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State Should Maintain Truck Trails

Andy | August 12, 2009

Throughout the forest preserve and other state lands, there is a fairly extensive network of state truck trails, which are dirt roads that a designed for motor vehicle travel. They are designed to get you across what sometimes is quite vast expanses of state land.

The thing is they have not been well maintained. They may be dirt roads, with minimal gravel cover and minimal bridges to allow logging trucks through. But they should have minimal maintance to keep bridges up and maintained, including replacing wooden decking when needed. They should fix the worst of the potholes and muddy sections, and where the road has washed out.

Yet, the state has repeatly failed to keep up these roads. When a bridge washes out, the state’s response has been to close the road. When a road become rough and rutted, the state does nothing at all — and just hopes folks’ pickup trucks have the clearance to make it.

There may be many priorities out there for the state. But for the many hunters, hikers, snowmobiles, and other users of state land, they should take more of an active effort to upkeep the state truck trails.

Crane Mountain

Andy | July 5, 2009

I went hiking at Crane Mountain in the Adirondacks on July 5, on a partly cloudy day. I didn’t get to the trail until around 10 AM, in part because of the Detour on the Adirondack Northway due to the bus crash. Regardless, it still wasn’t that crowded until later in the afternoon.

The drive up Ski Hi Road is quite rough, and minimally marked, except for a few signs that Crane Mountain. Ski Hi road may be inaccessible with a 2-wheel drive after some rain, so be aware. It’s a steep uphill drive, and very much so dirt. Only once it enters the preserve does it get rutted and rough, but very much passable by people who had cars up there.

The first part of the trail is quite steep, but you quickly get views of Granite Mountain and other mountains that surround the valley near Crane Mountain Road and Ski Hi Roads.

The trail up it quite steep, climbing over rocks for the first 1/2 of a mile. There isn’t a clear marked trail, you follow one of many routes through the rocks.

The trail is minimally marked, with a few old trail markers and arrows to help you follow. That said, it’s worn enough, and with enough bare rock faces, that it’s quite followable, even without too many markers.

The farther you get up, the better the views get.

The trail splits between one trail to the pond and one to the Escarpment/Summit. The trail to the Escarpment is relatively flat, with a few up hill sections until you get to a 30′ ladder to get up to the top.

But once you get there up that ladder, the views quickly become quite amazing. The ladder may be 30 feet high, but it’s securely attached to the mountain, so it’s an easy climb. Also, the trees block the view outwards, so it’s not a bad climb.

Now I’m looking due to west to Granite Lake.

Looking North West, along the trail as it proceeds North along the Escarpment. I turned on the Mp3 player, and was listening to America’s Horse with No Name. Good music for the amazing views.

Continuing donw the trail. I must have spent an hour snapping photos, reading, and just enjoying the landscape.

Next the trail proceeds down steeply towards Crane Mountain Lake, with one viewpoint with good northerly views, including an overview of the popular fishing spot of Crane Mountain Lake. At least on this side there is no ladder to climb on down.

Down at Crane Mountain Lake. I sat down here, and spent some time reading. A few people where around fishing and exploring, more people where heading up the trail with polls later on.

The trail, while unmarked splits between going along the top of the ridge between the second and first latter up Crane Mountain, not that you would know it from the lack of signs. There is a lot of exposed rockface on this relatively steep trail, due to aggressive logging a century ago destroying the soil cover, along with steep slopes.

The trail descends quite steeply through rocks, and then further down. It’s a quite steep descent to say the least.

A rather pretty house from a converted barn on Crane Mountain Road, which is viewable from the descending trail.

The last mile of the trail is along an old woods road.

The route I took.

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Some sites on Crane Mountain:

More pictures of Crane Mountain.

Five Mile Mountain

Andy | May 30, 2009

I got up at 5 AM on Saturday and headed off to the Tongue Mountain Range. I arrived there around 8 AM, because I made several stops on the way up, and didn’t really get in my truck until 6:30 after getting ready and having breakfast.

I wanted to hike up Fifth Peak and French Mountain, famous for their views of Lake George, but I ended up hiking up Five Mile Mountain, as I parked at the wrong area based on my faulty memory of where the trail head was, based on a brief drive by some three years ago back in college.

The markers on the trail where old, but it was well marked with these 1967-era trail markers and carins.

Lake George can be seen off one view from Brown Mountain. It was raining as I hiked up there.

I was fortunate enough to make it up to the Five Mile Leanto before the sky just opened up and started to pour.

Sitting in the lean to watching as the rain rapidly approached me. This lean-to was not well thought out as it faces due west. But it must have good views of the sunset. Maybe some night I should stay up here.

Fortunately the rain passed relatively quickly.

But it left the trail fairly swampy in parts.

The trail from Five Mile Mountain has some limited views to the east over Lake George. It was still cloudy when reached this point around 10 AM but was starting to clear out.

You descend down Five Mile Mountain come to the intersection of the trail to Fifth Peak and French Mountain.

After you get on the trail to descend down to Five Mile Point, you go past a long and skinny portion of creek dammed up by beavers.

Descended down to Five Mile Point and had lunch along Lake George. It’s a relatively steep and long descend down to Five Mile Point, and it continues to be steep until you get down to the shore. Not a perfect place for a picnic, but still pretty.

Here’s a boater passing by an island on the other side of Lake George.

The trail back up from Five Mile Point was an old-wagon road, probably abandoned for 100 years now. It’s a steep climb back up it.

The views back atop of Five Mile Mountain where amazing, once it cleared out with just a few clouds remaining.

It cleared out by the time I was back up on Five Mile Mountain. There is Lake George, Bear Mountain on the other side, and the Green Mountains and Vermont in the distance.

Hiking along the trail…

The view from the lean-to when the weather is a bit nicer.

Near where the trail splits off to go over to Deer Point (which I did not visit), there was a serious forest fire in 1985. It was one hell of a fire, as witnessed from the damage from almost 25 years ago.

I arrived back at my truck around 5:30 PM, a bit tired and sore. But the views where great!

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Hadley Mountain Firetower

Andy | April 17, 2009

This is my first hike of the year in the Adirondacks. I normally don’t go to the Adirondacks due to the length of the drive from Albany, however I wanted a break from the Catskills. Hadley Mountain has a fire tower on it, and it was a beautiful day out for the hike.

I arrived at the trail head at around 9:30 after a two hour drive from Albany, via. the Bachelorville Bridge and several Saratoga County Roads. It would have been faster to take Route 9N and the Northway, however I wanted to see some of the nearby country.

It was a relatively short hike up the mountain, with a distance of a mile and a half, and an elevation increase of 1,500 feet. Most of the trail was eroded sloping rock face. Admittedly, it was a lot more difficult on the ankles coming down then going up.

Once you arrive up top there is the Fire Tower, some open face worn down to rocks, from use, and a ranger’s cabin. The views are spectacularsome of the best from any Fire Tower around. It would be awesome to visit in the summer when everything is all green and purty.

Spent about an two hour up there, snapping photos and watching the light change. I got a pretty bad sun burn, but it was so nice and sunny out there. It was fun. I returned back to the truck around 3:30 PM.

See more photos from this hike in the Hadley Mountain Photos Series.

Hikers – Trail Head
Blue Line – Hadley Mountain Trail
Flag – Hadley Mountain Fire Tower

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What Does It Mean To Be An Environmentalist?

Andy | February 12, 2007

There are many people who consider themselves to be environmentalists. Yet, these people have very diverse beliefs and come from very diverse backgrounds.

On specific issues, environmentalists often disagree. One environmentalist might view the issue of providing pollution free power through hydroelectric as an acceptable cost to a damaged salmon population. Another might very well disagree.

What we can delimitate some fundamental processes that the environmentalist must go through to reach his rational conclusion:

Carefully Observe The World
Analysis What You Learn
Question Why Things Are the Way They Are
Act Upon What You Believe To Be Right

In one way or another, you could argue that all environmentalists are seeking the best use of our limited natural resources and our limited land. In contrast to our natural resources, the human imagination is unlimited and we can find solutions to our problems.

Indeed, environmentalists seek the best use of the land. They want to see uses that are:

Sustainable and protect our land for generations to come.
Can be enjoyed and embraced without fear of being poisoned.
Leads to human prosperity with diverse environments, smart cities, and prosperous farms.

We should seek environmental policies that not only protect our diverse species but also protect human dignity. We need an environment where:

People can create, farm, and live.
People can get away from urban life.
People can live happy and productive lives in urban centers or in small communities if they so choose

What’s good for our environment is indeed good for our economy, as our economy is based on our environment. We must indeed be liberal in our quest to embrace new technologies and ideas that will improve our environment, but also conservative in respecting our natural environment around us.

Vandalizing Public Property

Andy | June 30, 2006

One of the things that irks me the most is when people destroy public property. Some people cut down trees, spray paint rocks, tear up fields with quads recklessly, or do other damage. They seem not to understand that this public land belongs to not only them but to us all. Public land is out there for all to use, to enjoy and respect.

We don’t need more rules and regulations on how we can use public land. Just because some idiots choose to leave litter on the ground, doesn’t mean we should be prohibited from camping. Likewise, just because some people tear up the land with their quads, doesn’t mean all motor vehicle trails should be closed. You wonder why people simply can not see the beauty they are destroying.

There is a sign on Vroman’s Nose that says “Respect the Land, and the Land will Respect You”. That seems like such common sense, yet so many people fail to follow such things. Most of really love the land out here, and it seems only sensible for others to respect it similarly.

Earth as a Pickup Truck

Andy | June 25, 2006

We all like our pickup trucks. They are fund to play with off-road, use them around the farm, tow our boats, and so forth. They are built strong and are pretty reliable. Yet, like most things in life they have limitations and we must be careful how we use them and avoid serious damage. It seems like a similar analogy can be used for mother earth. Our planet is tough and resilient, but with the pressures of 6 billion people on it we can damage it seriously if we aren’t careful.

On a truck we can do some pretty serious damage. We can run it into a tree, blow the engine by allowing it to overheat, grind up the transmission by accidentally shifting into reverse while driving, or rolling it over while driving on snow covered roads. We can do same thing with earth by carelessly allowing massive amounts of toxic escape into the air without control, dumping massive amounts of chemicals into our waterways, or consuming all of our fresh water for frivolous uses.

We aren’t just talking about minor things that while annoying don’t actually do that much damage unless massive aggregated together. A minor dent or ding in your truck might be annoying, but it’s not going to make the truck less useful. A campfire might release some smoke into the atmosphere, or a cow may leave some dung in a pasture, but that to our environment.

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