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Jul 1, 2023
Tom van de Water
tvandewater@ccsdk12.org
315-261-1723
The easements now between Cranberry Lake and almost to Higley Flow State Park, south to north, and Rt. 56 to County Route 27, east to west, allow for non-motorized use by the public. (Molpus is the landowner, hunting clubs lease the land and have exclusive use of their camps.)
Biking is ideal on most of it. (I’d avoid the “multi-use trail” which is beat up by ATVs.) DEC will be coming out with a better map this summer and posting it at the Dean Road kiosk (on the Middle Branch off Rt 27). Access off the Tooley Pond Road at numerous gates is also available. Access is restricted during fall hunting season. Overall,these easements prevent development. Logging continues under Adirondack Park requirements for sustainability.
Additional access is being planned on the Tooley Pond Tract on the west and Church Pond Tract on the east. I would recommend using maps (county snowmobile map is helpful) and GPS to explore. Betsy and I recently biked from Cranberry Lake behind the post office to Orebed Road in Pierrepont, legally for the first time.
Invasive species continue incursions. The Emerald Ash Borer is now established and unstoppable. The Hemlock woolly adelgid is on Lake George and will threaten our trees in coming decades. Hemlock’s role in keeping streams cool and sheltering animals in winter is critical. Climate change exacerbates so many of these issues.(And I’m not even mentioning aquatic invasives.) Curbing our travel for recreation can cut carbon and may mean exploring some of these closer places. Conservation can be cool! Hurray for our local trails, trail workers and all the efforts made to combat invasive species.