Following is the Forest Ranger report for late winter and spring from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 5. ESSEX COUNTY Town of North Elba, High Peaks Wilderness On Saturday, March 10, at about 3:30 p.m., DEC Dispatch in Ray Brook received a report from a DEC Forest Ranger regarding an injured woman at the Calamity Brook Lean-to. Shauna DeSantis, 57, of Glens Falls, NY, injured her knee and ankle and was unable to walk on her own. A New York State Police Aviation Unit helicopter was requested and dispatched to the area. The Lake Colden caretaker and another >>More
The most dangerous hikes in the Park
An article on Backpacker Magazine’s website lists “America’s 10 Most Dangerous Hikes.” The one closest to the Adirondacks is Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The mountain is infamous for its fickle and sometimes extreme weather. “Known as the most dangerous small mountain in the world,” Backpacker says, “6,288-foot Mt. Washington boasts some scary stats: The highest wind velocity ever recorded at any surface weather station (231 mph) was logged here on April 12, 1934. And 137 fatalities have occurred since 1849. No surprise: Most are due to hypothermia—and not only in winter. ‘They call them the White Mountains for a >>More
Hikers urinate on each other to keep warm
Just when you’ve thought you heard it all: five hikers from Florida who got lost in the High Peaks reportedly urinated on each other to keep warm. The Albany Times Union first reported this tidbit earlier this week, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation confirms that this is what the hikers told forest rangers. DEC spokesman David Winchell advises against this practice. “No matter what, getting wet in cool or cold weather hastens the loss of body heat,” he said. Winchell said the hikers were woefully unprepared. They didn’t bring a map, compass, or other essential gear and seemed >>More
For Ron Kon, it was a good winter
Now we know spring is here: Ron Konowitz has stopped skiing. Most skiers probably think last winter was a lousy one, but not for Ron Kon. He skied 161 days, all in the Adirondacks. That’s every day for more than five months. “I had a good year,” Konowitz said today. “I definitely didn’t get into the backcountry as much as usual.” Konowitz did a lot of his skiing at the state-run downhill center on Whiteface Mountain. “The snowmakers did an amazing job,” he said. After Whiteface closed for the season, Konowitz would hike up the mountain and ski down the >>More
Worst winter ever for Jackrabbit skiers
How bad was this winter for backcountry skiers? It ranks as one of the worst, according to the Adirondack Ski Touring Council, which maintains the twenty-four-mile Jackrabbit Trail between Saranac Lake and Keene. Tony Goodwin, the group’s executive director, says the entire Jackrabbit was skiable for only twenty-five days this winter—by far the worst season since the trail was created in the 1980s. Previously, the worst season was 1989, when the full Jackrabbit was skiable for forty-eight days. “Our best season was 1998 when the Jackrabbit Trail was covered for 132 days,” Goodwin writes in the ASTC’s spring newsletter. >>More
Rescues spark debate
Should the state bill careless backcountry users for searches? By Kelly de la Rocha When Stephen Mastaitis of Saratoga Springs started a winter hike up Mount Marcy, he never dreamed he’d be coming back down in a helicopter. The fifty-eight-year-old lawyer and three others began the day hike bright and early on a February morning, and everything was fine until they got to the summit cone, where they encountered high winds and poor visibility. On the way down, Mastaitis strayed from the trail. He fell into a spruce trap (loose snow surrounding a tree), clawed his way out, and continued >>More
Paddlers take a stand
By Michael Virtanen On a mostly sunny Monday with the blue-black water on the quiet bay rippling lightly and glistening, my wife got the hang of a new sport in roughly the time it took to push off from the dock, brace her paddle shaft across the eleven-foot board for balance, and stand up. Outfitted with a flotation vest, a long lightweight paddle, and about ten minutes of instruction from Harry Caldwell, she headed into Lake George with long, slow, easy strokes. “It’s serene,” Saundra said. “It’s peaceful.” She stayed on the protected bay at Bolton Landing, while I followed >>More
Three hikes are charms
The Clintonville Pine Barrens is a quiet spot. Most of the people who hike here live a short drive away in communities such as Ausable Forks, Keeseville, and Plattsburgh. Occasionally, the barrens attract hikers from farther afield. Commenting in the trail register, a visitor from Toronto described them last year as “a dream place.”
Unwind on the Kunjamuk
Text and photos by Mark Bowie Though short, shallow, and lazy, the Kunjamuk River doesn’t lack for grace or beauty. For an overview, prospective paddlers would, ideally, fly over it in an airplane; barring that, they could try Google Earth. Either would reveal the serpentine and remote nature of this small waterway and the difference in character between the upper and lower sections. From its ultimate source—eight-acre South Pond—at nearly 2,400 feet in elevation in the mountains of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness, the Kunjamuk carves a circuitous route west, falling off the state land. It turns ninety degrees and flows >>More
Decline of Lake George
Critics say a state panel has done little over the past 25 years to protect an Adirondack jewel once renowned for its clean, clear waters. By George Earl Lake George has long been renowned for the clarity and purity of its water. The thirty-two-mile-long lake supports a productive lake-trout fishery, serves as a direct source of drinking water for many homes, and looms large in the history and natural appeal of the region. The exceptional water quality is due in part to the topography: Lake George is ensconced amid mountains, creating a compact drainage basin. Since most pollutants enter a >>More
