47. Alder Lake

Distance:	Dayhike or overnight
Difficulty :	Easy for children
Distance :	1.8 miles, loop
Hiking time :	1.5 hours
High point/elevation gain :	2200 feet, 75 feet
Hikable :	May-October
Map :	NY-NJ Trail Conference Map 42

The toughest part of this trip is getting to the trailhead. If your car can manage the rutted, country back roads that lead to the gate near secluded Alder Lake, you can breathe a sign of relief. The hike around the lake is the easy part!

What a delightful place to spend an afternoon—or a weekend! Begin near the old, abandoned mansion that once offered lodging to visiting city folks and work your way around the lake, passing frequent campsites and access points to the water. Along the northern shore, the kids have many opportunities to visit the water and search for newts and frogs, whirligig beetles and water striders. Though the trail is somewhat indistinct in places, you won't get lost if you remember to keep the water on your left.

From New York City, take the Thruway (I-87) north to Exit 16. Follow NY-17 west for 50 miles to Exit 96 in Livingston Manor. Take Sullivan County 179 north, following signs to Beaverkill, Decker-town, and Lewbeach. In 1.2 miles, turn right following signs to Beaverkill onto Sullivan County 151 (also called Johnson Hill Road). In 4.1 miles Sullivan County 151 merges with Sullivan County 152 in Beaverkill; continue straight ahead. In another 4 miles, cross into Ulster County; the road becomes Ulster County 54. Seven miles from Beaverkill, pass the entrance to Little Pond Campground. Continue on Ulster County 54 (through the village of Turnwood) for another 3.7 miles to where the road turns to gravel. When the dwindling road divides, bear right onto a rough, narrow dirt road. Follow this road for 0.3 mile, to its conclusion at a substantial parking area for Alder Lake.

Follow the driveway bordered by an intricate stone wall, and pass imposing Penneman Lodge, now vacant and boarded up, a skeleton of a once-grand lakeside resort. Make up a collective story about this "haunted" house, beginning with "Once upon a time there was an old house near a lake," and ask each hiker to add a sentence in turn. With kids involved, things will get spooky and silly pretty quickly. Cut across the open grounds that spread before the lodge, dropping gently to meet the western shore of Alder Lake.

Turn right when you reach the water to follow the edge in a counterclockwise direction. Look for pond skaters and water striders scooting across the surface of the water. These and other aquatic insects are food for the fish, frogs, and birds that live in and near the lake. After passing over the spillway, you reach the edge of a meadow. Follow an unblazed path that hugs the left side of the field with the pond still in sight. The kids may want to explore the remains of a cabin that sit across the field, marked by a large fieldstone fireplace and chimney. At the pasture's southern corner, the path ducks left into the woods near a stand of birches.

At an indistinct intersection 0.25 mile from the start, bear right onto a faint path, passing through a campsite. When you reach an unmaintained woods road 100 feet above the campsite, turn left, guided eastward along the road by tin-can-top blazes painted blue. Soon you cross a footbridge over a seasonal brook. Watch for the ancient stone wall that dives 300 feet down the wooded hillside to meet the water.

Initially heading east, the grassy road bordered by ferns rises gently. Although you are some distance from the lake now, you can look through the trees to see the sunlight reflecting off the water. At 0.7 mile from the start, the woods road curls northward. Who will be the first to spot the tent site hidden in a pine grove on the left? Cross a wide creek on stones (likely to cause wet feet in the spring). Twenty paces beyond the creek, the trail splits; take the left (north) branch. After a brief climb, the trail crests as a woods road joins from the right.

Shortly, a stream passes under the road, forming a dainty pool between the road and the lake. Examine the pond vegetation with the kids. Where are the roots of these pond plants? (Some are floating, others are anchored in the bottom of the pond.) Some water plants grow only underwater, others grow only on the bank. Seventy-five feet beyond the pond, follow a grassy trail that splits left off the woods road. The footpath, crowded by ferns, leads quickly to the lake's breezy northeastern shore.

Cross a flimsy bridge over a stream and follow the trail as it curls left (west), passing the marshy inlet to the lake. A granite slab and a second crumbling footbridge carry hikers over two more streams that feed the pond. Beyond these crossings, side trails split right (to a camping site) and left (to a grassy beach). If kids turn left to explore, they might see red-spotted newts swimming in the shallow water. Look for newt eggs hidden in the grass on the shore.

As you continue on the main trail, cut through an overgrown field where more side trails lead right to oak-shaded camping spots and left to the edge of the lake. Look for signs of the white-tailed deer that frequently gather at the edge of forests such as this. Can you find twigs and buds that have been chewed off or trunks that are stripped of bark? How about deer tracks or droppings?

Push through persistent berry bushes for a view of Penneman Lodge. Your younger companions might be amazed (as ours were) to discover that they have walked all the way around the lake.

A stone wall lays buried in brush on the right side of the trail. As the trail continues to sweep left (southwest), following the curve of the lake, another side trail branches right to find the hike's final camping site.

Back at the untended lawn of the old lodge, relax, swim, or picnic before returning to your car along the familiar drive. As you come to the end of the stone wall and pass through the gate, turn left and drop down a wooded slope for about 75 feet where ice-cold springwater spills from a pipe. Good luck on your drive back to civilization!

Note: Camping is prohibited except at sites designated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.