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For 100 years, a day trip on the Cedar was impractical without permission from the hunting and fishing club that controlled the take-out point. Then, in 2013, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that new lands added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve would make the Cedar River and its confluence with the Hudson River available.
A new ruling is expected by year’s end in the eight-year-old lawsuit that pits landowners against outside paddlers over rights to a two-mile waterway in the remote northwestern Adirondacks.
By Mike Lynch
As Tim Rowland and I paddled Little Clear Pond toward the St. Regis Pond carry in the early afternoon in mid-May, we noticed a group of anglers had gathered at the take-out. Two men were loading large backpacks into what looked like a Radisson canoe, a popular fishing boat that is propelled with oars like…
By Phil Brown
Soon after the state purchased the MacIntyre East Tract, Brian Mann and I explored it by paddling the Hudson and the Opalescent rivers. We launched our canoes beneath a bridge over the Hudson and took out at a spot where the river abuts the Tahawus Road. From the bridge we paddled down the Hudson through…
By Phil Brown
I took this photo of Big Brook early Friday evening while driving between Tupper Lake and Long Lake on Route 30. If you’ve driven that highway, you’ve probably admired this scene. And if you’re a canoeist, you’ve probably wondered if the brook can be paddled. It certainly looks inviting. Several years ago, I succumbed to…
By Phil Brown
As mentioned in a prior post, I encountered hellacious alder thickets on Negro Brook near Onchiota this month. However I maneuvered my double-bladed paddle, it got tangled up. I ended up grabbing branches to pull myself through. At the time, I wished I had a short paddle to get through the jungle. A few days…
By Phil Brown
The Bloomingdale Bog Trail starts near Saranac Lake and ends eight miles later near Onchiota. Following an old railroad bed, it is ideal for jogging or mountain biking. I recently went to the trail with a different purpose in mind: canoeing. This is an idea I had for a while. Negro Brook flows under the…
By Mike Lynch
Guideboat makers carry on a craft born in the Adirondacks in the mid-1800s. By MIKE LYNCH Building a traditional Adirondack guideboat is a complex task, with ribs carved from spruce-tree roots and with thin hull planks held in place with several thousand tiny tacks. It can take many weeks to complete one. “I grew up working with…
As navigation-rights case heads to the state’s Court of Appeals, both sides get help from interested parties. By Kenneth Aaron For five years, a group of Adirondack landowners has engaged in a legal battle with the editor of the Adirondack Explorer and the state Department of Environmental Conservation over navigational rights on a remote waterway…
By Mike Lynch
Will Madison retraced the 1883 paddle of his great-great-great grandfather George W. Sears. By Mike Lynch The nineteenth-century writings of George W. Sears—best known as Nessmuk—have inspired countless Adirondack paddlers. Among the most recent is his great-great-great-grandson Will Madison. In September, the twenty-two-year-old St. Lawrence University graduate retraced much of Nessmuk’s 1883 canoe trip from…