Public Lands Policy

Black Mountain Snowmobile Trail

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Black Mountain is the tallest peak between Lake George and Lake Champlain and contains an old fire tower that is currently used by the DEC Forest Rangers for communications equipment. It’s elevation is 2,640 feet, however accessing it from Pike Brook Road Parking area, your already at over 1,700 feet after driving up the very scenic Huletts Landing Road from NY 22.

Black Mountain Fire Tower

In the winter, the old woods road up Black Mountain is also a low-speed and narrow snowmobile trail that has occassional snowmobiles on it. At 3 miles, it’s a relatively short hike with an elevation gain of about 900 feet.

Bright Sunny Snowmobile Trail

The first 1.2 miles up the mountain the trail is relatively flat. After the split between the valley trail to Black Mountain Pond and other lakes running down towards Lake George, and the trail up Black Mountain Fire Tower. The next 1.6 miles is much steeper, as the trail winds up the mountain following a Jeep Trail with many switchbacks.

Intersection of Yellow and Red Trails

As you start climbing, you get a broken view of the fire tower on top of Black Mountain.

Black Mountain

The snowmobile / old woods trail is narrow and steep as it winds up to the top of the mountain.

Narrow Snowmobile Trail

Reaching the top of the mountain, you can see the DEC Forest Ranger Communication Tower, with wind turbine, solar panel, and fire tower converted to communications tower. It’s disappointing that they had to convert the tower to a communications tower, because it would have otherwise provided nice views to the south.

Black Mountain Fire Tower

Looking across Lake George towards Five Mile Mountain and the Adirondack Mountain in the distance.

Lake George Near Deer Leep

North on Lake George. In the foreground is Hague, farther in the distance is Elphant Mountain, the end of Lake George and the La Chute River down pass Ticonderoga.

Lake George Near Deer Leep

Looking to the North-West off Black Mountain. In the foreground is Sugar Loaf Mountain, and just beyond that is the “Drowned Lands”, the marshy farm lands surrounding the southern portion of Lake Champlain. Even further beyond that is the Green Mountains in Vermont.

Sugar Loaf and Drowned Lands

Elephant Mountain, near Ticonderoga.

Elephant Mountain

Here is a map of the hike.


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Shitty Toilet Paper

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Notes on the Re-Run for Sunday, August 7th.

Please use care when disposing of your human waste. Use an outhouse when possible, always do your business 150 feet or more away from water. Don’t bury toilet paper, bag it and burn in the next campfire instead. Keep our forests clean!

— Andy

One of the things that strikes me as a problem in the great outdoors is how people don’t know to take care of their personal waste, particularly their shitty toilet paper and dirty tissues.

There are people who wouldn’t think of littering a candy bar wrappers, tossing a glass beer bottle over the side of a mountain, or dumping the remains of roofing project in the woods, are quite happy tossing tissues along the side of the trail, or leaving used toilet paper blowing in the wind.

The worst is when you find it nearby water or maybe nearby some place where you might want to camp. I don’t want my water messed up with giardia or beaver fever. It’s just disgusting, because it’s clear evidence of water contamination.

Shitty toilet paper….
just plain disgusts me to no end.

Yet, there is an alternative. Do not shit near water, trails, or campsites. This will keep your butt from showing and protect our water supply. And just make sure to pack out and / or burn any toilet paper you use. Bring a plastic bag, toss your paper after using in there, and seal it up.

Fire

If you have a hot campfire, toss the bag of shitty toilet paper in there and let it burn. As long as the fire is hot, it won’t smell and will be gone instantly. The thing is you don’t want to leave toilet paper around, for the next person to find, when some animal has dug it up and dragged it out along the trail.

Alternatively, use leaves. They aren’t as great as toilet paper for wiping things up, but if you don’t want to take your toilet paper home with you or burn it, do the right thing, and just use leaves and bury them far from the trail.

Drives Leaves

Do us all a favor. Don’t leave used toilet paper or tissues as a present for all to run into in the woods.

Brasher State Forest

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About 5 miles north of North Lawerence, on Saint Lawerence County Route 55 there is a sign for the Brasher State Forest and Walter Pratt Picnic (and Primitive Camping) Area, maintained CC Dam Association.

Brasher Falls Sign

As you enter the camping area, there is a sign for the picnic area along the lake, and camping on the other side of the road. Originally they allowed camping on both sides of the road, but concerns about run-off and other pollution from campers relocated the sites to the other side of the road.

Entering the Campground

If you want to camp, all you have to do is sign-in on a card, and stick it in the retrospective window. This so they can contact you during an emergency. You can stay for up to 3 nigths, or longer if you get up to a 2-week renewable permit from the DEC.

Campers Sign In Here

The campsites are quite nice. Not all of them are as separated as this one, but I wanted one that was a little farther away for some peace and quiet. Also I figured I could listen to music as loud as I wanted to here.

Campsite 21

One of the major features of the area is a beautiful dammed up section of the Red Brook, that creates an artificial lake. The Civilian Conservation Corps Dam, built in the 1930s, is where CC Dam Association name comes from.

C.C. Dam

There is a swimming beach where people can swim at their own risk. As you can see, it’s some pretty nice swimming, although the lake is a little muckier then it appears in the pictures, and is a natural reddish color from the minerals in the sand of the Saint Lawrence County.

Swimming Beach

They have a horseshoe pit.

Horseshoe Pit

They have a hand pump for one to get drinking water. It’s marked non-potable, probably because it draws from the same shallow aquifer of the lake. You can easily boil it on a stove to make it safe to drink.

Non-Potable Water

The outhouses are in quite nice shape and very clean as you can see from these inside and outside pictures.

Outhouse

The sites are just wonderful. Here is Campsite 21 after I had put away all my gear before heading out. The fire pit rings vary, but for a free place, are pretty darn awesome.

Firepit and Table

The CC Dam Association is made up of volunteers from the Tri-Town Region of Saint Lawerence County, the nick-name for the Brasher Falls/Brasher/North Lawerence hamlets that dot the country south of Malone.

They collect old beer cans and accept donations via the mail for fundraising. Since camping is free, and the place is so well up-kept, I’m sure they apprechiate the help. Not to mention, collecting beer cans probably reduces litter, because people can’t really burn them, and some can be lazy about packing out their trash.

Cans Only

There are a number of other marked campsites on other truck trails in Brasher State Forest, including down by the Tri-Town Horse Trail area near Brasher Falls. In addition, there are dozens of miles of truck trail to drive legally in a pickup, ride with a horse or mountain bike, or illegally on a quad.

Here is a map of Brasher Falls State Forest and it’s relationship to Massena. You can zoom in for more details. NYS DEC Land Mapper has a run down of the trails.


View Hikes of 2009 in a larger map

Deer River State Forest

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In south-western Franklin County there is a state forest with approximently 12,00 acres of land, and almost 12 miles of truck trail. Most of it is wooded and moderately hilly, with acres of swamps and rivers, with substainal access via truck trail.

Truck Trail

There are three campsites along Conservation Road, with one at Iron Bridge on the Deer River. This is a popular site, one with limited nearby firewood. You probably could drive to another portion of the forest, chop up some wood, and drive back so you have enough for camping.

Packing Up

The site is number 5, although I was only able to find sites one and two nearby. The other ones must be on other roads. I didn’t drive all over Deer River State Forest, due to the noise the hubs where making on the truck, worrying me about a potential breakdown/failure with the bad hubs.

Site Name

Parts of Conservation Road where relatively rough and potholed, but compared to some of the other roads it wasn’t all that bad.

Conservation Road

At Iron Bridge, there is a popular swimming hole. I went in both in them evening to cool off and in the morning to bathe.

Swimming Hole

Right now, the area is only open to pickup trucks, horses, mountain bikers and hikers. Hopefully the DEC will open it up to legal ATV access, as was planned under the Governor Pataki administration, prior to a lawsuit brought by the enviros.

Here is a map of a Deer River State Forest where I camped. There are many other areas of the state forest I could have explored if I had spent more time up there. It was a nice place.


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Chazy Lake Primative Campsite

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On Lake Chazy, the state owns about 800 feet of lake front as State Forest. There is three campsites here, one of them on the lake, and two along a private road / driveway.

Fireplace

This parcel exists on the far end of Wilfred King Road, which runs for about 5 miles before you reach the end where the parking area and the private drive you take down to the parcel.

Trail on In

The site on the water has great views, a little fireplace, and lots of space for setting up two or three tents. It’s just as much a paradise as the photo suggests.

Gear All Packed Up

“Camp Here” marker shows that this is a designated site. When your in the Catskills or Adirondacks they tend to be fairly strict about the 150 feet rule from water and roads, unless you are a designated site.

Camp Here Marker

Down by the lake in the afternoon. Imagine a book in my hands, and you can see how relaxed I am.

Afternoon

Cookng some dinner on my camp stove. Tonight I’m having sausage in Rice-a-Roni. The image makes it look like some kind of sinster stew that I’m making up, make out of small children I boiled up and mixed with grits. It’s not that for sure, and was far more delicious.

Cooking Dinner

If you go out in the lake a little ways for a wade, you get a good view of Lyon Mountain. The water is shallow, and if it’s as hot as it was when I was there, truly delightful. While you will have to drive approximately 10 miles around the lake to get to the parking area to climb Lyon Mountain, but it’s beautiful with the fire tower up top.

Lyon Mountain

Sitting down at the lake you could hear the errie call of the loon.

Loon

The site has good south-west views over the Lyon Mountain where the sunsets in the evening. The sunsets from here are amazing, as you watch the fire burn. The wood supply is limited, so you may consider packing in your own wood supply.

Dusk

The important thing is that if you go there, make sure to drive all the way to the end of the road, past where the blacktop ends and after where the state forest starts. You will know when your there, and if you don’t see signs for the state parcel or the campsites, you haven’t driven far enough.


View Larger Map

Also, while it’s posted against driving motor vehicles past the parking lot, as it is a private driveway, you can drive almost up to the lake front campsite if you don’t want to walk with the stuff in. That said, it’s only about a 1/4 mile hike from the parking area, so it’s fine to make multiple trips throughout the night and day like I did.

Swimming Hole

Here is the site on Google Maps. The hikers are where you park, the trail follows the driveway for a while, and then turns for about 150 feet to the campsite right on the water.


View Hikes of 2009 in a larger map

Point Au Roche State Park

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Back in my college days I used to either ride my bike or drive up in the pickup to Point Au Roche State Park, which is located about 8 miles from Plattsburgh. It has fantastic views of Lake Champlain, and on less humid days, some great views of the Adirondack Mountains.

Rand Hill is Still Gone

I went for a walk out along Long Point on Sunday Night and Monday morning. It was amazing to come back to the place which I so much remember from when I was back in college. The only difference I noticed was the wind turbines you could see on Rand Hill, just barely through the evening haze.

Sailboat

When I went for the walk this night, it was very hazy and hot. It wasn’t raining, but from the amount of fog and humidity you might not have guess it.

Along the Lake

The next morning was almost as hazy and hot and humid, but with some nicer views.

Waves Break

At the end of Long Point.

Tree on Bay

Map of hikes (red = Sunday, yellow = Monday).


View Hikes of 2009 in a larger map

Cumberland Head State Park

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The first night of my vacation it was very hot and sticky out. By the time I had reached Plattsburgh I decided I would just find a campsite at Cumberland Head State Park. I probably could have gone to a nicer state park, such as Malcom Reservation or AuSable Point, but I wanted to be close to Plattsburgh and spend a lot of time visiting old haunts in the town and up at Point Au Roche.

Swimming Beach

Once I got there I dug out my swimming truck, and ran for the swimming beach, as I was hot! Driving up from Albany in all the heat and humidity, I got a terrible sunburn through the windows of my truck. I also don’t have air conditioning, and the humidity was pretty extreme on this Sunday morning.

Camping at Cumberland Head State Park

The water was nice. The campsites on Cumberland Head State Park are pretty close together, and are like camping in a giant field with a bunch of other people. I’m not a fan of state campgrounds at any rate, but it beat trying to hike up Pok-O-Moonshine and look out to nothing from the fire tower.

In the Haze

If you want cheap digs near the City of Plattsburgh, then you can’t beat Cumberland Head State Park. It’s only $15 a night, plus a $2.50 service charge for the first night, and is within a mile from downtown. The beach is nice, and when it’s not so damn hazy, the view of the mountains is amazing. That said, I’m not a fan of state parks, especially the “extreme enforcement” of quiet hours, but those showers are nice in such hot weather.