Thendara - Big Otter Horse trip.

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