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It’s private land

To the editor:

I was recently reading your article “Biking from Buck Pond” and noticed that your mountain biking chapter told riders to “cross county Route 60 and go around the gate” on the the old D&H railroad bed. You failed to mention that everything behind the gate is private land all the way to the Oregon Plains Road. The owner of that land does have personal belongings behind that gate. I also own property behind that gate, as do other people. None of us appreciate you sending people around the gate without informing them that it is private land! It is a privilege, not a right, to pass through, and you failed to mention that.

There is a posted sign at the gate that you told everyone to just go around. Who gave you permission to do that?! I talked to the land owner, whose property I caretake, and he did not give you permission to print that and was not happy to hear about it. You did mention that snowmobilers pass through. The reason being they lease the privilege to use that stretch of private land. You pretty much told everyone to ignore the posted sign and gate.

We are private people in Onchiota, and that is why we chose to live here. People should respect gates and posted signs, and it is not your place to tell people to ignore them without checking with the landowner first, which you failed to do! If you’re not careful, you could ruin it for everyone. Trespassing is a punishable crime.

Steve Margas

Caretaker of mentioned land and landowner of adjacent land

Onchiota

(Editor’s note: The Enterprise regrets advising people to travel on private land. Outdoors Writer Justin A. Levine said he did not see the sign showing where the former D&H railroad bed changes from public to private property; he thought the state owns the trail on both sides of Oregon Plains Road. It turns out, however, that Mr. Margas is right. The state owns it between Saranac Lake and Oregon Plains Road, the portion known as the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, but it is privately owned on the east side of Oregon Plains Road. The Enterprise has corrected the article online.)

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