Lows Lake hearings

The Adirondack Park Agency has scheduled hearings for reclassifying as Wilderness 12,545 acres of state land in the Lows Lake region. The state Department of Environmental Conservation proposed the reclassification to appease environmentalists angered by DEC’s decision to allow floatplanes to continue landing on Lows Lake through 2011.

As noted in an earlier blog, the proposal is unusual in that it would classify the lakebed as well as the adjacent lands.

The Wilderness classification is the strictest of the APA’s seven zoning categories for state land. The main restriction of Wilderness Areas is that motorized use is prohibited.  After 2011, no planes will be allowed to land on Lows Lake. Motorboats already are banned, except those used by owners of private inholdings.

The hearing schedule is as follows:

Monday, July 13

Wanakena Ranger School, 11 a.m.

Long Lake Town Hall, 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, July 20

DEC headquarters, Rm. PA 129B, 625 Broadway, Albany, 12 p.m.

More on ‘squaw’

My post about using squaw in place names generated a good deal of discussion in Views from the Top and Adirondack Forum, two of the more active Adirondack message boards. Check out the links if you’re interested.

Climbing the Eagle

Nearing the top of the Eagle. Photo by Phil Brown.

In the Adirondacks, we don’t have much terrain above tree line, but for those hikers who want to experience a little exposure, we do have slides. These are formed when a rainstorm saturates the thin soil on a steep slope and washes away the vegetation, creating a scar of bedrock and a natural pathway to a summit.

Perhaps the best slide climb in the Adirondacks is the Eagle on the west cirque of Giant Mountain. It’s the only slide given five stars (the highest rating) in Adirondack Rock: A Rock Climber’s Guide. The book calls it “a great introduction to East Coast mountaineering.” It’s 1,300 feet and rated fourth class.

I climbed the Eagle yesterday (6.25.09) for the third time. The first time I wore hiking boots and picked my way up by the easiest routes possible. The other two times I wore rock-climbing shoes, which made the ascent much more enjoyable. I was able to scramble straight up the rock without much fear of slipping.

Rock shoes or approach shoes are recommended, because if you do slip, you’re likely to tumble a long way. Since my first ascent of the Eagle, I have done several fifth-class roped ascents on Wallface, Poke-O-Moonshine, Rogers Rock, and Chapel Pond Slab. These all required friction climbing similar to that on the Eagle. As I ascended the Eagle, I found myself thinking, “Hey, this is just like rock climbing–except I don’t have a rope or a helmet.”

So if you’re thinking of doing the Eagle, don’t undertake the trip lightly. It’s much steeper than most slides in the Adirondacks, such as those on Whiteface, Dix, and Nippletop.

I did the trip solo yesterday. I’m embarrassed to say it took me nine hours. I was on the Roaring Brook hiking trail for the first mile or so. I then began a long bushwhack up the brook, which took me more than three hours. I later discovered that I could have saved a lot of time by continuing on the hiking trail and picking up a herd path that leads to the brook. I’m not sure when this herd path was established. I didn’t notice it on my earlier trips several years ago.

When I got to the base of the Eagle, I changed into my rock shoes. With these on, I felt confident going more or less straight up the face. The rock doesn’t have an abundance of cracks, but it has plenty of pockmarks and tiny ridges and bulges for grip.

I spent about an hour on the face. This includes stops for lunch, photos, admiring the views, and changing into and out of my climbing shoes. As you ascend, you can see most of the High Peaks–all unbroken wilderness–as well as parts of Lake Champlain and Vermont. The golf course of the Ausable Club is conspicuous in the valley below.

At the top, the slide narrows into a slot between the trees. This takes you to a boulder with a flat top, a good place for changing shoes or taking in the scenery. From here it’s less than a minute to the hiking trail. Turn left, and you’ll be at Giant’s summit ledges in maybe two more minutes.

The descent by the trail is only 3.6 miles, but it took me two and a half hours. It’s steep and often rocky or muddy, so it’s hard to make good time on this route. On this day, I was further slowed by tight-fitting boots that jammed my toes going downhill.

I’d wager that fit and experienced climbers who shorten the bushwhack by taking the herd path could do the Eagle in five to seven hours, depending on how much of a hurry they’re in. But even if it takes nine hours, it’s worth it.        

I bushwhacked up the valley in the center of this image. Photo by Phil Brown

Fightin’ words

The Wall Street Journal recently published a somewhat amusing story about a battle in rural Maine over the name of a dead-end road. I say somewhat amusing because serious issues underlie the local brouhaha.

The dirt road is, or was, named Squaw Point Road. In 2000, however, Maine banned the use of squaw in toponyms. Native Americans argued that the term is offensive.

Forced to rename the road, the locals settled first on “Squawpoint” and then on “Squa Point.“  In response, the Maine legislature prohibited “the designation ‘squa’ or any derivation of ‘squa’ as a separate word or as a separate syllable in a word.”

Webster’s New World Dictionary says squaw derives from a word meaning “younger woman” in the language of the Massachusett tribe. It defines the word as “a North American Indian woman or wife: this term is now considered offensive.”

There is some debate about the original meaning and connotation of squaw, but whatever its past, the term does offend many Native Americans today.

In the Adirondacks, the word appears in at least four toponyms. Squaw Mountain (3,239 feet) lies west of Indian Lake. Squaw Brook flows through the valley at the base of the mountain. Not too far away, Little Squaw Brook flows into the Cedar River. And then there is Squaw Lake in the Moose River Plains.

Is it time to change these names? Comments welcome.

Shingle Shanty update

Charles Morrison, a former DEC official, wrote a letter to the Times Union in response to my op-ed piece on the navigability of Shingle Shanty Brook. He agrees that it should be open to the public. Morrison is the former director of natural resources planning at DEC. In that capacity, he once commissioned a lawyer to study the legal history of the common-law right of navigation. A few years ago, he co-authored a booklet on navigation rights that can be found on the Web site of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks.

Brainy bruin a master thief

A black bear. Photo by Gerry Lemmo.

A lot of bears are smarter than the average bear. But there is one bear in the Adirondacks that is smarter than all those above-average bears.

 Yellow-Yellow, as she’s called, apparently is the only bear in the country that has figured out how to open the latest canisters made by Bear Vault.

 Since August 2005, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has required campers in the eastern High Peaks to store food, garbage, and toiletries in “bear-resistant” canisters. Since then, hikers have occasionally reported that a bear stole food from their Bear Vaults.

 DEC spokesman David Winchell said the culprit is a she-bear that ranges from the Johns Brook Valley to Lake Colden. “We know it’s one bear in particular,” he said. “Wherever she isn’t, it hasn’t happened.”

 Yellow-Yellow wears a radio collar that enables DEC to track her wanderings. Her nickname comes from the color of her ear tags.

 Winchell described Yellow-Yellow as a shy creature that flees people, notwithstanding her taste for their food and her knack for procuring it.

 On its Web site, Bear Vault says the bear learned how to open its BV350 model in 2007 by pressing in a tab with its tooth and unscrewing or prying open the lid. As a result, Bear Vault designed a new lid last year (the BV450) that requires the user to push in two tabs sequentially. “Surprisingly, the bear(s) pressed in the first snap with its incisor, rotated the lid and then pressed in the 2nd snap with its incisor and opened the lid,” the company says.

 Jamie Hogan, the company’s president, is both frustrated and impressed by Yellow-Yellow’s ingenuity. “If she comes across a Bear Vault, she will open it as quickly as a hiker,” he told the Explorer.

 DEC is advising people against using Bear Vaults in the eastern High Peaks. He said there have been no problems with canisters made by other companies, if they are in good condition and used properly.

 Despite the wily she-bear, Winchell said the canister program has been a big success. In 2005, DEC received 375 complaints of “negative bear-human interactions” in the High Peaks. Last year, it received only sixty-one. Most of those came from people who weren’t using bear canisters.

 Bear Vault plans to test a new lid in the Adirondacks this summer, but Hogan refused to divulge its secret.

 Wouldn’t want word to leak out to Yellow-Yellow.

Adirondack Birding Festival

Black-backed woodpecker. Photo by Larry Master.

Hamilton County will host its annual Adirondack Birding Festival this weekend, June 19-21. The festival’s Web site has a full schedule of walks, canoe trips, and other outings and events.

 As part of the festival, retired forest ranger Gary Lee, co-author of Adirondack Birding,* will give a slide show on Adirondack birds at the Adirondack Museum at 7 p.m. Friday. Scientist Nina Schoch will give a presentation on loons at Camp Sagamore at 7 p.m. Saturday. Both talks are free.

 Bill Osborne, the county’s director of tourism, says the county started the festival to lure visitors to the region in what had been a slow season, and it’s worked. The county just published a new edition of its “Birding Guide & Map,” which describes twenty-two birding hot spots. All the sites are shown on a color map. You can order a free copy from the festival’s Web site (see link above).

 The Hamilton County festival is one of two birding festivals held in the Adirondacks in June. The state Visitor Interpretive Center at Paul Smiths hosted the Great Adirondack Birding Celebration last weekend. Although the VIC charged a registration fee for the first time, attendance was up.

Look for a story on the Hamilton County festival in a future issue of the Adirondack Explorer.

 *Lost Pond Press, which I own, published this book, but it’s being distributed by the Adirondack Mountain Club.

Testing the legal waters

Phil Brown paddles through private land toward Lake Lila. Photo by Susan Bibeau.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that I did a two-day canoe trip from Little Tupper Lake to Lake Lila in May. A story about the trip will appear in the July-August issue of the Explorer. It’s more than just another account of Adirondack adventure, for I took a route that has been posted for years.

 Essentially, I avoided a mile-long portage by paddling from Mud Pond down the outlet to Shingle Shanty Brook, which flows into Lake Lila. Despite no-trespassing signs and a cable across the brook, I believe what I did was legal. I explain my rationale in an op-ed piece published by the Albany Times Union. A fuller airing of the legal issues will appear in the next Explorer.

Incidentally, Susan Bibeau’s photo will grace our next cover.

McCulley case drags on

An attorney in the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Watertown office has asked DEC’s commissioner to clarify his decision to dismiss a complaint against Jim McCulley, who was ticketed for driving a truck on the Old Mountain Road in the Sentinel Range Wilderness.

 McCulley contends that the Old Mountain Road, now part of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail, remains a town road and therefore DEC has no right to exclude from it snowmobiles or other motor vehicles.

 In May, Commissioner Pete Grannis ruled that DEC’s lawyers had indeed failed to prove that the road had been legally abandoned by the towns of Keene and North Elba. The ruling has created doubt about the future of the Old Mountain Road and other old roads in the Forest Preserve.

 In a motion dated June 5, DEC attorney Randall Young asserts that “specific aspects of the decision should be clarified to ensure proper care, custody, and control of the lands under the administration of the Department.”

 Young says the department’s staff believes the decision “misapprehended or misapplied the applicable law.” He argues that improving the road for motor vehicles would violate the forever-wild clause of the state constitution, the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, and Environmental Conservation Law.

 The attorney is asking only for clarification. He is not asking Grannis to reverse the decision.

 ”DEC is appealing to itself,” McCulley said after receiving the motion papers. “It’s so dumb it’s scary.”

 I found out about this too late in the day to contact DEC for comment. I’m attaching the motion documents below. Be forewarned that some pages are missing. I hope to get a complete set soon.

 dec-motion 

A first for bikers

The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently announced the official opening of eight miles of mountain-bike trails in Wilmington. These are the first trails in the public Forest Preserve designed for biking, but they also can be used for hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing.

The trails were built to the specifications of the International Mountain Bicycling Association and are rated easy, moderate, and hard. There also are plans to construct another seven miles of bike trails a few miles away.

The Explorer published a story on these trails five years ago when they were still being developed. At the time, I took a ride with Bert Yost, one of main promoters of the trail system. After our ride, I climbed to a couple of nice lookouts on hiking trails accessed from the bike network. And after the hike, I took a swim in the Ausable. All in all, a nice day. You can read the story by clicking on the PDF files below. Beware that some of the information is outdated as the story was written before work was complete. You can also click on DEC’s map of the trail system.

bike-trails-page-1

bike-trails-page-2

DEC map.pdf