Making a Spectacle in Schroon

Spectacle Pond makes for great mud season hike

By Tim Rowland

The DEC’s weekly outdoor bulletins, which normally have all the emotion of canned tuna, have been a little more stirring with this early spring, as rotten snow, mud, water and ice have created a dangerous stew that have sent hikers sliding off mountain peaks like sprinkles off a hand-dipped cone.

Calling the conditions “boney,” they are urging hikers to stay below 2,500 feet until things dry out. “With the lack of a true North Country winter and a marginal snowpack, trails in the High Peaks Region are proving difficult to navigate,” said Forest Ranger Director John Solan. “Over the last couple of weeks, forest rangers were busy responding to numerous backcountry rescues due to icy conditions. Trail conditions will continue to decline as spring weather prevails and April approaches.”

You don’t have to tell me twice, and in fact I was able to stay below 1,200 feet on a recent hike to Spectacle Pond east of Schroon Lake in the Pharaoh Mountain Wilderness. Spring runoff season is a good time to visit streams and waterfalls that are running full and are more interesting at this time of year than they will be in August.

To access the trailhead, take Alder Brook Road, which heads east from Route 9 north of the hamlet of Schroon Lake. This will take you past the “Schroon Lake Airport” (sorry, no Starbucks) and some classic Adirondack hill and holler architecture that is both creative and unspeakably picturesque.

The road will split, becoming Crane Pond Road on the left and Adirondack Road to the right. Taking Adirondack Road, the trail to Gull Pond will appear in two miles on the left, and the trail to Spectacle Pond shortly thereafter, well-marked and with a wide pull-out.

Just past the register, the trail hugs Spectacle Brook in a dark and green hemlock forest. If tall, stately hemlocks and cheerfully chattering streams are not your thing, pick another trail, because these will be your companions for pretty much the entire hike.

Spectacle Brook is great entertainment, with several pretty falls along the way. You will be aware that you are hiking uphill, but it’s not strenuous, haining less than 300 feet in elevation over the 1.6 mile trail to the pond.

The trail runs well north, but still in the neighborhood of Beaver Meadow Hill and Beaver Meadow Marsh. Still — I have learned that if you wish for dry hiking conditions, avoid locales that contain the word “beaver.” As of early March the trail was still largely frozen, but it was becoming soupy in places and will get worse before it gets better.

Still, it’s not bad; stream crossings are made over solid bridges, and stepping stones have helpfully been plopped into the worst of the muddy spots.

A pair of trekking poles make balancing on these stepping stones easier, and for trails like this it’s worth investing in a pair of high quality Muck Boots, which are comfortable and supportive enough for short hikes and will have you walking through the mud as carefree as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle through a cat box.

At about 6/10ths of a mile, the trail crosses Shanty Bottom Brook, but jogs right to remain with the Spectacle watercourse, which will be down below, in a deep draw. A couple of large trees recently have come down across the trail, but otherwise it’s well-maintained and marked. 

The source of the stream is a lengthy marsh, which eventually evolves into Spectacle Pond proper.

The water spills out of the marsh in a wide pattern that is almost like Niagara Falls in miniature. Unfortunately, this natural feature is somewhat shielded by trees and blown limbs, and cannot be effectively photographed without a significant amount of image doctoring, or what is known in the business as a “Full Middleton.” (Pity the Royal Public Relations Firm, which has had to stand before the press assuring the public that Princess Charlotte does not in fact have three arms.)

The trail follows the marsh on your right before arriving at a point with a nice view of the marsh with the pond in the distance. A brief walk, with hemlocks on your left and hardwoods on the right, brings you to an open spot on the pond’s shoreline, where there are a  couple good sitting rocks and a couple of rowboats and a couple of home-made paddles that I am quite incapable of describing.

To the northeast of the pond is Desolate Hill, and to the southeast is Coffee Pond, both of which are tempting bushwhacks for those who are so inclined. 

Spectacle Pond no doubt gets more traffic when the snowbirds return to the scenic and summer-home-intensive east side of Schroon Lake, but at this time of year, when the stream is running full and the falls at their best, it gets little traffic. And the chances are excellent that, unlike the High Peaks, you will not need a DEC helicopter to airlift you out.