A spring bike adventure in the Northern Adirondacks

Biking a 21-mile loop that starts in Onchiota and runs through a utility corridor, former railroad bed and logging roads

Story and photos by Phil Brown

A sunny day in mud season. Should I ski, hike, climb, or bike? With temperatures forecast to reach 60 degrees, I decided it’d be a good day for my first Adirondack bike ride of the year.

I didn’t want to damage the region’s single-track trails, figuring they would be muddy, so I loaded my mountain bike on the car and drove to Onchiota north of Saranac Lake. My plan was to pedal a 21-mile loop utilizing an old railroad bed, dirt roads, a beautiful woods road, and some pavement. It offers views of numerous waterways and mountains in a quiet corner of the Adirondacks.

I call it the Tekene Junction Loop. In the late 1800s, a lumber company built a railroad spur off the New York Central Railroad line. It ran west to Debar Pond. The Delaware & Hudson Railway later operated the branch and built a railroad bridge over the New York Central tracks. The abutments of the bridge can be seen on this trip.

My ride began at a wide pullout along the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road where the road crosses the former New York Central railroad bed, which is now a utility corridor. In winter, the corridor serves as a snowmobile route. In other seasons, it offers many miles of biking. I wouldn’t attempt the loop on a road bike, but I enjoyed it on a gravel bike last summer. Because the gravel bike was in the shop, this time I took my hard-tail. As it turned out, it was a good choice for a mud-season ride. 

From the pullout, I headed north on the utility corridor, crossing the Kushaqua Lake outlet, and soon came to snow. I couldn’t see how far the snow extended around a bend. Was it too early in the year for this ride? I thought of nixing the whole idea, but I opted to push on, and I’m glad I did: the snow didn’t last much longer.

The betwixt-and-between nature of mud season soon became apparent: I heard birds singing in the forest, but Hope Pond, reached in less than a mile, remained covered in ice.  

At 1.45 miles, I crossed the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road. Continuing on the corridor, I could see the former chapel of the White Fathers, a missionary organization founded in France in 1868. The White Fathers initially worked in North Africa and adopted the white garments worn by locals, which accounts for the missionaries’ nickname. They used the Lake Kushaqua property to train missionaries. The chapel is now privately owned.

The corridor seemed rougher than I remembered. Although I didn’t encounter much more snow, I did plow through mud occasionally. The mud patches will dry soon enough, but riders must also contend with rocks and chunky gravel. It’s not all rough, but some people may prefer a mountain bike to a gravel bike.

At 4.7 miles, I passed a short cut leading to Mensink Road, which is part of the return ride. Those looking for a shorter loop (about 11 miles) can exit the corridor here. Loon Lake soon could be seen to the right. At 5.5 miles, I came to the Blackfly Slab on the left, a somewhat obscure destination for rock climbers. Dick Tucker, of the potato-growing family, put up the first route here in 1980 and several more in the 1990s.

At 6.2 miles, I crossed County 26, the road that runs through the summer community of Loon Lake, and in another mile biked between Fishhole Pond on the right and Grass Pond on the left. Fishhole offered a view of Catamount Mountain and its rocky ledges. On the Grass Pond side, the Loon Lake mountains rose in the distance, snow still visible in the woods.

Just beyond the ponds I came to the concrete abutments of the D&H railroad bridge and a homemade sign on a utility pole that tells the history of Tekene Junction. Evidently, the branch was created to access a dozen charcoal kilns. Homes were built for the workers. Tekene was later abandoned, but the Civilian Conservation Corps occupied the site in the Great Depression.

At 9.7 miles, I turned off the utility corridor to get on the D&H Road on the Sable Highlands easement lands. The turn is hard to spot if  you’re not looking for it. It’s just before a large tussock swamp that borders both sides of the corridor. Look for a grassy road with a yellow vehicle barrier on the right.

The D&H Road, once a railroad bed, is one of the main logging roads in the Sable Highlands and usually a mellow ride. On this day, I had to walk my bike through snow in a few places. At 11.8 miles, I reached a kiosk and parking area on the north side of Fishhole Pond. There are good views here of Catamount, the Elbow Range, and the Loon Lake Mountains.

In another mile or so, I came to a four-way intersection and turned right to reach County 26 at 13.3 miles. Turning left, I rode the paved highway for a quarter-mile, then veered right to return to the New York Central corridor. I turned left on the corridor, again passing the Blackfly Slab. About 0.80 miles past the slab, I veered left to get on Mensink Road. After an easy climb on this dirt road, I breezed downhill, continuing straight at a T-intersection with Blue Spruce Road. The road beyond this junction gets rougher as it climbs over a hill. I had to push my bike uphill through a long patch of snow. On the descent I met a fellow biker  who warned me of more snow ahead.

At 16.5 miles, I came to a bridge over the North Branch of the Saranac River. Though now closed to vehicles, it is still used by bikers and hikers. The bridge affords a fine view over Mud Pond toward the Loon Lake Mountains. 

After crossing the bridge, I started riding uphill on the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road but had to dismount when I encountered the longest stretch of snow yet. Pushing the bike uphill, I noticed the fishtail tracks of the fellow I met earlier. Reaching the height of land, I got back in the saddle and coasted downhill towards Lake Kushaqua. At 17.6 miles, just before the bridge over the outlet, I turned left onto a piney woods road that hugs the lake’s east shore.

At least, it’s piney in summer. On this day, much of it was covered with snow and ice (as was the lake). The soft snow was a struggle, but my bike’s knobby tires did quite well on the firm ice. After 1.3 miles, the woods road ended in the Buck Pond State Campground. Turning right, I pedaled along the tarmac to County 30 at 20.0 miles. Turning right again, I came to the the start of the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road at 20.3 miles, where there is an ice-cream store in summer. 

Instead of turning onto the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road, I crossed the road to get on the Yemasee Lodge Road, which led in a tenth of a mile to the New York Central corridor. I turned right and followed the corridor 0.4 miles back to my car.

Snow and ice notwithstanding, it felt great to be on the bike again. The Tekene Junction Loop is nice warmup for the biking season, with only 600 feet of climbing over 21 miles, To be honest, though, I prefer doing the ride in summer. And summer is indeed coming: as I loaded my bike onto the car, I heard the call of a loon.