LOCALadk Magazine

20 Fall 2019 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Poke- O -Moonshine is one of the more popular mountains in the eastern Adirondacks, and with reason. To the west, Whiteface soars, flanked by the cockeyed point of Esther to the north and a jumble of High Peaks to the south. To the east, much of Lake Champlain is visible, a ribbon of blue cra- dled by the Green Mountains of Vermont. Less noticeable from Poke- O's summit, or less dramatic anyway, are some rounded, forested knobs with toothy gray crags poking through here and there, rippling down from Trembleau Mountain in the north to where they disappear into the distance 50 miles later, somewhere around Ticond- eroga. These are the West Champlain Hills, sometimes referred to as the Low Peaks, a collection of prominences too big to be hills and too small to be mountains, a subset of Adirondack topography that, their advocates say, is greatly underappre- ciated. Many of these knobs—Trembleau, Coon, Rattlesnake, South Boquet, Coot, and others—are easy hikes, with re- warding views of Lake Champlain to the east and the High Peaks to the west. Yet with the exception of Rattlesnake, trailheads in the Low Peaks are seldom crowded. But views aside, what gets naturalists excited about the West Champlain Hills is the incredible biological diversity that is represented there. For hundreds of different species, the hills represent a buffet of habitats: stoic old forests, grassy glades, wetlands, dr y, gravely outcroppings, ponds, cliffs, overarching tree canopies, vibrant young understories. To appreciate these ecosystems all in one gulp, there might be no better spot than Eagle Mountain, a new acquisition of the Northeast Wilderness Trust (NW T) that encompasses 2,500 acres a bit west of the West Champlain Hills proper, but still representing most of the same characteristics. Eagle Mountain is located between Poke- O -Moonshine to the east and the Taylor Pond Wild Forest to the west. To the south are the Jay Mountain and Hurricane Mountain Wilderness Areas that provide a gateway to the High Peaks. The first time he saw the property, NW T Executive Direc- tor Jon Leibowitz said he was struck that, around ever y bend, seemed to be a new ecosystem: ponds, mountains, wetlands, exposed cliffs, and deep forests with feather y green beds of ferns, moss, and nettles that would have made a credible stand-in for a children's book fair yland. "It evokes a deep sense of the wild Adirondacks," Leibowitz said. "The varia- tion on Eagle Mountain is what makes it so special." Eagle Mountain is a rare low-elevation wilderness. Most of these relatively hospitable territories, particularly as they get closer to the lake, have been divided, farmed, or other- wise developed. Shelby Perr y, stewardship director for the Trust, said the Eagle Mountain property had been logged on occasion, but not to a devastating degree, and has other wise been "gently used" over the past centur y. The tract was once Eagle Mountain of the West Champlain Hills By Tim Rowland With photos by Brendan Wiltse

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