Stoney Pond and Big Shurman Pond

Hiking Date: May 16th 2009: Its official, the black flys are out. I’ve been waiting for this day since the first weekend in April and its finally come. It doesn’t help that the hike was going into a bunch of wet lands. This was my first time in this area as I typically stay closer to home in the Eastern Region  but its about time I get out and see some other hikes.

Directions: Find the trail head east off New York 28N, 3.9 miles north of its intersection with Olmstedville Road in Minerva and 2.8 miles south of Hewitt Lake Club Road in Aiden Lair. Parking is roadside; a DEC sign indicates the trail.

The Hike: When we arrived at the trail head, an ESF student asked us to fill out a survey they are doing with the DEC to see how many people travel in the area. It probably wasn’t the best day to do it as it was raining but none the less we filled it out and got a free key chain caribinier out of it.

The walk in is relatively flat with a little bit of up hill and down hill. Nothing that should give anybody any trouble. Even though it was raining, you could tell the trail is pretty  muddy which made the trip a little slow as you try to avoid stepping in the ankle deep mud. About 1.2 miles in you’ll come to two beaver dams which actually makes the pond close to your eye level which is really cool. Both this week and last week I have seen the influence that beavers have on their habitat and to be honest I am a bit fascinated by it.  

Arriving at Stoney Pond, you’ll immediately arrive at the lean to which is a bit odd since their was people occupying it. We kind of walked right into their space because that’s the way the trail leads. Not wanting to bother the campers we immediately headed toward Little and Big Shurman Ponds. The trail there is a bit washed out and in two spots we had to back track into the woods and go around the water to get to the other side and continue following the trail. This section of the hike goes up a hill and then down. Its not to strenuous but you’ll notice it. 

As we arrived near the pond we thought we were arriving at Little Shurman, however after following the pond a little ways we say that it was bigger and must be Big Shurman. We are a bit confused as to where Little Shurman Pond is or if it ended up merging with Big Shurman. Following the pond, we were trying to find a spot where it was a little bit windy get out of the bugs and decided on a little outlet  as it faced the pond the best. The wind picked up and then died down so sometimes it was good and others the bugs came out. I had my usual peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and we headed out the same way we came in. A thunderstorm hit us on the way out which drenched us but we made it out in one piece.

Conclusion: Stoney Pond and Big Shurman Pond were pretty nice. I was really impressed with what I saw on Stoney. At a glance it looked like a healthy pond and the campers there were there to fish. It’s something I wouldn’t mind camping at some day. The only thing I didn’t like was that fact the lean to was right on the trail, so you might have day hikers walking in on your camp site. We also spotted a row boat off to the side and were curious if the campers brought it in or if the DEC had put it there. Is this a hiking I’m going to do every year, probably not but it was still fun and if your looking for a place to walk into and fish, this would definitely be worth it.

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