Balsam Swamp is a sprawling state forest that stretches almost 5.5 miles east-west across 4 towns. The area is very rural, and the landscape surrounding the State Forest is predominantly forested. Balsam Swamp State Forest is comprised of a mix of native hardwood forests, hemlock swamps, and conifer plantations. There are no designated recreational trails on the forest, but there is ample opportunity for self-guided day hikes to explore the diversity of habitats represented on this State Forest. Additionally, the western section of Balsam Swamp State Forest is adjacent to Five Streams State Forest to the south.
The main attraction of this forest is Balsam Pond. The impoundment is approximately 152 acres and is a popular destination for fishing and paddle boat sports. Balsam Pond is a warm water fishery that contains a mix of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, brown bullhead and sunfish. Tiger muskellunge have been stocked in the past with the last stocking occurring in 1995. However, there have been very few reports of anglers catching any of the adult tiger muskies. A shallow gravel boat launch is suitable for launching small fishing boats.
A small rustic camp ground is also located at Balsam Pond. Camping spaces are available at no cost on a first-come, first-serve basis and there is no running water or electricity. A fire ring, outhouse, and picnic table are provided for each camping space. A sign on Balsam-Tyler Road in Pharsalia designates the entrance to the boat launch and camping facility. This is a carry-in carry-out facility. Please do not litter.
I find my winter camping gear is good down to roughly about ten degrees. Colder then that things get potentially dicey.
My stacks of sleeping bags are comfortable down to around ten degrees, any colder and my feet and hands start to feel cold at night.
It seems like my truck’s starting battery and load from thick oil increases at below ten degrees, leading to somewhat sluggish starting after a night of opening and closing doors.
My propane heater throws off less heat below ten degrees, the camp stove cooks slower and the lantern is dimmer due to propane and condensate starting to conjeal in the lines and regulators.
House / Accessory Battery voltages drop leading to them tripping out due to under voltage much more quickly.
Much greater risk of the propane heater or stove malfunctioning due to conjealed lines from condensate and jelled propane, plugging up regulators and propane lines.
I’ve camped a few degrees below ten degrees but it’s not pleasant and leads to more headaches then it’s often worth. But above ten degrees generally things are smooth sailing with the gear and set up I have.
On snowy and icy days, and honestly any day, I do have to say I like being able to take the bus to work and not have to worry about cleaning off my pickup truck, and driving to work. I don’t have to gas up my truck, I don’t have to clean off the snow and ice, I don’t have to worry about slippery road conditions. I just walk down to the bus stop. I can use my phone on the way to work, I don’t have to pay attention to traffic or worry about getting a wreck, especially with so many very aggressive drivers in the city nowadays.
I certainly wouldn’t mind getting out of my apartment where I’m constantly fighting mildew downstairs with bleach or where the plaster continues to break and paint peals as everything rusts from the perpetual moisture problem this building has had since I’ve moved in. But my apartment is cheap and so convenient being near both an express bus line and local bus line. And I can walk to stores and the library – which is good because I don’t believe in having the internet at home.
I’d love to have land and a place that I could invest money into fixing up. Really there is no reason for me to even make the most minor of repairs to a place I rent. I’m going to lose any value from it when I move out. I’d love to be able to heat with wood or coal and not have to pay a fortune to local utility company to keep my place warm.
But I’m fine with things the way it is. And I sure like not having to worry about the winter weather…
It seems like a lot of small town businesses in Central New York State and probably other places use the term hometown in their name. I guess living in the suburbs temporarily, with only a somewhat vague idea about where I want to live in the future, I’ve never really had a place to call home, and I certainly don’t have hometown pride.
But it must at some level be nice to have a place to call home, a community to be proud of. A place where you cherish your neighbors and friends, a place still not completely dominated by the anonymous big box stores that dot the freeway interchanges.
The media does us a disservice in not fully explaining the pros and cons of the president’s decision to proclaim two new national monuments in the west. The public has a right to know the pros and cons of such a designation. An informed public is important, and no public policy is ever totally good or bad.
What does a national monument mean? Will the land forever be locked up as wilderness? What conventional multiple uses of these federal lands will be prohibited going forward. Do these changes make sense? What do the current users of the land currently think of the change? How does it impact the local community?
I don’t buy the argument that without a national monument designation the land will be turned into suburban subdivisions or intensive oil and gas development. I think that’s far from the truth, and I think the public dialogue would be moved forward if we had a full telling of the facts to see which side is right or wrong.
I’ve not made up my mind, but I would like to learn the full truth of the matter.
The world burns through 94 million barrels of oil daily which is equal to 157 million gallons of oil consumed per hour.
While oil is one of the top 20 most plentiful materials in the earth’s crust, you can understand why people are concerned about climate change with all the carbon dioxide released into the air.
This morning in 1969 was negative 22 degrees in Albany and the start of the 1969 blizzard in Albany. All traffic would be banned on Albany city streets until New Year’s Day, state government closed down for five days.
An exasperated Erastus Corning would tell a reporter asking for a time line on Albany snow removal: “If God put it here, God will take it away”. It wouldn’t be until the third week of January 1970 that all Albany streets would be free of snow. The city would spend over $2 million in 1969 dollars on snow removal for this one storm, which was bonded and paid off by taxpayers through the early 1980s.