Our next OurStoryBridge, Inc. story share features John Schneider from ADK Voices. In his story about the ADK Adopt-A-Lean-To-Program, Schneider shares the process and challenges of developing nearly sixty lean-tos for Adirondack campers and hikers. To listen to this story in its entirety, please visit this link: https://app.memria.org/stories/public-story-view/f7a9c431551c4609a9f6eff11ddb8708/.
Anyone who has ever spent a night camping in an Adirondack lean-to will be able to describe the joy of being woken up by the early morning sun accompanied by the fresh scent of balsam needles and the haunting call of loons. If you have ever come upon one of these unique three-sided structures deep in the backcountry and wondered how such a thing was constructed, or even fantasized about having one in your backyard, you are not alone. Building a proper lean-to requires a set of knowledge, skills, and experience that make it difficult for the average person to do on their own. The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) had remedied this by offering a full lean-to building class as part of our “Adirondack Bucket List” series.
Graffiti Arrest: On Nov. 2, DEC Central Dispatch received a call about a social media post showing graffiti on a lean-to on State lands at Hunter Mountain. Rangers Fox and Dawson began an investigation with DEC’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigation (BECI). On Nov. 4, Lt. Pachan and Ranger Dawson received information that the suspect was currently at the John Robb lean-to attempting to clean up the graffiti. Rangers Fox and Dawson responded to the scene and notified BECI investigators. Rangers learned that the subject drove up the mountain on Hunter ski resort roads and got stuck in a snowbank at the top of the Kaatskill Flyer chairlift. Ski resort staff and Ranger Dawson freed the vehicle from the snowbank, and the Officers escorted the subject down to the ski lodge where they met responding BECI investigators. The 39-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested and transported to the New York State Police (NYSP) barracks in Hunter. He was charged with a Class A misdemeanor for making graffiti and violations for defacing rock and natural materials on state land and defacing a DEC structure. The suspect is due back in court on Dec. 15.
John Robb lean-to graffiti cleaned up by Rangers
From the ashes of our beloved Bull Rush Bay lean-to’s old cedar logs, life rises anew!
Meet “The Phoenix”
This spring, I paddled out across Kiwassa Lake to see the volunteers at Lean2Rescue put the finishing touches on a newly restored lean-to shelter. They had moved it, piece by piece, from Middle Saranac Lake, so they could replace the roof and some rotting logs at the base. And they left in its place a new lean-to for Middle Saranac.
This is what these guys do. They told me I could do it too, if I had an IQ in the range of a “bag of hammers.” It’s their joke for the mania that drives them to head out into the wilderness to move 400-pound logs around. What they do is no joke, though. It keeps a certain local architectural heritage alive, and gives paddlers and backpackers shelter in the woods.
Many years ago my wife, our Newfoundland dog, and I paddled past what appeared to be many rather unnatural clearings on Long Pond in the St. Regis Canoe Area. Here and there, partially underwater, I saw a piece of plastic water pipe or an old rusty pipe that might have been a dock support. They are the remains of tent platform sites.
In the early 1970s, these camps on “forever wild” New York State Adirondack Forest Preserve Lands were built on leases to private individuals. There were somewhere in the vicinity of 600 individual leases throughout the Adirondacks at that time. Many tent platform leases were on Lower Saranac Lake, where there were 187 tent platforms leased in 1961, and on the various ponds that today comprise the St. Regis Canoe Area. There were also tent platform sites on such popular lakes as Forked, Seventh, Lewey, and Indian Lakes, along the Raquette River, and in many other areas. » Continue Reading.
The Wolf Pond Trail and the Wolf Pond Lean-to are located in the central Adirondack town of North Hudson in Essex County.
Hikers and campers may access the 2.3-mile Wolf Pond Trail from Boreas River/Wolf Pond Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Road near the bridge over the Boreas River. » Continue Reading.
Lean-tos are three-walled shelters scattered throughout the backcountry of the Adirondack Park. Typically, they are conveniently located near picturesque lakes, ponds or streams. They are often convenient substitutes for tents (except during bug season) and especially popular with backpackers on a rainy day. Unfortunately this popularity often leads to overuse and sometimes downright abuse.
For example, this past summer I visited and revisited the Sand Lake lean-to within the Five Ponds Wilderness during a bushwhacking trip. Over the eight-day period the lean-to went from clean and well-kept to having garbage strewn within the fireplace and abandoned equipment scattered all about.
Obviously there is a need for some rules of lean-to etiquette. These rules need to be adopted and promoted by all backcountry adventurers. They should be posted on an attractive sign in a prominent place on each lean-to to remind those users that seem to forget their obligations when visiting the backcountry. » Continue Reading.
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Alone the night
Have you ever spent a night alone in the woods? A highly recommended experience. To find out more click the link and read on: https://adirondackoutlaw.com/alone-the-night/