Chapter 710

Oct 3, 2026

Colleen's Dream

living the dream

Her little piece of paradise is just north of the Adirondack Park boundary. Her land is 3 miles distant from the dam just a tad left of center. But, she owns, or has homeowner property rights to this dam / common area as well as a beach / boat launch / pavilion at the other end, and paddling rights (no gas motors) to these Heritage Brook Trout stocked ponds (thousands of acres).

Did a wide angle perspective view of her land with the locations of iron rods we found on the ground.

It's just 6 acres of remote undeveloped forest, mixed hardwoods and conifers. How far north? Let's just say the nearest Starbucks is in Canada.

Pieced together several vertical photos and superimposed the survey plot onto the iron rod locations.

Interestingly I had photographed each property corner and the metadata associatied with the photo gives an accurate Lat & Long coordinates when you click on the (i) information link. Sheppard Land Surveyor of Heuvelton, NY.

When you input the Lat and Long into Google Maps they will create a GPS pin exactly where the photo was taken, impressive. The current google maps even show the dirt roads created for this property site. They were not even coded yet on Google Earth.

Although I had taken my 1964 U.S. Forest Service compass to verify the property lines, it was a nighmare attempting to see through the jungle of trees and bushes. It has the 14 degrees W declination from True North built in. Yes, I used this hand compass and pacing for survey work through the woods of Cranberry Lake Wild Forest just 70 miles from here. We also used  staff compass and chain, plane table, transit,  and Abney Level & Clinometer.

The compass on iPhone would have done just as well even though it only displays magnetic bearings and you'd have to manually compensate the differential. They say you can code it for declination but mine wouldn't do it. The official survey is done in Grid North/ State Plan but there is only 0.2 degrees difference from True North.

At the dam we lounged a bit and Schatzie got to go in the water.

At the pavillion we lit the fire pit up to end the day with some cocktails. Colleen's sister Suzanne also bought a wooded lot at this preserve. Loons still calling out on this fall evening.

Schatzie loved the out of doors, brought out the wildness in her and she didn't want to leave.