Indholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2017 i Adirondack Explorer

The Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy has purchased 753 acres with a two-mile stretch of the Main Branch of the Moose River on the western edge of the Adirondack Park. The conservancy bought the property in December for $880,000 and intends to sell it to a buyer who will protect it. The two miles of river are part of a thirteen-mile stretch of whitewater that is rafted in the spring. “It’s nice to know that this section of the Moose River will be preserved in its wild state,” said Garry Staab, a rafting guide and co-owner of Adirondack River Outfitters. The conservancy said the parcel will preserve the river’s forested shoreline and help protect a wildlife corridor between the Tug Hill Plateau and the Adirondacks. “The Moose River with…

Tracy Ormsbee moved often when she was growing up. Her father worked for DuPont, and her family relocated for his job with the chemical giant to New York, California, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Starting new schools and making new friends was never easy for Ormsbee and her older brother. The one constant in her formative years was the family’s little cottage on Lake Eaton. It was a magical place where she spent nearly every summer since she was five and learned to swim, canoe, hike, and tell stories around a campfire. “I have so many wonderful memories of the Adirondacks,” said Ormsbee, who continued her family’s summer traditions at Lake Eaton with her husband, Jim, and daughters, Ellen, now twenty-one, and Molly, who is eighteen. “It has always felt…

Avalanche Pass is probably the classic ski tour in the Adirondack Park. I’ve skied through the pass to Avalanche Lake more times than I can remember. Oddly, though, I never wrote a story about skiing to the lake and back. Last winter, I aimed to rectify that oversight. My neighbor Tim Peartree and I accompanied Josh Wilson on what passes for a workday for Josh—checking out the ski conditions for the Barkeater Trails Alliance. Unfortunately, the conditions sucked. You’ll remember that last winter was the winter that wasn’t. We spent much of the day trying to avoid rocks and roots, with only partial success. I decided not to do a story. Anything I wrote would not do Avalanche Pass justice. This winter, the conditions did not suck. In fact, they…

Since its closure in 1998, Frontier Town could be more accurately described as a ghost town, but parts of the moldering theme park would be granted new life in a $32 million plan by the state to establish a Gateway to the Adirondacks at Exit 29 on the Northway. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan in his State of the State Message in January and filled in some of the details later in the month. It will include an information center, day-use area, equestrian trails, and a campground along the Schroon River. Built in 1952, Frontier Town thrived for many years, but business started to tail off in the late 1960s after the Northway diverted traffic from the Wild West park’s main entrance on Route 9 and after airline tickets…

A state judge says he needs more information before deciding whether the state should be blocked from removing thirty-four miles of railroad track between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid. After a hearing in Malone, acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Main Jr. requested more information on the ownership of the rail corridor and on the state’s plans to comply with historic-preservation law. Until the judge issues a ruling, the state is barred from removing the tracks. The state hopes to begin the work this year. The Adirondack Railway Preservation Society is suing the state over its plan to convert the thirty-four-mile corridor into a recreational path for biking, snowmobiling, hiking, and other activities. The society runs the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, which operates a seasonal tourist train between Saranac Lake…

Even as debate over how the state should classify newly acquired lands continues, creative ideas from state and local officials point to exciting ways for local communities and the Park as a whole to benefit from the expansion of the Forest Preserve. The state’s phased purchase of sixty-five thousand acres of former Finch, Pruyn and Company timberlands over the past five years has held out the promise of sustainable economic development from the start. As spectacular natural attractions like OK Slip Falls, the Essex Chain Lakes, and Boreas Ponds are open to the public for the first time, they should draw an influx of new visitors to the central Adirondack region, especially the “Five Towns” area that is home to most of the new public land. The challenge has been…

On a Tuesday afternoon in late January, some carpenters working at Jack Delehanty’s home in Tupper Lake put out on the ice some entrails and egg skeins from walleyes they had caught. The next day Jack noticed an unfamiliar bird picking at the walleye eggs. Jack consulted with his sister, Alex, and their mother, Charlcie Delehanty, a longtime birder, and they were also puzzled. Alex then sent me pictures and video they had taken to see if I could identify the bird. That night, I realized it was a first-year Ross’s gull, an incredibly rare vagrant from the Arctic. Thanks to the internet, news of the Ross’s gull reached the birding community within hours, and hundreds of birders from all over the country and Canada soon flocked to Tupper Lake…

Lorraine Duvall is a woman who loves remote, quiet lakes where she can solo paddle without hearing motors, but she also is a woman who enjoys the thrill of running a raging river. She’s gone rafting down the whitewater of the upper Hudson over twenty times. Her chapter on Hudson River rafting is one of the best in her small book In Praise of Quiet Waters. She combines her personal experiences on the river with its environmental history. In the 1960s New York State wanted to build two dams on the upper Hudson, dams that would have flooded the magnificent Hudson Gorge. Activists created a documentary, Of Rivers and Men, to convince the state legislature to pass the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act. Duvall took her first trip…

Age: 42. Birthplace: Albany (raised in Cobleskill). Residence: North Creek. Occupation: Owner/operator of North Creek Rafting Company. Accomplishments: “My biggest accomplishment is operating a small business in the Adirondacks for over ten years, growing North Creek Rafting Company’s capacity from twenty customers per trip in 2007 to a hundred persons in 2017. As a licensed guide for twenty-one years, I have rafted the Hudson River Gorge over a thousand times, led three twenty-one-day Grand Canyon trips, and seven multi-day rafting trips in Idaho.” Favorite hike: “Vanderwhacker Mountain is my favorite hike near North Creek. The fire tower on the summit gives great views of the High Peaks, Vermont, the Essex Chain Lakes, and the Hudson River. It is only three miles to the summit from the parking area, but the…

The Adirondack Park Agency has approved a ninety-three-room, four-story hotel on the shore of Lake Flower in Saranac Lake, putting aside concerns about whether the proposal was simply too big for its lakeside perch and cheering those who view the hotel as a boost to the village’s economy. The 8-1 decision, issued at the agency’s February meeting, is the last major regulatory hurdle the proposed Lake Flower Resort and Spa faces before construction can start. Jacob Wright, the resort’s managing partner, said he expects work to begin later this spring or summer, with the hotel to open as early as next spring. The hotel will feature two restaurants, a spa, and a conference center. Another developer plans to reopen Hotel Saranac this year. Located downtown, this venerable hotel has been…

As we neared the summit of St. Regis Mountain this past January, the conditions changed dramatically. Tree limbs—caked in snow and ice—hung down over the trail, and as we walked crouched through the tangle of branches, snow cascaded upon us. “Most of the time I go past that rock outcropping, I feel like I’m home free,” said Doug Fitzgerald, co-chairman of Friends of St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower. “Not today.” The conditions slowed our travel, but the scenic beauty more than compensated for any inconvenience. The coating of ice and snow on the trees gave them a surreal quality as they glimmered in the afternoon light sneaking through the clouds. We soon emerged from the snow-covered woods onto an open expanse of rock covered by a layer of light snow.…

For photographer Nick Palmieri, the red barn in Keene was always a welcome sight as he arrived in the High Peaks region. “I’ve always called it the gateway to the High Peaks,” said Palmieri, who lives in New Jersey and ran the Save the Keene New York Barn Facebook page. “From an artist’s point of view that barn just sits in the perfect spot, just to make the scene perfectly beautiful.” The state Department of Environmental Conservation knocked down the barn in late December, a decision criticized by some and supported by others. In a news release, DEC said the barn was not structurally sound and had become a hazard. The department noted that people had entered the barn “to take photos, remove beams and siding, use it as a…

A typical Adirondack winter seems to go on forever. Until it doesn’t. Snowmen topple, snowbanks wither, and the white of the forest floor yields patch by patch to brown. Most dramatically, lakes, ponds, and rivers locked under iron-hard lids since November or December (January, if it’s been a mild winter) are unlocked by the strengthening sun. Waters stir anew. To all the things that live in them or slosh in and out, ice-out brings on a heady rush of activity. Even the water itself leaps into motion, thanks to a little Physics 101. Water reaches maximum density at four degrees Celsius, or about thirty-nine Fahrenheit. Water colder than that, or warmer, is less dense. Because it’s less dense, it floats. With ice-out, H2O newly constituted as a liquid and still…

Allow disabled to see Boreas The debate over classification of the Boreas Ponds Tract has not included enough discussion about accessibility for those with disabilities. Whenever we discuss the use of the Forest Preserve this should be considered. In my years as director of the Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy I had the privilege of visiting a great many places not normally available to the public. Now having been confined to a wheelchair for the last nineteen years I’ve come to realize there should be some ways for those with physical limitations to enjoy the same experiences that I have had. At Boreas Ponds, an accessible trail from the four corners would allow a visitor with disabilities to approach the dam and gain the same experience as a hiker.…

YES By Roger Dziengeleski New York State spent $14.5 million in taxpayer funds to purchase the Boreas Ponds for their recreational value. Without the dam, the ponds and much of that recreational value go away. The idea that the state would stop maintaining the dam and allow it to decay is just poor public policy. The Boreas and LaBier Flow dams occupy only a half-acre and have low annual maintenance costs. (Inspections conducted by the state in November 2016 showed the Boreas Dam to be in good condition and the LaBier dam to be in relatively good condition with deficiencies to be addressed in a maintenance plan.) Yet the benefits they provide to the recreating public are substantial. For boating and fishing, they expand water features from one pond to…

Rob Seamon became chief executive officer of Clifton-Fine Hospital in February 2013 after working as an administrator at Jones Memorial Hospital in the Southern Tier community of Wellsville. With twenty beds, Clifton-Fine is one of the smallest hospitals in the state. In addition to inpatient medical care, the hospital provides long-term care, primary care, and physical therapy. The towns of Clifton and Fine in the northwest corner of the Adirondack Park in St. Lawrence County have a combined population of about 1,300 and include the hamlets of Cranberry Lake, Wanakena, and Newton Falls. The hospital, which just celebrated its sixty-fifth anniversary, is located in the hamlet of Star Lake. How did you come to Clifton-Fine? I’d visited this part of the Adirondacks on vacation and fell in love with the…

In 1642, Darby Field, a resident of what is now New Hampshire, climbed White Hill, known by local Indians as Agiocochook and by moderns as Mount Washington, the highest mountain in New England. Others in the Massachusetts Bay Colony thought Field daft for climbing a mountain. It just wasn’t something people did. “Following his death in 1649, it was remarked that his was a life of ‘merriness marred by insanity,’” writes Maurice Isserman in Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering, a scholarly work that covers the exploits of mountain climbers from Field’s unusual adventure on Agiocochook to an American team’s ascent of Everest in 1963. Many people still regard mountaineers as a bit nuts for risking their lives for reasons even climbers often have trouble articulating. But are the…

I’ve never been able to give a neat, concise answer to the question, Why are the Adirondacks important to you? I’ve lived much of my life here. And I’ve spent the last eight and a half years as publisher of a magazine devoted to communicating what’s important about the Adirondacks. But even after this time, and as I prepare to hand the leadership of the Explorer to a successor, that simple question draws out many complex thoughts. Certainly, I cherish the Adirondacks because this is a miraculous place where people have joined to protect vast wild areas in a state untrammeled by man. But at the same time the mountains, rivers, and forests welcome human visitors who test their strength, regain their health, and learn more about themselves as they…

After months of public hearings and fierce debates pitting wilderness advocates against those who favor public access for snowmobiles and mountain bikes, the Adirondack Park Agency board began final talks in February over the future of the 20,758-acre Boreas Ponds Tract. The stakes are high as the panel moves toward a decision on how to classify the parcel. State plans $32 million Gateway to Adirondacks in North Hudson PAGE 23 Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised that the new public lands, acquired from the Nature Conservancy, will serve as an economic engine for struggling Park towns desperate for tourism dollars. In a surprise move this winter Cuomo announced a $32 million plan to create a Gateway to the Adirondacks at the old Frontier Town theme park in North Hudson, a short…

The late Paul Schaefer made his name known through his conservation efforts in the Adirondacks, but it was the work of his brothers—Vince and Carl—that played a key role in the development of the ski industry in North Creek. Vince founded the Schenectady Wintersports Club, which helped establish the North Creek ski train in 1934 and fostered the ski culture there. Carl is credited with creating the state’s first rope tow (using a Buick engine) in December 1935 at the North Creek Ski Bowl. Now some North Creek residents, along with supporters from around the state, are hoping to capitalize on the area’s ski history to create a New York State Skiing Museum and Hall of Fame in the hamlet. North Creek resident Bob Nessle conceived the idea about a…

If you’ve done any rock climbing at Chapel Pond Gully Cliff, you’ve probably passed a steep granite wall on your way to the routes. It’s wet, dark, and manky, nothing you’d want to get on in summer. In winter, however, the wall is transformed into the beautiful Crystal Ice Tower, one of the oldest and most popular ice-climbing routes in the region. The tower is just one pitch, about eighty feet long, but it’s possible to keep climbing for three more pitches all the way to the top of Chapel Pond Gully Cliff. The route above Crystal Ice Tower—a mixture of snow and ice—is known as White Line Fever. “Most parties rappel from the end of the first pitch, but above is a good adventure when the conditions are right,”…

Lake Tear of the Clouds is justifiably celebrated. Possessed of a uniquely beautiful name for a high mountain lake, nestled in wild glory near Mounts Marcy, Gray, Skylight and Redfield, it is renowned as the source of the Hudson River. Famed surveyor Verplanck Colvin, who gave Lake Tear its evocative name, determined that it fed the Hudson during an exploratory trip in 1872. His breathless account of the discovery is a classic of Adirondack literature; reading it one cannot fail to appreciate the historic significance of the designation. But by the conventions of geography, the domain for such questions, is Lake Tear of the Clouds really the source of the Hudson? In a word, no. Does it matter? Of course not. The Department of Environmental Conservation characterizes Lake Tear as…

We hadn’t driven more than an eighth of a mile beyond the gate at Spring Pond Bog when I raised both my arms up to protect my face and my friend Joan slammed on the brakes. The wing of a ruffed grouse grazed the top of the windshield as a northern goshawk, its legs extended and toes stretched out to make the kill, veered clumsily off and swooped swiftly up to the top of a forty-foot dead snag fifty yards or so from the side of the road, looking, to my mind, profoundly pissed off. The gos looked at each of its feet as though perhaps it had actually nailed that grouse, and then looked at our car with an unmistakable air of interspecies disdain. Then it zoomed rapidly into…

One can make the case that without Verplanck Colvin there would be no Adirondack Park or Forest Preserve. This driven, demanding, eccentric Renaissance man of the late nineteenth century, who arguably knew the Adirondack landscape better than anyone else ever has, almost singlehandedly persuaded the New York State Legislature to create those two entities, thereby changing the course of environmental history. Now he stars in a new DVD. Colvin: Hero to the North Woods is produced by Bill Killon, a professional photographer, filmmaker, and sixth-generation Adirondacker who grew up in Indian Lake. The subtitle is eye-catching. Colvin is the hero not of the North Woods, but to them. Is to merely a direction of travel? Or has the physical region benefited from his life’s work as much as or more…