The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
Yesterday I skied to Burntbridge Pond deep in the Cranberry Lake Wild Forest. About four miles from the road I came across a historical artifact: an old Black Label can hanging from a branch. It reminded me of a humorous essay by Mike Jarboe, “Happiness in a can,” that we published in the Adirondack Explorer…
By Phil Brown
The Tug Hill region east of Lake Ontario got clobbered by a lake-effect snowstorm Tuesday. I was hoping we’d get a decent snowfall in Saranac Lake, but we received little more than dusting. The woods on Baker Mountain looked pretty this morning, but they would have made for ugly skiing. The western Adirondacks, however, picked…
CAR CAMPING is an Adirondack tradition with a long history, but not much has been written about it in comparison with the verbiage on canoeing, climbing, hunting, and so on. That gap has been narrowed with the arrival of Good Ol’ Fish Creek, Edward Larkin Jr.’s recollections of fifty-eight consecutive summers of camping at the…
In the It’s Debatable section of the November/December issue, Sue Montgomery Corey, then supervisor of Minerva, took the position that Wilderness Areas hurt the economy. To test this theory, on the opening day of the Essex Chain Tract, she polled several businesses in the local area and found that they had no increase in activity…
I am surprised by your reporter’s description of the nonprofit Adirondack Scenic Railroad as “a shoestring operation” [“A trainload of questions,” November/December 2013], especially when you send me requests for a donation to keep your nonprofit magazine afloat! Most of the search-and-rescues and fire protection in the Park are done by struggling nonprofit volunteer organizations.…
The article “A trainload of questions” [November/December 2013] leaves a very negative impression of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, its paid staff, and scores of dedicated volunteers. In order to set the record straight, I would like to point out the following: Regarding the finances of the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society (ARPS) and the Adirondack Scenic…
Since 1957 I have been a summer resident in the High Peaks. Never a Forty-Sixer, I was a Twenty-Sevener and greatly enjoyed numerous lesser peaks. Now approaching my eighty-ninth year, last summer all I could manage was the lovely one-mile trail through the woods adjoining the Ausable River at the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington.…
I enjoyed the interesting article “The Hudson’s mellow side” in your September/October issue. I thought you would be interested in some additional information I have gathered on the subject. The Blackwell Dam was built for Finch, Pruyn in 1909 by Jack Donohue. The dam was five hundred feet wide with a maximum height of nineteen…
AN ADIRONDACK PARK Agency decision on how to classify new state lands in the central Adirondacks in many ways represents stewardship at its best. It protects priceless natural features and ensures that the public can experience wild areas where the natural world dominates and people are the visitors. And it has created this legacy for…
By Phil Brown
Region 5 of the state Department of Environmental Conservation has released its ranger report for October and November. The report appears below, unedited. Essex County Town of Keene, High Peaks Wilderness On Tuesday, October 1, 2013, at approximately 4:10 p.m., DEC Dispatch in Ray Brook received a call reporting a hiker had been separated from…