Inhaltsverzeichnis für September/October 2020 in Adirondack Explorer

New York to suspend some trout stocking New York State won’t stock brook trout in 13 unnamed ponds throughout the Adirondack Park in 2020 and 2021 so biologists can study the resilience of wild fish swimming in those waters. After tracking improvements in water quality—specifically acid/base chemistries and contaminants—the department determined the populations of brook trout that already inhabit these select waterways have the potential to reproduce naturally and will be surveyed in 2022 to see if they do so. While this is promising news for the iconic species, it doesn’t guarantee their success. Acidity in many lakes and streams is improving but not fully resolved, Paul Smith’s College natural science professor Curt Stager said. That could contribute to rebounding brook trout, he said, though the park’s warming climate is…

Where there’s a will, there’s wilderness. I formed that conclusion about the High Peaks Wilderness experience somewhere on the northeastern flank of Mount Haystack, where I had pointed my walking sticks to evade the summit and its throng of alpine worshippers in early July. There’s still wild solitude to be had among the peaks in high summer season, but it takes some willpower to reach it. Some of these trails are so rocky and steep they require lugging your camp gear up or down ladders. On this particular trail, descending the Haystack Brook watershed, my pack and I lurched down several, including one with 27 rungs. No wonder this 1.6-mile cutoff was one of just three trail segments where I didn’t see another person during my outing, even though it…

After riding my mountain bike a few miles up the D&H Road, I turned off onto an old logging road and pedaled a few more miles to a large clearing with scenic views of the Loon Lake Mountains and Plumadore Range. Beyond the clearing, the road was a mess of logging debris, mud, blow-down and thorns—not bikeable. It was not what I expected. In 2009, the state Department of Environmental Conservation released an interim recreation plan for the Sable Highlands that called for connecting this logging road with another to create a 6.5-mile mountain bike trail that would circle a small unnamed peak. The plan also promised a hiking trail to a lookout on the peak. That trail does not yet exist. MORE PHOTOSAt the time, DEC received hosannas for…

At the outset of 2020, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) and the Adirondack Watershed Alliance (AWA) announced that events and activities traditionally run by AWA, including the Adirondack Canoe Classic, would be transferred to the care of NFCT by 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the ability to host these events. Nearly every marquee AWA event has been cancelled: the 90-Miler, the ‘Round the Mountain and the Celebrate Paddling Invitational. Despite these immense challenges, the NFCT remains fully committed and prepared to take on ownership of all AWA events and activities by the start of the next paddling season. Brian and Grace McDonnell have managed AWA for over three decades. Its events and activities are synonymous with outdoor recreation and paddle sports in the Adirondacks. As the McDonnells…

When outdoor adventure-seekers prepare for multi-day outings, measuring out food, sorting gear and packing bags, they also have to weigh their transportation options. Unless they plan to travel round-trip and end up back where they started, travelers need to determine how they’ll get back to Point A once they’ve reached Point B. Luckily, visitors to the Adirondacks have a variety of choices for moving themselves, their vehicles or their gear. Backpackers on the Northville-Lake Placid Trail are the main customers for Bob Jenny in Piseco. Jenny’s home abuts the long-distance hiking trail, which runs about 140 miles from Northville to Lake Placid. Jenny, who also runs Bob and Matt Campwood, started out offering passing hikers water or the chance to make a phone call. About three years ago, he began…

Once I climbed St. Regis Mountain near Paul Smiths on a fall day with some guiding clients, and we found ourselves standing inside a cloud—not of water droplets but of dragonflies. The insects were green darners, which migrate long distances south in autumn. Or at least a fraction of them do. A subset of green darners, for reasons unclear, seems to ride out the seasons in place. As a child, fishing Adirondack lakes with my grandparents, I remember being told in a playful way that these large, fast-flying insects were “darning needles” (hence green darner). If you talked too much, it was said they would sew your lips shut. The prospect kept me quiet until I caught on that the whole thing was a joke. The truth was far more…

Matt Hughey was at work in the North Country when a police officer pulled a gun on him. Hughey, a 29-year-old Black man raised in the Plattsburgh area, was about 19 at the time, working near his company truck and wearing a company uniform. A police officer approached him and asked Hughey for his identification. There was no reason for the request, but Hughey obliged. He was about 300 feet away from his truck, and he told the officer it was in the vehicle. The officer pulled his car next to the company truck, opened his door, pulled out a firearm and pointed it at Hughey. His white coworkers would take the same work route and had never had anything like that happen to them, Hughey said. The encounter ended…

An important conversation about race is happening in the Adirondacks. You might be part of it already. We all should be. There is plenty of opportunity to get involved. The Adirondack Diversity Initiative (ADI), in partnership with the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), developed a list of educational seminars to help create an understanding of what it’s like to be Black—and specifically to be Black in the Adirondacks—and what the role of the white majority can be as allies and accomplices in fighting for racial equality. The Anti-racism Education and Mobilization was a response to Northern New York communities wanting to engage in the national movement for racial equality in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in May. The Adirondack Experience museum is also running…

Much has been said about the importance of getting kids outside, but the enthusiasm of the “No Child Left Inside'' movement tends to leave out pre-school-age children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, many children under age 5 fail to meet physical activity guidelines, in the form of at least 60 minutes of unstructured activity, preferably outdoor play. And mentally, too, toddlers (and their caregivers) benefit from regular bouts of fresh air and exercise. That’s where Hike it Baby comes in, to bridge that gap and provide a way for wee ones and their caregivers to get out in nature. This national nonprofit group started in 2013 and currently counts more than 300 groups (called “branches”) across the country, including two in the Adirondacks. A blend of online community…

Editor’s note: Readers responded to a July/August Explorer feature about hiking with dogs by debating the practice online. We excerpted some of them for “It’s Debatable.” Not all fit neatly in our usual Yes-No format, and some who prefer leashes were added to the No side. PREVIOUS STORY YES As a single hiking female, I bring my dog with me for companionship and protection. I know my dog’s physical limits and don’t push her and I know her social limits—she is not friendly to strangers or other dogs. I take my responsibility as a dog owner seriously, keep my dog leashed on a choke collar and veer off the trail to let others pass and prevent interaction. My actions only go so far, though, when other dog owners do not…

Sodium chloride (road salt) harms our aquatic ecosystems in ways that can’t easily be seen. Bodies of water with lower nutrient levels, like those found in the Adirondacks, can experience a shift in forms of algae, the base of the aquatic food web, from green algae (chlorophyta) to blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) when collecting runoff that contains road salt. The salt can stress fish populations, impact egg development and reduce the size and health of developing fish embryos. It affects aquatic bugs (macroinvertebrates) that many fish feed on. Road salt also influences the movement of heavy metals within the water, potentially causing toxic accumulation. Salt joins with metals such as mercury, lead, and copper, making them more water soluble and bioavailable. Road salt releases sediment-bound heavy metals back into the water…

Hiker restrictions may come sooner than expected to the Adirondack High Peaks. In a sense, the coronavirus pandemic has led New York to start imposing restrictions already. New parking limits in place this summer at the Adirondack Mountain Reserve could be a soft opening for further restrictions to manage crowds there and elsewhere. A state advisory group is considering more, including hiker permits or other measures in future years. “COVID may end up being the most effective thing for limiting public use in the High Peaks for the last couple of decades,” said Peter Bauer, of Protect the Adirondacks. “It certainly has forced the state into taking a series of actions that it has been slow to take heretofore.” MORE PHOTOS The parking restrictions are one part of the High…

Black flies ‘guardians of the North’ Because black flies are true flies, unlike dragonflies and butterflies, it is two words. It seems that black flies probably have some ecological uses besides hummingbirds feeding their young, and a couple weeks of being the major food of trout every year. Now, my father called them the "Guardians of the North" when it comes to second homers buying or building yet another unnecessary disruption of the natural world. Native kids don't even notice them. And the rest of us can learn to deal with them (do things before 50 degrees in the morning for one) in many ways. One of the best is full cover net shirts with which you can nap in the middle of the day, and even eat your lunch…

Fourth of July, hordes of tourists, a pandemic—I would have to put on my thinking cap if Carol and I were to escape the crowds and mitigate the risk of contracting the coronavirus. We knew we wanted to mountain bike, but we feared that our go-to place—the BETA trails off Hardy Road in Wilmington—would be mobbed. So I suggested a ride I had discovered earlier in the year, a 15.6-mile loop over logging roads and little-used town roads in the northern Adirondacks. It turned out to be a good choice. Apart from 2 walkers and an occasional car or all-terrain vehicle, we encountered no one in three hours of cycling. And we were rewarded with striking views of mountains and waterways and a thrilling downhill that lasted nearly two miles.…

For the first time in 30 years, the iconic dinner cruise ship W.W. Durant is sitting uncharacteristically quiet at the dock in Raquette Lake in the height of the summer season, due to COVID-19. No steaks are grilling. No stories of Adirondack history are being told at a stop in front of Camp Pine Knot, the first great camp in the Adirondacks built by the ship’s namesake William West Durant. The horn isn’t sounding for kids on their docks. And the ship’s only captain, Dean Pohl, is finding other ways to fill the seven days of the week he would have been piloting the boat and introducing passengers to the Adirondack experience. For many, a trip on the dinner cruise on the Adirondacks’ largest natural lake, with stories narrated by…