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APA stumbles on Boreas Ponds
When Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state’s purchase of Boreas Ponds and the surrounding land for the Forest Preserve it was an occasion for lofty rhetoric. “Once in a rare while,” he said, “. . . you get a chance to do something that makes a difference forever. Forever. That literally leaves our children a place that is a better place than we inherited.” As stirring as those words were, they will sound empty if the state doesn’t rise to the occasion and commit to using these lands in a way that truly preserves their natural wonder for the next generations.
Stillwater Mountain Fire Tower
Thanks to volunteers, Stillwater Mountain’s 47-foot edifice is open to the public again. By John Pitarresi Cathy Percy stands in the cabin of the Stillwater Mountain Fire Tower. She and her visitors are forty-seven feet above the footings set into the bedrock at the top of the mountain. The peak itself is a modest 2,264…
At home on the river
By Tom Woodman A little over eight years ago, Margaret Hawthorn spotted the cabin of her dreams. Set on a small island in the Saranac River beneath a canopy of evergreens and with a view across a marsh to Adirondack peaks, the home spoke to her. “I was helping on the Ninety-Miler [canoe race], and I came through, took one look,…
‘Explorer’ cover gave slanted view
Your cover for the July/August issue of the Adirondack Explorer was disgraceful in that it seemed an overtly staged, slanted, and shortsighted depiction of a perceived wrong. It was also a demonstration that the Explorer continues to be anything but balanced regarding the rail-trail issue. Phil Brown’s article was only slightly more balanced. Ripping up…
Update land classification
Tom Woodman’s editorial on management of the Park [“End piecemeal management, March/April 2016] hit the nail on the head. Creating a new Backcountry classification is necessary to adjust to the many influences on the Park that have changed and will continue to change. The growing popularity of biking is a good example. In classifying lands,…
Open Adirondack waterways
I am watching the Shingle Shanty Brook/private lands issue with great interest. I paddled that route about ten years ago and remember it well. What may be more interesting to you is that here in Florida, where I live, we also had a struggle to keep a public paddling route open. It took about ten…
Abandon road to Boreas
I must say that I agree with Bill Ingersoll’s Viewpoint [“Greens take the wrong road,” July/August 2016]. And I disagree with the major Adirondack environmental groups about the Boreas Ponds if they want to create a substantial expansion of the High Peaks Wilderness (which I do) but want to keep a six-mile access road into…
Panther Gorge
A coterie of climbers tames the cliffs at one of the wildest, remotest, and most sublime locales in the High Peaks By Alan Wechsler Four and a half hours after our 4:30 a.m. departure from the Garden trailhead in Keene Valley, my two climbing partners and I dropped our packs and looked around. We were…
Bouldering comes of age
By PHIL BROWN Years ago I often used to see a line of cars parked along McKenzie Pond Road outside Saranac Lake and wonder why they were there. There was no trailhead there, no house, just nondescript woods. Eventually, I learned that those woods harbored a collection of giant boulders and that people would drive…