Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Ranger Trail Improvements

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent this bulletin on 10/18/2016 03:50 PM EDT
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Recently Adirondack Architectural Heritage - Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain finished up this season’s rehabilitation work on the Ranger Trail on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain under a Volunteer Stewardship Agreement with DEC.  The trail is located in town of Chesterfield, Essex County, in the Poke-O-Moonshine Day Use Area within the Taylor Pond Wild Forest.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage - Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain raised funds to hire two professional trail crews – Tahawus Trails LLC and Adirondack Mountain Club Professional Trail Crew.

The trail crews installed stone steps and undertook drainage work in 2015. This year the crews installed more stone steps, hardened the trail tread, rerouted approximately 900 feet of trail, reclaimed portions of the old trial and closed some social trails (aka herd paths).

The work is part of a multi-year effort to develop a sustainable trail that is more enjoyable and safer to use and will last long into the future. The overall objectives of the work includes:
  • Significant hardening of existing trail sections including installing stone steps; hardening the tread; and developing proper drainage.
  • Rerouting the trail where possible to incorporate interesting landscape features, accommodate users and help keep hikers on the official trail; and
  • Closing areas where multiple social paths have formed.

The Ranger Rail was the traditional route hikers took from the former Poke-O-Moonshine Campground to the summit of the mountain and the fire tower located there. The trail was not designed for modern use levels and pattern, and it had significant erosion issues due mainly to its “crazy steep” layout.

Planned work on the Ranger Trail in 2017/18 will include rerouting a 0.6 mile reroute of the upper portion of the trail and continuing rehabilitation of drainage structures and trail tread. In addition the work will be under taken on the Observer’s Trail including rerouting approximately 0.5 mile of trail and rehabilitating drainage structures and trail tread.

Poke-O stairs   Poke-O stairs

Poke-O trail   Poke-O trail

Poke-O rock