Camping a Duck π¦ Pond
I love this campsite. Lots of wildlife with the recent tree cut reverting back to woods, very remote and quiet, but I have some cell reception.
Taken on Sunday August 23, 2020 at Burnt-Rossman State Forest.Why ads? π€ / Privacy Policy π³
I love this campsite. Lots of wildlife with the recent tree cut reverting back to woods, very remote and quiet, but I have some cell reception.
Taken on Sunday August 23, 2020 at Burnt-Rossman State Forest.Here it is. No facilities, but there is a stone fire pit, and a nice big grassy campsite. They regularly mow these campsites to keep them from reverting back to woods.
Taken on Tuesday June 28, 2011 at Smith Road.Driving out to the Green Mountain National Forest via Sand Lake, there was a sign advertising 6 to 10 acre house sites. My parents have 8 acres where they live in Westerlo, and I think the town requires a least 3 acres for new home sites, to protect the rural character of the land, even if it ultimately is just promoting sprawl and McMansions with abandoned, farm fields reverting back to woods.
When I eventually move out to the country, I want to own enough land to be back from the road, have privacy, be able to shoot guns, have bonfires, heat wood, burn trash and debris, and listen to music as loud as I want to. Iβm not into burning junk tires or super amplified music, but I do like have my freedom to do what I want with my land, and nobody knowing or caring. If I want to butcher a deer or hog in my backyard, so be it. I guess you could figure out far you have to be from the road to be screened, how far smoke travels, how loud your guns are. Obviously, you have to respect local laws on when you burn and how far you have to be from other peopleβs homes and barns to be shooting. But we all knows that sometimes smoke and noise travels farther then you would like, and thatβs why itβs important to have the right kind of neighbors.
No matter how remote you live, there are always neighbors down the way. Many country folk donβt give a fuck about how other people live their life, to them itβs live and let live. Which is good. But it only takes one person to call the cops when they smell the wrong kind of smoke, or are bothered by noise of shooting or music. Rednecks are usually good neighbors while the nosy, moved out of the city in the fancy McMansion is the worse. But you never know, so having distance is important. And sometimes a reasonable person can get annoyed or change. Good people sometimes move out and bad people move in.
Livestock and wood are another consideration. Livestock can require quite a bit of land for forage and you often donβt want them penned up right next to your house, because especially cows can be quite noisy at night and hogs smell like hogs. Wood heat can require a good supply of firewood, especially with those outdoor wood boilers β but even fireplaces can burn through a lot in a cold winter. All considerations on how much land I would need to save up to buy. But those are easy to calculate β in contrast having decent neighbors who donβt make a fuss about nothing is far more important then having a lot of land.
About two weeks ago on Presidents Day I went out snowshoeing at Rensselaerville State Forest. Previously one of my favorite places to camp and explore, I haven’t spent a great deal of time up there lately.
I parked off of CC Road. Going along Scutt Road you come to the point where it becomes plowed, and you can see Gensing Mountain (just north west of the Catskills) in the distance.
It used to be there was no designated campsites up there until 2007, when the state started posting four sites along main roads, along with “Camping By Permit Signs”. I used to camp off one of the truck trails in one or two places, and spent a great deal of the summer out there.
Snowshoeing along a truck trail. The truck trails up here are a lot of fun to drive in the summer, although they are bit overgrown and tight to drive, even with a compact pickup.
Looking North Towards Dutton Ridge, you can see a clearing where Livingstonville is located.
Here is the section where the field is reverting back to woods. I used camp out back here a lot in the past.
The C.C. Road sign recognizing the history of this preserve as an old CC Camp. The camp facilities where later developed into a youth treatment center, and now a training center for state park rangers, that currently is unused.
The map of the snowshoe hike.