Charles Baker State Forest

Charles Baker State Forest is named after the first District Forester who administered it. This property totals over 9,400 acres in southeast Madison County and makes up the core area for the Brookfield Trail System. This highly acclaimed horse and snowmobile trail system has over 130 miles of trails set throughout three state forests (Charles Baker State Forest, Brookfield Railroad State Forest, and Beaver Creek State Forest) that make up the Brookfield unit management area. These three forests collectively provide 13,750 acres of public reforestation lands for multiple recreation purposes.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/8225.html

Hoof and Leg

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So I was walking along Quaker Road and stumbled upon a gut pile. I wanted to take a look and see if there were anything interesting in the pile - I figured any antlers would be gone and it would mostly rib cage but maybe scull. I looked at it and realized it was too big for a deer, it was a cow carcass.

I so wanted to take this hoof and leg, basically everything below the shank, and bring it home with me but I decided against it. If this had been yesterday I would have brought it back to camp, put it in a pot boiled and scraped off as much of the fur and meat as possible for a euro style paper weight. Probably would have needed to put in a bucket with lye drain cleaner when I got home to get the remainder off and then maybe soak in bleach.

But alas I'm several miles from camp and I didn't want to carry around all morning then bring back to Delmar and cook on my inside stove off the rotting meat especially with my windows closed. Plus it's the hoof that's really neat and to seperate that off I'd need a bone saw which I don't own though maybe my wood saw would have worked. 

Taken on Monday February 20, 2023 at Charles Baker State Forest.