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Contents
When is peak foliage season?..........................2 State releases weekly foliage reports................3 Prepare in advance for safe travel....................4 First Sunrise................................................5 A New and Improved Ghost Town....................6
Beginninger’s look at bow-hunting tools............8 CAT opens Essex Quarry Nature Preserve...........9 Moose Sightings.........................................10 90-Miler Canoe race..................................11 Giant day to remember...................................12 DEC adopts new rules for hunting..................Inside
EMBARK Brought to you by the publishers of the and The Lake Placid News
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Fall 2021
Outdoor Tips Backcountry safety
ADE Managing Editor: Elizabeth Izzo LPN Editor: Andy Flynn Designer: Parker O’Brien Email: news@adirondackdailyenterprise.com Produced by Adirondack Publishing, P.O. Box 318, 54 Broadway, Saranac Lake, NY 12983 Cover Photo: A hiker sits at the summit of Hurricane Mountain Photo by Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism Although Embark is free, some of you may want to get a subscription if you live outside the circulation area or just want to guarantee yourself a copy. To have a subcription mailed to your home or business, call 518-891-2600
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Foliage
When is peak foliage season? (Enterprise photos — Andy Flynn) Heart Lake
By ANDY FLYNN Lake Placid News Editor
LAKE PLACID — This time of year, the people answering phone calls at visitor bureaus, hotels and resorts throughout the Adirondack Region are fielding questions about fall foliage on a daily basis. Most of the time, visitors only want to know one thing. The big question at the Lake Placid Visitors Bureau is “When are your leaves going to peak?” The standard answer is that the leaves peak sometime within the last two weeks of September, the first two weeks of October. Yet, in the High Peaks region, leaves tend to peak earlier. If tourists are going to spend the time and money to travel to the Adirondacks with their families to take photographs of the fall foliage, they want the most bang for their buck. They want color, as much of it as they can get, and they want it on demand, when they are here on vacation. But peak is always up to Mother Nature; it can’t be rushed or delayed. There are too many variables to predict an accurate time of peak foliage in any given location: elevation, weather, latitude, soil composition. What’s peak one day in Keene Valley or the Champlain Valley would probably be past peak in Lake Placid, which is at a higher elevation. But the state does its best, using 66 spotters for its weekly foliage report. In 2016, Jim Carroll, a volunteer spotter and contributor to the New York Fall Foliage Report from the Tupper Lake/Mount Arab region, told the Lake Placid News, “I think 2
the real key to a colorful year is more warm afternoons, cool nights and a frost here and there. It’s definitely up to Mother Nature.” Unfortunately — for everyone — there is no way to accurately predict peak foliage conditions anywhere in New York. What may look like peak one day could be even better the next day. Or the weather could turn nasty and the wind can blow many of the colorful leaves off the trees overnight. The best answer for the question “When is peak?” is “You’ll know it after it’s over.” The best tool tourism officials can use is use the weekly New York Fall Foliage Report to give callers an idea of what is happening or about to happen in the region. According to the “Guide to Fall Colors in
Upstate New York,” by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry biology professor Donald J. Leopold, there are three main ingredients that lead to a spectacular fall color display: “species that have the potential to turn intense color, ideal weather (i.e. sunny and dry conditions, cool nights), and large landscapes that are either rather uniform or have an interesting blend of textures like a mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees and array of topographic features.” Not all of the 125 tree species in New York contribute to the fall foliage spectacle, according to Leopold. Shrubs can help. And there is one coniferous tree that adds shades of yellow, the eastern larch or tamarack, which is the last to turn color in the Adirondacks.
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Foliage
State releases weekly foliage reports on iloveny.com By ANDY FLYNN Lake Placid News Editor
ALBANY — In early September, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the start of the 2021 fall foliage season in New York state by saying I LOVE NY will begin issuing its weekly fall foliage reports on Sept. 8 and will include a new enhanced interactive progression map. “Every autumn, New York state’s spectacular foliage and natural beauty beckons travelers to our world-class state parks, majestic overlooks, historic sites and unparalleled attractions,” Hochul said. “New Yorkers have long known about the stunning displays of color showcased all across the state, from Niagara Falls to Montauk Point. Now is the perfect time for residents and visitors alike to plan a fall escape and experience this incredibly colorful season in our great state.” Empire State Development Vice President and Executive Director of Tourism Ross D. Levi said, “The fall foliage season in New York State is always a magical time of year, and the I LOVE NY weekly foliage report is a great tool for visitors looking to plan a seasonal getaway. Our new interactive fall foliage map highlights a variety of attractions and events, from harvest festivals to Halloween celebrations, craft beverage trails, museums and family fun, helping residents and visitors alike to find what they love while exploring the amazing palette of autumn colors on display across the state.” The foliage report is compiled each week using the on-location field observations from I LOVE NY’s team of volunteer leaf peepers. More than 85 spotters extending across the state’s 11 vacation regions are tasked with keeping track of the color change in their area as leaves progress each week. Reports detail the predominant leaf colors, approximate percentage of change, and how much color change has progressed relative to peak conditions. New this year, I LOVE NY is introducing an enhanced, interactive map that tracks weekly foliage change and progression across the state throughout the season. The map, located on the I LOVE NY foliage website, showcases great foliage viewing locations in each of the various regions throughout the state. Visitors can also use the map to see what the foliage is like during peak viewing in a given area, and learn about nearby, must-see attractions. Thanks in part to its size and location, New York state has one of the longest and most colorful foliage seasons in the country. On any weekend from late September through mid-November, part of the state is likely experiencing peak foliage. Travelers are also invited to share their photos of New York state’s amazing foliage on social media by using the #NYLovesFall hashtag. Photos submitted to this hashtag have a chance of being featured on the I LOVE NY fall foliage website and official I LOVE NY social media
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accounts reaching nearly two million followers. Reports and the new interactive map are updated Wednesdays throughout the season at www.iloveny.com/foliage. Reports are also available toll-free by dialing 800/CALL-NYS (800-225-5697) from anywhere in the U.S., its territories and Canada. For more information on how to volunteer as an I LOVE NY leaf peeper, email your name, address and phone number to foliage@esd.ny.gov.
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(Editor’s note: This story was first published in the October/ November 2017 issue of Embark.) The summer season ended with a spate of high profile searches for missing hikers in the Adirondacks, most of which have ended with positive outcomes. And while the state Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers are often quick to rescue those who get injured, once a person is lost there is almost always a common thread: those hikers are unprepared. Richard Guinan, a hiker who was missing for two days near St. Regis Mountain in Paul Smiths, managed to survive his ordeal. Rangers later stated he was unprepared. In another incident a week later, the body of Alex Stevens was found after he was missing for two weeks in mid-September. The last people to see Stevens said he had shorts and sandals on, hardly appropriate attire for fall weather in the Adirondacks. But what does it mean to “be prepared?”
Itinerary
The first thing one should do when planning a hiking or backcountry trip should be obvious: Figure out where you want to go. Once that’s done, make an itinerary, and — just as important — stick to it. There are many forms floating around the internet and Facebook which have fill-in-the-blank lines that provide a solid way to let others know where you’re planning on going. But that information is useless if it’s sitting on your kitchen counter or if you leave it with an unreliable friend. An itinerary can be elaborate or basic, but the necessary information includes where you’re going, when you’ll be back and who you are with. It’s helpful to include more information such as make/ model/color of your car and what you’ll be wearing, and the particular trailhead you’ll be leaving from if there’s more than one option. The itinerary should be given to someone you trust, not the bartender you just met last night. And the person doesn’t even have to be close by, just so long as they’re reliable enough to pay attention to when you’re supposed to return. Something as simple as a text message to a relative can be sufficient, but make sure the person you’re trusting knows to call 911 or DEC dispatch if you don’t return 4
on time. As a related note, the itinerary you plan may or may not work out. The key is to not change it too much. For instance, if you plan to hike Cascade and Porter mountains, let your contact person know that you might only do one of those peaks depending on the amount of time you have. Just don’t decide to go do Mount Marcy if your itinerary says Cascade and Porter.
(Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
By JUSTIN A. LEVINE Former Staff Writer
Prepare in advance for safe travel
Essentials
Once you’ve decided where to go and let someone who will follow up know, it’s time to pack your bag. Make no mistake, there are essentially no hikes in the Adirondacks that don’t require you to bring some supplies in case of emergency. And the longer the hike, the more you should be prepared. First and foremost, water and food are needed, and it’s better to bring extra than to run out. For water, pack what you think you need and then add some more. Same goes for food: Make sure to bring enough to eat and then think about what you’d need to get through an unplanned night in the woods. A couple of extra granola bars could provide much-needed calories in the event you get stranded. Next up is a map and compass, and no, your phone does not count. In fact, consider it dead weight because if the screen cracks or the battery dies or it gets wet, that’s exactly what it is. Guinan was relying on his phone and was lucky enough to get a call out to his wife before the battery died, but in all other ways, his phone was useless. The nice thing about carrying a paper map and decent compass is that there are no batteries to die. But more important than having these items with you is a basic understanding of how to use them. Can you orient your map to north? Do you know how to set the declination on the compass? If not, take a class, look it up online or ask a more experienced hiker. Most importantly, don’t wait until you’re lost to try and figure this stuff out. Any time you go into the woods, you should also have a first-aid kit with you. This doesn’t have to be anything serious or heavy. There’s no need to carry a defibrillator into the woods, but some band aids and gauze can relieve most of the common ailments hikers will endure, and mole skin or duct tape can help with blisters. In addition to the first-aid kit, be sure to bring some sunglasses
Cascade Mountain trailhead
and sunscreen in case you’re left exposed to the elements. Sunscreen may not be necessary in the winter, but snow blindness can be debilitating to a serious extent. Especially in winter, when the sun comes up much later, it can be easy to forget sunglasses or goggles so throw them in your pack before leaving the house. The weather this fall has been unseasonably warm, and that may lead to some pacification in terms of bringing extra clothing with you, but even when the sun is shining and the days are warm, night time temperatures can plummet. And if you sweat a lot or get wet in any way, then an extra set of clothes can save your life. A fleece sweater weighs basically nothing, but can keep you warm and provide some much-needed comfort if you get lost, and with the impending onset of winter, a wool hat and extra socks are also recommended. Some experts recommend bringing tools and a repair kit with you, but for a day hike a knife or multitool is likely all you’ll need. Combined with duct tape, a multi-tool can fix a blown-out boot or backpack strap and keep you moving along. For longer trips, consider bringing a tent patch kit or something similar. It’s also important to bring some sort of shelter with you. Whether it’s a space blanket, tarp, bivy sack or tent, be sure to put something into your pack that will keep you out of the wind and weather. Just remember that a space blanket, while cheap and light, won’t really do a whole lot for you unless you have other forms of insulation, such as a blanket or
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sleeping bag. The last two items that are necessary for any backcountry excursion deal with light and heat. A headlamp is always needed, even in summer when the days are long. I once had to hike down Noonmark Mountain in the dark, using just a Bic lighter to show the way. It was not fun. Headlamps and flashlights don’t need to be expensive, but they do need working batteries. An old trick is to make sure all of your electronics (headlamp, GPS) use the same battery type so you don’t have to make that distinction. And with the expansion of LED lights, even a small, single battery headlamp can provide plenty of illumination. Last but not least, is to be sure and include a fire starting kit in your pack. Fires are not allowed in the Eastern High Peaks, but if it’s going to save your life, then risk the ticket. A fire starting kit shouldn’t just be a lighter thrown into your bag, nor should it be two sticks that you plan to rub together. Your kit should include a couple of ways to create a spark, including a butane lighter, storm matches and/or a flint and steel. There should also be some tinder such as dryer lint, birch bark or roofing tar paper. The latter two are water-resistant, and dryer lint can be mixed with some petroleum jelly to make it easier to start. The key to being prepared is not to just wing it. Plan ahead and stick to your plan. If you plan for the worst, then anything less will be a treat. Fall 2021
(Provided photo — Jonathan Zaharek)
The First Sunrise
“The First Sunrise,” taken by Jonathan Zaharek, a 24-year-old professional landscape photographer from Lake Placid
By JONATHAN ZAHAREK Special to Embark
Deep in the heart of the High Peaks Wilderness lies a vast range known as the Sawtooth Mountains. This area is the largest tract of trailless mountains in the Adirondack Park. The tallest being Sawtooth 1 (aka Raker Peak at 3,877 feet) and second being Sawtooth 2 (aka Cutter Peak at 3,820 feet). In August, I set out on a grueling 26-mile, two-day bushwhack to climb four out of the five peaks in this wilderness, with the main objective being to be on the summit of Sawtooth 2 for sunrise. Up until this moment, there had not been a single public documentation of an indi-
Fall 2021
vidual ever being on this summit for a sunrise. Although there MIGHT have been only a few in history who might have made this trek, it’s very understandable why this has not yet happened. It’s hard to know. Nonetheless, this image above is the first officially documented sunrise from the summit of Sawtooth 2. This is a rare view. In order to make this happen, I primitively camped in the wilderness of course, which in itself is already a challenge out there and this is the only way to make this happen. Bushwhacking requires experience and navigational skills and it is not recommended to those without any of that, especially out here. To see this journey in more detail, visit my YouTube channel. Learn more at www.jonathanzphotography.com.
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A New and Improved Ghost Town By Justin Levine, Adirondack Council Communications and Outreach Assistant I first visited the Adirondack ghost town of Adirondack sometime in the early 1990s. My dad loaded me, my older brother, my uncle, and my mom’s cousin into our car for the trek. We drove up Route 30 through Speculator and Long Lake before making our way through Newcomb and out to the Tahawus area. I remember driving slowly to the trailhead, looking out the windows at the decrepit buildings that were falling in on themselves and which seemed to be right on the side of the road. I didn’t know it at the time, but that visit would eventually turn into a life-long love of Tahawus, Adirondac, and all the history packed into this abandoned town. My mom’s family is from this area, with my great grandfather, grandfather, several great uncles and an uncle all working in the mines. It’s rumored that my great grandmother was Valedictorian of her graduating class at the Newcomb School, though it’s also said that she was the sole graduate that year - I have no idea if it’s true, but it’s a good story. The Tahawus area was home to mining and lumbering operations for well over a century, and also served as a luxury resort for the mine higher-ups and their well-to-do friends. Also known as Adirondac, the town only exists in memory now, though some pieces of history have been restored and preserved.
Furnace: Open Space Institute has preserved much of the Tahawus area, including historic hiking trails and signs.
Needless to say, I was excited to take a recent trip down to Tahawus to check out the improvements made this summer by the Open Space Institute (OSI), which purchased the area from Houston-based National Lead Industries in 2003. This property included landmarks like the massive furnace, Lake Henderson, the ghost town, 6
Henderson Lake: Henderson Lake is a secluded lake in the High Peaks, and is the unofficial beginning of the Hudson River.
and the McNaughton Cottage, where Teddy Roosevelt was staying when he lit out on his midnight ride to the presidency in 1901. After buying the land from the mining company, OSI sold the bulk of the land to the state to be added to the Forest Preserve. However, OSI held on to the area along the road, including the still-standing structures. This is a great case study in how public/private partnerships can benefit the Adirondacks, protecting the
Road: The road from the new parking area to the old one at Upper Works has been leveled and graveled, increasing accessibility and opportunities to enjoy the area.
resource while also improving access. The Adirondack Council is proud to support these kinds of projects, and until the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency get increased budgets and more employees, private stewardship of some resources is essential.
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Fall 2021
i r l a a t o a t s t o e
i m l H t p n i w T i d A f
lt he ng be he s.
The work that OSI has done to improve the trailhead is to be lauded. What used to be a ragged, uneven, and relatively small dirt parking area has been replaced by a large but unobtrusive parking lot, complete with handicapaccessible spots and a crushed gravel road that improves accessibility. There is a gate at McNaughton Cottage, and the road from there to the old trailhead is now level and compact. On top of that, some of the historical signs that tell the story of the area have been moved onto the road, so they’re easy to read.
I put the canoe in and paddled up the narrow bay and into the main body of the lake, where the first thing I saw was a loon choking down a medium-sized fish. I was also kind of surprised to see numerous other paddlers, including a tandem canoe, several kayaks, and another pack canoe plying the waters. Henderson Lake is rather large and I only interacted with one other paddler, so despite the numbers it did not seem crowded at all. I took in the sights of the High Peaks and birds and eventually found a small area protected from the wind where I could sit on some rocks and have a snack. It was wildly peaceful, which is a hard feeling to achieve or describe.
After checking out the improvements, I grabbed my pack canoe and carried it less than half a mile to Lake After exploring the lake for a Henderson. I’d walked out while, I paddled back to the dam to the lake before but never and took my canoe out of the water. paddled. This lake is fed by I went for a swim in the cool waters numerous small streams, and then began walking back out including Feldspar Brook, Parking lot: The new and expanded parking lot at the Upper Works trailhead is to the parking lot. On my way, I which flows out of Lake- unobtrusive and includes several handicap-accessible parking spots. saw quite a few people bringing Tear-of-the-Clouds and boats out to the lake (including a into Henderson Lake. The lake’s spillway flows for a short gorgeous guideboat), as well as families just out for a stroll distance until it joins forces with the Opalescent River. on the revamped road. It was great to see so many people At this point, it officially becomes the Hudson River and taking advantage of all the options and enjoying both the flows 315 miles to New York City. nature and history of the Adirondacks. Photos by Justin Levine/Adirondack Council
te he
ck nd on nd is Fall 2021
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Bow huntings tips
Beginninger’s look at bow-hunting tools above bow at 27 inches, it won’t have a 40-pound draw. Exceeding the draw length increases the draw weight.
Bow string
(Photos provided)
Longbow
By SHAUN KITTLE Former Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This story first ran in the October/November 2015 issue of Embark.) With bow hunting season in full swing, Embark took a beginner’s look at the sport with the guidance of Matthew Rothamel, who owns Blue Line Sport Shop in Saranac Lake with his wife, Cory. First, we talked about some standard archery terms before getting into three basic bow types: longbow, recurve and compound. TERMS
Riser
The riser is the fatter portion of the bow. A level edge on a riser, called the shooting shelf, gives the archer a place to rest an arrow. “In archery you’ll find that people have strong opinions on what works and what doesn’t,” Rothamel said. “A traditional stick bow usually wouldn’t have a riser, you were just shooting off of your knuckle.” Risers can be custom made according to the user’s grip. “You can tell whether the bow is righty or lefty depending on which side the shooting shelf, or rest, is on,” Rothamel said. “If I shoot lefty, my shooting shelf is on the right.”
Limbs
Limbs are the main body of the bow. The upper limb extends above the riser, the lower limb is below it. The lower limb usually has the bow’s information on it. “For example, this is a 64-inch, 40-pound, 28 inches of draw,” Rothamel said. “What that means is from tip to tip this is 64 inches, and 40 pounds (of draw weight) at 28-inches. On this particular bow, you have to have 28 inches of draw to get the draw weight.” Different people have different draw lengths. If you shoot the 8
Rothamel said the oldest form of bow strings were probably made out of animal gut sinew. Natural bow strings can also be made out of linen, vegetable fibers, silk and rawhide. Bow strings can also be made from more modern materials like Dacron and Kevlar. The string itself is comprised of a number of strands twisted, layered and laminated with a wax to hold it together. “If you look at a more modern bow string, you get into loops,” Rothamel said. “The more loops you have, the stronger the tensile strength might be. That’s also based on the strength of the material. More strands also equals more strength. Under tension it looks like one string.” The bowstring is nocked to the limb tips of the bow. Nock has several applications in archery. It also refers to the center of the riser, and an archer nocks an arrow to the string.
Arrows
Traditional arrows are feathered, and those feathers are called the arrow’s fletching. There are three-, four- and no-fletch arrows. “Believe it or not, if I shoot an arrow without fletching on it, it will fly straight, to a point,” Rothamel said. The fletching can be arranged in different ways. Straight-cut fletches run parallel to the arrow shaft, offset fletches run slightly off parallel by a couple of degrees and helical fletches twist around the shaft. Rothamel said arrows need fletching to shoot off of a traditional riser. The fletching has one odd-colored feather, called a cock feather. The other feathers are called hen feathers, and they’re usually darker than the cock feather. “In times of war, back in the day, you’d have your arrows marked so you would know which were yours,” Rothamel said. “They actually kept track of kills on the battlefield based on who shot which colored arrows.” Arrows are made out of materials like wood, aluminum and carbon. They have spine, which represents how stiff the shaft is. Since arrows flex when drawn and recover when released, a stiffer arrow is best for a heavier draw. “If the arrow doesn’t have proper recovery, it’ll be all over the place,”
Rothamel said. Arrows are cut for different draw lengths, and there is an endless amount of tip styles to choose from. “For targets and paper, generally you’re going to use a field or bullet point,” Rothamel said. “Mechanical heads usually have some kind of cutting edge for hunting. There’s a million things out there.” BOWS
system consisting of cables and pulleys, called cams, to bend the limbs. That system allows the bow
Longbow
As their name implies, longbows are longer than their modern counterparts. They’re also more traditional. Longbows can be made from a single piece of wood or by gluing several pieces of wood together, called wooden laminate. Longbows typically have fewer features than recurve or compound bows. Simpler in design and composition, they have the basic elements of a bow — riser, limbs and string — and that’s usually it. Wooden longbows need to be unstrung after use to avoid taking on a permanent bend. The same is recommended for wooden laminate and fiberglass bows, although they are thought to be more resilient to permanent bend.
Recurve bow
Recurve Bow
A recurve bow’s limbs curve away from the archer, making its shorter limbs more powerful. The limbs are typically made from layers of material like wood, fiberglass or carbon. The riser is usually separate from the limbs and can be constructed from wood, carbon, aluminum alloy or magnesium alloy. A recurve’s shape allows the bow to store more energy than a longbow, delivering more speed and power to the arrow. Their smaller size also makes them better suited for taking into the woods.
Compound bow
Compound bows use a levering
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Compound Bow
limbs to be stiffer than those of a longbow or recurve bow, so there’s less bend resulting in increased accuracy and efficiency. There’s a lot of potential for power there. The right compound bow with the right cam system can deliver arrow speeds of 375 feet per second, which rivals some crossbows. It isn’t easy holding a 40-pound draw weight for an extended period of time. The asymmetrical pulleys create a let down of the draw force when the string is pulled beyond a certain point, making it easier to hold in place while aiming. “On the most modern bows, you don’t experience a let down in poundage until you’re at full draw,” Rothamel said. Compound bow risers can be made from materials like wood, carbon and aluminum. Some have arrow rests called whisker biscuits, a small sound hoop with inward pointing bristles that offers minimal resistance when the arrow is released. There are also plunger rests, which drop away when the arrow is released, and prong-style rests, which have a notch for the cock feather to travel through. “The main point of all of this is to reduce contact with the arrow,” Rothamel said. Compound bows usually have shorter brace heights, which is a measurement from the center of the riser to where the knocking position on the string is. A smaller brace height results in a faster arrow. The axel-to-axel measurement of compound bows is often shorter than a limb-tip-to-limb-tip measurement on longbows and recurve bows, giving hunters more maneuverability in the woods. Fall 2021
Hiking trails
WESTPORT — Champlain Area Trails hosted a grand opening celebration for the Essex Quarry Nature Preserve on Sept.18, two months after the preserve officially opened to the public on June 26. The Essex Quarry Nature Preserve is located on the south edge of the hamlet, just a short distance from the Lake Champlain ferry’s Essex/Charlotte landing. “Volunteers and staff have been working on these trails all year and everyone is really excited about them,” said Derek Rogers, CATS development director. “It’s a really unique preserve and it will be great for year-round, family-friendly use. Every time we head over there, there are a number of cars in the parking lot.” The Essex Quarry Nature Preserve is 35 acres. It began operating as a quarry in the 1800s, constructing many Essex buildings and even part of the Brooklyn Bridge’s foundation. Multiple buildings in Essex were built with its stone, including the Belden Noble Memorial Library, Essex Community United Methodist Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church. Today the quarry site showcases a combination of natural, geological, paleontological and historic features. The quarry is home to 400-million-year-old fossils, once part of the world’s oldest coral reef. It also features a globally rare forest called the “Limestone Woodland.” “The great thing about Essex Quarry Nature Preserve is that it’s right on Essex’s main street,” said Chris Maron, CATS executive director, “We hope people will
(Photo provided)
Champlain Area Trails opens Essex Quarry Nature Preserve
CATS staff at the Essex Quarry Nature Preserve
take the ferry over from Vermont and walk-through Essex, admiring the beautiful town, shopping at local businesses, and seeing the buildings made from quarry stone.” Staff and volunteers have constructed over a mile of trails throughout the quarry, both for walking and cross-country skiing. An informational kiosk has been installed, along with a series of interpretive signs. “Our stewardship coordinator, Bill Amadon, the rest of the CATS staff and board, and many wonderful volunteers have assisted us in helping to make Essex Quarry a really spectacular place to enjoy,” Maron said. “We’re so happy that we had the opportunity to preserve it, thanks to generous supporters. “This preserve really does have
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Visit us online at www.adkloon.org! Fall 2021
it all: rich history, a unique natural community, and now — trails. We hope people will enjoy it to the fullest.” Champlain Area Trails is a nonprofit, accredited land trust whose mission is to save land, make trails, connect people with nature and
promote economic vitality in New York’s Champlain Valley. Information on future CATS events and activities is available at champlainareatrails.com. Call 518-9622287 or email info@champlainareatrails.com for more information.
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Wildlife By JUSTIN A. LEVINE Former Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This story was first published in the October/ November 2017 issue of Embark. Some additions were made by Lake Placid News Editor Andy Flynn this year.) A Lake Placid native had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a moose in the Adirondacks this summer, but research suggests the moose population may be on the decline. Sam Perkins was bushwhacking in the Dix Mountain area, walking up a semi-dry streambed when he looked up to the surprise of a lifetime. “I was in a drainage and the woods were really thick and scratchy,” Perkins said. “I came upon some moose scat ... and it still had a shine to it. “I came upon some more tracks, some more scat. It was getting pretty steep, I definitely had to watch my footing. I hadn’t seen tracks in quite some time and figured he probably got out, climbed up one of the banks. “I wasn’t looking for moose by any means, (but) there was this one kind of rock section and I started up the rock and I heard this nasally sound, and I looked up and there he was, like literally five feet in front of me.” Perkins, who grew up in Lake Placid and now lives in Plattsburgh, backed off from the moose and made sure to keep a tree or boulder in between him and the male moose as he pulled out his camera. The video he posted of the moose garnered more than 100,000 views on Facebook, and Perkins said the moose didn’t seem bothered by his presence at all. “He did not care at all that I was there,” Perkins said. “I watched him for about 10 minutes eating, which was just amazing. And then after that 10 minutes he turned around and started walking up the drainage. “And he stopped and he laid down. And he stayed there for about five minutes and slowly walked away. It’s unbelievable how effortlessly he walked up that drainage ... and he went up the bank to the right and he was gone.” Perkins said he was stunned by the encounter and had to sit down to process what had happened. “It didn’t seem real. Like, ‘Did 10
Moose Sightings
(Provided photo — Indian Lake Chamber of Commerce)
that just happen?’” he said. “It was amazing. Luckily, he was completely OK with me there. The plan was never to be that close to a moose.”
Research
While Perkins’ photo and videos provided plenty of wonder, recent research suggests that moose populations in the Adirondacks may be on the decline. The state Department of Environmental Conservation estimates the moose population at between 500 and 800 across the state. The DEC is currently partnering with several other agencies and non-governmental organizations to study the moose population using aerial surveys, remote tracking and hunter questionnaires. A study conducted by Cornell University researchers and published in the Journal of Wildlife Medicine, which looked at several years of the hunter surveys, found the moose population may be declining. This is not definitive as the surveys — provided by citizen scientists — may provide inaccurate information, but it would fit in with a growing trend of declining moose populations. In fact, the estimate provided by the DEC for this article was lower than previous estimates the agency has provided. New Hampshire’s moose population has dropped nearly 50% in the last 15 years, from about 7,000 to only 4,000. In 2015, New Hampshire’s moose hunting lottery only had 71 permits
awarded as opposed to 675 in 2007. Minnesota ended its moose hunt entirely, and Vermont, Maine and Wisconsin have also cut back on moose tags. The main factor in these other states is not hunting but rather deaths from diseases, infections and most significantly ticks. Winter ticks have wreaked havoc on moose populations but don’t seem to have hit New York moose as hard as those in other states. But that doesn’t mean moose here are out of the woods. Two graduate students at Cornell found that moose here may also be suffering the effects of a parasite that is spread by snails, slugs and other gastropods. The research was presented at the Ecological Society of America meeting in early August. This research, conducted by Jailene Hidalgo and Carlos Fernandez, found that moose could get parasitic deer brain worm if they ingest slugs and snails that host the parasite. Deer also host the parasite but are unaffected by it. The students found that higher soil moisture led to higher densities of the gastropods and pointed to the fact that moose often feed in wetter areas as one reason they could be suffering greater rates of infection. The Wildlife Health Lab at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine conducted 22 necropsies on dead moose last year and found that parasites are a major threat to the New York moose population.
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DEC spokesman David Winchell wrote in an email that the state is actively trying to garner an accurate count of the animals. “The goal of the Adirondack moose study is to gather data that will be used to create a moose management plan for New York state,” Winchell wrote. “As part of the study, 12 moose were captured in the Adirondacks in January 2015 and another nine moose were captured in January 2016, fitted with GPS radio collars, and released. The movement of the moose are being remotely tracked, and these animals will be monitored for calf production and survival. During the winter, researchers used helicopters to fly transects across the Adirondacks to survey for moose. “Beginning in the summer of 2016, researchers will use trained detection dogs to locate and collect moose scat, which can be used to generate a population estimate as well as provide data about moose diet and health. Also beginning in 2016, researchers will start to explore how suitable the Adirondack habitat is for moose by looking at the quantity and quality of food sources.” Winchell added that, due to the high cost of the aerial surveys and moose collaring, the study was unlikely to spread to areas outside of the northern Adirondacks, noting that DEC would rely on other survey methods. For more information on moose research, go to https://ny-moose. weebly.com or the DEC’s moose page at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6964.html. (Update: In 2017, five more moose were captured and detection dogs were used again during the summer.)
Report moose sightings
The DEC is asking the public to report moose sightings and observations. DEC and its research partners use these public sightings as indices of moose distribution and abundance in New York. This is part of a multi-year research project to obtain information on the status of New York state’s moose population, health of the moose and the factors that influence moose survival and reproductive rate. Connect to the online form at this web page: www.dec.ny.gov/ animals/6964.html. Fall 2021
90-Miler Canoe race wraps up in Saranac Lake
Canoe Race
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
90-Miler racers on Lake Flower
By PARKER O’BRIEN Sports Editor
SARANAC LAKE — The Adirondack Canoe Classic, which is also referred to as the 90-Miler, capped off at the Riverfront Park on Lake Flower in Saranac Lake on Sept. 12. After starting the journey at the Old Forge Beach on Sept. 10, the first boat came in around 12 p.m. on Sept. 12, to the Riverfront park finish line. The boat was a c-4 unlimited boat that held Michael Fries, Terry Kent, Paul Olney and JoAnn Olney. “When you are in first place it’s always great,” Paul Olney joked after completing the race. Paul completed the race with his daughter JoAnn. They both agreed that the hardest part about the entire race was running and the uphill portages. For JoAnn, it was her seventh 90-Miler race, and she and her father were proud of the outcome.
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As more people came in, it marked the end of the 90-mile race, which had not been held in two years. The account manager for Northwest River Supplies, Danny Mongno, who helped put on the event, said the racers were stoked to be back after not having the race last year. In that time period, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail took over running the race. Prior to the NFCT taking over the race, the Adirondack Watershed Alliance originally ran it. Brian and Grace McDonnell helped run the event for years. “The racers sort of feel like this is a new era,” Mongno said. “Although we are proud of everything Grace and Brian have done in the past, this is going to be a great next step for us.” NFCT Executive Director Karrie Thomas said there has been a lot of changes to the event. She said there has been a lot of feedback for the online registration process and wave order has changed, which helped eliminate bunching on the carries. “We have been hearing such a great response from the paddlers because we are a non-profit. We are a paddling non-profit and people are excited that the future in 90 (miler) is in good hands,” Thomas said. “Nobody wants to see Brian go but he is gonna be a friend forever. It’s a family here, and our job is to take over the care in feeding this family. I think if we come at it from the perspective of knowing it’s an event, it’s a race, but it’s a family above all, so far, people are excited about that idea.” For many of the people involved, they are hopeful of the change in ownership. “What it really means is that it is going to keep going,” Thomas said. “I don’t plan on going anywhere, but if I get hit by a truck, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail will be there to keep it going on. “It means the future of the event. Brian is not gonna last forever. He is ready to retire and go back to racing. He is tired. He is ready to roll onto something different,” she said. “Eventually, he would have to stop hosting this event.”
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Fall 2021
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11
A day to remember
Giant day to remember
Violent 1963 storm changed the face of Giant Mountain forever
By CHRIS KNIGHT Former Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This story first ran in the September/ October 2011 issue of Embark.) Peggy Varney will never forget the day her sister Ann got married. It’s also a day that many residents of St. Huberts and Keene Valley remember well. But not because of the wedding. June 29, 1963 is remembered more for what happened after Ann Russ and Dick Lee exchanged vows at the Keene Valley Congregational Church, when a sudden and intense deluge of rain triggered a series of massive landslides down the slopes of Giant Mountain. Unlike the slow and destructive slide that’s been moving down the side of Little Porter Mountain in nearby Keene Valley, this dramatic and powerful series of landslides took place in a matter of minutes. When it was over, a slurry of mud, trees and rocks several feet deep coated a 400-yard section of state Route 73; cars and tents at a popular camping area were buried in mud; at least 40 motorists were stranded on the road between two of the landslides; and a 15-foot deep gash opened up in the highway the following morning. The violent slides also rerouted a scenic waterfall and changed the look of Giant Mountain’s upper reaches for decades to come.
‘Incredible noise’
Varney, who was 20 at the time, said she and other members of the wedding party were driving back to her family’s home on the AuSable Club Road in St. Huberts late that Saturday afternoon. They were returning from the wedding reception, and her sister and new brother-in-law were planning to leave town that night for their honeymoon. That’s when “the heavens opened up,” Varney 12
said. “It poured. It rained so hard that we were creeping along at about two or three miles per hour and just couldn’t see,” she said. “We finally all got back to the house here, but we couldn’t get out of the car because it was just pouring so hard. Then, this noise, this incredible noise, this banging, crashing and grinding noise started to occur, and the ground started to shake.” Not wanting to ruin their satin dresses, the ladies undressed in the car, ran inside in their underwear and bare feet, put on shorts, T-shirts and shoes, and ran back outside. Varney said they wanted to find out what was happening and “tore off” through the woods headed for Beede (Putnam) Brook. “The ground was still shaking, and we could see why because there were boulders, dirt and trees coming down the brook and banging into things,” Varney said. Farther up the road, cars had pulled over because the highway was flooded with a blanket of debris. The trailhead parking area by Roaring Brook Falls and a nearby meadow where people had been camping was also filling up with mud. Campers had fled for higher ground. “Roaring Brook was roaring,” Varney said. “The bridge there had become a dam with all the tree trunks hitting it, and it flooded all of that parking area. The cars were up to their windows in mud. Farther into the campsites, all the tents, the pots and the pans — everything was under mud.” Varney said they told some of the campers and people who were stranded on the road to come up to their house until things calmed down.
‘Smelled like a sawmill’
While Peggy Varney and the rest of the wedding party were sitting in
their cars, waiting for the rain to stop, Nancy Lee, her husband Day and their two children were relaxing inside their home in St. Huberts, located just down a dirt road from the trailhead parking area. They had also attended the wedding that day. “We had changed our clothes, sat down and were having a gin and tonic when suddenly the whole house began to shake,” Nancy Lee said. “The ice in the glasses was rattling. We went out on the porch and there was this great whooshing noise. That’s when this mud just came oozing up our driveway and onto our front lawn.” Day Lee went back into the house and put on his fishing waders. The couple knew there were people camping in the meadow, so Day ran through the mud to tell them they could come to their house for shelter. “Anybody who had a car in there had no car,” Nancy said. “One car was completely swept away into the road and totally demolished. The rest, the mud was up over their hubcaps. The place smelled like a sawmill, from all the trees that were broken off and the limbs that came down.” A 10-foot-wide section of Route 73 collapsed around 6 a.m. the following morning, Nancy recalled. ‘It was running brown’ Tony Goodwin was coming back from dinner with his parents in Keene that night when they noticed the AuSable River was choked with debris. “It was running brown,” he said. “When you see that kind of muddy water, you know a slide has come down somewhere.” But it wasn’t until the next morning, when the Goodwins stepped out onto the porch of their Keene Valley cottage and gazed up at Giant Mountain, that they realized the extent of what had happened. “The first person who EMBARK ~ Get Up, Get Out
got up walked to the front of the house, and all of a sudden there was this, ‘Holy cow! You better come take a look at this!’” said Goodwin, who was 13 at the time. “Pretty soon we were all standing on the front porch marveling at all this new, exposed rock. I think it’s safe to say that every slide you see on Giant now came down on that one night.” “Six new major slides had been exposed on the west side of the mountain, all a half-mile in length and between 50 and 1,000 feet wide,” Goodwin later wrote in a 1982 Adirondack Life article. New slides were also carved on the east, southeast, northeast and northwest faces of Giant. Amazingly, no one was killed or seriously injured.
Violent storm
While only a quarter inch of rain fell on Keene Valley that day, a report filed later with the U.S. Weather Bureau by Richard Lawrence Jr. of Elizabethtown estimated that at least six inches had drenched Giant due to a highly localized thunderstorm. All that water saturated the thin soil of the mountain and provided the lubrication needed to set the landslides in motion. During a 90-minute period when the rain was falling the hardest, some 2,500 cubic feet of water per second was flowing out of the cirque on Giant’s western face, a flow that Goodwin, in his Adirondack Life article, said was equal to 1/100th of that of the St. Lawrence River. At one point, the slides that reached the head of Roaring Brook formed temporary dams, which, when they broke, “further increased the violence of the flood which swept down the valley, over the falls and across the road,” Goodwin wrote, citing Lawrence’s report. Newspaper articles from the time say seven cars were
damaged, some half-buried or swamped by water and others caved in by boulders or trees. Another 40 cars, many filled with summer tourists, were stranded for about five hours between two landslides that hit Route 73 — the Roaring Brook slide and another that came down near Chapel Pond.
A festive atmosphere
Nancy Lee said they ended up hosting 28 people that night at their home and her mother-in-law’s house next door. Many of the campers were members of the Toronto section of the Canadian Alpine Club. One was a former railroad engineer named Harold Rehm, who was camping with his grandson. “He lost all of his possessions — even his glasses had come off when he was running out of the meadow,” Lee said. “He was very frustrated. My husband gave him a beer and said ‘Sit by the fire and enjoy your beer, things will be OK.’ But it didn’t help a whole lot.” Some of the campers drove back to Toronto the next day in a car that somehow escaped damage. Others stayed to dig out their pup tents, camping gear and cars. About a week later, Goodwin said he and his father hiked up to Roaring Brook Falls and noticed that the landslide had forced the brook to jump its course into the Putnam Brook valley. “He called up the Conservation Department and told Bill Petty, the director at the time, what had happened,” Goodwin said. “Bill Petty said, ‘That’s a famous landmark, we can’t allow that to dry up.’ Within a week there was a crew of rangers from all over the Park that were called in and they built a log crib that put Roaring Brook back into the valley of Roaring Brook. That cribbing is still there.” Fall 2021
DEC
adopts new rules for deer, bear hunting
Your Guides to the Great Outdoors
Regulations create special antlerless deer season, extend hunting hours, improve hunter safety ALBANY — In August, state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos announced that the DEC has adopted new rules for deer and bear hunting in New York. Rule changes include extending hunting hours and dress code requirements when afield to improve hunter safety. “New York has a long and proud tradition of deer and bear hunting and with these new rules, DEC is building on that tradition by expanding opportunities for hunters, increasing antlerless harvest where needed, and improving hunter safety,” Seggos said. “I am confident that the rule changes announced today will provide hunters with a better all-around experience while ensuring their safety. In addition, these actions bring New York in line with the common practices of states and provinces across North America.” DEC announced the proposed changes in June 2021, after adopting the updated New York State Deer Management Plan. After careful review of the public comments received on the proposed changes, DEC adopted the rules as proposed. A summary of the public comments received and DEC’s response is available on the DEC website and in the latest issue of the New York State Register.
The adopted changes:
≤ Establish a nine-day season for antlerless deer in mid-September (Sept. 11-19, 2021) using firearms in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 3M, 3R, 8A, 8F, 8G, 8J, 8N, 9A and 9F, and using bowhunting equipment in WMUs 1C, 3S, 4J, and 8C. Management objectives in these units are either to decrease the deer population or maintain a stable population, and increased antlerless harvest is needed to achieve these objectives. Objectives are based on public input and assessments of deer impacts to forests. Hunters may only use Deer Management Permits (DMPs) and Deer Management Assistance Permit (DMAP) tags in this season; ≤ Restore antlerless harvest during the early muzzleloader season in Northern Zone WMUs 6A, 6F, and 6J. The management objective for these units is to maintain a stable population and the deer population in these units has grown aided by a series of mild winters and prior restrictions on antlerless harvest; ≤ Extend the hunting hours for deer and bear to include the full period of ambient light from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. All other states allow deer hunting beginning one-half hour before sunrise or earlier, or specify daylight hours, and 46 of 50 states allow deer hunting until some period (mostly one-half hour) after sunset. This change conforms to the national standard for big game hunting; ≤ Require anyone hunting big game with a firearm, or accompanying someone hunting big game with a firearm, to wear a solid or patterned fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink hat, vest, or jacket. Most two-party hunting-related shooting incidents in New York involve a hunter victim who was not wearing fluorescent orange or pink clothing. Similar fluorescent orange requirements exist in most states; ≤ Simplify bear hunting season in the Adirondack region by extending regular season to cover the entire hunting period; and ≤ Remove outdated language related to deer tag use during the September portion of the early bowhunting season. The full text of the adopted regulations is available at www.dec. ny.gov/regulations/34113.html#Parts_1_11.
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