Ft. Ticonderoga is between Lake Champlain & Lake George (on NY/Vermont border). Major battles in the French & Indian war occured in this area and many soldiers endured extreme hardships here for the good of our nation. After the French set up shop, the British came, then the colonials (Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, Henry Knox to get the canons that ultimately forced the British out of Boston – that’s him on the patch), then Burgoyne came through in 1777 on his way to a defeat at Saratoga. Ben Franklin, Jefferson, & Washington later visited…then we came.

Ft. William Henry, nearby at the south end of Lake George, is the setting of James Fenimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans.” A great book/movie to take in before visiting.

kaaterskill-hike-latest.ppt

If you like the idea of this hike and want to go, let me mention just a few more things – when you drive up Rt.23A, you’ll know you’ve reached the trailhead when you do a sharp hairpin turn right at a beautiful waterfall (Bastion Falls). Park up the road a bit, there is a small parking lot on the left. You’ll have to be extremely careful walking down the road. When you walk up the trail after the first waterfall, don’t stop at the next one you see and think you’ve reached it. Keep going. The high falls are spectacular. If you feel so inclined, hike up the left side of the falls. If you look carefully, you’ll find some engravings chiseled in the wall. One is to ‘Vite the wonder dog’ who tragically jumped to his death back in the 1800’s. At the top, there are hundreds of names and dates chiseled into the stone. No such thing as leave no trace back then, but you know what…it’s actually kind of cool to see.  North Lake State Park is near the top of the falls if you want a civilized place to camp.

A good book telling the story of the area is “The Catskill Mountain House” by Roland VanZandt. Another book I came across recently that is a better trail book is “Catskill Mountain House Trail Guide: In the Footsteps of the Hudson River School”  by Robert Gildersleeve. It’s just and excellent book and I’d say a ”must have” resource needed to fully appreciate the area.

A few years ago, I found the old stage coach trail up the mountain and mountain biked up and down with friends. A pretty cool trip you might want to consider. You can search for “Rip’s Rock.”

Here’s another art related doc I found later on Asher Durand. It has somewhat of the same hike concept as I had…

durand_resources.pdf

View five vintage Kaaterskill Falls postcards after the jump -

This is a great overnight hike for the older scouts. Hike up above the treeline across the entire Presidential Range and up and over Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in the northeast (6288ft). It is quite a challenge and achievement. I wanted to revise this slightly but ran out of time.

I’ve also attached a copy of a map we used when we first introduced the Whites and this hike to the scouts.

mt-washingtonv3.ppt

Download an excellent White Mountain map here
(Large size: 1667 x 1206 795KB)
(map credit: White Mountain Attractions Association Inc.)

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This is a great hike idea if you are looking for something the scouts can be quite proud of  -

From Monson, Maine, the Appalachian Trail begins its journey through the fabled 100 mile Wilderness. This is the longest stretch on the AT that doesn’t cross a paved road. Many of its best highlights are packed into the first 30 miles, including the Lower Wilson falls, rock strewn rivers, and great views. Campsites are abundant and there are 4 shelters along this route.

The hike ends/starts on the gravel road to Katahdin Iron Works off ME 11, 5.5 miles north of Brownville Junction, a short distance from Gulf Hagas, a slate gorge filled with waterfalls (a day hike on its own). AMC’s Little Lyford Pond Camp is nearby. I’ll post more on this later.

(Map credit: 100 Classic Hikes in the Northeast by Jarad Gange)

(Credit: wikipedia)

At 14,494 feet (4,418 meters) above sea level, California’s Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 states. Whitney is part of the Sierra Nevada, a fault-block mountain range formed when shifting tectonic plates led to the cracking and faulting of the Earth’s surface. Limited access (one needs a permit to enter), so not too overrun and quite challenging.

Here is an interesting article on the hike that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Link is at the end. Lots of material available on this great hike all over the internet. 

mtwhitney 

Start here to get some ideas: http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/a2z.html

Here is a map of the local rail trail in Milford. It is meant to form a large loop through the surrounding towns. That will be a nice ride someday. rail-trail.ppt

If you are interested in mountain biking, a good place to start is: http://www.nemba.org/ridingzone/places.html

This is the trail section of the New England Mountain Biking Assoc. These guys do quite a lot to promote MB activity. They purchased 47 acres of property near our town and created one of the premier single track rides in the northeast – Vietnam.

Here is a link for the info available on that area: http://www.nemba.org/Articles/Vietnam/NEMBAsVietnamProperty.html

Located off 495 at the Rt. 85 exit, it is great ride for a number of reasons – it’s challenging, well maintain & planned, it’s diverse, it’s meant to be ridden, and it is easy to get to.

What I also like that many people don’t know about is the ride across the street from this area. I’ll call it the Wildcat Pond area. I’ve attached a few topo maps for reference, but what you do is take the obvious trailhead into this area, maybe with compass or map in hand. Back here you’ll discover a number of old rock quarries. Some show signs of teenage abuse, but they are really quite interesting to search out and find. You can also pedal to Echo Lake, the source of the Charles River.

These trails eventually come out on Lumber St. and Granite St. in Hopkinton. Another connected ride is to take the trails from Vietnam into the College Rock area. (Where we often start to enter the Vietnam area). College Rock is a beginner rock climbing opportunity if you want to do that with your troop. Right in front of the rock is a Kiosk built as an eagle scout project.

I’ve attached maps of College Rock, Echo Lake, Wilcat Pond, and Vietnam. The Vietnam map is a bit useless except just to get a generally sense of the trail flow. NEMBA does not have a better map. The trails aren’t really marked so it won’t do too much good anyway. Furthermore, the sound of 495 always gives you a sense of SW. The topo maps attached show some trails, but there are a lot more trails out there. I used these to create maps of all the trails but I never transposed back to electronic format after surveying the area.

bikemap1.ppt

Another idea for a local quality mountain bike ride is to go over to Blue Hills Reservation, just south of Boston. Blue Hills has some nice single track routes and it is also loaded with geocaches. Views from the top of the hill are very cool. Stay over at BSA’s Camp Sayre right on the reservation. A nice low logistics, action filled campout.  Another benefit is the Minuteman Council Egan Rec center is right at Camp Sayre and it has a pool. If this gets you excited, call ahead to make sure the pool heaters are working. When we went, the water was freezing. Here is a map of camp of Camp Sayre as well as a mountain biking discussion from ragemtb.com:

campsayre.pdf

blue-hills.doc

photo credit:New England Mountain Biking Association

I have an article I wrote on the hike, let me try to dig that up and post. For now, I’ve attached a map that will help you find your way.

Information on the Shaker settlement in Tyringham is hard to come by. I was able to obtain this document while doing research for my article – the application for the settlement to be registered on National Historic Registry.

The application includes details on the history of the settlement as well as a discussion on the buildings. I found it to be very useful.

National Registration:  NRHP Tyringham Shaker

Article: To be posted

Map: tyringham-map.ppt

This is an article by Steven Paterwic, probably the most knowledgable Shaker scholar I’ve ever met: mysteries-of-the-tyringham-shakers-unmasked.doc

The attached is not mine, it was emailed to me a few years ago. The author (listed), gets full credit as well as an applaud from me for a) doing a great trip; and b) doing a followup trip report that is just incredible. The photography alone is outstanding. Have a read and I’m sure you’ll agree. I’ve never done the Allagash (a waterway across northern Maine), but hope to do so soon. This will help me trip plan with the kids.

allagash.pdf

Here is a decent NY Times article relating to the northern waterway:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/travel/10northcanoe.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1194671925-FJ/ioco4cIAYBmd1oTLYng

This looks like an interesting program in Maine for scouts:

scout-whitewater-badges.pdf

 This is a program I’ve hoped to get our kids involved in.

http://www.wpcbsa.org/SummitBase/Activities/IceClimbing.asp

This is an article that was recently published in The Wall Street Journal on ice climbing. Well written & worth a quick read: iceclimbing1.doc