Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2017 i Adirondack Explorer

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for a $32 million Gateway to the Adirondacks off the Northway (I-87) would depend mostly on private investment. The 2017-18 state budget pegs the state’s expenditure at $13 million for designing and building a campground, equestrian facilities, and day-use areas at the former Frontier Town, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation. The rest of the money, $19 million, is expected to come from private investors. They were given until July 28 to submit ideas for redeveloping the 288-acre site at Northway Exit 29 in North Hudson. There are no plans for facilities to be built this summer. Read more on this topic: Big Plans for North Hudson In June, DEC and state economic officials hosted a tour of the western-style theme park, which closed in…

“Where do those trails go?” I wondered. The map showed a small trail system, whose outline looked like a loopy, potbellied cartoon character riding a unicycle. Sure, there was Pole Hill Pond at the upper end, but the trail swung far and wide of it twice, a hugely indirect route. What was the dinky little loop down at the foot? I’ve been looking at Adirondack trail maps most of my life and could not decipher this weird pattern of black dashes. Yet here it was, on the National Geographic trail map that accompanies my Adirondack Mountain Club’s Guide to Eastern Trails, so I could explore it for work. How did those trails get there? Who knew about them? What was that pond like? They were on a new parcel of…

Questions are growing about the future of a tourism train that local leaders hoped would serve as a major attraction, bringing visitors from the Capital District to the Gore Mountain region. The latest sign of trouble: the company that operates the troubled Saratoga and North Creek Railway plans to scale back operations this summer to weekends only. “It is an important part of our economic development,” said Katie Nightingale, a Johnsburg town board member who helps organize tourism events in the North Creek area, including the Hudson River Whitewater Derby. “The main street area sees the railroad as a big asset.” General Manager Justin Gonyo announced that daily departures would be suspended this summer, describing the move as “an experimental schedule, not a long-term fix.” Gonyo unveiled the plan at…

The Adirondack Mountain Club owns land with trailheads for some of the most popular mountains in the High Peaks Wilderness, but you wouldn’t know that from their recent promotions on social media and traditional print publications. That’s because the club does not want to exacerbate overcrowding in the High Peaks. Click here for more photos Instead of encouraging people to climb Mount Marcy and Algonquin Peak, ADK is teaching people backcountry ethics, including Leave No Trace principles. “People are coming no matter what, so we don’t need to promote it, and what we need to promote is how to recreate responsibly,” said Julia Goren, ADK’s education director and summit-steward coordinator. The education campaign is just one of several ways that ADK, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and other organizations…

When the Saranac Lake Sixer organization held its kickoff celebration on Memorial Day weekend in 2013, the weather conditions were foul. It not only rained all week leading up to the event, but there were torrential downpours during it. The rain caused small brooks to overflow their banks, creating at least one extremely difficult and potentially dangerous stream crossing. Plus, in the higher elevations the precipitation turned to snow, creating winter conditions on 3,862-foot MacKenzie Mountain, where two feet of snow fell. “It was so challenging,” recalled Bethany Garretson, the second person to finish the Sixer challenge, along with her sister, Mallory. “We had packed running shoes for it because we were going for the ultra [in less than twenty-four hours]. Then, you’re in these snow conditions, and it was…

On my way into Brooktrout Lake in 2015, I came to a newly constructed footbridge across a small gully. It was by no means a special structure: a couple of log stringers, some decking, a handrail on one side, like dozens of bridges throughout the Forest Preserve. But what made this one stand out was how the materials had been delivered to the site: next to the bridge was a recent clearing, where mature poplar trees had been felled to punch a manmade hole in the forest canopy, creating an unsightly helicopter drop zone. I am no stranger to wilderness stewardship work. In 2009 I helped carry heavy hemlock planks from the shore of Dead Creek Flow to the site of a new bog bridge on the High Falls Loop.…

When the shadow of the red-berried elder immediately outside my bedroom window shook in a violent spasm I sat up in bed immediately and spun my head around to see what had happened. A foot beyond the window a stunningly beautiful rose-breasted grosbeak, a blood-red elderberry in its beak, gently leaned over one of two immature grosbeaks and gave it the berry, which seemed to irritate the other immature bird big time. So the mature grosbeak hopped to another branch, making the bush again spasm wildly, nailed another berry, and hopped down to offer it to the neglected immature bird, which snatched it out of its father’s mouth with a vengeance. As I watched, the birds, looking field-guide perfect in strong early-morning sunlight, started working the elderberry bush like seasoned…

We asked for your paddling photos back when the ice had barely melted from the lakes, but you came through with some gorgeous shots nonetheless. We received a couple hundred photos of canoers, kayakers, and even a few stand-up paddlers. We chose these five photos based on their beauty and composition and the fact that they were so different from one another. Each of the paddling photographers will receive a free one-year-subscription to the Explorer. The readers’ choice was determined by the number of likes on Facebook. Congratulations to Tyler Merriam. Our next Views of the Park theme is “Under 4,000”— views from mountaintops outside the forty-six high peaks. Post your photos from your adventures to Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #adkexplorerpix AdirondackExplorer @adirondackexplorer…

Camp Fowler, the sixty-three-year-old summer camp on Sacandaga Lake with views of Fish Mountain and parts of the West Canadas, has a rule it lives by that is both simple and revolutionary in a scheduled world where young people are tethered to electronic devices pretty much 24/7: they don’t entertain the kids. “That’s what Disney is for,” says Kent Busman, Camp Fowler’s director of thirty-one years. Years ago as assistant director, when the camp had a movie night, he found himself placing a sheet over the large picture window to block out the sunset that was interfering with the film. He vowed, if he ever became director, to never show another movie. When it rains, they let it. They ask, “What does rain give us?” The answer might be mud…

Why would a climber want to visit something called Moss Cliff? Though the name conjures up some dank, low-angled slab wrapped in a living green carpet, the reality is quite different. This best of Adirondack cliffs is not so mossy. In fact, it’s among the cleanest, driest, most appealing rock walls in the Northeast—in my opinion, the most Adirondack of all Adirondack crags. The name probably comes from a misreading of the 1953 USGS topographical map that put the unflattering label on a dirty slab about a mile to the west of the clean and elegantly sculpted wall that we now call Moss Cliff. Moss Cliff isn’t hard to find. You’ve all seen it looming high above the Ausable River on the Sunrise Mountain shoulder of Whiteface. Zooming by at…

When I was a kid growing up in Alaska, I really believed in elves and gnomes. I believed magic existed and was pretty well convinced that if it was real I would find it hidden in the forest. One summer, it sort of came true. An artist—I have no idea who—began making odd little works of art in lonely places away from town. On my rambles, I would stumble across delicate piles of rock or a little sculpture of wood or patterns of stones arranged just so in the river. Surely it was the work of magic creatures, straight out of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis. I thought of that strange boyhood adventure again this summer when Peter Wyer took me to see his new “iForest” created in a pine grove…

It seemed like a good idea. I like to canoe small streams. Negro Brook is a small stream. Ergo, I would like canoeing Negro Brook. Negro Brook (on the name, see sidebar) begins near Onchiota and meanders through the Oregon Sand Plains before joining Twobridge Brook and turning into Sumner Brook, a tributary of the Saranac River. I had seen Negro Brook many times from the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, which follows an abandoned railroad corridor. The stream flows under the northern part of the trail in three places, and whenever I ran or biked the trail, I promised myself I would paddle it someday. That day came in early May, when the water was running high. Based on my observations from the trail, my study of the topographical map, and…

The Adirondack Explorer joins the largest Adirondack environmental groups in saying “no” to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s conceptual proposal to classify a small area of the Boreas Ponds as Intensive Use for the purpose of putting seasonal lodging and dining facilities there to continue the hut-to-hut system linking trails to community amenities. We haven’t seen any details—nor has the public. What we know we’ve learned from environmental groups, whose opinions were tested a few months ago by representatives for the governor. In fact, more than six months after the last public hearings concluded and the deadline for comments to the Adirondack Park Agency came and went, the classification of the Boreas Ponds remains undecided. And in none of the public hearings was there talk of a different classification for a five-acre…

One hundred and sixty-seven years ago, a man decided that the narrow, East Ausable River valley would be a good place to build himself a house. Unlike the frothy West Branch, which engages in a bare-knuckle, whitewater brawl in a frantic attempt to escape the chasms of Wilmington Notch, the East Branch flows in relative calm through just enough tillable bottomland to tease a settler into thinking that he might be able to eke out an agricultural existence. Although he has left us some clues, I don’t know a lot about the man. But I do feel sure that, upon hearing of his plans to live in the howling wilderness, his friends all asked him the same incredulous question: art thou nuts? I know this because my friends have largely…

If red-backed voles were displayed in an exhibit of live Adirondack animals, and if we could magnify their size a hundredfold, we’d line up to see them. But they’re not, and we can’t, so we don’t. Such a pity! There is no more handsome mammal in our woods. It’s a fact, too, that we exalt the rare and devalue the common. The less often we see a creature, the more excited we tend to get when we do see it. And if the beast is large, say, like a moose or black bear, we recount the thrill of seeing it again and again. Meanwhile, enormously abundant creatures scurrying at our feet such as the red-backed vole find themselves ignored. Yet they’re out there, in staggering quantity. An acre of forest…

Paddlers have been using the Marion River carry since the 1800s, but it had not been in public ownership until this year, when the state acquired it from the Open Space Institute. As a result, the carry trail and surrounding land now belong to the forever-wild Forest Preserve. In related developments, the state acquired three other properties and plans to buy yet another. Altogether, the Forest Preserve stands to grow by nearly two thousand acres. OSI bought the 296-acre Marion River parcel in 2012 for $2 million and transferred it to the state this year at no cost to the state. Before OSI stepped in, the property faced the possibility of development, which might have cut off public access. The five-hundred-yard trail is used by paddlers portaging between Utowana Lake…

While fishing in Black Pond on a rainy mid-April day, Paul Smith’s College student Jake Kuryla caught a thirteen-inch brown trout. This surprised the fisheries major because Black Pond is a designated brook-trout water. Located on college property, Black Pond is used to raise Windfall brook trout, one of nine remaining heritage strains recognized by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC gathers eggs and milt (semen) from the fish to raise brook trout for stocking elsewhere. Brown trout grow faster and bigger than brook trout and hence outcompete them for food and territory. DEC spokesman Dave Winchell said the department doesn’t know how brown trout got into the pond, but they were discovered last fall. This spring, the department received several reports from anglers who caught brown trout, including…

Bogs and fens are wetlands. At least they are if you can call a wet place with nothing but peat, or sphagnum moss, underfoot “land.” Such features, not quite land and not quite water, dot the Adirondack landscape. Whenever and wherever we hike, we march around and over them, sometimes on boardwalks, planks, or corduroy. Botanists, birdwatchers, and naturalists in general tend to go ape over patches of peat. If you’ve ever wondered what’s the big deal or wanted to distinguish a bog from a fen and comprehend the physical factors that make such places different from each other and from all the rest of the landscape, Ronald B. Davis’s Bogs And Fens: A Guide to the Peatland Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada may be just…

Standing atop a cliff above the Ausable River in Wilmington, Dave LaMountain carefully steered his drone up and down the river, taking video of water rushing through cascades. On this spring day, LaMountain was capturing footage of waterfalls in the northeastern Adirondacks for a short video, one of a couple dozen he’s done about the Adirondacks. The footage was for a project that LaMountain is working on to highlight the beauty of the Adirondack Park. He’s pursuing the project as a hobby, although he envisions using drones professionally for scientific purposes or mapping applications. But for now, he just posts the edited footage on his Facebook page, “Just Some Guy in the ADK,” which has the handle @ADKDroneGuy. LaMountain said one of his goals is to show how drones can…

DIRECTIONS: From the intersection of NY 73 and NY 86 in Lake Placid, drive 6.1 miles east on NY 86 to a pull-off on the left. The cliff is visible across the Ausable River. Cross the river (no bridge) and hike to the base of the cliff. Moss Cliff Stats Height: 400 feet Number of routes: 28 Difficulty ratings: 5.8 to 5.14 Quality: 5 out of 5 stars Source: Adirondack Rock Like other sports, climbing has its own lingo that can mystify non-initiates. Here are a few terms used in Don Mellor’s article. Free climbing. The climber uses a rope to protect against a fall, but he or she ascends without resting on the rope, pulling on protective gear, or using artificial aids. Aid climbing. The climber uses artificial aid,…

At the sprawling repository of Adirondack history at Blue Mountain Lake, David Kahn keeps in his files an image of an uninviting yesteryear museum tended by a stern-faced old woman, her hair pulled back in a severe bun and a menacing steel cage guarding her admissions booth. In an age when even the word itself, museum, connotes dust and cobwebs, Kahn’s institution is fighting back, with $8 million worth of updated and engaging exhibit halls, a new collection of modernized graphics and electronic media, and—in a change that for better or worse has drawn the most attention—a new name. The Adirondack Museum is now the Adirondack Experience, a switch that has raised the eyebrows of even some of the museum’s most ardent supporters. Gone too is the old logo depicting…

In late June 2016, when Justin Todd hiked Cascade and Porter mountains, he had no intention of becoming an Adirondack Forty-Sixer, let alone the ten thousandth. But less than four months later, that’s exactly what happened when he climbed Whiteface Mountain on October 15. Todd found out in January that he had the honor of becoming the ten thousandth person to hike all the High Peaks and register with the Adirondack Forty-Sixers. “That blew my mind,” said Todd, who lives in Potsdam. “I’m only going to say that because of the Facebook page [Aspiring Adirondack 46ers]; everyone on there was talking about it, who it was going to be, and it was just such a topic of conversation. … There were people actually posting fake certificates of them being ten…

I ran cross-country in high school and have continued this interest into my adult life with daily runs, numerous 5K races, and two half-marathons. But in mid-May, I attempted my first trail run. Running on trails rather than roadways (or, yes, a treadmill) never occurred to me in a lifetime of visits to the Adirondacks. And in that time, trail running has become mainstream. The 2016 report from the Outdoor Foundation put the number of runners at almost 8.1 million nationwide, up 10 percent over the last three years. Saranac Lake trail runner Sarah Keyes, who has been doing it competitively for the past three years, says it’s a way for recreational road runners to take the next step. For her, the concentration needed allows her to “push everything else…

That’s ‘Grasse’ to you As a subscriber, I wish to point out an error in the May/June issue of Adirondack Explorer. Your paddling article took me by surprise, sitting in my seat as the Clifton town historian here in Cranberry Lake. The river you’ve written about is the Grasse River, not the Grass River. I am a third-generation year-round resident of Clifton, and as an old-timer here, when I say Grasse River I pronounce the e on the end, just as my father and grandfather before me did. It is an old habit that I cannot break. Most of the signs correctly spell the river’s name as Grasse, although some newer ones drop the e. I suspect those signs were ordered by newer employees unaware that a name pronounced by…

YES By Randy Preston Southern Essex County has been struggling for years and years. North Hudson is virtually a ghost town. However, its beauty and proximity to the Northway make it the perfect site for the Gateway to the Adirondacks. If you walk the Frontier Town property not only does it have beautiful vistas, but the meandering Schroon River conjures up the vision of children in an inner tube floating quietly downstream. Anyone who is against this project does not understand it or has not walked the site. It is not just another campsite, nor are we resurrecting the theme park. This will be an equestrian campground and a day-use area, with hundreds of acres of recreational trails with connections to the trail system west to Newcomb and beyond. Some…

Why should we care about pollinators? Well, according to the National Academy of Sciences, 75 percent of the flowering plants on our planet rely on pollinators in order to produce seeds or fruit, and much of the food we and other animals depend upon comes from these plants. When one thinks of pollinators, honey bees most frequently come to mind. There are more than 2.5 million honey-bee colonies in the United States, pollinating $15 billion worth of our fruit, berry, nut, and vegetable crops. Honey bees are an introduced species, first brought to the Americas by English settlers in 1622. But we have no shortage of native bees—at least four thousand species, 450 of those in New York State. These natives did much of the pollination before honey bees were…