Looking for azaleas on the Oswegatchie

West Branch Oswegatchie River trip falls short on blooms but long on views

By Tom French

Despite a valiant effort, an “old-fashioned” winter and chilly spring may have thrown off my calculations, but I was more worried about missing the spectacle than getting there too soon.

I first learned about the wild azaleas, a unique feature of the West Branch of the Oswegatchie while researching a bike and paddle from the Oswegatchie Educational Center to Mud Pond in 2024. Jamieson and Morris describe the azaleas as “the big surprise” in their “Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow.”  “Everything about this trip, on a sunny day in early June when the wild azaleas are in their height, is sheer joy,” they write. “Concentrate on the … sudden splashes of color amid dark evergreens and the spicy scent in the air.”

J&M recommend late May to early June as the best time to catch the blooms. Given my edition was published in 1994, and allowing for climate change, which seems to have advanced spring by two weeks, my daughter, Emma, and I adventured into this wild western section of the Adirondacks in mid-May – 10 days earlier than J&M suggested.

The put-in is .2 miles from a large parking area with a kiosk less than a mile past the educational center on Long Pond Road in the town of Croghan. The carry is generally a gentle uphill, though a large section was underwater and another swathe had been scoured in a flood. A bridge crosses the river at the beginning of an unnavigable cascade (on private property). Views of the fast water extend down from the bridge, and falls can be seen from the road near the Berggrens Hunting Club before leaf-out. The Jake’s Pond Trail, which parallels the paddle, continues across the bridge.

McMartin (“Discover the Northwestern Adirondacks,” 1990) says a dam once occupied the site as part of the area’s extensive logging history.

The river winds through a floodplain, wide and straight enough at times for the wind to impact our progress. We easily plowed through the remains of a couple beaver dams and over sand bars that I suspect were also remnants of long-ago beaver activity.  

After a half mile, the river narrows along a northern bank in the flood plain. Desert Creek enters from the left along an s-turn. Three-hundred yards further, at another sharp bend, two large boulders mark the spot described as the first splash, “the only one in this first stretch,” though there were no signs of azaleas for us. After another sharp turn and 150 yards, fast water required walking 50 yards through the cold spring current within site of the second bridge of Jake’s Pond Trail and a short chute.  

A second floodplain opens above the bridge with a grove of tamaracks and towering pines. This is also where Jamieson and Morris describe “a splash of azalea bloom on the hillside – the finest display of all if your trip is properly timed.”  

We didn’t see any hillside nor any splashes beyond the accidental shower from a bad paddle stroke.  

The end of navigable waters (after two miles) ends with a small lift into a pool at the bottom of a “boulder gorge,” as described by Jamieson and Morris.

They also say Jake’s Pond Trail is a short distance to the north. We bushwhacked a few dozen yards without finding it. Later, GPS data showed it about 100 yards from the rapids.

The lack of azalea blooms (which is on us) did not take away from the day. The light green colors of trees just beginning to leaf with views through airy woods along with the splashes of serviceberry and leatherleaf made for a relaxing first paddle of the year.  

After returning to the middle bridge for lunch, we hiked Jake’s Pond Trail the 1.2 miles to the last bridge which is a half-mile above that bouldery gorge. At this point, the river is a narrow series of riffles and rapids that would make difficult paddling as the West Branch peters out from its source: Hog Pond in the Five Ponds Wilderness.

Jake’s Pond Trail meanders flatly near the river with clear signs of ATV traffic on both sides of an improvised, single-track “bridge” over Hogs Back Creek. Neither McMartin or Jamieson make any mention of this deep-water, 10 foot crossing (McMartin might call it an old beaver flow), and it is not counted as one of the “three bridges.” Made of two ATV wheel ramps resting on a log in the middle, the eastern side perched precariously on the single point of a rock, it definitely shakes and wiggles.  

The trail continues along an esker next to the floodplain where Jamieson and Morris say it passes “through the splendid patch of azaleas seen earlier from the river.” It then turns away over a series of rolling outcrops before reaching the junction with the Keck Trail. The bridge is a short distance to the right.

Returning to the canoe, we discovered a father and son fishing along the shore above the bridge. We launched the canoe, said our salutations, and cruised through the tongue under the bridge – almost making it without catching a rock. We were able to pass through the riffles below the bridge more successfully, though maybe only due to the higher water of spring.

Plans to return for the azaleas have been hampered by the weather, and as a fair-weather paddler, I guess that means the azaleas may have to wait until next year, though there’s still plenty to explore in the remote northwestern Adirondacks.