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Around 2 a.m. on a stormy night in August 2013, vicious winds from a microburst exploded onto the southeast shoreline of Upper Saranac Lake, directly onto the property of Mary Watson. The winds ripped trees into piles along a swath next to a 120-year-old main camp building. Just up the shore, in a home on the Watson property Sonny Young heard the…
Guidebook author shares some of his secrets of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. By Bill Ingersoll WHEN THE STATE began creating a network of marked trails in the Adirondacks in the 1920s, it usually adopted preexisting routes, reflecting a constitutional interpretation that cutting trees would be a violation of the Forest Preserve’s forever-wild protections. A newspaper…
For thirty-six years Bill Brown has been tramping over the mountains, foothills, and lowlands of the Lake George Wild Forest keeping tabs on old acquaintances and meeting new ones in out-of the way crevices, under rocks, or wandering the forest floor. Bill is a researcher who studies the Adirondack population of timber rattlesnakes, a threatened species in New York. In the…
I have been a reader and subscriber to the Explorer for a number of years. I enjoy the recreational, environmental, and local community coverage that you provide for the Adirondacks. I am writing to you now about a recent incident. A permanent sign was placed on the summit of Grace Peak (formerly East Dix) in the Dix Mountain Wilderness. The sign…
The moose population that we are supposed to see expanding will be harassed by the new snowmobile trails and will want to find new territories. Unfortunately they don’t realize there is no place to go and will be killed crossing the roads and cause car wrecks. Moose have been known to attack snow machines and riders. The state, which is promoting…
New York State’s announcement that it will review the management plan for an underused rail line through the Adirondacks is very welcome. It’s a key step toward establishing a rail-to-trail recreation way that would be a major draw for visitors to the Adirondacks. In announcing the review, though, the state indicated a preference for a half measure that would fall short of the…
A lesson for our times When we fiddle with nature, there can be unforeseen consequences. When we fiddle with nature in big ways, entire civilizations collapse. This was the essence of a densely written book, Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, published in 1864 in New York and London. It…
Hopefully I am not too late to the party to contribute my two cents. I just read about the Adirondack Park Agency approving test drilling by the mining company NYCO in Lot 8 (Jay Mountain Wilderness) in the Adirondack Explorer [July/August 2014]. I thought I was voting for a land swap to take place between NYCO and the state. Had…
You show great photos of rock climbing [“Climbing the classics,” July/August 2014], but why is Phil Brown the only one wearing a helmet? I thought they were a basic precaution. I am an Adirondack guide and we are trained that safety is number one at all times. Bob Godlewski, Rotterdam
After reading “A Pitch for Wilderness” it appears that the map showing a section of Northville-Lake Placid Trail in a West Stony Creek Wilderness is misleading. This trail would be an alternative for Northville-Placid hikers who now have to walk along a public road. Two friends and I drove up Mountain Road and onto a side road, passing the point…