I have only seen it named on a large green Central Adirondack Mountains wall map produced in Keene Valley. Aside from that, there is no reference to its existence that I have come across.

Despite this, I think it “peaks” everyone’s interest to go and check it out. Mine included.

A decent crew of hikers all met up at the access road for O’Neil Flow and piled into the clown car ready to explore the unknown. The access road, which is open to the public, went much farther into the backwoods than I had realized. I assumed it only continued to Rock River as a fishing access site, but to my surprise we ended up just above Barker Pond and below Barker Mountain.

Beavers had made their mark along the road and, thankfully, this clown car was fully-equipped with 4-wheel drive and a completely fearless driver. We arrived at the parking area for Barker Pond, which I had fully planned to check out. However, I never expected there to be a trail to it.

A view of Barker Pond from the campsite. (Provided photo — Spencer Morrissey)

Barker Pond is located directly behind the parking area, through what looked to be a heavily logged area; par for the course in a previous working forest.

The road continued past the Barker Pond Trailhead, but it was blocked by three massive boulders. Not even our driver would be able to make that skip.

We continued on foot from here in hopes of finding an old skidder road that would aid us in accessing the summit, but with further exploring along the road, it didn’t appear that it would be an option. We also agreed that skidder roads don’t make the best routes anyhow, as most are in horrible condition, rutted and often swamped.

We started following one right from the road, but it was too cluttered with slash to make an efficient passage viable. I meandered about — as I usually do — trying to find the path of least resistance and trying to locate a nice route to the summit. Just in case it ended up being a prize winner and others might want to explore as well.

Eventually, we walked right out of the logging debris, and like a curtain closing before us, we were in the trees, swimming. Occasional small bands of red spruce showed their face and scratched ours, but nothing to ruin what was a nice hike in the wilds.

As we approached even closer to the top, a narrow band of rock gave us a direct heading to the summit. Small views from the rock spine provided us a taste of the fantastic views we found just off the summit.

Covered in reindeer lichen, the open rock gave us visions out over O’Neil Flow and into the Moose River Plains. Lake Durrant wasn’t too far away, draped in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Wilderness.

We explored around the rocky slopes and through the spruce thicket around the summit crown, looking for additional views but to no avail. Regardless, we were satisfied with our findings.

The actual high point — just for informational purposes — was atop a boulder in the forest, a bit tough to scale, but there it was. It’s amazing how many summits are oddly located on boulders.

We opted for a different route back to the car, and with this we found some attractive areas of rock cliffs below where we enjoyed the summit beer amid jumbled boulders, wetlands, fern fields and no easy direct route back to the car. Apparently, our way up was the best.

Back at the car, we made the anticipated side trip down to Barker Pond. The trail is still relatively new compared with so many others. In areas, the mineral soil remained a dark brown, almost black under our feet, packing into the tread of our boots and gaining a free ride.

The trail was about 0.2 miles in length with a steady, mellow downhill to a primitive campsite about 150 feet off shore (the required distance for any campsite).

A couple of us pushed through the spruce that lined the shore to get better photos, and there was a loon, not more than 50 feet away. The pond seemed almost too small for a loon to take off effectively, but using its entire length, it would be possible. I hope. They would know better than I. The closest thing I would get to flying would be the car ride out with our somewhat hard line chauffer.