Explore the Unknown

Threemile Beaver Meadow and Beaver Lake Mountain

By Bill Ingersoll

This article is less of a description of a specific hiking route, and more of an invitation to explore a region I’m reasonably certain is completely unknown to most people. By extending this invitation, am I making the area vulnerable to crowding and degradation? Probably not, since it lies so far removed from the most heavily trafficked portions of the Adirondack Park.

The area is the Pepperbox Wilderness on the western edge of the park, where Herkimer and Lewis counties meet. It is a place with few official facilities and some of the lowest visitation levels in the Forest Preserve. Those who have taken the time to acquaint themselves with the Pepperbox may be true connoisseurs of wilderness; they have come to know its quiet ponds, its tannic streams, and its labyrinthine fens as personal friends, delighting in their subtle changes as they explore the area season after season, decade after decade.

The Pepperbox has no named mountains today, and it certainly features no extreme elevations. This is a land of streams and small ponds. Therefore, it may surprise you to know that there was once a fire tower here, located on what the state’s old Conservation Department called “Beaver Lake Mountain.” This structure, built in 1919, stood on an unnamed rocky ridge north of Threemile Beaver Meadow. It was refurbished after the 1950 hurricane swept through the Adirondacks, but it was apparently not a popular hike. State employees removed the fire tower and observer’s cabin in 1977, and the ridge that it stood upon sank once again into nameless obscurity.

Exploring this unknown area is one of the most rewarding ways to spend a day – but it is not for the inexperienced. The trailhead is remote, the trails are faint and obscure, and finding the tower site requires persistence and strong off-trail navigation skills.

Getting There

The trailhead for this hike is located on Moshier Road, near the Beaver River. To find Moshier Road, turn east off NY Route 12 onto River Street in the village of Lowville. River Street becomes Number Four Road outside the village limits and reaches the settlement of Bushes Landing in 4.4 miles, where it forks left. In 13.6 more miles, at the settlement of Number Four, the road turns right, becoming Stillwater Road. Pavement ends shortly.

Moshier Road turns north, left, two miles east of Number Four. It leads to a power generating plant on the Beaver River. At 0.6-mile, there is a parking area and register on the right side of the road.

The Trail

The trail to the Pepperbox starts on the other side of the road from the Moshier Road parking area, where signs also indicate the start of the Beaver River Canoe Route. It is marked with blue DEC markers as far as the wilderness boundary, where it officially ends.

From the trailhead, the trail drops down the bank from the road and crosses Sunday Creek on a high bridge. Once on the other side, the trail turns sharp right while the canoe carry goes straight. You skirt the edge of the large splash pool on the Beaver River known as the “fish hole.” A party of fishermen named Sunday Creek in honor of the day they spent fishing here in the late 1810s.

You cross the Beaver River on a suspension bridge, and after cutting through the woods you come out on a power line right-of-way. The trail crosses the clearing, but there are no further markers. State land begins on the far side, and once there you can hear the river through the trees. Several herd paths lead to the rocky bank, where the river roars through Moshier Falls.

A clear path leads into the woods beyond the sign marking the wilderness boundary, and for the first few miles this route may be as good as any DEC trail – even though there will be no further signs or markers from this point forward. For the most part, it follows the old tote roads from a century ago, leading toward Threemile Beaver Meadow and Bear Pond. The more remote sections may not be as well maintained, and these can be extremely difficult to follow.

The path leads just east of north through a maturing hardwood forest, gradually climbing a sprawling hillside. At 0.7-mile from your car, you pass close to a stillwater on the Beaver River. You may also find a trail at this location leading west toward private land.

The trail climbs gradually, reaching a faint intersection at 1.2 miles with the path to Threemile Beaver Meadow, which lies at the foot of the collection of ridges known as Beaver Lake Mountain. This less obvious trail turns left, leading through a stand of hemlocks, and descending to cross the unnamed creek draining the meadows 0.2-mile from the turn. Someone has fashioned a narrow bridge out of a fallen log. The path turns right to closely follow the creek upstream, passing a small cascade and sticking closely to the rocky bank.

This section continues until you reach the first of the large meadows 0.5-mile from the junction. The tread continues straight, passing along a bit of exposed rock and leading out into the open. Barring any beaver activity, the small, winding stream is for the most part confined to its channel. You cut through brief wooded section and then skirt around a pool that is more prone to beaver flooding. Here, the way could be quite wet. The path then reenters the woods at the north end of the meadow, where you will find a campsite two miles from the parking area.

North of here, the path is less continuous and less obvious. It may be little more than a glorified game trail. Nevertheless, it is not too difficult to travel north along the next meadow, this one graced by a small “island.” The next band of forest features a rock ridge, and to find the best way around it you will need to skirt inland to the west.

The next meadow is actually a small pond. The path crosses its outlet to a rocky point at 2.5 miles, and in the past one could follow it up the pond’s east shore. The pond – one of several in the Threemile chain – is shallow with a wide, grassy periphery, and it is subject to enlargement should the beavers decide to dam the outlet. Rock ledges grace the west shore. Wild-raisin, a viburnum closely related to hobblebush, exhibits its white blossoms and showy berries along the edge of the woods. There is a stand of gray birch (the smallest of native Adirondack birch trees) near the southwest corner of the lake. Along the exposed shoreline, look for spatulate sundews, horned bladderwort, and yellow-eyed grass growing in the peat.

The “mountain” lies northwest of the pond. It is not much to look at from a distance, but it is actually a maze-like series of ridges and troughs. The topography is one of the most complex in the entire Adirondack Park, with several small cliffs and bald ledges.

Because of the navigational complexity, I hesitate to describe a preferred route into this rocky complex – thus the need for experience and self-sufficiency. I merely want to point out the existence of this unusual place. The fire tower site is actually just one of several interesting features, so I invite curious explorers to look at satellite imagery, examine digital reproductions of old USGS topo maps, and plan their own circuit through these parallel ridges. It will be one of the most fun bushwhacks you’ve ever had!

Bill Ingersoll of Barneveld is publisher of the Discover the Adirondacks guidebook series (hiketheadirondacks.com). For more info, consult Discover the Northwestern Adirondacks or his recently-published 50 Hikes in the Adirondack Mountains (Countryman Press).