Every named river in the Adirondack Park — the Hudson, the Moose, the Raquette, the Sacandaga, and the rivers that drain the High Peaks.
The North Branch Black River cuts through the western Adirondack plateau above Old Forge, draining a network of beaver ponds and wetlands before converging with the main stem near Forestport. It's a remote headwater system — no road crossings, no state campgrounds, no named put-ins — which means it stays quiet even when the Moose River and Fulton Chain are stacked with boats. The corridor holds brook trout, but access is bushwhack or private-land negotiation; most paddlers and anglers work the mainstem downstream where the DEC manages public easements. If you're scouting this stretch, start with the DEC Region 6 office in Watertown for current easement maps and flow conditions.
The North Branch Moose River drains the high country west of Old Forge, flowing north through state forest land before joining the main stem of the Moose near McKeever. It's classic Adirondack headwater terrain — rocky gradient, beaver activity in the flats, and corridors thick enough with alder and blowdown that most anglers and paddlers stick to the main Moose downstream. The North Branch sees most of its traffic from hunters and snowmobilers working the network of seasonal roads that cross the drainage. Access details are sparse; if you're headed in, bring a good topo and expect to bushwhack.
The North Branch Moose River drains west from the Moose River Plains Wild Forest toward Old Forge — a backcountry waterway that sees more hunters and paddlers than hikers, threading through mixed hardwood and wetland corridors in one of the park's quieter corners. Access typically requires forest roads or longer paddles from established put-ins along the main Moose River system; this isn't a roadside stop. The watershed connects to the broader Moose River network — a region defined by remote ponds, old logging routes, and fall moose sightings that justify the name. Fish data is sparse, but the system historically held brook trout in its cleaner tributaries.
The North Branch Moose River drains a remote stretch of working forest west of Old Forge — timber company land, gated roads, and the kind of country where you're more likely to see a logging truck than a trailhead sign. The branch feeds into the main Moose River system that eventually reaches the Black River, part of the old log-drive corridor that defined the southwestern Adirondacks through the early 20th century. Public access is limited and undefined; this is a river you find by studying topographic maps and knowing which gates open seasonally. Brook trout likely hold in the headwater tributaries, but nobody's keeping formal records.
