In the inaugural installment of AWA’s “Wild Thoughts Podcast”, some of our founding members discuss one of the most important attributes of wilderness: Remoteness.
EXPLORE! Ampersand Mountain
Ampersand Mountain is a former fire tower summit that now stands guard over the northwestern corner of the High Peaks Wilderness. No tower is needed here for a view, because the bald rock knob that constitutes the summit provides an outstanding vista in all directions.
The Forces of Nature
Black River Wild Forest, Blue Ridge Wilderness, Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness, High Peaks Wilderness, Hoffman Notch Wilderness, Round Lake Wilderness, Sentinel Range Wilderness, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Silver Lake Wilderness, West Canada Lake Wilderness, Wilcox Lake Wild Forest, William C. Whitney Wilderness
No commentary. No words. Just images of places in the Adirondacks where the only forces at work are natural ones.
The Era of Referendum and Recall
It seems to me that a decision concerning the best management or ownership for Follensby Pond is one that will require plenty of study and deliberation, with the help of a goodly number of “citizen watchdogs.”
Examining Hiker Dispersal: What’s Next
ne of the issues AWA is working on is dispersal: the strategy of redirecting hikers from busier to lesser-used trailheads. We started with an informal survey sent to our supporters, to help us gain additional perspective on hikers’ views of dispersal. We learned quite a bit from…
Leading the Way on Adaptive Management
In partnership with our allies, including Adirondack Wild, the Adirondack Mountain Club, Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center and Technical Advisor Chad Dawson, AWA is leading the way in promoting adaptive…
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The Glory of Fall in the Adirondacks
If there is one time of the year that I wish would last much longer, it’s the period from mid-September through mid-October. The lack of bugs, the cool days and cooler nights, the brilliant sunshine and the crisp moonlit forests — these are all the things that form the roots of life’s deepest pleasures.
This Land Is Your Land
What made these new lands different from most others, though, was undoubtedly the fact they were already occupied by hundreds of hunting camps. This was not simply opening up vast acreages of forest that had been previously denied to the public-at-large, but driving out the leaseholders who were already there. One can rightly argue that as public lands they will serve more people and provide all sorts of wilderness-based benefits, but I’m sure it still stings for the minority who find themselves at the losing end of the equation.
So Much Work to Be Done
Ferris Lake Wild Forest, Giant Mountain Wilderness, Hammond Pond Wild Forest, High Peaks Wilderness, Hoffman Notch Wilderness, Hudson Gorge Wilderness, Hurricane Mountain Wilderness, Jay Mountain Wilderness, North Country National Scenic Trail, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Shaker Mountain Wild Forest, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Silver Lake Wilderness, West Canada Lake Wilderness, Wilcox Lake Wild Forest
Part 4 of 4 I believe that it is important to know the history of Adirondack trails in order to participate in the public process of creating plans for the units of the park. So, I have written this to give perspective to those who will do the planning.
Trails in the Mountain Pleasure Grounds
Part 2 of 4 The Laws of 1895 authorized the state to lay out paths in the newly created Adirondack Park. There is little evidence that anything was done at that time. In 1909 Governor Hughes advocated trails and roads to give greater access to the “mountain pleasure grounds.” As it turned out, recreational trail building by the state began a few years later, not because of Hughes’ plans, but in a rather circuitous way.
A Short History of Adirondack Trail Building
Part 1 of 4 Hindsight is wonderful! With what we know about the Adirondacks today and what we know about building trails, we could devise the most wonderful trail network, one that would protect the fragile slopes of the High Peaks, take hikers to mountaintops all around the Park, and ameliorate problems of overuse and under-use.
A Message to the Adirondack Wilderness Community
When I moved to Upstate New York in 2013, acquaintances kept telling me about the Adirondacks, how magical they are, with their steep-sided mountains and layers of forest, mirror-calm lakes and clear-flowing creeks; bears, moose, loons. Having lived most of my adult life in the West and coming to New York from interior Alaska, I was skeptical, but hopeful. Could there really be such a large protected area in the Eastern U.S.?