[img:pharoah2.jpg]Shortly after waking up in the morning, I looked outside at a large pine tree near our house. It had a strange abnormality - a scar, if you will, and I thought to myself, "What caused that scar? A fungus, maybe?"

This isn't my usual thought process. Usually, I'd look out that window merely to determine how late I'd slept by the amount of sunlight - and neglect to see the trees for the forest.

I realized immediately that something was dramatically different. I had clearly been severely affected by the previous day's adventure - a hike into the Pharoah Lake Wilderness in the Schroon Lake Region with a licensed Adirondack wilderness guide.

I've done a bunch of hiking in the Adirondacks and beyond - we live in our very own paradise, and getting out onto the trails provides an opportunity for or total immersion in our beautiful landscape. Typically, however, it seems that the goal of hiking has really been to climb just as fast as possible to get to the top, stopping infrequently to drink water or catch our breath.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join a guided hike led by N.Y.S. Licensed Adirondack Guide and naturalist Elizabeth Lee. It was to be a full-day's adventure with four other women on a trail I'd wanted to explore for years. We were the first group to participate in Lee's series called "I Love Exploring", which was a particularly apropos title for a hike on Valentine's day.

The Pharoah Lake Wilderness Area contains 39 bodies of water covering 1,100 acres 62.8 miles of foot trails, and 14 lean-to's.

This year has the distinction of being quite devoid of snow, so instead of snowshoes in February, we all donned lightweight crampons, or microspikes for sure footing on the icy trail.

We set out from the trailhead on Route 74 to hike the Long Swing Trail to Oxshoe Pond, an out-and-back hike of about 9-10 miles total with an elevation gain of less than 500 feet. With temperatures just above freezing and partly sunny skies, I knew we were in for a nice, rolling hike.

We hadn't gone more than 100 feet when we stopped. A naturalist, Elizabeth pointed out the first of many details that we might (would) have otherwise missed. Now, I thought I had a good understanding of the food chain and ecosystem, but seeing the forest through Lee's eyes provided me with a whole new perspective. She pointed out the difference between the seeds in what turns out to be a wide variety of cones from the equally varied trees, and explained just who had been eating them. The faint scrape on a tree was actually where a deer had rubbed its antlers, likely a couple of years before. The white fur that was all that was left of a snowshoe rabbit (apparently numerous in this region). It was likely taken by a coyote, who are equally numerous, based on the number of tracks we could see in a variety of locations throughout the day.

We stopped at one point and all walked off trail to see a strange formation on a tree. Nature's art, Elizabeth called it. And it is...a large hole formed by a fungus, surrounded by
small fungi of another sort. (pic)

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We analyzed and debated about the type of trees that could have shed certain fallen leaves (an ash leaf warranted the longest debate), solved mysteries about animal and bird scat (droppings), sighted old and current beaver lodges, discussed fungi and both their negative effects and complimentary contributions to trees. And a few times, we stopped just to listen to the sound of the forest.

We passed Blue Hill, Pyramid Lake, Alder Pond, Glidden Marsh, Crane Pond, through a forest with primarily a high canopy and little underbrush - a beautiful walk in the woods with a variety of water, swamps and small hills that in contrast to the fairly flat terrain looked bigger. After about three and a half hours, we reached the lean-to at Oxshoe Pond for a lunch break. After refueling on a combination of healthy food and chocolate, we walked out on the perfect skating ice of the pond - sorry that we hadn't thought to bring ice skates.

On the way back, I found myself looking at the minute details - I recognized small seeds from yellow birch trees on the trail, the scattered pattern of cone debris that indicated squirrel, versus bird activity, and yes; scat from a variety of small animals. In fact, I correctly identified "cute weasel scat" on the trail just a mile before we arrived back at the trailhead. (Elizabeth clarified for me that it's the small weasel that is cute, not the resulting scat).

[img:pharoahoxshoepond.jpg]The Pharoah Lake Wilderness hasn't seen the last of me - I'm going back to explore more of the lake and pond-riddled forest, and hope to visit Pharoah Mountain itself. When I go, I'll take with me a newfound appreciation for the small details and nuances of the flora and fauna, and of course, a supply of chocolate.

--Adirondack Guides have been helping us non-woodsmen to explore the Adirondack wilderness since the early 1800's. I'm now an outspoken advocate of taking advantage of their expertise, whether for hunting, fishing, ice climbing or wildflower hikes. Of course, all licensed guides are also certified in first aid, CPR and water safety, too.

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- Kim Rielly is the director of communications for the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism 

 

[img:nhtrailhead.jpg]October, 2010 - My husband Kevin and I have had the North Hudson Trail System on our to-do list for a while - and even showed up at the trailhead last spring with our mountain bikes only to find that the trails were still covered with unbikeable icy snow. This perfect fall day, however, we had only colorful leaves with which to contend.

North Hudson Trail systemThe trailhead is near the old entrance to what used to be the Frontier Town theme park off I87 exit 29, and has an informational sign and maps of a series of loops on both sides of Route 9. The 7.7 miles of trails are marked with Red, Yellow and Blue markers and intersect frequently. We took a map, and headed off on the first red-to-the-right.

In less than a quarter of a mile, we were off-trail. Well, to clarify, we were on a trail, but the old falling down log church and ghost town in our sights indicated to us that perhaps we'd taken a wrong turn. We had inadvertently ridden onto the old Frontier Town property, and it was kinda neat to recall how it must have looked when in operation. (Both Kevin and I had been there as kids, but as very LITTLE kids).

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As we stopped to take a couple of pictures, a truck came slowly driving in - and stopped next to me and opened his window. Now - I work for the visitors bureau, and am fairly adept at answering questions about the Adirondacks, and used to fielding media inquiries at any time and every day of the week. However, the driver caught me off guard. Apparently where he lives, all of the tourism experts wear bike shorts, a helmet and ridiculous protective eyewear at work. "When was this park open?" he asked. Of course, I immediately fell into character and said that it wasn't as long ago as the condition of these buildings would imply. I told him that I'd been there as a kid, but that it had been closed - I thought - since the 1980's - but that he should check online to verify. He thanked me and started off down the "road' back to civilization. We headed back onto the trails, determined to ride by color successfully. The trails are multi-use, meaning that we could theoretically come upon a horse, walker or other biker at any time, but we had the place to ourselves. We took the red-to-the-right to its conclusion, which turned into a steep singletrack on pine needles - (I made a mental note that red means "more difficult").

[img:mossy2.jpg]The trail system takes up two sides of Route 9, and includes a triangle they called the "beginners trail". We took that to get to Route 9 itself, crossed the road and started off on a yellow trail. I was immediately struck by the landscape: it was like we had inadvertently stumbled on another old theme park. The ground was akin to a pillow, but somehow we maintained traction. I made Kevin ride back toward me so I could take his picture riding on the mossy singletrack.

We decided to take the outermost loops and head back, finding one more steep section of technical riding that included some downed trees for extra points. Most of the trails we tested were far from technical, though, and it was a wonderful ride, along the Schroon River at points, and through primarily evergreen forest. The majority of the trails were rolling, easy terrain; most wide enough for us to ride side-by-side. We concluded that these will be spectacular trails for skiing, and promptly added the trails back onto our to-do list for winter.

-Kimberly Rielly is the director of communications for the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.

 

Addendum: When I returned home and gained access to the world wide highway of e-information, I looked it up myself. Frontier Town was in operation from 1952 to 1998 (the original theme park effectively closed in 1985). It was developed by Arthur L. Bensen, who had a vision of a theme park where visitors could see American history come to life before their eyes. (The point here, I think, is that the information I provided that guy was right.) There's a site compiled by a fan with pictures and postcards HERE.