We finally got a chance to hike to Colvin's Great Corner monument today. A long (12 miles) but rewarding trip that I can finally scratch off my list. We hiked south from the old Schuller estate in Aldrich (Fine). This was a great day of social distancing- we saw one family camping at the Streeter Lake lean-to.
The monument was set in 1904 to give a more fitting marker to the point of the Totten & Crossfield and Macomb lines, and St Lawrence & Herkimer county lines.
This was originally a Campbell survey corner in 1772 and was re-established by Colvin on July 17th, 1878. Close to 5 million acres of land surveys are based from this point. The arrow shown in the hand-drawn picture (drawn by Colvin himself) is still visible in a boulder near the monument.
The trail follows a series of old logging roads, these turn more to trails the further south you travel. The last stretch is an unmarked bushwhack of a few hundred yards. There are remnants of a sugarhouse on the top of Francis Hill. You will pass several logging camps as well. A couple of rusted trucks are leftovers from the logging era.
The trail is occasionally marked. The trail from the trailhead is marked with the brown MAPPWD - Motorized Access Permit for People With Disabilities signs, as far as Bassett’s Creek. From there we saw red horse trail markers, blue foot trail markers, and red plastic & blue & gold metal snowmobile markers- pretty much you can see about anything. Anybody attempting this really should plot this out on a map. This is a deep woods hike, and help isn’t a phone call away. You should take this pretty seriously before choosing to hike this one. The trail is fairly dry most of the way, but there are a few beaver ponds to contend with (but those are not too bad).
Definitely, a fun hike, as you are in deep woods & wilderness. To add to the fun, the black flies were making the presence well known. They aren’t biting (yet) but hey are out en masse.
For more on Streeter Lake & the Schuller estate- https://hikingthetrailtoyesterday.wordpress.com/…/streeter…/