Dave Waite Nature Photography

This blog has been created to provide photographers, artists and those who enjoy the creative process with the opportunity to express ideas about photography. Along the way I hope to share some of my thoughts, as well as some of my techinques in creating nature and fine art photographs. If you are interested in purchasing matted copies of any of these photographs please go to "view my complete profile" below and send me an e-mail. Dave

Name:
Location: New York, United States

I am a amateur nature and fine arts photographer who was trained in black and white photography in the early 1970's, worked professionally a bit and then set aside all artistic pursuits until about 2003. I enjoy the creative aspects of photography and look forward to sharing with others of similar interests.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Spring Snowshoeing to Pine Orchard

Spring Snowshoeing to Pine Orchard
March 24, 2007

The day started off bright and clear, and with the snow disappearing almost as rapidly as it had appeared a few short weeks ago, I headed back into the Southern Adirondacks to put a few miles under the 'shoes. On the way I needed to stop off at Havlick Snowshoe Company to pick up my new pair of snowshoes. Earlier in the week after a dayhike into Dunning Pond between Wells and Speculator I had noticed that the vinyl deck on one of the 'shoes was ripping, so I dropped them off to see what it would take to get them repaired. Far better than a repair I was offered a chance to trade them in on a new pair, this time their Adirondack model, with a more heavy duty construction. I must have impressed someone there with wearing the first pair out in two years (and about 120 miles on the trail) as they asked if I would be willing to test new designs that they may come out with. How could I pass that up? I highly recommend these locally made snowshoes to anyone looking for a new pair of 'shoes. They are very well made and have great stability on both the flats and hills.

back to the hike:

Pine Orchard is a 1.6 mile hike in on an easy trail that is marked for crosscounty skiers as well as snowmobiles. The huge pines along the trail are over 200 years old, with some over 6 feet around. Coming in from the South you take Rte 30 to the village of Wells and bear to the right onto the Griffin Road just before that bridge that crosses Lake Algonquin.

Getting to the Flaters trailhead off of Windfall Road requires about 5 miles of travel on often muddy dirt roads. I would recommend using a vehicle that sits a bit higher up than a sedan. As the road was mostly still frozen I made it in (and back out) without major incident.



The trailhead starts on private land owned by the Flater family, and it is proper to request permission if they are home. Today they were not and so I headed on past their log cabin and a few hundred yards to the sign-in post. I saw that earlier in the day a group of 6 people had gone in to Pine Orchard so I had some fellow hikers to encounter in my travels. The trail is what looks to be an old logging or farm road and is only slightly hilly until you get to the far side of the Pine Orchard area.

(to be continued... maybe.... if I ever get a chance!)








































Labels: