Trails Less Traveled

If you have never heard of the Pine Orchard you are not the only one!  This well-kept secret is hidden in the hills to the northeast of Wells, but is well worth the trouble to find.  The scenic route involves heading south out of Speculator on Rt 30 and turning onto Rt 8 at the intersection about 7 miles south of Speculator.  Cross the bridge over the Sacandaga River and take an immediate right onto Griffin Road to Windfall Road.  Follow Windfall Road to Dorr Road - you will see a small sign for "Pine Orchard" and follow that to just before its end.  Park in the lot on your right.  To reach the trailhead, you must cross private property in front of a camp and follow an old road about 1000 feet to the trail register.  It is suggested you check in with the landowner to get permission, but he was not home so we figured we would stop on the way out.  The trail register is at the intersection with a snowmobile trail and the trail goes to Pine Orchard and then Georgia Brook to the north or Willis Lake to the south. 

The trail begins with a gentle downhill for about 1/3 of the full distance. In late fall the tree line is very open as many of the trees are hardwood and we lucked out, for despite a forecast that was less than promising the weather turned out to be perfect for hiking - mid-40's and sunny!  To the right of the trail, hidden by the underbrush, is Taylor Vly.  This vly was formed from past beaver activity and partial flooding along Mill Creek and can be very pretty when the leaves are at full color.  I've found obvious raccoon paths complete with piles of empty freshwater clam shells by the water, deer prints and still hope to see a moose here as it would be perfect habitat.  It is possible to get down to the vly by following these game trails through the underbrush, but beware, because whenever you leave the trail and bushwhack, you put yourself at more danger of getting a tick on you.  This happened to my husband and he had to go to the doctor's to have the head taken out, get a tetanus shot and antibiotics.  (See "Ticks are No Joke!" blog, March 2012)

There is a very nice bridge over Mill Creek and a couple of rock-hops over the next watery spots and then some uphill hiking to the Orchard.  The pines here somehow escaped the logging done in the 18' and early 1900's and so are thought to be about 200 years old!  Unfortunately, there are not many left as insects, disease, age and New York weather and winds have collaborated to bring these giants down.  The few that have survived are truly wondrous and it took 5 of us with arms outspread to encircle them!  The multiuse trail continues to Georgia Brook and on to Cod Pond,  North Bend and beyond.  We plan on skiing some of that trail in January (see TrampnTrail.org for the full schedule of hike/ski/snowshoes).  We continued on as far as a beaver pond that proved how bad the drought was this year.  There was little water around the lodge and sedge was growing from many hummocks that had previously been covered by water.

After lunch we turned around and hiked back, this time up the hill (Which seems to defy the laws of physics in that what goes down, must come up!).  The property owners were enjoying a cocktail and the view when we came back out and we spent a few minutes thanking them and asking about the accessibility of the area in the winter.  They assured us that the road is plowed to the parking lot.  The full hike was a little over 5 miles; a beautiful walk in the woods on a crisp fall day.