From Adirondack Day Hikes: Pine Orchard by Barbara McMartin reprinted in Adirondack Sports and Fitness, June 2000.

“Pine Orchard Trail begins on private land in James Flater’s front yard leads to a knoll with an unusual history. A very old road that traversed the knoll dates back to the early nineteenth century. Parts of the forest along the road were logged a long time ago and, in fact, there are parts that today appear as if they never had been logged. For a strange reason Pine Orchard was spared. Nature had destroyed the forest on the knoll with a tremendous windstorm. These winds came from the hurricane of 1815 and they leveled the knoll. Pines reestablish best when the soil has been disturbed and thus many pines sprouted on the knoll. They were of course too small to attract early lumbermen. Then nature dealt a second blow. Sometime, when the trees here were fairly small, a blight hit. The trees kept growing, but because the tops of many were gone, the trees branched, making two or three trunks in a clump. Now, lumbermen don’t want pines that do not have tall, straight, single trunks. So they never cut these trees. They probably would not have logged them anyway, because sometime early in the nineteenth century this land became Forest Preserve, meaning that no trees could ever be cut there again. So, this short walk will lead you to a stand of the largest pines you will find in the southern Adirondacks. One tree is so large that three people, arms outstretched, cannot reach around it. Other trees are filling in among the old pines. On the southern slopes you will find spruce trees of enormous size for spruce (they never get much above 30 inches in diameter). On the knoll’s northern slopes you will find magnificent hemlocks. Also interspersed among the pines are large maples that came along after the pines were big enough to shade them when they were young.

To find the trail, drive to Wells on NY 30 and just before the road turns to cross the Sacandaga River, head straight ahead on Griffen Road. Follow that road for 0.7 mile and turn right on Windfall Road and follow it for just over a mile to a fork. Take the right fork and follow it for two miles. The dirt road narrows and climbs until you see a sign at the side of the road “visitors parking.”

Mr. Flater, retired Colonie police chief, and his family have put that there for walkers. Park and continue on the road, following it across his front lawn until you reach state land. Just beyond the state land boundary, a snowmobile trail comes in on your right and the marked trail continues generally northeast. The first 0.8 mile of trail is generally downhill through young forest to a bridge, then the trail winds through more mature forest to a second stream crossing in another 0.6 mile. After the trail makes a sharp bend to the northwest, it begins to climb the knoll. You will find the tallest pines near the top of the knoll.

The walk to cover the knoll and return is less than five miles, quite easy, and should take under three hours. You won’t find much better stand of forest in the Adirondacks that is so accessible.”

WinterCampers.com made this our camping destination on Jan 26-27 as Matt, Mark, Len Sparky and I dragged in the tipi for a pleasant overnight in the woods. Given the easy trail description Matt and Jim experimented with sleds. The Otter II sled proved just as easy to pull and with it’s deeper tray was less likely to get snagged on branches and overturn than the Paris Company Expedition Sled.

It was an easy hike in, below Matt confers with Len, Mark and Sparky.

Once we were among the large white pines we set up camp. These trees are 300 year old giants that centuries ago would have warranted protection by the English Crown for the sole use of the mast makers of the Royal Navy; straight-grained white pines six feet in diameter and perhaps two hundred feet tall. Mark got cozy with a white pine on the hike in.

We arrived at our campsite shortly after noon and had our lunches. While most of us packed our own lunch at least one newly wed had theirs packaged and labeled.

While Len prepared a fire site, Mark & I cut wood and Sparky and Matt set up the tipi.

After much coaxing and the sacrificing of the small dry tipi wood, Firemaster Len finally got a decent blaze and we sat around the fire until 9pm.

There was a little snow during the night which periodically slid down the tipi leaving slightly banked sides in the morning.

We packed up, marched out and had a great breakfast at the diner in Wells.

We got a set of snowshoes for Eric and Sunday we finally had the necessary combination of enough snow and free time to take them out.

Sometimes the brush tripped him up but for the 1st time on snowshoes he did really well.

We stopped off and checked out the fort/hut that Eric and I built in the fall.

In December Eric and I made 18 fire starters. While these fire starters are a little heavy for backpacking they work fine for canoe camping or casual camp fires. I had some left over paraffin so I used the rest of the paraffin. The ingredients: paraffin and shavings or sawdust. My shavings are mixed with a little bit of sawdust.

Pack the shavings into a muffin tin. You can do this with or without muffin wrappers. If you want to re-use the muffin tins, use wrappers. This is a good task to do while the paraffin is melting. Warm the paraffin up slowly – you are just trying to get it to melt, not boil. It is best to avoid a future domestic scene and use an old pot as getting all the residual paraffin out can be problematic.

Finally the last of the paraffin is melted and can be poured into the muffin tins. If the pot is very full dip the paraffin out using a disposable cup so you don’t end up with wax being poured everywhere. You can vary the size of the fire starter by controlling the amount of wax poured into the muffin tin.

After the wax has cooled and congealed you can pop them out of the muffin tin and store them for future use.

What does your desktop look like?  My looks like this…..

My desktop picture was taken this summer on western end of Lows Lake early in the morning as we sought the portage trail to the Oswegatchie River.

Friday Matt, Mark, Skip, Bob & I went over to the hunting camp on the West Sacandaga River where Skip holds a membership. View East from the porch:

We got to the camp around 10am and started a fire in the wood stove. We sat around and talked for a while and fed the fire until it was going nicely. We strapped on our snow shoes and went for a short walk along the West Sacandaga. Group shot:

It was a nice mixed woods and on our return we saw a flying squirrel. Mark and Bob each saw it fly/glide and all except Matt saw it sitting in a small beech tree.

Skip and Bob returning to camp:

In the afternoon and evening we played pitch and ate chicken stew. The wood stove kept the camp very toasty. We turned in at 9pm and slept until 7am. It rained overnight and the heat of the wood stove combined with the warming temperatures caused some snow slides off the metal roof.

Saturday I got home a little before noon, showered and put away my gear. It was Kathryn’s birthday and we went to a movie – Charlie Wilson’s War with Tom Hanks- out to a nice meal and were home by 9pm.