Adirondack Eskers
Eskers are neat remnants of the glaciers which once covered the Adirondacks and other northern climes. They were formed when the glaciers melted, creating streams of water laden with silt. The silt hardened and formed elevated, serpentine “roads.” Remembering that glaciers could be more than a mile thick, it’s not surprising eskers can define a landscape. Their heights can exceed 100 feet. They can be lengthy, as well. The Esker Riada, for example, stretches halfway across Ireland. (The term esker is an Irish word for pathway; indeed, they were the dry high ground on which peat miners used to travel across the landscape.)
While we can't watch an esker form quickly these days, YouTube offers some vivid demonstrations.
The road through Massawepie Scout Camp traverses an esker.
There are a number of eskers in the Adirondacks, though none more stunning than Rainbow Lake. The esker splits the body of water in half with Inlet, Clear Pond, and Square Pond to the north and Rainbow Lake to the south. It can be argued that the esker continues (discontinuously) for 85 miles and according to A. F. Buddington, an early geologist, is one of the finer examples of an esker.
The Rainbow Lake esker, the narrow strip of land between the two bodies of water on the above map, is a classic example of this landscape feature.
Nearby, an esker extends down to the (in)famous Camp Topridge, next to Upper St. Regis Lake, forming the aptly named Spectacle Ponds. Most Adirondack eskers run in a northeast to southwest arc. The St. Regis Canoe Area has one of the highest concentrations of these glacial formations, though many others can be seen in the drainages of West Canada Creek or the Schroon, Moose, Hudson, and Cedar rivers. The Five Ponds area also has superb eskers.
Less obvious, but more accessible is a small esker you can hike on at the base of the Jenkins Mountain Open Wood Ski Zone for backcountry skiing at Paul Smith's College VIC. Eskers can be just a few feet high, or can reach heights of 100-feet or more. One of the most convenient places to observe an esker is on the Black Pond Trail, also at the VIC. The western shore of the pond is bounded by an esker.
A view of the esker at Paul Smith's College VIC.
Vegetation that grows on eskers is not exclusive to the feature, but the sandy soils are favored by white pines. White pines thrive in well-drained areas, including locations with sandy or loamy soils. Other plant species that can thrive on eskers are blueberries, bracken fern, red pine, wintergreen, and northern wild raisin, among others.
Although eskers are a big part of the Adirondack landscape, they are not limited to this area. In northern Manitoba, where vegetation is less dense, eskers are like convenient highways across the subarctic tundra and profuse lakes. In my travels, my wife and I spent a month living next to this esker.
Once you’ve become aware of eskers, you start wondering to yourself, “Is this an esker? Is that an esker?” everywhere you travel through the Adirondacks.
