May 02 2026
Bushwhack to Schofield Pond
Once again, I stayed in a small primitive cabin on private land in the Adirondacks. This time for a week — a present to myself for my 70th birthday. After carrying my gear a mile and a half back to the cabin, I took a day to gather wood, draw water and get situated. Then I bushwhacked into the Hammond Pond Wild Forest nearby.
It was an easy bushwhack, actually. All I had to do was drop down to the creek that was the water source for the cabin and follow it upstream. My destination was Schofield Pond, only two miles away. I hugged the meandering creek at first but scrambled to higher ground when it narrowed to a gorge.
The private land had been select cut so entering the wild forest was obvious. Suddenly I was surrounded by white pines with trunks three feet thick. Moss, club moss and evergreen wood ferns flourished in the dark understory. I saw a patch of light ahead. A few frogs peeped from the wetland as I skirted it. Shortly thereafter, I tagged a narrow game trail curving around a huge pool in the stream fed by a waterfall. Then a beaver dam appeared. I had arrived.
The placid water of the pristine pond mirrored the cloudless sky as I approached. I passed some coyote scat with fur in it while following the shady shoreline. With temps in the 50s, I wanted to sit in the sunlight. Halfway around the pond, I found a dry rocky place to do so. There I drank water and munched trail mix while grooving on the deep forest silence. There I found trailing arbutus in bloom, sprawled across open ground. Midges fluttered over the water. A mink suddenly appeared –– as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He quickly swam away.
After hanging out at the pond an hour or so, I retraced my steps back to the cabin. I took a long nap then fired up the wood stove to shake off the chill in my bones. Oh yeah, it was the beginning of a blissful weeklong stay in Adirondack backcountry.
