Jabe Pond Trail

Jabe Pond Trail is an easy out-and-back along a wooded Adirondack pond. From the hand launch, the marked shoreline path reaches the third campsite and returns the same way: about 1.6 miles round trip, with the pond visible through the trees and rocky edges to pause at. Allow about an hour. Come for a simple water-side walk, not a summit or a loop.

Take the footpath to the right of the launch. The bank alternates between woods and small rocky shelves at the water. The marked path ends at the third campsite; turn around there. Unmarked paths continue around the pond and can be hard to follow, so they are not part of this route. A short, unmarked-feeling branch to Little Jabe Pond is a separate side trip. The bare rock at the water makes the best view: keep a strip of shoreline in the foreground.

The distance above starts at the pond-side hand launch. From Battle Hill Road, a rough access road continues about a mile to a second parking area near the pond when seasonal access permits. If you leave your car at the Battle Hill Road lot and walk in, the full outing to the third campsite and back is about 3.2 miles. The road is rough enough that high clearance is recommended for driving. Dogs may join, but New York requires them leashed at trailheads and campsites and under control elsewhere.

The pond takes its name from Jabez Patchin, a local landowner. Older maps call it South Pond and later Patchin's Pond; the name Jabe Pond appears by 1912. A private island camp opened here in 1905 and likely burned a few years later. A stone fireplace remains on the island, though its story is not fully settled and the trail does not promise a shore-side view of it.