Northern Forest Atlas

Jerry Jenkins, 4 Sept 016

In late August I was part of the science staff at the Wildlife Conservation Society Cycle Adirondack bicycle tour. It is a seven day, 400-mile tour. It is probably the only bicycle tour to have a science staff. But the WCS Adirondack Program is a science shop, and the tour is one of the best ways of talking to people about what we do. So there we were.

Here is the route.

On Day 5, I followed the route from Indian Lake to Northville, photographing lakes and rivers. I can think of few places where you can see as many different kinds of water in 65 miles.

The day started with mist and fog, and then turned to bright, very glarey sun with some haze. Not easy photography! I shot HDR sets—multiple frames at different exposures—the whole day.

Here are some photos.

Hudson River, from the meadows at the Outer Gooley Club, just after dawn. The Outer Gooley was once a farm, servicing the log drives; then it became a private club; now it is public land.

And the Hudson itself, looking upstream from just above the mouth of the Indian. I often wade out  and climb on rocks to shoot rivers. Long tripod legs help.

Lewey Lake, a natural lake near the south end of Indian Lake. Mid morning, hazy sun. The Miami River, which has swampy shores and an open corridor, comes down to the lake through the notch in the hills.

Swampy north shore of Lewey, shrub tickets and emergent marshes, typical of coves in natural lakes.

Marshy outlet of Sacandaga Lake, looking upstream from Lake Pleasant, very bright sun. Open channels like this are scarce in the southern drainages of the Adirondacks, but occur on several streams near here. It is possible that altered water levels play a role.

Sacandaga Outlet, emergent marshes of sedges and pickerel weeds, low shrubs on the shores.

Emergent marshes on a small delta where Cherry Brook empties into Lake Pleasant.

The course plant in the foreground is pickerel weed, the fine yellow one in the background the rush Juncus militaris. Both were fruiting. The rush is common in deep-water marshes in te Adirondacks, but rarely fruits tere.

Open shrub tickets and emergent marshes on Cherry Brook, looking upstream. It was near noon and the light was extremely harsh. Even with HDR I was lucky to get a picture at all.

A swampy section of the upper Sacandaga River, between Lake Pleasant and Wells. A narrow, marshy, corridor, with pools, shrub thickets, and alluvial woods dominated by silver maple.

A  flood-plain pool with bur-reed, yellow waterlily, and thickets of buttonbush.

Silver maple woods by the Sacandaga, with alders and buttonbush. Silver maple, a lowland tree, also occurs along the Raquette River between Long Lake and Tupper, and along the Branch, in North Hudson.

A quickwater section of the Sacandaga, below Wells, looking upstream.

Banks of the Sacandaga, with scoured rocks and open shores with royal ferns, both characteristic of medium-intensity streams with Class I-II whitewater.