essays

The Pros and Cons of Getting a Camping Permit

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New York State requires you to get a camping permit if you stay in a spot or a campsite for more then 3 nights. I have never bothered to get a permit, unless the rare times I see a forest ranger, and he asks me to fill out a camping permit. I generally do not get camping permits, because I don’t stay more then 3 nights in any one spot – if I was a hunter, setting up a base camp in big game season – it might be different.

Pros.

  • It shows that you are using the land, providing justification for the DEC to spend more funding on that piece of land versus another piece of land.
  • It’s nice to stay at one site for an extend period, if you plan to stay in that general area, so you don’t have to pick up and remake camp every couple of night.
  • You don’t have to necessarily camp at a designated spot or farther then 150 feet from road or water if you get the permit for another place.
  • In case you are reported lost or injured, the forest ranger knows where to look.
  • There is no charge, and all you have to do give forest ranger a call with your license plate and other basic information.

Tent

Cons.

  • You have to plan where you are going a couple of weeks in advance to give the forest ranger a change to mail you the perm
  • Staying in one place leads to more wear on the campsite.
  • It can be be boring to camp in one site for an extended period.
  • Do you really want to tell the government where your camping, so it can track you?

Camping Down By Otter Brook

… in many ways the cons are longer then the pros.

A Place I’ve Overlooked

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Over the years I have spent a lot of time camping in the Catskills and Adirondacks. I sometimes go out to Finger Lakes or Central NY, or drive down to Pennsylvania to the Tioga State Forest or Allegheny National Forest. Yet, except for one trip in 2004 and in 2008, I have not spent much time at all in Green Mountains.

Kelley Stand Road

I have my reasons for not going to the Green Mountains National Forest. For one, the drive from Albany to Bennington Vermont, is a punishing and awful drive, especially prior to the construction of the Bennington bypass. Hoosic Street in Troy is an awful during most hours of the day, and there is few alternatives for one wanting to get from Albany to Bennington. NY 7 is always congested and loaded with poky speed traps.

71 degrees in Albany this morning

Yet, besides the driving difficulties, there is a lot in Green Mountains. They are not the Adirondacks, but you get back off of Kelley Stand Road, get to some of the many ponds and waterways, mountains, and other wild lands, one must wonder why one hasn’t spent more time here. It’s only 50 miles from Albany to the entrance way of Green Mountain Forest, and there are many wonderful free campsites. It’s pretty wild back here, but still that drive is awful.

Buffalo University District - Percent African American

I don’t know. I should use my cartography skills and try to find alternative routes to Green Mountains. Maybe take the Northway North and cut over, well North of Troy. Or go through a more southernly route. Yet, at any rate, as an alternative to Adirondacks or Catskills, and is out of State, the Green Mountains National Forest seems like a great place to visit.

Original Dunn Bridge

What’s the Right Way to Look at New York?

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All maps have to be “projected” to appear on a flat screen or piece of paper. The earth is an “oblate spheroid”, a sphere that is thicker around it’s equator then the poles. Simply just drawing a map to the latitude and longitude, leads to a rather distorted looking maps.

Limekiln Falls Area

There are two common systems of representing the cylindrical globe on maps: the Normal Meractor and the Universal Transverse Mercator. Most topographic maps are projected as Universal Transverse Mercator, as it’s very accurate for shapes, sizes, and distances, as it reflects the natural curvature of the earth’s “oblate spheroid” over smaller distances on a flat surface.

Autumn

There is one big problem with Universal Transverse Mercator, is that it distorts cardinal directions, especially as distance grows. Simply said, a straight westerly line, such as the 42 degrees latitude line that marks the southern border between Pennsylvania and New York, is bent northwards to keep shape and proportion of NY State correct, based on the “oblate spheriod” of earth. If you want pure north and south lines over a distance, then you have no choice but to use Normal Mercator.

Cedar Lakes

So what do you prefer? I tend to prefer the UTM, as it’s more accurate for everything but direction over long distances, giving one an accurate overview of an area. It also makes for some pretty stylistic looking NY State Maps, and keeps similarly sized areas of right size, rather then stretched too large.

Kayaking Barnum Pond, July 2011

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Barnum Pond, right behind the Adirondack Vistors Intreprative Center, offers some great views, and can be accessed for free from NY 30, one mile north of VIC and one mile south of Mountain Pond Camping Area. Click on the map below, to display a full-size version, perfect for printing and slapping in a plastic bag, to strap on your kayak.

Here are some pictures I took while was paddling around this lake, proceeding from NY 30, along the Southern shore until I got to the Barnum Pond outlet, which you can continue on for about a mile until a beaver dam. You can portage around the beaver dam, if you choose, however a 1/2 mile below that is a series of man-made dams in Paul Smiths you must go around, to get down to Lower St Regis Lake.

Rainy Tuesday Morning

Edge of Barnum Pond

Adirondack VIC Observation Deck

Barnum Pond Outlet

Treeline

Through the Marshlands of the VIC

Clouds Over Barnum Pond Outlet

Lighthouse Stairway Window

Splader Dack and Boreas Forest

Heading Back to Barnum Pond

Boreal Trees

Reflections

Southern Edge of Barnum Pond

Untitled

Spatterdock

South West on Barnum Pond

West Kill Valley

St Regis Mountain Across Barnum Pond

If you visit here, consider camping at Mountain Pond.