Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest


Press Play to hear "Bicycle Race" by Queen

I got a bike rack at Walmart a few weeks ago, and the weather has been laughing at me ever since. Fed up with "chance of showers" but excited that for once there was no chance of thunder storms, Sister and I challenged the skies to a bike ride. I've never hooked up a bike rack before and was a little leery of the half hour drive to our destination with bikes held by 4 straps on my trunk.


The bikes made it safely to the Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, near Warrensburg, NY. The forest was named after wealthy lumber man Charles Lathrop Pack, who donated the land to SUNY-ESF for student studies.

A memorial to Charles Lathrop Pack and his wife

At the registration station, there is a little mailbox labeled brochures... All that was left for us was a couple candy wrappers. With no map or informational guide; it was up to us to do some exploration on our own.

A handicap accessible nature trail takes you through a loop around the forest where you see The Grandmother Tree, a white pine over 315 years old and over 175 feet tall! This tree has been protected in a 50 acre area by the college, in tradition with Margaret Woodward's wishes. Margaret and John Woodward used to own the land. John wanted to cut down the tree for lumber to sell so that he'd have enough money to buy his wife a set of dishes for their anniversary. His wife would not allow it, saying she'd rather go without the dishes than lose the tree.

The Grandmother Tree

There are over 10 miles of trail throughout the land, and we covered a decent amount. We came across the Pack Forest Camp, where we saw a dinner hall serving food to the campers. We laughed at the cabin called Spruce because Sister and I joke that everything is named Spruce in the Adirondacks. I actually have a map of a particular region of the Adirondacks where you can see three Spruce Mountains. The forest is over 2500 acres, and the trails are good for walking, biking, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. There are fishing and canoe access sites as well.

A little stream

See the rest of my pictures from the Pack Forest here.

Information from:

www.northwarren.com/index/hiking
www.placewiki.com/viewplace_detail.php?placeID=180
www.esf.edu/communications/news/2002/06.04.hike.htm

3 comments:

storybeader said...

Great looking pic of the stream - so pristine. Don't you love those wealthy philanthropists - esp. our lady Margaret!

DH and I got a bike rack about a yr ago and I'm always scared we'll lose the rack and 2 bikes on the road somewhere!

Anonymous said...

I LIVE in your photographic jouneys. Please adopt me!

~Lily

A Keeper's Jackpot said...

story- I'm glad I'm not the only one that has bike rack paranoia

Lily - look at it this way, I do all the hard work for you, you just have to look at the pictures :)