T Lake Falls and other ADK falls

[George]

The approach from Mountain Home Road to the bottom of the falls is the safest way to see the falls. This involves about 1 hour of trail hiking, fording the South Branch of West Canada Creek, then about 2 hours of bushwhacking on a fairly well marked herd path.

The trailhead is at the end of Mountain Home Road, which leaves Route 8 about 2 miles west of the hamlet of Hoffmeister. At 2.1 miles you reach the end of the paved road with posted signs everywhere. This is also the snowplow turnaround, so don’t plan on driving past here in winter, or parking here. Go another mile on a dirt road to the trailhead. This road was in very good condition, and my Prius passed with no problem. Park where a couple of logging roads appear on the right. About 100 yards from the road is a barrier and trail register, just before you cross Mad Tom Brook. At about ½ hour you reach a significant creek and another ½ hour the South Branch of West Canada Creek. This trail mostly follows an old woods road, parts are muddy, and the area is heavily hunted. I saw moose tracks.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to find a good way to cross the creek without getting wet feet – there isn’t one. Bring Crocs or water shoes and hiking poles. Your strategy should be to get across while getting only your feet wet. I went downstream about 100 feet to where grassy islands have grown up and only had to take a half dozen steps in 9” of water. These islands may be covered at higher water.

From the crossing the trail becomes a well-worn herd path that is frequently marked with surveyors tape and occasional red blazes. The blazes turn to yellow when you get close to the falls. However you will lose the path from time to time. Be prepared to navigate by compass and/or GPS , travelling northeast paralleling the South Branch on your left. After crossing the South Branch, follow the path east a short distance, until it splits from the path towards Twin Lakes, which is also flagged with surveyors tape, so be careful. The path you want parallels the South Branch. If you follow a path heading due east where a creek appears on your right, go back towards the South Branch and try again.

I was hoping to post GPS waypoints for the bushwhack, but when I plotted my waypoints on Google Earth, they were off by a few hundred feet. Although they were accurate enough to get me back on course, I hesitate to post them until I figure this out. I lost the trail more coming out than I did going in because the backlit sun made it difficult to see the flagging. The waypoints got me back to within 30 feet of the creek crossing.

Which brings me to the question – is it really 300 feet tall? I saw no reason to believe otherwise. I think you can see the entire slide, including the brink, from the bottom and in some of these pictures. There was also plenty of water despite the dry summer, leading me to believe it does not go dry. If you ever want to go, drop me a line. I'd love to do it again.

[important]2 lost images[/important]

[hobkyl]

Great trip report George! Thanks for sharing.

Which brings me to the question – is it really 300 feet tall? I saw no reason to believe otherwise. I think you can see the entire slide, including the brink, from the bottom and in some of these pictures. There was also plenty of water despite the dry summer, leading me to believe it does not go dry. If you ever want to go, drop me a line. I'd love to do it again.

Yeah I'm thinking not. Maybe it falls a total of 300'? From T-Lake? You can clearly see (near) the top of these falls....any other drops upstream of that would be a seperate falls.

[George]

You are probably right. When I was there, I estimated the height of the small horizontal fracture that I marked with a red line below to be about 10 feet from the bottom. A very crude measurement from the photo, ignoring foreshortening, is that this is 3/8" up, and the entire falls is 3.75" high. This would put the falls at about 100 feet. Foreshortening would increase this somewhat, but not triple it.


[important]Image lost[/important]

[bremer]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwphotosee ... /lightbox/

Came across a nice photo of T lake falls with a person standing at the base for scale. The person really emphasizes the height and width of the falls and rock joints... will definitely put this on next years list.

[spartacusii]

hi everyone -

i haven't been around for quite some time. too much to go into, so i won't bore you with any details.

i came back to the forum & wanted to see what anyone had for High falls in Chateaugay, NY. i found this thread, but the dates go way back to fall of 2010. i visited this waterfall in Oct of '11, & have this image to share with you.

IMG_6022_PPW_LDPT.jpg (203.72 KiB) Viewed 2277 times

as for access - i was able to drive to a parking lot area at the top. from there, the hike was fairly easy - UNTIL you reach the part where you start your descent. at 1st the trail starts going down, & then you reach some stairs. they weren't in the best of shape, but they were clearly safe. apparently you can continue on a trail downward, but that is a lot longer. (i didn't go that way)

i wound up making the trek down to the falls twice, as my 1st trip was thwarted by an old gentleman that had 2 women with him & they proceeded to navigate to the base of the falls & stayed there. by the time they left, the sun came out, & that ruined any chance i had to get a good image.

So, my wife & i made the hike back up to our car & went into town for some lunch. & as luck would have it, while we were eating, the clouds came back. the hike out was grueling, so when my wife offered to let me go back, i was mildly tempted to pass . . . but i didn't. she said SHE wasn't going to repeat the hike & asked to stop & get a magazine for her to read while i was gone, which i happily agreed to.

in the end, i was extremely pleased to come home with this shot. i have printed it 20x30 on metallic paper, & i can tell you that it literally POPS. i would recommend this to anyone who enjoys waterfalls. the hike down after a nice layer of fresh snow would probably be an adventure, but i would sorely love to see this waterfall in such a setting.

anyway, i hope you can all appreciate my image in case you never make the trip yourself.

jp

[Kelly]

Welcome back! I really like how you shot the falls from a little to the left, allowing us to admire the profile of the rock on that side! Very pretty. And you're not a bad story teller either!

[L_G_D]

Nice shot, I will have to look that one up in the spring.

[ApproachingLight]

What a great, great shot.

David