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 the heart of it open to make it easier for paddlers to get their canoes and kayaks there.
It is my experience that when a place is easier to get to it becomes overused and used more by people that generally do not treat the area with the respect that long-distance backpackers and paddlers do. The area will be adversely affected by easy access. Additionally, it is pretty shortsighted to leave a road open, thus preventing an area from becoming a truer Wilderness Area.
Finally, I’ve walked Gulf Brook Road into Boreas Ponds. It is painfully ordinary and “un-scenic.” This road ought to be closed entirely and just go back to nature. A trail to Boreas Ponds along the Boreas River, with perhaps a lean-to at the midway point, would be a much more interesting and rewarding way of getting there. And I don’t believe it would require the removal of many trees at all, just a few trail markers on trees! Roads do not belong in or anywhere near Wilderness.
Timothy Dannenhoffer,
Cortlandt Manor
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