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Driving Thru Moose River Plains

In preparation for my summer vacation I decided to drive through the Moose River Plains Wild Forest. This area has been subject to quite a bit of controversy over the years, in part from the environmentalists who do not believe “drive-in” camping is appropiate use of Adirondack Wild Forest, and most recently from the State DEC which threatened to close this 30 mile truck trail due to a lack of funds.

While my camera was broken while I was able to grab a few pictures. I will take more when I get back from my week up there.

Here is the route. The first 5 miles of Cedar Plains Road from Indian Lake is black top, and rapidly transitions to rough dirt road.

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Around 7 miles in you reach the beautiful Wakely Pond, with Wakely Mountain in the background, where there is a fire tower up top..

About 11 miles in you reach the Cedar River Flow, a big field camping area next to the dammed up Cedar River, creating a large man-made lake.

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The beautiful Cedar River.

At the start of Moose River Road, there are two cabins and a sign in booth, along with the field camping that is popular with RVs.

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Along the next 20 miles of Moose River Plains Road, there are about 150 campsites, used by tent campers and RVs alike. Many are located far off the roads, and provide a great deal of privacy. The landscape is one of hills, mountains, and deep valleys, and then eventually becomes open sandy plains as you head east. It’s over an hour drive from here to Inlet, via a very rough state truck trail.

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You really can’t drive much above 15 miles per hour, and sections of the road are washed out and one must avoid them.

More pictures to come after vacation…

Labrador Hollow

Labrador Hollow is a deep valley surrounded by large hills on both sides. It’s located on the border of Fabius in Ondondoga County (south of Syracuse), and Truxton in Cortland County.

At Labrador Hollow, there are three places you will want to check out:

Labrador Pond
Jones Hill Hang Gliders Cliff
Tinker Falls

There are plenty of signs to guide you to the Labrador Hollow Parking area by the pond.

Through the marshy area, there is a 1/4 mile board walk which provides up close and personal views to the unique wildlife of the area.

You usually don’t get a chance to be right up in a marsh like this, unless your deep in the mud with your boots, or it’s less grown up and you could paddle a canoe or kyack. So despite being a little out of place, it does give you a unique experience.

Looking at Labrador Pond through the marshlands.

There used to be a firetower on Jones Hill, which is now a nature center down by Labrador Pond.

An open section is mowed, so you can sit dwon by the lake and enjoy the views.

Then I drove over to the Kyack/Canoe launch for the pond, on the western side along Labarador Hill.

Besides the kyack launch, there is a series of benches and a boardwalk that extend out into the lake.

Later I drove around to the Eastern side of the lake, then hiked down to Tinker Falls, an accessiable water falls. The trail is an easy 1/4 mile walk that is only slightly inclined.

The falls aren’t big, being maybe 60 feet at the most, but they are still pretty and simple. I wouldn’t confuse it with Niagara Falls or even the Kaaterskill Falls. By afternoon, a lot of people where playing in the falls, trying to stay cool.

Here is the view from the top of Tinker Falls, accessed from the Finger Lakes Trail or the orange spur to the Finger Lakes Trail.

I then proceeded to hike up to the Hang Gliders launch spot by the Orange Blaze Connector trail which hooks up with the Finger Lakes Trail. This is route I took, it’s slightly longer and steeper then the old woods road route.

You can also follow the old woods road, which goes directly up to Hang Gliders spot on Jones Hill.

Part of the Finger Lakes Trail runs along the edge of Jones Hill, although there aren’t any real views this time of year.

Arriving at Hang Gliders clearing. It was very hazy out, with limited views.

Looking down at Labrador Hollow and towards Labrador Hill.

Farms in Fabius, with very poor views.

I want to come back on a clear fall day. Maybe this fall I will go back out and explore this area again in the future.

Here is a map of the hike.

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Brookfield Auto Trail

The Brookfield Auto Trail is located in the Charles Baker State Forest, a large state forest and popular equestrarian area that gets much use. Much like you would expect in such an area, there is a lot of mud, lot of horses and horse flies. I did a drive through of the truck trail, but was under impressed by it all.

CNY Hiking did a great write up about it, so I won’t go through all of it, but I will make some brief comments about it. CNY Hiking has pictures from all of the stops, and a copy of the map and associated tour pamplet that is also avaliable at the main-horse Assembly Area on Moscow Road.

Next to the Assembly Area is a Camping Area, with 21-sites closely put together. I was not a big fan of them, simply because they where too dense, particularly for equestrain use. They should have been far more spread out, like along the many miles of truck trail, or at least with a little more privacy.

Almost all the miles of truck trail where easy to follow, and nice and smooth. The trails where gravel and well maintained, although some of the markers had disappeared into the grass.

Many of the stops are moderately interesting, although there are no great vistas in the entire route, which is relatively flat except for a few moderate hills and valleys. One of the more interesting stops is the No 6. Water Hole, dug originally for firefighting.

There are no large ponds at Charles Baker, although Lost Pond is a man-made pont in one of the valleys. It is very rough country around there, and muddy from the horseys.

Along Truck Trail Number 6, there is this fascinating old marker nailed on to one of the White Pines in the planation.

The best part of the Charles Baker Auto tour is no more, the old firetower site. The fire tower was demolished in 1978, and supposedly was a very popular end to the tour, with views of the valleys surrounding the Charles Baker State Forest.

Here is a map of the route, although I also recommend you see the CNY Hiking Write Up.

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Balsam Pond 2010

For the first weekend of summer, I decided to go out to Central NY for a weekend. The original plan was to spend one day at Brookfield Camping Area, but it was too crowded, so I decided to head south west to Balsam Pond in Chenango County, outside of Norwich and Pharslia.

Balsam Pond is a man-made lake, popular for fishing and free camping. They also allow motor boats on the lake, so during the day, you’ll hear boats roaring up and down the lake.

While the weekend was pretty rainy, Balsam Pond turned out to be quite nice, and popular but not full, as was the case last year. This time I choose to set up in Campsite 3.

Soon after getting there, it was raining. I quickly got the tarp up, and was hanging out in the back of my pickup, reading a book.

In the evening, the rain stopped, although the clouds remained as I walked down by the lake.

In the morning I got up, and hopped in the lake for a quick dip to get cleaned off. Hazy and cloudy in the morning, but no rain.

I drove up north to Truxton in Cortland County, to check out the ever so beautiful Labarador Hollow, but decided with the rain, not camp up there. There where some roadside campsites there, but no lake to cool off up there, so I ended up spending another day at Balsam Pond.

The next evening was nice, with not much rain, but very cloudy, damp and dark. But I got a nice fire going, and it didn’t involve burning too much plastic but mostly wood, under the Christmas lights.

Even by morning of the June 28th, the weather wasn’t perfect but so be it. This time of year, is not known for it’s perfect weather conditions after all.

Do read about my
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Up by the Leonard Hill Fire Tower, there is a clearing cut into the hillside, and an area where there is a little fire place, and some grass that never grows that tall. It’s obvious that people camp up here from time to time, to enjoy the beautiful sunset, and myself I’ve been itching to watch a sunset from here for some time.

While on June 5th, the weather was somewhat cloudy, as thunderstorm after thunderstorm came rolling through the valleys and mountains alike, it actually turned out to be a remarkably beautiful evening. with a beautiful sunset into the clouds. The views from Leonard Hill where as spectacular as always.

Looking at my camping set up.

The rain lead to some beautiful misty sky scapes, especially as the sun was lowering in the sky. Here is Rossman Hill, where I had camped deep in the valley the previous night.

And here Blenheim Mountain with the Blenheim Upper Power Project Reservoir above it.

It was windy up there, but the little White Gas Coleman Stove did just find boiling the water for the pasta I was cooking up for dinner. I did stick it behind this little rock to provide a little more shelter from the wind, but regardless cooked it quickly.

With the wind racing up the hill with coming front, I kept the fire very small and a lot of water nearby. It had been raining throughout the day, so things weren’t particularly flammable, but with the winds being so strong, it was a bit frightening.

I watched the sunset into the valley while the very small campfire roared away with the winds whipping away. It wasn’t particularly cool, but by 8 PM, I did feel it neccessary to put on a long-sleeved shirt.

The sun setting through the trees.

With the clouds starting to over take the sun.

And eventually a front comes through, making the sun set before it normally would, quite far to the north, over Rossman Hill.

The view after sunset. You can just barely make out the mountains, from Utsayathana to the left, to Blenheim and the Reservoir in the center, to Burnt-Rossman Hills on the right.

The truck truck and camping gear after dark.

Awaking in the morning to pounding rain, which fortunately let up into a relatively thick fog by the time I got up in the morning. Here is a view out the back window of the truck cap.

My “night stand” in the truck. Books, radio, flashlight, even fan. I’m as well prepared as I would be at home for sure. That light has only a 9-watt florescent bulb in it, although if I ever needed more light, I have two other lead-lamps with 26-watt florescent in them to illuminate the night.

Packing up my gear on the foggy morning.

The rain and fog pretty much obstructed the view by morning.

The farther I got down the mountain, the worst the weather got on the truck trail. A little farther down the mountain, the fog was so bad, I had to drive really slow with my truck.

Here is a map of where I camped on top of Leonard Hill.

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Andy Arthur.org

Search Results for: photo fire 4

Driving Thru Moose River Plains

Labrador Hollow

Brookfield Auto Trail

Balsam Pond 2010

Camping at Duck Pond

Burnt Rossman June 2010

Truck Camping On Leonard Hill