COD POND & STEWART CREEK canoeing & camping

 


July 3 & 4, 2016 - COD POND, LITTLE JOE POND, STEWART CREEK.  1 mile hike to Cod Pond (doubled the carry, so 3 miles for me) - gain of ~200' in 1st half, quite a few downed trees & blowdown makes the trail hard to follow close to the pond.  Camped on Cod Pond which has a lot of watershield growing in it.  Hiked to Little Joe Pond (part bushwhack SSW, part on unofficial trail).  Paddled upstream on Stewart Creek - got out for 4 beaver dams in 1st couple of miles, then 0.2 mile carry (rock-hopped then bushwhacked to Oregon Trail - nasty), then 3  more beaver dams in next couple of miles past North Bend & Oregon Trail bridge.  Creek as wide as 50' up here; turned around at foot of another rocky rapid.  Lovely scenery.  Went further on Oregon Trail on the carry on way back to a wet section then bushwhacked down thru woods then wetland marsh to a spot on the creek ~100 yards downstream of the rapids. Broke camp & out.  Some annoying deer flies (not biting); mosquitoes on land (bad after sunset); lots of ducks & birds.  Flowering: sheep laurel, Joe-Pye-weed, goldenrod, pickerelweed.  20+ miles in 2 days (~half in canoe).  Ref: Discover the Southern Adirondacks by Bill Ingersoll.








May 1 & 2, 2005 - COD POND canoe camping - S of Rt.8 in Wilcox Lake WF half way between Wevertown & Wells. 1.2 mile carry (doubled in well over an hour) to pond - uphill the 1st third of the way. Camped at end of trail, good site with rocky area at the water - a bit too much trash here tho. Pines & birches ring the pond. A marshy channel leads from the pond to STEWART CREEK which I paddled upstream for about 1.5 miles going over 3 beaverdams. Reach a 0.25 mile rapid & walked along S shore to top - a short bushwhack to N of rapids brings one to a trail which one can take to access the upper creek where one can paddle for a few more miles (I wasn't up for it today, tho). Pleasant views of surrounding small mountains. Woke up to a nice sunrise but clouds rolled in quickly & snowflakes dropped for half an hour before returning to mostly blue skies in an hour. Paddled to S of pond & bushwhacked S following a stream uphill for under a mile to boggy outlet of LITTLE JOE POND (unnamed on maps) which I followed to the pond. Hiked around perimeter - could sometimes detect a fisherman's path. Pond has 2 very nice clean campsites. Followed orange tape markers back to Cod Pond, a more direct route slightly W of stream. Sleet shower as I returned to campsite. Osprey, Canada geese, great blue herons, mallards, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, ring-necked ducks, tree swallows, red-winged blackbirds, pileated woodpeckers, spring peepers, loon (so happy to hear their call again)..... Carpets of yellow violets; some white violets, purple trillium, spring beauties. No bad bugs. Bell Merlin II.



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