Adirondack Mountain Club Keene Valley Chapter I hope you have had a great year. Winter was lovely here with lots of powder for back- country skiing. I was fortunate enough to ski into the Boreas Ponds once this winter. It’s a 6.7 mile ski one way to the dam. It is really a spectacular addition to the Forest Perserve, but these lands are still unclassified by the DEC. There has been much debate since the state purchased them. I Summer 2017 recently went back to the Boreas ponds, hauling my Hornbeck the 3.6 miles to the dam since opening the road all the way to the dam. At this Gulf Brook Rd has reopened for the summer. point I am leaning towards closing the road alto- I’m often asked what my opinion is on the fate of gether. I like the idea of a shorter haul for bring- the Boreas Ponds. Should road access be allowed ing a canoe in, but if it’s too short of a walk, it will all the way to the dam? Should it be allowed to where be a draw for more people. it currently is, with a 3.6 mile walk or bike to the On topic of overuse, it saddens me that dam? Or should it be cut off at Blue Ridge Park- hikers have become so disrespectful that the way? My viewpoint has changed in the past year. owners of Owl’s Head in Keene have decided to Here’s why: We’ve seen an increasing number of close the trail to this popular mountain on week- hikers in the High Peaks. The DEC is under-staffed ends, 4pm on Friday to 7 am Monday. It will close for the number of visitors to the region. Now permanently at the end of summer. We will be the Governor‘s plan for the former Frontier addressing a number of other local trail issues Town at exit 29. , and the proposed plans for later in this newsletter. Hut to Hut facilities in the Boreas Ponds seem to I hope you will join us for our annual commit funding and staff elsewhere. meeting and potluck in August 22; details are near All of these things have lead me to change the end of the newsletter. my opinion on the Gulf Brook Rd. I think we ~Lisa Godfrey, Keene Valley Chapter Chair need to protect this area from the masses, not June evening view from Boreas Ponds ©2017 Lisa J Godfrey Update by Lisa Godfrey Leanto Last spring ADK educational staff, the Ausable Did you know our chapter owns a private River Association (ARA), David Thomas-Train and I Leanto? and it is available for member use? The leanto teamed up to address a growing problem on some of is on a 5-acre piece of land within a couple of miles of our local trails. This year ADK is continuing to push the Keene Valley, an easy hike. Yet it is deep in the forest. It leave no trace ethic. Just like Spring, the ARA Port-o- sits on a rise in a shady hemlock grove overlooking an Potties have once again returned to the Giant, Cascade emerald green swimming hole. The roof of the out- and Chapel Pond trailheads with one catch. The DEC is house is bright red. It is quite near, but out of sight and now mandating that all of the porotpotties in the ARA earshot of a couple of popular trails. There are no trails program be handicap-accessible. This has doubled the to the leanto. cost for each one. The DEC has aggreed to cover the additional cost for this year, but is not promising that The property was given to the Keene Valley Chapter future funding will be made available. in the 1960s, by a long-time summer family. Use is free The Ausable River Association is looking for a large for Chapter members, but not many take advantage of donor to cover the additional cost for future years. If this. The leanto is used mostly by local summer camps, you are interested in donating please contact Brendan but there are plenty of open dates on the calendar for Wiltse [email protected] reserving it . If you would like to do so, please email The suggestion was made a few years ago for me at [email protected], and convince me that you are a construction of permanent vault privies. at some trail- Chapter member, while indicating your group size and heads, but negative responses derailed the initiative. desired dates.. I will get back to you with the necessary The irony is there is one between the Cascade Lakes. details. The problem is DEC funding. Apparently, the Cascade Lake privy is are funded through fishing licenses which do not cover general DEC operations. I think it maybe time to push for a more permanent solution. If you wish to help, please write Robert Daley, Supervising Forester for the High Peak Region. Tell hin you want the DEC to put in permanent vault privies at the Cascade, Giant (Roaring Brook) and Chapel Pond trailheads: Robert Daley, Forester NYSDEC PO Box 296 Ray Brook, NY 12977 Via Email: [email protected] In an issue related to the ARA Port-o-Potty program, The Saranac Lake Wild Forest UMP has been revised This is first come-first served. The leanto is not publi- and is open for public comment. Please consider writing cized beyond this group. a letter in support of a permanent vault toilet at Monu- ment Falls on Route 86 between Lake Placid and Wilm- ington.. The Unit Management Plan process is the best way to address this problem. Use the same email and address as above. Little Mountain, Big Problem by David Thomas-Train Baxter is our Keene Valley neighborhood little peak, a steep or gentle hike , depending which way you go along the 3 - mile loop from Beede Road to the ridge top. This trail is only occasonally hiked and in relatively good shape, except where it intersects and follows the super- popular route up from Route 9N at the top of Spruce Hill. Sometime in the 1990s, an outdoor magazine featured that short trail as one of the best family hikes in the Northeast, and so kissed it to death. The once-attractive trail became degaaded and washed out along its steep sections, while its mellow sections widened out into several lanes. Baxter has several summits, two of which are Repair was called for, so two times the ADK heavily visited by hikers along steep final approaches. Pro Trail built switchbacks and reroutes around the Those two trail segments are now also in very rough worst of the erosion. Our Chapter joined The Moun- shape, muddied, widened, and washed out. The same taineer and the Hurricane Chapter in funding some remedy is called for: a trail footprint with a gentler excellent remedial trail work. grade, and where the route is not movable, water drain- age structures and some rock steps to harden the path and make it erosion-resistant. The Executive Committee of the Chapter is looking into the project and the process of repair; we’re in close touch with the leaders of ADK’s Trails Program, which will scope the work out.; we’ll soon ap- proach several prospective joint funders. Some of your dues accrues annually, so we have funds to use. The “tourist trail” on Baxter will soon be fully re-designed and laid out as an environmentally sustainable path to the top of the little peak of Keene Valley. On Top Of Old Poke-O lightning, heaps of logging slash, and sparks from lumber-hauling trains had combined to burn almost a million acres of New York forest over two decades. The Observers worked spring through fall. They spotted fires, reported them by radio telephone, and taught hikers about careful use of the woods. Most fire tower mountains also had an Observer’s Cabin within short hiking distance from the summit. Sometimes spouses or family might come to visit. Poke-O-Moonshine had two cabins side by side, but by the 1990’s both were ruined, ironi- cally, by fire. An old apple tree stands next to the remnant foundation. The rusted coils of an old refrigerator slump in the back part of the footings. By the ‘90s, the fire tower at Poke-O was in rough shape. The steel was rusty, the wooden floor and stair risers punky, the con- crete footers crumbling. DEC was planning to take it down. The first tower restoration, at Blue Mountain, had just come off successfully, with the fire tower staffed by student interpret- ers. Some of us from Keeseville and nearby had the same idea. In 1997, The Friends of Poke-O-Moon- shine held its first meeting, hosted by Adiron- hey started out being paid $60 a month for their dack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), the Thalf-year, all-weather stints in the fire tower. Overall, Park-wide historic preservation organization. We were there were twenty-one Fire Observers on Poke-O- off and running, to be joined over the years by local Moonshine from 1912 through 1988. Most came from businesses, ADK chapters, summer camps, hundreds nearby Keeseville, and the first three worked in the from near and far, and DEC. AARCH’s Executive original wooden tower before the current one was built Director, Steven Engelhart, led us in those early years in 1917. and kindly gave us office space in Keeseville. That makes the fire tower 100 years old.