Back Door to Big Bad Luck

By Bill Ingersoll

The words “Finch Pruyn” dominated Adirondack headlines for an entire decade. From 2007, when the Glens Falls logging company of that name sold its entire portfolio of Adirondack landholdings to The Nature Conservancy, to 2019, when the last of those lands were classified by the Adirondack Park Agency – after being added to the New York Forest Preserve. Several of the Finch Pruyn tracts garnered much interest due to their large sizes and noteworthy features, such as the Essex Chain of Lakes, OK Slip Falls and Boreas Ponds.

But these three tracts were just portions of the overall purchase, which included parcels scattered all over the Adirondack Park. Many of these escaped all of the controversy of those “big name” tracts, although all contributed to the connectivity of the forest preserve.

I confess that I’m suffering from a “Finch Pruyn hangover” myself, having been a willing participant in the public discourse over the Essex Chain and Boreas Ponds. Therefore, it is somewhat refreshing to now take the time and address one of those smaller parcels almost no one has ever heard about.

This month I am writing about the Stonystep Tract, 422 acres of former Finch Pruyn land, near the hamlet of Indian Lake in Hamilton County. This acquisition contained no noteworthy natural features itself, but what it did do was plug a hole in the forest preserve between Stonystep Pond and Big Bad Luck Pond – one a small bog-pond complex in an outlying part of the Blue Mountain Wild Forest, and the other a major feature of the Hudson Gorge Wilderness.

In 2019, the APA split the parcel between those two designations, but from what I can observe not much has happened since.

The purpose of this article is not to highlight one of the best hikes you’ll ever enjoy. Rather, I want to point out the potential – and significance – of one of the lesser-known Finch Pruyn parcels, which provides a shortcut into a very interesting natural area.

Getting There – There are no signs pointing to this place, calling out its existence to the casual hiker. To find Stonystep, you need sharp eyes and a strong case of curiosity. The easiest way to find the entrance to this parcel is to begin at the intersection of NY Route 28 and NY Route 30 in downtown Indian Lake. Follow Route 28 north (as the signs say, but the compass direction is southeast in all actuality) out of town, toward North Creek. There are two intersections with a short byway called Stonystep Road, which forms a loop to the north of the road. Shortly after the second junction, look for a gravel driveway on the left (north) side of the road leading into the woods.

This humble driveway, which currently has no signs of any kind, is the start of what had been Finch Pruyn’s main haul road. Today, the public can drive the first 100 yards or so to a large clearing, which serves as a parking area. The access is rough but short, and ordinary cars should (with care) be able to navigate the brief drive to the parking area.

Big Bad Luck Pond – The main reason why you want to explore this place is the shortcut it provides to Big Bad Luck Pond, one of the larger ponds in the Hudson Gorge Wilderness.

There are no signs or markers leading to Big Bad Luck, but if you were sharp-eyed enough to find the access road you should be in good shape to find the route to the pond. Begin by following the continuing haul road into the forest, which cuts through a wetland before reaching a gate. Like all of the Finch Pruyn logging roads, this one is still a few years off from becoming an overgrown trail, but this just makes it all the easier to find.

The route winds from east to west as it rolls through the tract. If the road itself isn’t aesthetically attractive, the woods on either side are perfectly handsome. A side road forks left at 1.3 miles, and at 1.6 miles the main route dips and reaches a T-junction. The bulldozed patch of ground to the right was, until recently, the site of a hunting camp.

Keep right at this junction, following the road as it cuts through a second wetland. Although you’d never know it, this is the new boundary of the Hudson Gorge Wilderness. Beyond the wetland, the road begins to rise slightly up a small hill.

It is on this grade, just 0.2-mile from the junction (1.8 miles from the start), that you need to watch very carefully for the start of the unmarked path to Big Bad Luck Pond to the right. The most obvious clues might be some sawed logs marking the path’s beginning.

This path was formerly the private access route for the sportsmen’s camps that once graced the Stonystep Tract. Now that this is all public property, it is the shortest trail to Big Bad Luck. The path leads east from the road into the coniferous woods, crossing into an older section of state land before ending at the pond at 0.5-mile, or 2.3 total miles from your car. This spot, shaded by a tall pine tree, would be an ideal campsite – except that the open space is crowded by no fewer than eight abandoned rowboats. (I can’t vouch for the seaworthiness of any of them.)

Big Bad Luck has been accessible for years from a marked state trail to the east, but that route is 3.3 miles long – a full mile longer than this “new” route. This should make it highly appealing to people with pack canoes, as the pond thus becomes the entrance to an interesting “canoe area” with pond-hopping potential.

Stonystep Pond – Before being added to the forest preserve, this parcel had been the home to six small hunting camp leases. All of the buildings have been removed, although for the moment each is easy to locate. They are marked with red squares on the accompanying map. Three of them stood in close proximity to Stonystep Pond, and of these, the southernmost offers the best view of the water and its surrounding bogs. This spot is just 0.2-mile west of the main haul road, or a 0.4-mile overall detour.

Bill Ingersoll is a cofounder and the vice-chair of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates. For more info on this area, please visit adirondackwilderness.org/hudson-gorge-wilderness.