West Sacandaga River Water Falls – Fail

Hiking Date: September 5th, 2009: After two weekends of rain and two overnight backpacking trips canceled, this past weekend my friend and I decided to head to some water falls on the West Sacandaga River. As previously mentioned, we had planned to backpack into these waterfalls but opted out when the rain ruined our plans. Unfortunetly due to our schedules, we could not do an overnight trip but decided to do a day hike into the water falls. Following a guide book, we decided to give this trail/bush wack a shot.

The Hike: Our day started off a little bit later than I would have liked but my schedule and traffic delays in Warrensburg caused us to arrive at the trail head around 1:00pm. The traffic delay in Warrensburg was due to a police escort of a biker gang through town which I thought it was kind of interesting. At the trail head, there was numerous cards already there. We packed our stuff and headed out. The trail meets up with the Northville-Placid Trail at about 0.1 miles and follows it for another 0.8 miles. The junction to the West Sacandaga River is an umarked trail which branches off to the left. On the Adirondack Mountain Club Map of the Northville-Placid Trail, this trail is marked by an un-maintained road even though the trail that you will be following looks nothing like a road. It wasn’t difficult to find but we really couldn’t tell if we were on the correct trail or not since it was unmarked. Running through our minds we were wondering if we were following someone elses lost trail or maybe some trail down to a fishing hole.

Following the unmarked trail, we came across a family of hikers looking for the same water fall as we were. Unfortunetly they were a bit lost. Not giving us confidence we were on the correct trail, we decided to head down to the area they got lost at and figure it out from there. My gut told me we were on the right trail but I couldn’t help but have some doubts since this was the first time I was in this area. Following a trail, we met up with a stream on our right side. Taking a look at my Northville-Placid Map, I realized this was Hamilton Creek and we were on the correct trail. What the family of hikers have missed was the orange landscape ribbons near the edge of the creek and on the otherside. We crossed the rocky creek which was not to deep but was quite slippery.

On the otherside of the creek, we followed the trail closely as it is not marked but a bit obvious to follow. We passed two camp sites which caught our eye as some nice places to backpack into. There wasn’t a lot of flat land but we could probably make due and the sound of following a sleep to a roaring river excited us.  Following the trail we came to Cold Brook. There will be a small waterfall that had a heart shaped look to it as it enters West Sacandaga River.

This part of the trail gets extremely difficult. It does not increase in elevation a lot but you’ll be climbing over boulders and walking side ways on a hill. I highly suggest sticking as close to the river as possible, even if that means walking in the river. At one point I made the mistake of following the trail up the hill a little ways which took a lot of energy out of us and ended with a couple bruises and scrapes. Guessing we were about  20 minutes from the water falls (based on converstions with another hiker later on) we came to a dilemma, a giant boulder was in our way and we had the choice of either climbing the steep hill or going through the water around. I ended up climbing the hill which wasn’t the smartest idea as it got fairly close to vertical near the top. The other side look just as difficult. Not wanting to go down what I just climbed, I opted to go through the water on my way back and meet up with my friend. After explaining to her what I saw we decided it was time we headed back as it was getting late in the date and we were tired.

The way out was the same way we came in. We stopped and rested at a “beach” area where there was a smoldering fire from some campers we passed on the way in. A couple hikers arrived at the same area when we were resting and having a late lunch. We told them were we stopped and they estimated we had another 20 minutes or so until we reached the falls. This was one of the hikers third time trying to get to  the water falls and they had brought rope to help them out. Not feeling so bad that we didn’t make it, we headed back the same way we came in. The walk out seemed a bit shorter which is unusual as it usually seems like the walk out is longer than the walk in.

Conclusion: This hike didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Although following the trail wasn’t difficult, once we were confident that we were on the correct trail, all we had to do was make sure the West Sacandaga River was on our left. For non seasoned hikers of the Adirondacks I suggest not trying this trail as the terrain is bit to difficult. I’ll probably attempt to go back at some point to see the waterfalls but I know I will definetly be coming back to do some camping on the river. Due to my schedule I probably won’t make it back before it gets to cold but early next spring I’ll keep it in mind. I’ll also bring my fishing pole as I spotted some good spots to go fishing.

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