Chapter 11- The River
East Ava Road to West Branch
Discovery: The Gorge - Wild and
Beautiful
June 30, 2000, Cloudy & Showers
At the time I had no intention of exploring the entire river. My plan
was to hit the high spots: sections of river where the scenery and fishing
were best. So, other than an attempt to locate the source of the Mohawk,
this was our first discovery trip to the headwaters of the river.
According to the topo map the best access was
from East Ava Road. From there we could explore upstream and downstream.
The downstream contours looked more interesting, but upstream waters could
hold fish.
It was 9:50 a.m. when Denny Gillen and I started
fishing upstream from the bridge. A passing shower was still dripping from
the trees. Shale and limestone outcrops created small waterfalls, and some
great looking pools, runs and riffles. From the first long pool, we each
caught a 9-inch brown trout. Looking good.
The scenery was looking good too. Daisies, buttercups
and a variety of blue and white flowers grew along the stream bank, backed
up by poplar, willow, maple, hemlock and a few pine trees. A quarter-mile
above the bridge was a streamside barn, and a farmhouse on a hill. Upstream
from the farm, the valley was flat, the stream shallow and flowing through
alders and beside patches of cattails. About a mile up from the bridge,
we passed between stands of hemlocks into an area of old beaver meadows.
Except for that first pool, we hadn't caught a fish or found a pool or
run deep enough to hold fish, so we did an about face and were back at
the car at noon,
After
lunch at Mom's Restaurant in West Leyden, we returned to the East Ava Road
Bridge at 1:20 p.m. and headed downstream. The pool below the bridge held
a number of trout. They followed our lures but didn't hit. Hatchery trout
no doubt.
waterfalls in the bottom of The Gorge.
As the map had indicated, this downstream section
was completely different. It dropped over a series of small waterfalls
into a gorge. As we waded downstream, the limestone walls grew higher and
higher. With its rock walls, clinging trees, numerous waterfalls, rock-lined
pools, and slabs of limestone and granite boulders lying in the riverbed,
this section of river was exceptionally beautiful. Unfortunately, the resident
trout were not interested in our offerings.
As is often the case, Denny took his time fishing
each pool and run, while I moved on ahead, casting here and there, looking
to see what was around the next bend. When I came to a sharp turn where
the river dropped deeper into the gorge, it was 3:15, so I waited for Denny
to catch up. When he failed to show, I headed back upstream, and discovered
he had slipped and fallen in the river. Except for a bruised knee and being
soaking wet, he was not injured. The incident emphasized the risk of fishing
alone in this isolated area.
While he wrung out his shirt and laid it on a slab
of sun-warmed limestone to dry, I made a few casts. Below a waterfalls,
a fish followed my gold spoon but wouldn't hit. A quick switch to a gold
spinner produced a brilliantly colored 4-inch brookie; the only fish
caught that afternoon.
When we got back to the car at 4 o'clock it was
sunny and 70 degrees. Despite the dunking and poor fishing, we had "tasted"
The Gorge, and wanted more.
Discovery:
A Good Plan . . . On Paper
July 11, 2000, 70 degrees, Sunny
The
plan was to leave Denny's car at the East Ava Road Bridge, drive the Jeep
down Flint Road to Ridge Road, and follow it to its end. From there it
was less than a half-mile through woods and fields to where Wood
Creek flows into the Mohawk, and then three miles up the river to Denny's
car. It was a good plan . . . on paper.
Ridge Road was in rough shape and had been extended
since the topo map was made, so it took almost an hour to locate our starting
point, and another half-hour to reach the river. Just upstream from the
juncture of the two streams, was a steep gravel bank with a long pool at
the bottom. Looked fishy, but no hits, no follows, no fish. At 11 o'clock
we were already hot, tired and wondering if we should have stayed home.
The streambed consisted of a combination of
gravel, limestone, pieces of shale and cobblestones. As we moved up the
gorge, we discovered a number of fishy looking pools and runs that were
almost impossible to fish because of overhanging branches.
The topo map indicated a good-size pool a half-mile
upstream; perhaps the best fishing hole in the gorge. Turns out it was
a section of stream backed up by a beaver dam. We got to the beaver dam
at 11:45. Bummer. Part of the dam was washed out, the pool long gone.
Just upstream from the beaver dam the river ran
tight to a high gravel bank. The streambed was littered with pieces of
shale, slabs of limestone and cobblestones. It was too low to fish, so
I walked on stones along the opposite bank where large patches of bamboo
grew in the gravel and rocks. Unbeknownst to my feet one of those limestone
slabs was a teeter-totter. One moment I was hopping from rock to rock;
the next flat on my face in the cushioning arms of bamboo. Until that moment
I had no use for that interloper vegetation
After assuring Denny I was in one piece, I continued
upstream around a bend in the river . . . and almost walked into a small
doe standing midstream. Apparently, until she saw me, the commotion was
more interesting than frightening. Recovering quickly, she disappeared
into the woods, white tail waving.
Denny
caught the first fish of the day---a 6-inch brookie---at 12:05. Five minutes
later I discovered the best looking hole thus far. It was deep and undercut
a stone and gravel bank. Unfortunately, there was a tree in it. There was
no way to fish the hole from downstream without getting hung up in the
tree. Moving low and slow to the upstream side of the tree, I cast a gold
spinner into the upper end of the pool and let it drift into the hole.
Two cranks of the spinning reel produced a beautiful 10-inch brook trout.
Denny gave the pool a try with a Rapalla. A trout followed it almost to
shore, but didn't hit.
At 12:15 we walked into the lower end of the limestone gorge and discovered a series of small waterfalls, and pools and runs against rock walls. None of them were very deep and we didn't see a single fish.
This was the most beautiful part of the gorge. Some sections of rock wall were covered with lichen, moss and ferns, and topped with hemlock, birch and maple, looking much like the ruins of medieval castles. Purple flowers grew among the rocks.
By 2 p.m. we were deep in the gorge, getting tired and still hadn't come to familiar territory. Fortunately, at 2:30 we discovered a waterfalls that crossed the width of the river and dumped frothy water into a deep pool. Gold spoons cast into the water just under the falls produced two 10-inch brookies; our first double on the Mohawk. At the sharp bend where I had turned back on the previous trip, we climbed to the top of the gorge and followed a farm road to Denny's car. It was 3 p.m. when we drove south on Ridge Road to get the Jeep. The road was so rough Denny's car was bottoming out, so I had to walk the last mile.
Despite poor planning, we had discovered a fascinating region of the Mohawk Valley and caught some beautiful brook trout. And we had another mile and a half of the Gorge to explore.
Final Leg of the Four-Mile Gorge
July 25, 2000 60 degrees, Sunny
We decided to explore the remaining mile and a half of the gorge by
starting at the lower end and fishing upstream. That meant driving Route
26 to West Branch Village, following West Branch Creek to its mouth, wading
up the Mohawk to the mouth of Wood Creek, and walking back to the car.
Fortunately there is a road that runs along the West Branch almost to the
Mohawk, and because it was our lucky day, the skid roads of a logging operation
provided an easy walk through the woods to the mouth of the creek.
When we started upstream at 8:30 a.m. there wasn't
a cloud in the sky, and very little water in the river. This section of
riverbed is rock rubble and boulders, ranging from black chunks of shale,
to grey slabs of limestone, to Adirondack rocks and boulders of various
size and color. Adirondack Mountain rock was deposited in this area by
a glacier 10,000 years ago and subsequent glacial-melt river carved the
gorge through deposits of gravel, shale and limestone. The steep
grade at the lower end of the gorge allows the river to sweep the finer
particles downstream, leaving the riverbed strewn with rocks and boulders,
and looking every bit like a mountain stream.
Ironwood, cherry, scrub elm, birch and willow
grew streamside. Daisy blossoms gleamed white in grassy areas. Immature
bamboo grew in the gravel among the rocks, their green leaves and red stems
looking rather innocuous. These interloper plants would soon grow thick-stemmed
and head-high, becoming an almost impenetrable barrier wherever they grow
along the streambank.
When
we came to the first pool at 9:05 there was still a sliver of moon in the
deep blue sky and the temperature had climbed several degrees. The pool
was located at a bend in the river next to a pile of logs, but the water
wasn't deep and there were no hungry trout in it.
At 9:15 I stopped to photograph two large boulders
sitting on a limestone shelf. They were distinctively different: one brown,
tan, and red, the other grey with streaks of tan. Rocks from the far north.
At 9:30 we saw the first outcrop pool. From
there on the river meandered from shale wall to tree-covered bottomland.
There was a pool along every wall, but very little cover, and as far as
we could determine, few trout. Deer sign, on the other hand, was plentiful;
tracks perforated gravel bars, and trails ran through the woods and up
the sides of the gorge. The only other signs of wildlife were robins and
redwing blackbirds that preceded us up the river. Strange. They never made
a sound. At times the only sound we heard was the rush and gurgle of the
river.
bamboo looked rather innocuous in July.
Before reaching the mouth of Wood Creek
we had seen only one trout. It made a pass at Denny's lure and headed for
cover. At the long pool near the mouth of the creek, we had a half-dozen
trout follow our lures, but they wouldn't hit. We could take a hint, so
at 11 o'clock we headed back. By crossing bottomland loops to avoid river
bends, we were back at the car at 12:15, having completed the exploration
of the four-mile gorge between Ava and the West Branch.
Follow the path of this discovery trip by clicking on Mohawk Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Ava, select New York, press GO!
Click on margin arrows to follow the path of the Mohawk River.
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