Schoharie County 📍

Schoharie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,749. The county seat is Schoharie.

A primarily rural county known for the fertile Schoharie Valley, it is also home to many state forests, including Burnt-Rossman State Forest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoharie_County,_New_York

🖼️ Photos

Middleburgh Cliff

Andy | May 15, 2026

Directly to the East of Middleburgh there is a long narrow landform known as “The Cliff”. It’s a 500 foot high hill, with about 40 feet high cliffs, overlooking Middleburgh and Schoharie to the west. Cotton Hill sits above it to the east. While privately owned by the owners of the dairy farms in the valley below, the Long Path crosses it and you can use it to explore the cliffs.

As you climb the hill on the Long Path, looking backyards there are broken views.

When your almost to the top of the Cliffs, there is a quick scramble over this ridge. This is a section that is very much hand and knees, you’ll probably toss your pack up and then climb up to retrieve it.

After you get to the top, you have some views to the south, including Vromans Nose.

Further along the trail you get some broken and then improving views of the Schoharie Valley just north of the Middleburgh. In the background is Middleburgh Roundtop Valley, and where NY 145 climbs the ridge to get over to East Cobelskill.

The agricultural flat lands south of Middleburgh.

The new more suburban section of Middleburgh, with the older village in the background. I never understood why people would live out in the sticks, but also live in a suburban subdivision in a classic small village.

A dairy farm along NY 30 north of Middleburgh.

All and all, this hike doesn’t provide amazing remote lands, but still has some interesting agricultural views of the fertile Schoharie Valley. Taking no longer then a total of a 45 minutes round trip, it’s a nice hike to do with Vromans Nose or take the trail farther west to Cotton Hill Lean-To.

View Cliff of Middleburgh in a larger map

More on the History of Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest

Andy | May 14, 2026

The history of Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest is a classic American tale of environmental redemption. Spanning over 10,500 acres in Schoharie County, it is the largest state forest in the region—a vast state forest that belies a turbulent past of industrial exploitation, systemic wildfires, and ultimate restoration through Depression-era conservation.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the landscape looked nothing like the dense woodland seen today. Under the Dutch-inspired “Patroon” system, tenant farmers worked the land without owning it. This lack of ownership fostered an extractive mindset; settlers cleared massive swaths of timber for sawmills, shingle factories, and tool manufacturing. By the late 1800s, the hills were stripped bare, and the thin, rocky soil was exhausted by unsustainable farming.

The forest’s unique name serves as a linguistic map of its geography and scars. “Rossman Hill” refers to one of the area’s primary peaks, but the “Burnt” in Burnt Hill tells a more visceral story. In the early 1900s, the area was frequently scorched by wildfires. Many of these were intentionally set by locals to encourage the growth of huckleberries—a lucrative crop that thrived in charred soil—earning one section of the forest the moniker “Huckleberry Kingdom.”
The turning point for Burnt-Rossman Hills came with the collapse of the local agricultural economy.

Following the Great Depression and the 1931 State Reforestation Law, New York began purchasing abandoned farmsteads for as little as $4.00 per acre. In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp at Boucks Falls, located in the Town of Fulton. This “Tree Army” transformed the barren landscape, planting over 6 million tree seedlings across the broader Eminence Management Unit. They also engineered the infrastructure that remains the forest’s backbone today, including the CCC Road and various fire breaks.

In 1961, the Summit Shock Incarceration Camp (originally the Summit Youth Camp) was established nearby in the Town of Summit. Until its closure in 2011, Summit Shock inmates played a vital role in maintaining the forest’s health, performing tasks such as road maintenance, trail construction, and additional tree planting.

Today, hikers on the Long Path can still find the stone foundations of 19th-century water-powered sawmills in Doney Hollow or the weathered headstones at the Old Cemetery Road burial ground. These ruins, alongside the enduring infrastructure built by the CCC and the later contributions of Summit Shock, serve as quiet reminders that the towering pines of Burnt-Rossman Hills are not just a natural feature, but a carefully cultivated legacy of recovery.

SVGZ Graphic: 2022 NYS Democratic Gubernatorial Primary

SVGZ Graphic: 2022 NYS Republican Gubernatorial Primary

More thoughts on Missouri… 💭

Andy | May 12, 2026

Probably if I were to go there I’d poke around the Mark Twain National Forest, mostly on dirt roads and the alike. I’m guessing it’s a mixture of upland timberlands and leased pasture and significant inholdings but I’ve don’t know for sure yet, I’d have to do more research. I’m envisioning something like the Finger Lakes National Forest but I could be wrong.

I’ve heard the state is hot and muggy in the summer but also in the salt belt in the winter. I’ve heard drugs, crime and poverty can be quite bad parts of the state. But so is the case with many rural areas with ample access to farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonium and long hard work days leading to opiod addiction and meth. Pollution and hazardous waste sites dot the countryside and outskirts of city but that’s not uncommon in New York either. Buffalo and Niagara Falls alone have hundreds of brownfields but you get a few miles out and your in pretty wild country that’s largely unspoiled.

I’m just so fascinated by other regions of the nation and other ways of living. New York has its own cultures, customs, folkways and laws – some good, some bad. Some of the laws and regulations in Upstate NY are just asinine.

I like the idea of living somewhere that land is affordable and taxes are low. Where your not fighting codes or zoning with everything you do. Where you can have livestock and privacy, where you don’t have to worry about neighbors complaining about your pigs or goats or trash burning barrel or making too much noise shooting off guns or fireworks.

Where you don’t have to get a pistol permit, where you can open carry if want, where you can buy an AR-15 for fun or shooting coyotes. Build a gun range out back from a sand pit with your tractor. Get together with some buddies burn that nasty old mattress or sofa bed in a bonfire and scrap the metal. Get muddy with your four wheeler.

There are plenty of small hick towns in New York that are fun to live in, where good ol boys have a lot of fun. I know I’ve been through many of them, the hills and hollars, the dairy country and hill high above them that provide timber and recreation.

But people pay a lot of taxes and everything is just so darn expensive in New York. Even taxes you don’t pay directly trickle down. You can get a pistol permit but it’s an unnecessary and costly process when other states you walk in, pass a background check and walk out with your gun. And if you own enough land, nobody has to know what your doing on it but still all it takes is one snitch.

Now I consider myself to be a liberal and a progressive. I’m a registered Democrat and I work for the party. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the direction of our state nor do I think it’s a good state to live in as a rural resident. Urban justice and helping people in need is good for the city folk but those of us who crave the wilderness of Rural America should seek elsewhere.