Cascade Lake Falls at Eagle Bay
4th March 2021
Cold is one way to describe our hike today, but when you are wearing the right gear you don’t feel the 18 degrees at all. Our first stop of two was to the waterfall on Cascade Lake. This is one of the challenge falls in our ADK Snow Falls Challenge. It was a 6 mile hike total and snowshoes were a must unless you were skiing it. The trail was broken for skis so out of respect for that trail, we broke our own snowshoe trail next to it.
The trail itself had very little elevation, just some rolling ups and downs. The only sounds were the crunching of our snowshoes breaking through the hardened top layer of snow. If you stopped for a moment, all you heard was a gentle breeze through the trees. This trail is a loop that goes around the lake, but we chose to do it as an out and back to the waterfall instead. The thinking was that it would be a little easier on our legs to trace our path back rather than breaking trail the entire way around.
At one point you come to a fork in the path. If you are going straight to the falls you want to stay to the right. The left trail will get you there eventually if you want to do the loop.
The falls are located on the northeast corner of the lake. You will see a herd path that leaves the main trail off to the right, that will lead you to the falls.
When we got to the falls, it was frozen solid and blended into the landscape so that you almost didn’t see it!
The 3 miles back were a little easier with the trail already broken, but our legs were definitely feeling it. This trail is perfect for people who want a nice snowshoe workout in an idyllic setting. On to the next fall!
Auger Falls
Our second stop of the day was to Auger Falls, which is also part of our ADK Snow Falls Challenge. This is a short little hike through the woods that has a big payoff. The trail was well packed and a bit icy. We were tired and lazy, so we had started out in just our boots, but quickly realized that spikes were a necessity. To get to the falls you go down the snowmobile path a short distance, then you will see the yellow trail markers on the left. Just follow it to the falls and view the beauty right before you.
Today it was solid enough for us to get down into it.
The ice formation on the edge of the gorge was fascinating. It looked like an old fashioned string mop to me. Anne thought it looked like lots of wet feather boas. One last cheesy selfie and we took the meandering trail back to the car just as the sun set on this amazing day.
Location details about these locations can be found on our ADK Snow Falls Challenge page.
~Christy