After about a year of reporting and a summer of travel, our initial series on solutions to increasing visitor use is complete. My last two stories ran in our May/June issue and are now up on our website. Of course this story never ends. This was our first crack at exploring what other outdoor destinations are doing to balance natural resource protection, accessibility and inclusivity.
Typically DEC closes most of the seasonal access roads it maintains in the Adirondacks at the end of the regular big game season. Due to the unusually warm weather this year many roads are remaining open to public motor vehicle use until ground frost or snow accumulations warrant their closure.
Seasonal access roads are unpaved and often are in rough and sometimes muddy condition. Only four wheel drive trucks, SUVs and other high axle vehicles are recommended for use on these roads, especially now. » Continue Reading.
The Uihlein Foundation in Lake Placid has opened a four-mile trail system on the 940-acre Heaven Hill Farmhouse property on Bear Cub Lane.
The new Heaven Hill Trails augment the popular Henry’s Woods Trail System, about five miles of trails on the Heaven Hill property that opened in 2009. Both trail networks are open to walking, skiing, mountain biking, snowshoes, but not motorized nor equestrian use. » Continue Reading.
A few weeks back there was quite a kerfuffle here at the Almanack over this post by Dan Crane, concerning illegal trails he came upon along the border of the Five Ponds and Pepperbox Wilderness areas.
Comments, accusations and counter-accusations flew back and forth over whether illegal trials in the Wilderness constituted a big deal or not, who knew they were there and whether they were in fact a common and accepted part of the back country. » Continue Reading.
The recent news that the State of New York has acquired the 6,200 acre MacIntyre East property, which abuts the High Peaks Wilderness, has reignited the usual debate over classification: Wild Forest or Wilderness?
This debate, which has many layers and levels, often takes place around the notion of access: how can features of the parcel, including mountains, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, be accessed (presumably for recreation) and, via inference, by whom? Access to Wilderness is by foot or paddle only (and to a limited extent, horses). So what about those for whom access via a typical (read tough) Adirondack trail is difficult or impossible? Many people bring up the elderly as a class for whom a Wilderness designation would severely limit access. Others mention people who have disabilities. » Continue Reading.
The snows are gone and mud season has begun on the Otter Creek Horse Trails. Those hearty folks that stay North for the winter have been enjoying snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and even trekking with Alpacas, and now look forward to another season on the trails.
The Otter Creek Horse Trail system is located just outside Lowville on the Independence River Wild Forest, and the Independence River and Otter Creek State Forests along the western border of the Adirondack Park in Lewis County.
In 2009, towns on Lake George were awarded a $69,000 grant from the state’s Adirondack Park Community Smart Growth Grant Program to create a “Trails Master Plan” for the west shore.
“Creating the plan was a great opportunity to pull together all the information we have about hiking and mountain biking trails as well as bicycle routes,” said Tracey Clothier of the LA Group, who crafted the plan. » Continue Reading.
Not that long ago, or at least within living memory, Cleverdale on the east side of Lake George was home to fewer than five year-round families; the children attended a one-room school house on Ridge Road. A common footpath followed the shore, allowing residents to walk to church in summer.
Modern times, however, came quickly enough. Lakefront residents appropriated the sections of footpath that crossed their lawns. New York State acquired 28 acres on Sandy Bay and planned to build a public beach and picnic area there, a prospect so alarming to local residents, they sought to purchase the tract themselves. Eventually, the state reconsidered, perhaps as a result of pressure applied by some politically well-connected locals, and the land is still undeveloped. » Continue Reading.
It is not a tourism campaign, or a new branding effort, or a marketing scheme.
It is not the southern portion of St. Lawrence County portrayed by author Peter O’Shea. Nor is it somewhere deep in the Smoky Mountains, or in the longleaf pine forests of Florida and Georgia.
It is the first step of a new effort to take a fresh look at recreation in the Adirondack Park.
What we are calling the Great South Woods is over two million acres – about one-third of the entire Adirondack Park – south of Routes 28 and 28N, west of the Northway (I-87) and Route 9, and north and east of the Blue Line. » Continue Reading.
The Pinnacle, the Bolton landmark visible from Lake George and the Cat and Thomas Mountains Preserve, may be protected from development after all. More than five years after Ernest Oberer first proposed building houses on the ridgeline, the Lake George Land Conservancy intends to purchase the property, said Jamie Brown, the Conservancy’s new executive director. » Continue Reading.
The first of several workshops to support regional recreation planning in the southern part of New York’s Adirondack Park will be 6 to 8 pm, on Wednesday, January 28th at Piseco Central School.
The meeting is open to the public and has been organized by a partnership between the Great South Woods Project and the Adirondack Community-based Trails and Lodging System. It follows the Great South Woods kick-off meeting Dec. 17 at Lake Pleasant Central School in Speculator, during which more than 80 participants shared their knowledge of, and vision for, recreation opportunities in the two-million acre planning area. » Continue Reading.
This fall, the Adirondack Park Agency invited the public to offer ideas for revising the State Land Master Plan – which hasn’t been substantially amended since 1987 – and the agency got an earful.Among those submitting suggestions were the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, environmental organizations, mountain bikers, and backcountry skiers.
The Local Government Review Board, which has a non-voting seat on the APA board, proposed a number of amendments. Perhaps the most fundamental change would put economic development on an equal footing with natural resource protection in the plan’s mission statement. » Continue Reading.
A state appeals court has narrowly upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against Adirondack Explorer Editor Phil Brown after he paddled through private land in 2009.
The Third Department of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, located in Albany, handed down the 3-2 decision on Thursday morning. It affirmed a 2013 ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Richard T. Aulisi supporting the public’s right to travel down an isolated, two-mile waterway that connects two pieces of the William C. Whitney Wilderness. » Continue Reading.
After four public meetings on the future of the eighty-mile rail corridor between Big Moose and Lake Placid, the public seems as divided as ever, and the state now must make a decision sure to leave many people unhappy.
The Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation plan to review the public comments and make a recommendation for the best use of the state-owned corridor. After the public has had a chance to weigh in on that recommendation, the departments will make a final decision. » Continue Reading.
A new group is exploring the possibility of creating a network of trails that would link with new and existing lodging facilities in the Adirondack Park.
The concept is based on hut-to-hut systems that are popular in other parts of the world, including New Zealand and Spain. Closer to home, the Appalachian Mountain Club runs huts for hikers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. » Continue Reading.
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