Month: November 2018

 

We subscribe to Adirondack Almanac’s emails and found out about the Hamilton County Waterfall Challenge. Lucky for me there was a business trip at the Turning Stone Casino that put us within an hour and a half of our summer place. Of course, we had to go up for a long weekend and now we had a mission to earn our Waterfall Challenge Badge. There are 18 waterfalls with varying difficulty points and you earn a badge if you get 12 points.

There was still snow on the ground when we arrived on May 4th and we were lucky to have water in our place. We got in on Friday night and went straight for a Haddock fish fry at one of the local restaurants. The next day we started early for our first waterfall, Death Falls aka Secret Falls near Raquette Lake. This is a lovely cascade that had plenty of water flowing. We were surprised to see so much ice on Blue Mountain Lake on our way to the next falls. A Bald Eagle flying over the lake was a welcome sighting.

The next fall on our list was Buttermilk Falls at Long Lake. This was an easy short walk to a low fall that had a gorgeous rainbow in the raging water. We ended up back here in July with the family to go swimming and it was quite calm and a great picnic spot. The easiest waterfall of the challenge was the Squaw Brook Falls seen from the bridge. This small falls leads out to Indian Lake and would make a perfect fall to see by kayak.

Three falls before noon so we thought we should try one a little more difficult. OK Slip Falls is a three mile walk each way to the beautiful 200-foot waterfall, which is higher than Niagara Falls. This was the birdiest waterfall of the weekend with lots of passerines in the first mile or so. We got the expected Red-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Song Sparrow. Seeing the Yellow-rumped in breeding plumage was a real treat compared to birds we see all winter in Florida.

The trail became more difficult and required navigating rocks across flowing water and a muddy trail. We knew it would be wet with the snow melt and but I’ll need boots if we try this one again. The falls was absolutely stunning with the huge drop and ice below. The five hour round trip, and one fall on my butt, was worth every bit of the 4 points we earned.

We needed five more points on Sunday to earn our badge and we headed toward Speculator. A well seen Broad-winged Hawk was a great start to the day. First stop was Christine Falls just down from the power dam. The 20 foot falls is a local swimming favorite. Next, we were off to Wells and Auger Falls. This was a really nice hike along the Sacandaga River to the beautiful 40 foot falls.

Continuing our journey through Wells took us to East Jimmy Creek Falls. This is actually two small falls but we retreated after the first one when we heard gunshots in the direction of the next falls. The first waterfall has a rock in the middle that makes it look like two falls. From there we went to Austin Falls which is a long water slide type falls.

Back to Speculator for our last stop at Whiskey Brook Falls. Luckily this was right next to the road. Love the huge boulders surrounding the falls.

This is our least birdiest excursion but we were on a mission. We ended up with 13 birds and 13 points to earn our badge! There are still 10 waterfalls on the list that we didn’t visit, yet. We are very grateful to Hamilton County for putting out this challenge and taking us to all these new places.

Trip Birds:  13  Life Birds: 0

Next up: Ottawa Birding