camping

Cedar River Flow, July 21

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The Cedar River Flow at Moose River Plains has 10 roadside campsites along with an Assembly-area. It is popular for kayaking, camping, and exploring nearby mountains and trails such as Wakely Mountain. There are also about 20 campsites that you can paddle in along the lake, and over 150 campsites located up in Moose River Plains, a 30-60 minute drive up a rough dirt road from here.

You enter via Cedar River Road.

Cedar River Road

Half of the campsites at Cedar River Flow are located across the Wakley Dam.

Wakley Dam

Wakley Dam Bridge. It looks fairly secure. Heck, people drag their big fifth-wheel RVs across this bridge all the time, so it has to be pretty sturdy.

Wakley Dam Bridge

I camped out at Campsite No 9.

Campsite

At Cedar River Flow is the Entrance to Moose River Plains, where you have to register your vehicle in case you get lost or your car or truck is otherwise found abandoned.

Entrance to Moose River Plains

Sitting back and having a beer at Moose River Plains in the afternoon.

Afternoon

A big ass Campfire. Sigh!

Campfire

One of the neat things is walking out on Wakely dam at night and looking up at the stars. Here is moonlight on Cedar River Flow.

Moonlight on Cedar River Flow

Here is a map of the Cedar River Flow. The camping area is located on the Northern End by the dam.


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Driving Thru Moose River Plains

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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.

Parked Along Cedar River Road

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..

Wakely Pond

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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Cedar River Entrance Sign

The beautiful Cedar River.

Otherside of Dam at Cedard River Flow

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.

Moose River Plains Overview


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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…

Brookfield Auto Trail

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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.

Truck Trail #6

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.

Charles Baker Sign

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.

Truck Trail #6

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.

TT 4

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.

Stop 6: Waterhole

Dug Waterhole

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.

Lost Pond Sign

Lost Pond Sign

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

State Reforestation Area: Be Careful With Fire!

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.

At Old Firetower Site

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

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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 Sign

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.

Balsam Pond Sign

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.

Campsite Number 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.

Waiting Out the Rain

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

Balsam on Edge of Pond

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.

Marshy Edge

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.

Balsam Tree

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.

Canoes

Do read about my
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