Posted: 6/18/2007 1:28:18 PM EDT
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In a couple of weeks I am going to spend the night in Utica and for the weekend I want to go backpacking in the Adirondaks since I have never done that before. Anyone here do it and can recommend a general location in easy driving distance from Utica? I'm basically looking for a spot to backpack in, maybe hike a few miles into the woods, pick a decent campsite, collect firewood off the ground, build a fire, do the whole camping thing. Also if possible I'd like to do some target shooting--nothing big just .22LR. The reason I am so specific is many people interpret "camping" as car camping (drive up to your spot and camp next to your car), or worse yet, renting a cabin. I'm not into "designated camp sites" and so on. Also Internet searches tend to turn up RV parks when you search for camping I guess because there is more money in it for the RV park owners or the cabin rental people and they advertise much more. Any suggestions? I usually backpack in the national forest in Pennsylvania since NYS will not allow "real" camping in the Allegany state park. I understand real camping is allowed in the Adirondak park though. |
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How about the high peaks region? Specifically Mt Marcy. You can make it up to The Marcy Dam in about 4 hours if i remember correctly(been 10 years since we did it). Well traveled trail, Nice area with the dam & The trailhead is easy to find (right next to the Adirondack Loj) My other suggestion would be The Brown Tract's Pond area in Inlet. Its easy to find (right off of Rt. 28) and offer's some pretty nice hiking. |
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I go to Santanoni in Newcomb, its about an hour north of Old Forge Outstanding place, 4.5 mile hike in. Nice to see the former cabin mansion complex. Im sure that you could shoot there, but probably want to hike aways into the woods to do it. The website doesnt do it justice. |
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Mt Marcy and Santanoni are great places to go. Parking for the Marcy area is tuff these days at the northern area. I come in from the south at Tahawus. A good site for info and trail maps, http://www.adirondackjourney.com/Upper_Works.htm I like to camp closer to home in the southern adirondacks on the east side of Lake George. Campsites are free, by your car or in the woods as far as you want. Miles of trails to trout ponds, lean-to's and mountain summits. Cedar River Flow, Moose River Plains near Indian Lake is also a really cool too. |
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I would recommend you avoid the High Peaks areas. They are very nice and I have been there a lot, but...many of the areas now have a total ban on any wood fires and you certainly would have a hard time with finding a spot to shoot even a 22LR without potentially alarming hundreds of other people. As remote as they appear, the High Peaks of NYS are really quite crowded. I would suggest you look into the western Adirondacks. Look for the ADK Trail Guide for the West-Central Region and it should have lots of good options. The ADK site with the guide is located at: http://www.adk.org/new_store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=GWC |
This sounds about what I was looking for, but I am having a hell of a time finding trail maps and what not on the web. Are there designated trails? Or are you saying to just park the car near the West Canada creek and hike alongside the creek, fording over to the Eastern side of the creek when I feel the time is right? Are there any places in Nobleboro where one can go (say an outdoorsy or hunting store) to get more detailed info? Thanks everyone for the info, I appreciate it! |
Holy shit! I just checked this thread out again, How in the hell do you know about Haskell Road? Thats where our camp is, about 15 miles back on the logging road. Weird. Where do you park when you hit the trail? To follow up with your suggestion, Im not sure where you are coming from but to get up to where he is speaking about. Get off at exit 33 on the TWY (Verona). Take 365 east, all the way to its end. make a left on route 8. Haskell Road is about 10 miles or so on the left. Look for the Nobleboro sign. I know there used to be a firewatch tower on Fort Noble Mountain and the foundation with some remains are still there. They brought it down with a helicopter when i was about 6 or 7 (20 years ago) and dropped it in the big parking lot ill mention in a minute. You can take Haskell road back about a mile where there is a gate and a huge parking area. Past that point, no vehicles are allowed unless you own a camp on the road and have a key to the gate. Its pretty easy hiking as its just an old logging road. Off the logging road maybe a mile or 2 north is a trail for piseco lake. Its a pretty good trail, and i can assure you that you wont have to worry about firing a 22. there or any spot you find off of the logging road really. The only time i have ever seen people on the trail is memorial day or labor day weekend. It used to get alot of traffic until they put the first gate up a couple springs ago when we got that bad rain storm in the spring and the road washed out. The road follows the West Canada pretty closely so bring along some swim trunks and a fly rod and there are alot of low rolling, open and shallow spots (2-3 ft) where you can wade in and fly fish. Ill be up in that neck of the woods at our camp this weekend splitting firewood. ETA: There isnt an outdoor or hunting store in "nobleboro". Just a bar called Haskell's near the corridor of Route 8 & 365 I think youll find the western side of the W. Canada just as rustic as the eastern side. If your on the logging road, which makes for pretty east hiking you pass a camp every couple of miles and thats about it. |
A bunch of guys from the Cooperstown area have/had Summit Camp up off the Herkimer Landing road. My father used to hunt up there in the 1960's and 1970s and I've been going up there for years. I used to drive all the way to the chain link fence that closes the road that goes to the League Club land. Last time I was up there though was last spring and it is my understanding that the road is gated much further back towards the hard road- back where the one big parking area is... I don't have a key to the gate there so I don't drive up in there at all anymore. Last I heard the DEC was goign to upgrade the herkimer Landing road all the way to Honedaga lake, part of their grand scheme to ban ATVs in the ADKs... If they have a decent road then they can legitimately claim that the ATVs are not needed for access to the private land and the camps and thus they can ban them completely. I was lookign up info on the road a couple years ago and there were pictures on the Adirondack Council's page showing all the "Damage" the ATVs were causing along that road- they showed where there were stream crossings that the"atvers were using instead of perfectly good bridges next to them, etc. Apparently they failed to realize that those fords were originally used to wash out people's drum brakes- otherwise they'd get 1/2 way back to Uica and the accumulated sand and grit would wipe out the linings. I think this might be the URL for the anti ATV rant: www.rcpa.org/Library/ATVreport.pdf www.rcpa.org/Library/ParkReport3_04.pdf The whole report they did on that road was crap- how the hell can an ATV damage a 150 yr old road? I'd rather they WERE on the road and not tearing up the woods at random. Sorry for the rant. Anyway it is a beautiful place to hike, fish, hunt, camp etc. |
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Yeah, there is a gate at the beginning of the rough road. And then one about 13 miles in where the "Miller Park" land begins. Our camp is inside of miller park. Going all the way to the end of the logging road will bring you to the beginning of ADK league land. Its been 10 years since ive been up there but there but there was a gate there then, even impassable by ATV's. Weve hiked up to the stillwater through the league land before to do some fishing. Theyve (The ADK League) got a beautiful A-Frame right there on the stillwater |
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I haven't been up there since last spring. I went up there with a friend of mine to try oput a new True Trac inmy LR. We drove all the way to the chain link gate and back in April. I think after that there was trhe rainstorm and the gate at the parking area just remained locked from then on. Later when I was doing research on the are ion the net I found all the anti ATV nonsense and the 3 year ATV permits allowed for the camps there- after that the DEC claims they'll have the road to honedaga lake improved to the point a car can drive it?! Nuts!!! I don't think a car has driven that road since the 1960's... In the 1950s you could drive all the way through to Atwell according to people I've talked to. They had a tough time with the Willy's in the 1970s though and it has gone downhill a lot since then. Hey have you seen that abandoned WWII Dodge up there? |
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| Hey adirondack47& adirondack1- have either of you heard anything about the Fort that Fort Noble Mountain is named for? I've heard rumors there was a small outpost there diring the French and Indian war and that people have found cannon balls there in the creek. I've never been able to find out much more than those verbal rumors though... |