Search Results for: photos moose river plains aug 11 2010 part e

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🌲🌲 Our Public Lands 🌳🌲

Interactive maps with backcountry and roadside camping: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Vermont.
List of NYS DEC Lean-Tos with map coordinates. List of NYS DEC Firetowers with map coordinates and more information.
Google Spreadsheet with Roadside, Primitive and Pay Campsites

Explore the Finger Lakes Trail, Long Path, Northville-Placid Trail and Long Trail/Appalachian in Vermont.
Catskill Park Mountain Peaks, Hudson Valley & Long Island Peaks, Peaks Over 3000 ft Elevation, Highest Peaks in Adirondacks, Interactive Map of All Named Summits in NYS, Blaze Colors in Catskill Park, Trailhead Parking Coordinates and Addresses in the Catskills.

Browse USGS Topo Quads as PDF πŸ†• by State Lands or County. You can Bulk Download New & Old USGS Topograpic Maps.

Links to various NY State Land Websites πŸ†•. Get latest GIS Data from state Web Services.

β›ΊπŸŒ² Camp πŸŒ²πŸ•

Moose River PlainsCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of state’s largest free camping area.
Piseco-Powley RoadCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of 15 mile dirt road with camping.
Catskill Park Primitive CampsitesAn overview of free camping locations in Catskill Park.
Burnt-Rossman Forest, Cattaraugus County, East Branch Sacandaga River, Finger Lakes National Forest, Madison County, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virigina.

Campsite Coordinates for Bog River Flow / Lows Lake, Hudson River SMA (Buttermilk Falls), Lake Lila, Oswegathie River, Nine-Corner Lake, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Saranac River Campsites, Stillwater Lake, Schoharie County, and Sugar Hill State Forest.

Overview of Camping Areas in the Catskills, Green Mountains, Southern Adirondacks, Central Adirondacks, Northern Adirondacks, Allegheny National Forest and Penna. DCNR Motorized Campsites and the Monongahela National Forest West Virginia.

Free Campsite Overview Maps: Adirondack – North Country, Catskills, Central NY, Finger Lakes, Western NY. Interactive Map.

Places I camped in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

🏞 πŸ›Ή Bicycle Trails and “Blackie” My Mountain Bike 🚲 🚢

Finally bought a mountain bike, after chewing over a mountain vs commuter bike. Really enjoying riding my bike to work and when it rains there is always a bike rack to safely take it back home. One way to get to adventures at Thacher Park is the Nature Bus.

Empire Trail – KMZ and Interactive Map. Parking along it.

More Trailways with KMZ files including the Albany County Rail Trail, Black Diamond Trail, Catharine Valley Trail, Catskill Scenic Trail, Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Rail Trail, Genesee Valley Trail, Link Trail.

🦌🌲 Hunt πŸ¦ƒπŸΏ

Wildlife Management Units (Deer)KMZ Map shows the WMU boundaries.

Summer 2019 Aerial Photographs of WMUs

KMZ Maps of Deer Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016, 2015.

KMZ Maps of Buck Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016

2016 -2019 Deer and Buck Harvest by TownKMZ Spreadsheet with FIPS codes for making your own calculations.

🎣🐑 Fish 🐟🐠

Parking and Access to Trout StreamsAn interactive, downloadable KMZ Map.
Lakes with DEC Contour MapsA KMZ Map links to Contour Maps for Fishing.

πŸŒ¨πŸ” Sled & Wheel πŸš™β„

State Truck Trails Over A Half MileDirt roads to explore in the backcountry.
NYS Statewide Snowmobile Trail SystemState trails on public and private lands.

πŸ“‰πŸ“Š Learn πŸ’΅πŸ“ˆ

Interactive Maps of NY CensusExplore and download KML files.
Charts and Interactive DiagramsFrom population to pollution control.
Andy Arthur GitHubGit my R and Python scripts used to make maps and diagrams.
Use ArcPullR to Get Geospatial DataSuper easy way to connect to get GIS data in R from government servers.
GDAL Opens E00 FilesMost open source programs nowadays can open common geospatial formats.
NY Building FootprintsWhere to find on the internet for making maps.
WMS and ArcMap ServicesDownloadable CSV file listing services used on the blog.
2022 US Census Population EstimatesRed states, south continue to gain population.
2020 Cartogram of State Population

πŸ’³ πŸ› Property Taxes πŸ πŸ’Έ

Properties in Albany Pine Bush Study Area, Excel Files: Various Tax Rolls, Find coordinates and political districts, Look Up State Tax Records and a Script for Processing RPTL 1520 PDFs. Match NY SWIS Codes to FIPS Codes and GEOID

πŸš—πŸš— Big Red πŸš—πŸš—

Big RedPhotos and Videos of my lifted truck with its camper shell. Big Red’s Dual Battery Setup for Camp Power, Video Tour and Diagram. Big Red is getting old. What is next? I’ve thought about going carless for a while to save money and reduce pollution. Or maybe going bigger? Or smaller? Five dollar gas sucks.

πŸ”₯🌲 Off-Grid Living 🏠🀠

I am seriously thinking about building an off-grid house. I have a first draft. I need to learn CAD! I have a road map towards buying land and building. I concede might have to live with long commute and give up traveling and camping. I need to be strong.

Why off grid? Well, I’m not into contemporary society. I want to own land, but not be called a landowner, and a cabin, not hooked to electrical grid, farm, raise pigs for food and burn my own trash. I’m saving for a better tomorrow, hoping to make the leap to another freer state. Having acreage is important. Cornfields aren’t bad neighbors. Maybe though my vision has grown smaller and more local. More on off-grid living.

I am 16 years into my career and have made some significant progress in my life. I love my job. But I do wonder on all the things I’m missing out but saving sure makes me high. Maybe it will be different when I own my own land — the end of goal of all this saving.

2020 into 2021 during the pandemic was a year of remote work. It was a struggle not having internet at home, worked a lot out of my truck. But I worked remotely from Horseshoe Lake which was super cool.

Generally I like the idea of owning land in a red state, particularly Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin — and Midwest more generally. But I may settle for New York – it’s all about the f-ing money!

πŸ’»πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’» Open Source πŸ—ΊοΈπŸ“

I use open source software and public sources of data for the blog. Quantum GIS (QGIS), GDAL/ogr2ogr, PyQGIS, GeoPANDAS, R Studio and Leaflet for map making, Arduino and ESP32 microprocessors, Ubuntu Linux and XFCE Window Manager. I’ve recently gotten interested in machine learning.

I avoid using commercial software like Microsoft Windows and do not have home internet or television. If you don’t use commercial software and use your brain, fears of computer viruses are overblown. I deleted most of my social media accounts.

Creating Digital Surface Models using LiDAR Point Clouds.

πŸ“ŠπŸ—Ί R Statistical Programming πŸ“œπŸ‘¨β€πŸ«

The R programming language and RStudio are powerful tools for statistical analysis, making maps and charts. Many of the blog posts and analysis I do are in R, ggplot not only makes great charts but also maps using tidycensus. Generally, R is better then Python for geospatial work.

Use IDW Interpolation to fill in missing Census data, Zonal Histograms for land cover, load WMS Aerial Photography in R, find mountain peaks, save Census shapefiles using tigris quickly, pull NY Election Night Results using Selenium. Fast reverse Geocoding in PostGIS. Working with PDFs in R. Fix a common error starting rselenium/wdman. Make data-filled calendars. R is wonderful and weird, learn it!

πŸΌπŸ”’ Python and Pandas πŸ’»πŸ

Querying state property database, political enrollments, PL 94-171 Census files, calculating population statistics, what address is a district in, converting old districts to new districts, Shapefiles missing Projection information in QGIS.

Learn to code for free modern HTML, Javascript, Python and SQL at freeCodeCamp and web development at the Odin Project.

🐴 🐘 Politics 🦁 🐍

Crunched Election Results with Turnout for Albany County: November 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022, June 2023.

Albany County Races converted to the new 2023 EDs using Super EDs and Code: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022.

Above Election Results as zipped Excel files.

Albany County Legislature Districts 2024 Maps

Maps Comparing 2017 and 2023 Albany County Election Districts and a Crosswalk Table Showing the Proposition of Voting Age Population in New and Old EDs

Maps of 2022 NYC Assembly Races, NYS Assembly Races, NY Senate Races, Governor’s Race in Erie County and Statewide. Partisan shift in governor race between 2010 and 2018.

A comparison of Democratic Performance 2022 Assembly Districts to those proposed in 2023 by the IRC. Here is latest 4/20/23 IRC Maps, showing ADP and how they change from existing Assembly districts. Most towns upstate, outside of cities, are quite red. Using LATFOR data with R to calculate Average Democratic Performance.

You can scrape employee salary data from SeeThroughNY using R. Other useful investigative resources.

I often think politics is for losers. I’m into the politics of statistical analysis and reading history books.

I believe strongly in the first amendment, second amendment, oppose gun restrictions and I support de-funding the police in favor of lower-cost technology and civilian employees. Maybe use red flag laws for voting to stop dangerous voters? And the media should stop promoting mass-shootings, even if it’s super profitable for all involved. They should tax the media when it promotes violence. I think some people are much too paranoid in politics. How elections are rigged under law to benefit incumbents. But vote, it’s the best option and inexpensive.

Yeah for the third parties! I voted for Larry Sharpe for Governor and Jo Jergenson for President but my views are complicated and often vote for Democrats, after voting Jill Stein Green Party in 2016.

Generally, I think Biden has been a good change over DJT and glad the Trump era is over and are glad prosecutors and grand jurors are holding him responsible by indicting him for many serious felonies. I don’t think Trump can win in 2024, as nothing has changed politically from 2020.

I think rural people should be left alone and not worship government workers or have parades for them. I am no fan of Donald Trump, his speeches are bad, I don’t like Trump’s embrace of radical environmentalists, but do admire the homemade roadside monuments to DJT.

I don’t toke. But whatever. There are too many transit authorities.

🌲🌳The Earth 🌎 🐸

Why I oppose wilderness areas and parks. It’s trendy to be green these days, but is eco-marketing good for the planet? I visited the Mount Storm Coal Plant and Corridor H.

I worry about a lot about overly-aggressive Climate Change Action, and Undermining Environment Laws for Climate Action. I think we should all admit we are Addicted to Fossil Fuels. These days, urban recycling has become a joke, when it’s still an option at all. It’s better to just buy less shit and avoid the alure of Costcos. I really don’t like how aging radicals have become industrial solar salespeople.

Big bucks are coming to state-designated disadvantaged communities under the CLCP. Which counties and political districts are in line for the the most pork? Interactive map.

I’m a big of farmers who are essentially Living Off the Earth and think Rednecks are Noble Savages. Dairy Farming are key to our rural landscape. I’d trust a farmer or a hunter in a pile of guts he’s butchered over any ivory-tower scientist.

πŸŒŽπŸ”† Industrial Solar 🌞 🏭

Hundreds of multi-acre industrial solar farms are being built in our state. How bad is solar for the environment? We should ask tough questions. Interactive of recently built solar farms, proposed facilities. List of proposed industrial solar facilities. See how the Greenville Solar Farm changed the landscape.

πŸ’³ πŸ’ΈSaving Money πŸ’° πŸ’·

I am not a fan of ESG Investing as it’s not well diversified. I prefer index-funds and other tax-advantaged ways of saving. Why I am concerned about saving enough for retirement, even though I’m in my late 30s. We as a nation should save more, consume less. I like the idea of carbon tax to replace capital gains taxes to discourage consumption.

πŸ₯¦ 🍎Mission Fifty & Being Healthier 🏠🧠

I am now officially in my 40s! I am building to a better life in my 50s, which means getting up early, walking a lot, saying no to cake and yes to more fruit. In many ways, the forties are an awesome time to be alive.

And eating healthy for less without losing sleep over arsenic. And I don’t think we should subsidize unhealthy habits. How I got started in eating healther. Meals are too focused on meat and carbs due to how we describe them, maybe I eat too many bananas in the office, what to eat while camping, worry more about salt then GMOs, eat more beans. Do spend extra for farmers market peaches, especially doughnut peaches and plums. Consider ethnic supermarkets. Thinking about how to make a healthier macaroni and cheese, spinach-mackeral-pasta salad, quick-cook biscuits and whole-wheat bread. That said, too many recipes are junk food crap. Okay in moderation is not okay. The fact that I’m thinner is not a sign I’m dying.

A few years back I decided to explore my mental illness with therapy, thinking about why I have so much anxiety and how many of my values are rational or just thinking too much rednecks’ burn barrels and how much of a throwaway society we live in. Do I want to change?

I’ve learned to care less about the world, and focus more on myself. Maybe I am happier as I am now, saving and investing a lot towards owning my own land, where I don’t have to deal with all the bullshit of modern life.

Mission Fifty: Getting to the point where I own my own land. 🚜
Healthy Eating 🍎 / Growing My Wealth πŸ’°
Healthy Thoughts πŸ’­ / Enjoying Life πŸ˜ƒ

Questions, comments? Feel free to email me at andy@andyarthur.org.

You do your thing, I’ll do mine.

I use GNU open source software.
Plus I like buck goats,
because they’re real macho men
spraying their beards with goat urine.

March is upon us. Get out, enjoy it, be safe with fire and burning shit, and remember soon enough black flies are waiting.” – Andy Arthur

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Moose River Plains

Moose River Plains is the largest roadside camping area in the Adirondacks. It has also been called the largest roadside camping area in the United States, at least with entire road system, considered as a single consolidated unit of 175 campsites. In recent years, a number of sites have been abandoned or closed to protect environmental resources, however the supply of campsites usually exceeds even peak usage on holidays, so finding a good spot is never hard.

Campsite on Moose River Plains road

In Fall 2010, a new Unit Management Plan was adopted in Moose River Plains. It made the following major changes to the area:

  • Reduced Drive-in Campsites At Wakley Dam to 5. A couple additional tent sites will remain. The Wakely Dam will prohibit motor vehicles crossing it except snowmobiles.
  • New “Intensive Use” Area Was Created to Allow for Up to 150 drive-in campsites (tent or RV or truck camper) to remain along Moose River Plains Road, Helldiver Road, Lost Ponds Foad, Loop Road, Red Dam Road, and other Camping Spurs with spacing less then 1/4 mile. There is no charge to use these sites, you just need a permit if you stay more then 3 days.
  • Campsites Along Otter Brook and Indian Lake Roads will be spaced a 1/4 mile apart, and avoid sensetive areas, such as closing the sites right along the Moose River. These sites will be primarily tent sites during the summer, but during Big Game Season, RVs and truck campers will be allowed.

The recently adopted Moose River Plains Unit Management Plan discusses some of the chnages to Roadside Camping in the area…

“The creation of the MRPCA will create some challenges in educating the public as to what to expect within the area. As the area will not charge fees, nor will reservations be taken, users will be arriving at the area without the benefit of knowing what site they may be camping at. Users will need to drive through the area and locate a site that is suitable for their needs. In the unlikely case that no sites are available, users will need to be educated as to what alternatives exist in the general area. Providing information at the two entrance points, Cedar River Flow and Limekiln Lake, will be an important part of informing users of the type of opportunity available in the MRPCA. It will also provide an opportunity to provide information on alternative locations should the MRPCA not meet their expectations.”

“Unlike other intensive use area campgrounds in the Park, amenities such as bath houses, playgrounds, and paved drives are not ever going to be considered for the MRPCA. Pursuant to APSLMP guidelines for newly created intensive use areas, the MRPCA will only contain up to 150 roadside campsites along approximately 20 miles of roads. These sites will have fire rings, pit privies and picnic tables as their only amenities. Some of these sites will remain relatively close to the road, while others will remain several hundred feet back, accessed by short driveways. A majority of these sites will be comprised of existing sites, some fairly well separated from other sites and some clustered in small groups. This will provide for a variety of camping opportunities depending on what users are seeking. Existing sites that are very close to the road may be relocated to a location that provides better screening or may be converted to parking areas with a walk‐in site located a short distance from the parking area. Any newly constructed sites will be located in a manner to provide vegetative screening between the site and the road.”

— NYSDEC Moose River Plains UMP.

Map of Moose River Plains.

There are no campsites shown on the map, and as listed below both the Intensive Use Area and other portions of Moose River Plains will continue to allow camping as listed below.

Moose River Plains Overview

Roadside Campsites, Post UMP Changes.

These are based on the UMP proposal not implemented yet. This is considered the minimum number of sites under the new plan, the Moose River Plains Camping Area, may increase form 112 to 150 sites in the future, depending on the demand. The DEC plans to limit Otter Brook/Indian Lake Roads to tent only sites during summer season has not be finalized.

Road Number of Sites Site Types
At Wakley Dam:
Cedar River Road
5 Tent (plus others) or Vehicle
Moose River Plains Camping Area Roads:
Moose River Plain Road
Campsite Loop
Helldiver Pond Road
Lost Ponds Road
Loop Road
Rock Dam Road
112 Tent or Vehicle
Otter Brook Road 14 Tent, Vehicles Allowed During Big Game Season
Indian Lake Road 5 Tent, Vehicles Allowed During Big Game Season

More Resources…

Camping Down By Otter Brook

Kayak Tying Down Tarp

Site 57 in the Plains

Campsite 55