Thendara - Big Otter Horse trip.

[conibear]

Ok as a trip report this is a bit old, but a recent article in Adirondack Explorer by Bill Ingersoll got me thinking about this trip. Ingersoll's article was primarily about a DEC proposition to use helicopters to pre-position bridge building supplies along the Big Otter trail. I won't address that directly, but as an aside, Ingersoll questioned the trails designation as a horse trail because he had heard from an acquaintance that a horse trailer couldn't be parked at the trail head. Well, as a horse owner and a guy with a truck and trailer, that is complete bs. I had no problem parking at the trail head, and since it is so close to Thendara, even if the lot was full I think I could find a place to park within a reasonable distance.

Anyways, I put this trip report here to advocate for keeping the Thendara - Big Otter trail open for horses. I doubt it will ever be heavily used for that purpose, but it is a pleasant trail and potentially ties in to the Otter Creek Horse trails via Partridgeville Rd. If overnight accommodations could be found in Thendara or Old Forge I could see it making a nice overnight trip for a few adventurous souls from Otter Creek.

Aside from Otter Creek I don't see much horse use in the Adirondacks. The DEC seems to be discouraging use of the Lake George trails, which is a shame because it is beautiful there. Newcomb has Santanoni and now the Essex chain, but I think they need to do a little more work to get the masses of horse people there. I personally haven't been past Moose pond, but now that the state has the Essex Chain my bucket list trip is to go from Indian lake all the way through to Coreys............

This was in April 2016. The bridges were out, but I managed to get around them. There was some erosion damage from ATV use, especially at the Big Otter end.

















https://youtu.be/8WIs5J0OLlI

https://youtu.be/1FaZjHjPCKY

[dundee]

Seeing as it's a horse trail, perhaps the materials used for trail work should be brought in by horses, not choppers???

[conibear]

Originally Posted by dundee

Seeing as it's a horse trail, perhaps the materials used for trail work should be brought in by horses, not choppers???

I'd be all for it!

[bioguide]

Very cool... nice pictures. I do believe a horse camping trip would be a fun trip to do.

[Zach]

It looks nice, good for you. I ran into horses and evidence of past horses on the trail to Cascade Lake in Eagle Bay when I was there back in 2010-2012. I think they came in groups from a livery stable(is that the right term?) near the beginning of Uncas Rd. I believe that trail is or was a designated horse trail as far as the site of the old summer camp on the north shore.
Zach

[dundee]

They still use it, too.

[Cold River Bob]

I see where they use horses on Calkins brook trail an was told that they are opening up the horse trails in Coldriver. I know this spring they spent a week in there clearing the one on the other side of the cold by the ford, An I think the BB horse trail they worked on

[Wldrns]

About 3 or 4 years ago, the Lean2Rescue crew brought in all the materials to construct the new leanto at nearby Nelson Lake by using a draught horse team.

[DuctTape]

Originally Posted by Wldrns

About 3 or 4 years ago, the Lean2Rescue crew brought in all the materials to construct the new leanto at nearby Nelson Lake by using a draught horse team.

Not "all". Some was ferried across the river the week prior on a makeshift ferry of 2 canoes lashed together. No intention of minimizing the work done by the equines, or their handler. I think both methods were quite the feat.

[Wldrns]

yeah, I remember working on those canoe lashings. But that is not a unique method amongst jobs L2R has done. The horse drag was probably the most impressive part of several construction efforts.

[Cold River Bob]

I remember helping when they had a horse team on the Ampersands bridge.

[DuctTape]

Dragging those decorative logs up to bushnells was an impressive feat too.

[DSettahr]

Originally Posted by Cold River Bob

I see where they use horses on Calkins brook trail an was told that they are opening up the horse trails in Coldriver. I know this spring they spent a week in there clearing the one on the other side of the cold by the ford, An I think the BB horse trail they worked on

I went through there last week. That week's worth of work amounted to putting a band aid on a bullet wound. Even by a generous estimate, they got maybe two-thirds of a mile of that trail done south of the ford in that week. I don't mean at all to disparage the hard work that was done (that two-thirds of a mile is in great shape , and it certainly was not through lack of effort that so little was done- that trail is in bad shape), but at that rate... it'd take about 12 more full weeks worth of work to get the rest of the trail done (and some of it really, really needs drainage work or even just plain re-routing). I don't think it's at all unreasonable to question whether this trail, which got so badly overgrown in large part due to lack of use, is worth devoting the resources (including helicoptering the crews back in there) that this trail really needs. Especially when 12 full weeks of work by crews elsewhere would make a huge (and much-needed) difference elsewhere that would see substantially more benefit.

[conibear]

I talked with the Newcomb town supervisor back in 2015, and I think the towns up that way where hoping for more horse traffic to replace lost income from logging and the camps when the Essex chain was bought. Newcomb got a $50,000 grant for a horse shed, the new trailer parking area near Goodnow flow, and the trail to Moose pond was cleaned up nicely. I believe the state had made some promises to clean up the horse trails. Whether it all makes economic sense, well yes, it's debatable. What they need is a good volunteer effort. If you want to see what horse people are capable of, check out the Otter Creek trails, and Friends of Otter creek facebook page. The state does provide some materials, but a lot of the work is volunteer.