other than a few downed trees. Power was out only in Blue Mountain Lake and Long Lake.

However, DEC officials caution that they have not yet been able to reconnoiter the backcountry and so hikers should understand that they may encounter storm damage. “We are still in the assessment mode,” Davies said.

The eastern High Peaks region encompasses many popular mountains, including Mount Marcy (the state’s highest summit), Algonquin Peak, and the peaks of the Great Range. Undoubtedly, shutting down the eastern High Peaks on Labor Day weekend will deal an economic blow to Lake Placid and Keene.

Lake Placid and Keene probably will feel the economic effects of Irene far beyond this weekend. Route 73, the main route into the hamlets from the south, was washed out in several places and is impassable. It’s anybody’s guess when it will be reopened. I’m told that Route 86, the eastern approach to Lake Placid, has been reopened.

Moreover, a bridge washed out on the Adirondak Loj Road, stranding twenty-five guests at the Loj, which is run by the Adirondack Mountain Club. Located outside Lake Placid, the Loj is the most popular trailhead for the High Peaks Wildneress. The road to the Garden in Keene Valley, another popular trailhead, also is washed out.

With those trailheads closed, the Upper Works trailhead in Newcomb likely will see more use. Newcomb Supervisor George Canon said the road to Upper Works remains open. Hikers could use the trailhead this weekend to access the western High Peaks.

DEC divides the High Peaks Wilderness into two management zones. The eastern High Peaks, which sees far more traffic, has more restrictions on hikers and backpackers. The western High Peaks is more remote. Its natural assets include seven of the forty-six High Peaks, Duck Hole, and the Cold River. A long stretch of the Northville-Placid Trail passes through the western High Peaks.

The High Peaks Unit Management Plan defines the boundary between the two zones as “the height of land immediately west of the Indian Pass Trail.” This means more than half of the 193,000-acre Wilderness Area is in the western zone. The Dix Mountain Wilderness encompasses 45,000 acres and the Giant Mountain Wilderness 23,000 acres.

A section of Adirondak Loj Road collapsed near the West Branch of the Ausable. Photo by Phil Brown.