Through the stand of red pines, you come to the ledge that opens onto the nearly 180-degree vista of the Sable Highlands, stretching wide across the horizon and up into pale clouds.
Dark evergreens and brown hardwoods cover the rolling landscape on a bed of mid-January snow. The southern flank of 3,820-foot Lyon Mountain stands at the center of the panorama _ one that few people have seen.
"Pretty isn't it?" Michael Carr says, then calls his frolicking puppy away from the snowy ledge and the drop-off of more than 100 feet. "This isn't going to change."
The Adirondack Nature Conservancy bought the 20,000 scenic acres a year ago in a complex four-way deal that Carr, its executive director, and conservancy staff spent more than a year negotiating. Within the next two years, the state is expected to buy the conservancy's land, as well as easements for public recreation on 84,000 adjacent acres of lumber company land, including the forested trail that leads to the ledge.
The agreements are meant to keep this northeastern corner of the Adirondacks, about 140 miles north of Albany, producing logs but otherwise essentially wild.
"You really get a sense for how vast and remote it is," said Carr's colleague, Connie Prickett. "There's nobody up here."
Not yet.
But conservancy staff recently cut the trail to the ledge, and they expect it to eventually bring more snowshoers, skiers and hikers. Carr sees families coming to picnic, noting it's a relatively easy hike about 1.5 miles up from the road and a probable new parking area.
Barnes Pond sits halfway in between, a likely spot for swimming, canoeing and a few scattered campsites.
"It feels like a backcountry wilderness primitive campsite," Carr said, standing by the pond, about 40 to 50 open acres covered in snow and ice and ringed with slender birches and other trees.
Conservancy staff have been in touch with the leaseholders who know this land _ 26 hunting clubs with 700 members. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will eventually draft plans for recreational uses.
Prickett said they're beginning to learn more about the tract's importance to wildlife, including the American marten, the rare Bicknell's thrush and even moose.
The Sable Highlands represent more than 10 percent of Gov. George Pataki's stated goal of protecting a million acres of open space in New York during his three terms as governor that conclude this year.
"I think it would be hard for a future administration to walk away from this," Carr said. "We may very well get this done within this administration."
The conservancy paid Canadian lumber company Domtar Industries $6.26 million for 19,960 acres, while helping arrange the sale of the 84,448 acres to the Lyme Timber Co. of Hanover, N.H., for $17.47 million.
Lyme agreed to keep providing pulpwood to Domtar mills for at least 20 years and sign state easements granting public recreation access. The company is continuing "sustainable forestry" with regular harvests, like Domtar, with certification for "green" logging practices under Forest Stewardship Council guidelines.
The Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy borrowed money from its national organization to finance the deal, and had raised $3.1 million of $4.2 million in private funds needed for the project, Carr said.
A three-mile trail up the east side of Lyon Mountain remains open. It begins at a parking area near Chazy Lake. Carr said it's eroded and the state plans to reroute the trail with the help of the Adirondack Mountain Club. Domtar had allowed informal public use.
The mountain has an old fire tower on top that's under repair. From the tower on a clear day you can see Montreal, he said. On a Friday afternoon, two snowmobiles turned up the snowbound seasonal road that leads to the parking area and trailhead, as well as to power lines and their right of way.
Another well-used hiking trail 15 miles away to the top of Owls Head lookout remains open. The conservancy's parcels include a mile of shoreline on Chazy Lake, which may eventually make canoe access.
The wilderness contains about 220 miles of permanent and seasonal streams, more than 2,600 acres of wetlands and 20 lakes and ponds with 16 miles on undeveloped shoreline. The state is expected to end up with full recreational access to 47,000 acres, providing areas for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, skiing and snowmobiling.
Lyme plans to leave 24 hunting club leases intact on 57,000 acres, with the public confined to several marked hiking trails and 44 miles of logging roads designated for motorized vehicles. Two other hunting clubs are relocating within the parcel.
Domtar began buying the land in 1962.Newsday
