Trail Travel: Be careful of fallen debris and on-coming sleds

We are truly into the winter season with steady snowfall and longer days.

It looks as if there will be a warming trend this week which should settle the depth of snow and wet up the lakes.

It has been above freezing since just before Christmas and with all the snow that fell on just a skim of ice the lakes are far from safe.

There were some ice fishermen out on Limekiln Lake on January 5 wading around in the six inches of slush atop approximately three inches of ice.

But that doesn’t mean there is three inches of ice on the entire lake, as I’m sure there isn’t.

It needs to wet up and freeze before you venture out on the ice. If you haven’t checked the depth of the ice don’t travel on it as it could be your last trip.

Going through the ice and into freezing water is not a good situation to be in or to get out of.

This also puts local rescue people in danger when they are trying to save a life under such conditions.

DEC personnel are still working on the new connector trail from the three mile area in the Moose River Area to Raquette Lake.

I talked to someone the other night who has been working on the trail and he said they only had two more bridges to build.

I haven’t walked the trail but I know if they used the old loop trail after hitting it from the Plains they would have eliminated the new trail construction near the Seventh Lake Boat Launch to the entrance of Eighth Lake Campsite.

From that point to the Sagamore Road is a long stretch of new trail. PR I saw said there was only 2.5 miles of new trail to be built.

The construction cost is more than what has been spent on the roads in the Moose River Area in several years, and that is just for materials not labor.

PR also said this would be a good cross-country ski trail, though skiers and snowmobilers don’t mix well on the same trail.

I’ve been walking part of Trail 10 while checking traps to West Pond near Big Moose and I’ve had some near misses with sleds even when I heard them coming.

Not many snowmobilers are traveling less than 30 mph. Some of the sleds are pretty quiet and can sneak up on you.

This can give both you and the snowmobilers quite a scare.

The cold, snowy weather has pushed most of the birds in the wild to local feeders. You can walk a long ways in the woods sometimes and only hear a Chickadee or a Woodpecker.

A week ago I looked out one morning and there were over fifty Common Redpolls working the feeders.

I put out the potter traps and put bands on 56 of them in two days along with one Hoary Redpoll, a few Black-capped Chickadees and five American Tree Sparrows.

The sparrows only stayed a couple days and moved on but the Redpolls are still growing in numbers. I’ve also banded several new Chickadees and a couple Blue Jays.

I’ve seen some unbanded Nuthatches and Woodpeckers but haven’t put up a net yet.

That might get very interesting as the Turkeys come gliding in each morning so they don’t have to walk through the deep snow.

A hundred dollar net would certainly suffer if one of those big birds hit it. I had one hit a net with a glancing blow this fall and it kept on going with very little damage.

The local trails have really taken a hit with all the heavy snow. The first snowfall was followed by rain which was then followed by even more snow.

The weight of the snow bent most of the smaller trees down to about four inches from the ground.

These trees have been snowed on for more than three weeks now and without a thaw they have frozen in place.

Even when the tops are freed of snow they don’t go up very far.

The heavy snows and winds also dropped a lot of debris and tree tops onto the trails.

Not all the trails have been cleared so be careful while you are out and about as these could be real knee or head bangers.

Taking a mouse for a ride, but that’s another story. See ya.