Top trails for your top dog

Cooling off on Ampersand Mountain. Photo by Nancie Battaglia.

If you read the Adirondack Explorer, you’re familiar with the work of Susan Bibeau. She designs our publication, and that’s lucky for us.

In recent months, Sue has been designing another publication: Dog Hikes in the Adirondacks: 20 Trails to Enjoy with Your Best Friend, a compilation of canine hikes by a variety of regional writers.

We just received a copy, and it looks great. The book includes more than twenty black-and-white photos of dogs lolling on mountaintops, splashing in ponds, and doing other doggy things. Most were taken by Nancie Battaglia. One of my favorites is of a dog soaking in a puddle on top of Ampersand Mountain.

Nancie did not get paid. Nor did Sue. Everyone worked for free on this project. For each book sold, $5 will be donated to animal shelters and humane organizations in the Adirondack Park.

 The names of at least three of the writers should be familiar to readers of the Explorer: Neal Burdick, Mary Thill, and Joanne Kennedy, all of whom have written for us. Other contributors to the book include Elizabeth Folwell and Annie Stoltie of Adirondack Life.

The destinations of the twenty hikes are typically small peaks, such as Sawyer Mountain near Indian Lake or Dewey Mountain near Saranac Lake, or a water body, such as Crane Pond or the Raquette River. In addition to the hike descriptions, the book contains tips on hiking with dogs. 

Dog Hikes in the Adirondacks was the brainchild of Libby Treadwell, the publisher, who operates Shaggy Dog Press in Westport.

It’s a slim softcover book, just sixty-four pages, that sells for $12.95.  It can be purchased online at Shaggy Dog Press. You also can obtain a copy by writing to Shaggy Dog Press at P.O. Box 318, Westport, NY 12993. There are plans to distribute it to bookstores as well.

The road to Pine Pond

Canoeing on Oseetah Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

Last Sunday, two friends and I paddled from Second Pond on the Saranac River to Oseetah Lake and then walked to the beach at Pine Pond for a swim. Although the weather was iffy throughout the afternoon (we got rained on twice, albeit briefly), the sun came out just as we returned to our canoes on Oseetah.

Pine Pond is a beautiful body of water that lies just inside the High Peaks Wilderness, where motorized recreation is forbidden. We were somewhat surprised to find an all-terrain vehicle and a golf cart at the pond.

But only somewhat surprised. The High Peaks Wilderness boundary is an old dirt road that runs for several miles from Averyville outside Lake Placid to Oseetah Lake. The road may be impassable to the family sedan, but not to ATVs. Just before the lake, there is a short spur that leads to Pine Pond. People can reach the spur by riding from Averyville or from camps on Oseetah.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has posted signs against vehicle use on the spur to the pond. The main road, though, lies within the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, and it’s uncertain whether it’s owned by the state or local towns, according to DEC spokesman David Winchell. In winter, the road is used as a snowmobile trail.

There has been talk of closing the road to vehicles, but Winchell says DEC will not decide what to do until it writes a management plan for the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest. The plan has been in the works for years, so it’s anybody’s guess when it will be completed.

Jim McCulley, who won a legal fight with DEC over the ownership of another old road, predicts a firestorm if DEC tries to ban ATVs and other vehicles from the Oseetah Lake road. ”You want a fight?” he says. “Try closing that. All the local boys hunt in there.”

McCulley contends that the road is owned by the towns of North Elba and Harrietstown. In recent years, he adds, North Elba has used crushed tarmac to harden the surface. “They do some work on it nearly every year, just so there’s no question who owns it,” he said.

Winchell says DEC’s lawyers are researching the ownership issue.

Given the implications of the McCulley case, DEC lawyers may find themselves looking into the history of a lot of roads in the Adirondacks.

Extra hearing on Lows Lake

The Adirondack Park Agency has scheduled an extra hearing on the controversial proposal to classify Lows Lake and adjacent lands as Wilderness. The proposal encompasses 12,545 acres, including the bed of the nine-mile-long lake.

The agency already has held hearings in Long Lake, Wanakena, and Albany. The additional hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, August 10, at the APA headquarters in Ray Brook. The hearing will be broadcast on the agency’s Web site.

Opponents of the proposal argue that Lows Lake, which is an impoundment of the Bog River, doesn’t qualify as Wilderness, which is the most restrictive of the land-use classifications for Forest Preserve lands.

For more background, see my earlier posts here and here.

The life of Bob Marshall

After coming to the Adirondack Explorer a decade ago, I developed an interest in Bob Marshall, the legendary hiker and wilderness conservationist. Bob, whose family had a summer camp on Lower Saranac Lake, was the first to climb the forty-six High Peaks (accompanied by his brother, George, and their guide, Herb Clark), and today one of those peaks, Mount Marshall, is named after him.

Bob later went on to help found and finance the Wilderness Society. He did a lot of other interesting stuff, such as explore and map arctic Alaska, compile a catalog of the nation’s largest roadless areas, and work tirelessly as a federal bureaucrat for the preservation of wild lands throughout the country. The Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana is named after him, as is a lake in Alaska. The Adirondack Council wants to establish a 409,000-acre Bob Marshall Great Wilderness in the region south of Cranberry Lake.

A few years ago, I compiled Bob’s Adirondack writings (with a few other pieces) in an anthology titled Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks: Writings of a Pioneering Peak-Bagger, Pond-Hopper and Wilderness Preservationist. The writings include the Adirondack Mountain Club’s first guidebook–a pamphlet describing and rating the views from the High Peaks.

As an offshoot to the book, I put together a digital slide show of Marshall’s life, which I have given all over the state (including at the storied Explorers Club in Manhattan). The show features numerous photos taken of and by Marshall, including some of the earliest color photographs of the Adirondacks.

I’ll be giving the show (and signing books) at the state Visitor Interpretive Center in Newcomb at 7 p.m. Thursday, as part of the Huntington Forest Lecture Series. Admission is free. I hope to see you there.

Click here for directions.

APA loses court fight

A state appellate court has ruled against the Adirondack  Park Agency in its battle with an Essex farmer who constructed worker homes on his property without an APA permit.

The APA had levied a $50,000 fine against Lewis Family Farm, owned by Salim “Sandy” and Barbara Lewis. The Lewises contend that farmworker houses are exempt from APA regulations that apply to other single-family homes.

On Thursday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled 5-0 in the farm’s favor. The court noted that the state constitution and various state laws reflect an intent to encourage agriculture. “Nothing in any of these provisions suggests, as the APA argues, that New York’s strong pro-farming policy should apply differently to farms within the Adirondack Park than to farms elsewhere in the state,” wrote Justice Elizabeth Garry.

APA spokesman Keith McKeever could not be reached Friday. In an Associated Press story, however, he said the agency was reviewing the decision. The APA could ask the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to take the case.

Click on the hypertext below to read the full decision.

lewis-decision

Lows Lake proposal meets opposition

On Monday, the Adirondack Park Agency held the first two hearings on classifying Lows Lake as Wilderness, and as expected, there was a lot of local opposition.

Both hearings took place inside the Park: at the town hall in Long Lake and at the state Ranger School in Wanakena. The opposition was stronger in Long Lake.

APA spokesman Keith McKeever said only eight people attended the Wanakena hearing, and their views were “split down the middle.” Eighteen showed up at Long Lake, where “there more people opposed to the classification than were for it,” McKeever said.

Following are newspaper accounts of the two hearings:

• Wanakena (from Watertown Daily Times).
• Long Lake (from Adirondack Daily Enterprise).

A third hearing will be held in Albany at noon Monday at the headquarters of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, Room PA 129B.

The APA is expected to make a decision in the fall.

See my earlier blog for more information about the proposal.

Climbing without a rope

A month ago, I went rock climbing with Mark Meschinelli at Poke-O-Moonshine. One of the Adirondacks’ most experienced climbers, Mark led a friend and me up an easy (but classic) route called Catharsis.

Mark went first and belayed us at the end of each pitch, drawing in rope as we ascended. If we had slipped, we would not have fallen far, if at all. But Mark climbed the cliff without a belay, meaning if he had fallen, he could have died or at least got badly banged up.

Mark Meschinelli, relaxing on Catharsis.

 I don’t think I’m nuts. I don’t think Mark is nuts. But I marvel at climbers who free-solo some of the most difficult routes in the country–routes that at one time would have been considered impossible with or without a rope.

Last year, for example, Alex Honnold free-soloed a two-thousand-foot route on Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. And then there’s the French climber, Alain Robert, who has gained fame for scaling skyscrapers around the world.

I asked Meschinelli about Honnold’s climb during our outing at Poke-O. Mark noted that Honnold and his kind are elite athletes. Honnold felt confident on Half Dome just as I felt confident on the Eagle Slide.

Still, all it takes is one slip to end a free soloist’s life. And how long can anyone climb without making a slip? We were reminded of this last week when John Bachar, a legend in climbing circles, fell to his death near his home in the Sierras. He had been free-soloing for years, and it seemed that if anybody could beat the odds, he could. As it turned out, he couldn’t.

I’ve appended a few links for those who want to find out more about Bachar. Whatever you think of free soloing, he led a fascinating life.

• New York Times obituary
• Remembrance on Salon.com
• A video of Bachar (in his younger days) on a solo climb
• A discussion of Bachar’s death on Views from the Top, the forum for Northeastern hikers

A rare sighting

Sometimes it seems like half the people in the Adirondacks have seen a panther. Heck, I thought I saw one myself last year. But a spruce-grouse sighting–now that’s a real rarity.

Male spruce grouse. Wikipedia photo.

As reported in the Explorer this year, the spruce grouse is one of the most endangered birds in the Adirondack Park (and the state). The birds live in patches of boreal habitat more characteristic of northern Canada than northern New York. Over the past two decades, the number of “birding blocks” in the Park where the bird has been sighted has dropped 26 percent, from twenty-seven to a mere twenty. One researcher fears there may be fewer than a hundred of the birds left.

So it’s good news that Steve Langdon thinks he saw a spruce grouse in a region where there has not been a confirmed sighting since the 1980s. At the time, Langdon was driving on a dirt road in the Shingle Shanty Preserve, private land located south of Lake Lila, with Ron Tavernier, a biology professor at the State University College at Canton. Langdon is helping to manage research at the preserve.

“I was just giving him a tour of the property, and this grouse tears across the road,” Langdon says. “Both of us saw the red on the head.”

Red patches above the eyes distinguish a male spruce grouse from the much more common ruffed grouse.

Langdon and Tavernier realized the significance of the sighting. They stopped to look for the bird, but it had disappeared.

Glenn Johnson, a spruce-grouse researcher, said there have been no confirmed sightings in the Shingle Shanty region since the 1970s, although the land’s caretaker had reported seeing spruce grouse on a number of occasions. Johnson and Angelena Ross surveyed the region from 2001 to 2005 but found no specimens. Johnson is tantalized by Langdon and Tavernier’s sighting. “These guys are on the ground a lot, so maybe they’ll find the bird,” he said.

Ross, a state wildlife biologist, notes that Shingle Shanty Preserve is seventeen miles from the nearest known spruce-grouse habitat–at Massawepie Mire. And yet spruce grouse, being poor fliers, generally don’t travel more than six or seven miles. If spruce grouse exist at Shingle Shanty Preserve, she said, they could be an isolated population or they might have come from an unknown population between the preserve and Massawepie Mire.

Johnson and Ross are working on a plan to protect the Park’s spruce grouse. One option is to introduce birds from out of state. But the preliminary results of DNA tests suggest that the Adirondack spruce grouse has a unique genetic makeup. That could complicate matters. On the one hand, bringing in birds from outside could change the population’s genetic identity. On the other, the population’s unique DNA could be a sign of a lack of genetic diversity.

Click here for an online Explorer story about the Park’s boreal birds, including the spruce grouse.

Click here for maps showing the locations where spruce grouse are known or thought to dwell in New York State.

Green groups OK merger

David Gibson

The members of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks voted overwhelmingly last weekend to merge into a new organization called Protect the Adirondacks.

The association’s members voted 83-0 and the RCPA’s members voted 111-2 in favor of the consolidation.

Protect the Adirondacks will use the association’s headquarters in Niskayuna, a suburb of Schenectady, as its administrative office but will keep the RCPA’s office in Saranac Lake.

David Gibson, executive director of the association, will lead Protect the Adirondacks. As reported in an earlier blog, Michael Washburn, the RCPA’s executive director, plans to take a job with the Wilderness Society.

Click the link below to see a news release on the merger.

 news-release-protect-the-adirondacks-july-13-2009

Adirondack Council joins McCulley fight

Jim McCulley takes a stroll on the Old Mountain Road in Keene with Cherokee, his golden Labrador retriever. Photo by Susan Bibeau.

Environmentalists worry that a snowmobiler’s victory in the Old Mountain Road case could lead to the opening of roads throughout the Forest Preserve to motorized use. So worried is the Adirondack Council that it has asked for permission to intervene in the case.

In May, Pete Grannis, the chief of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, dismissed a ticket issued to Jim McCulley, a Lake Placid resident who drove a snowmobile and then a truck on the Old Mountain Road in the Sentinel Range Wilderness. Grannis agreed with McCulley that the old road had never been legally abandoned by the local towns and therefore DEC had no right to ban motorized use. (The decision is attached below.)

John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said the decision could affect hundreds of miles of old roads in the Forest Preserve. The council has asked permission to join a motion by DEC’s staff to clarify the decision.

“Our entire object is not to go after McCulley but to prevent problems from arising in other parts of the Preserve,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan said the council wants Grannis to overturn his own decision or modify it “to remove some of the erroneous interpretations of the law.” He argues that state law and legal precedents suggest that a road is legally abandoned if it has not been used as a road for a number of years.

The four-mile stretch of the Old Mountain Road in question–which runs from Keene to North Elba–has not been maintained for motorized use for many years (click to see  its history). It is part of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail.

Soon after Grannis issued his decision, DEC’s own staff filed a motion asking for clarification (see attachment below). DEC attorney Randall Young says the staff believes the decision “misapprehended or misapplied” the law and needs to be clarified “to ensure proper care, custody, and control of the lands under the administration of the Department.”

McCulley’s attorney, Matthew Norfolk of Lake Placid, opposes both DEC’s motion and the council’s request to support the motion. In legal papers filed with the agency, Norfolk contends that “DEC staff are simply attempting to reargue points of law that were argued (over and over again) in the administrative proceeding.”

DEC spokesman Yancey Roy said Grannis probably will decide within a month or two whether to consider the request to clarify his ruling. If he does agree to reconsider it, the two sides would be asked to present arguments for and against modifying the decision.

Grannis decision PDF

DEC staff motion PDF