Pittstown State Forest, Pittstown, NY

[SirDonB]

This one may be a little outside of what I have seen here so far with most of the trail reports and other writeups, but I feel that my area should get highlighted too. There are multi use trails throughout the forest open to the public as well as NY DEC maintained primitive camping sites available. In addition, New York State DEC allows any group of less than 10 persons and staying in one location no more than 3 days permission to camp on state land with no permit or fees required.

PITTSTOWN STATE FOREST​

Pittstown State Forest is 1155 acres just a little North of Grafton Lakes State park and connects to it by several routes. Access to it is from dirt roads which can get muddy in the spring but are generally well maintained and plowed a little past the entrance in the winter.
The main trail is the State Fire Lane which can be driven on for most of its length except in winter. There are many places to pull off and park. There are several trails to the North which hook up with snowmobile trails that extend outside of the park boundaries.
To connect to Grafton you can take the Old Ward Hollow Road a little less than a mile from the main entrance. This crosses private land and is closed for hunting season from September 1st through December 31st.
You can also go to the end of the fire lane, walk a short distance on Kings Road to Old North Long Pond Road and south to Grafton.

The above info was copied from: http://www.amcmohawkhudson.org/outdoors/view.asp?loc=psf

Google map of the area: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=42.817346,-73.450685&spn=0.0232,0.038409&t=p&z=15

DEC page on general camping: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/camping.html

DEC page on backcountry camping: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/41282.html

I will post some pics of the area once I get back from my camping trip to this area this weekend.

 

[Nick]

Looking forward to hearing about it and seeing some pics!

 

[SirDonB]

I am now back from my trip... we had a great time. I will have a full report written up just as soon as I can, need to unpack and download the pics first. This area is a Diamond in the ruff for sure. I am pleased that so few people come there to use the trails and area. It was extremely peaceful.

 

[SirDonB]

June 27-29 I spent with one of my kids and a friend camping and hiking in Pittstown State Forest. We got a late start on day 1 and had just enough light to find a spot and get setup. With the lack of man made lighting when it got dark, it got dark. I could tell that it was my son's first real time out in the wilderness camping since he was extremely jumpy at every littel sound. The forest was great, not alot of people moving through and we were tucked back in enough that we were virtually invisible from the access road that runs though the area. There are several trails built and maintained by one of the local mountian bike clubs that are multi use. In addtion there are about 6 DEC campsites along the access road available for use. I choose to hike off the road and trail and pick my own site. The NYS DEC does permit backcountry camping on any state land as long as you are a min of 150 feet from any trail, road, or water. The DEC in conjunction with a local Boy Scout unit is building a leanto with an outhouse off one of the trails... this site is not open to the public just yet, but should be shortly after this report.

While I dont have any pics from the trails, I did take some from around the campsite.

Here is our site



It was my sons mission to climb a tree, though it was not as high as he wanted, it was still mission accomplished



Of course we had to try out our new water filtration systems, no pics of me using mine, but I shared mine with my son



As we concluded the trip, this was the sign I hated to see, but it was time to head home and rejoin civilization



In conclusion, Pittstown State Forest, while not offering much for the scenic folks, it a great place to go and test gear and get away from civilization. There are also some connecting trails that go through private land that can be hiked, biked, etc going south into Grafton Lakes State Park. I have only begun to explore the area and look forward to many more weekends back here.

For more pics, go here. I am waiting on pics from my buddy to add to the album. And since he just signed up here, I will ask him to add to this from his experance as well.