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View Full Version : Sages Ravine Anomaly, any else notice?



Starchild
09-27-2019, 16:47
Sages Ravine is clearly in MA just over the boarder, as well as the AT though this Ravine. However the CT/MA sign is on the other (northern) end, making it appear that Sages Ravine campsite and the trail is in CT. Anyone else notice this? Any known reason for this?

Sarcasm the elf
09-27-2019, 17:20
Sages Ravine is clearly in MA just over the boarder, as well as the AT though this Ravine. However the CT/MA sign is on the other (northern) end, making it appear that Sages Ravine campsite and the trail is in CT. Anyone else notice this? Any known reason for this?
IIRC, it has to do with where the maintaining clubs switch over, as the CT and MA clubs don’t use the exact border as their boundary.

1azarus
09-27-2019, 18:08
Is the MA state sign right by the stream ford? I remember it as an unfriendly border welcome. Are you telling me it isn't even the border? This is scandalous.

Starchild
09-27-2019, 18:12
Is the MA state sign right by the steam ford? I remember it as an unfriendly border welcome. Are you telling me it isn't even the border? This is scandalous.

Here is the map: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0495092,-73.4545176,15.85z

Starchild
09-27-2019, 18:14
IIRC, it has to do with where the maintaining clubs switch over, as the CT and MA clubs don’t use the exact border as their boundary.
That would make sense. I long suspected it to be that since CT has stronger rules that some thought it better to hide that one was in MA.

BillyGr
09-27-2019, 19:34
That had to have changed at some point since 1995, as back then on our first backpack with the Scout Troop, we have a photo of the Scouts standing with one foot on each side of the state line (shortly after the photo, the one in the front fell backwards, causing a domino effect with the other Scouts).

This photo comes just before the one that (coming from the South) tells you that you are entering Sages Ravine, so it had to be close by (I believe we came in via one of the side trails between Bear Mountain and Sages).

We have been back in that area a few times since, and on one of those the sign by the water crossing was there (the last time we didn't go that far, just to the campsite then back towards Bear Mtn.), but I haven't been able to figure out exactly where the old state line sign was to duplicate the photo.

LazyLightning
09-28-2019, 10:09
the north end of the Paradise Lane side trail is just over the border into MA by 0.1-0.2 miles, still on the decent from Bear Mt. heading north. I'm going to try to post a picture of the map here from the CT Walk Book... on my thru hike last year there was no sign anywhere close to the actual border.
45694

Slo-go'en
09-28-2019, 18:58
They put the big sign where it was convenient to do so. The small sign at the stream crossing is closer to the actual boarder.

Sarcasm the elf
09-28-2019, 22:05
That would make sense. I long suspected it to be that since CT has stronger rules that some thought it better to hide that one was in MA.

If you’re referring to the fire ban, going from my (possibly incorrect) memory, I believe that the ban goes past the point that maintaining clubs change and continues the end of the Mt. Race ridgeline. That’s for pragmatic reasons, as the ridge from Kent to Jug end is highly prone to forest fires. There are usually one or two decent wildfires in that stretch each year, fortunately they are generally slow moving duff fires and the local FDs are well organized and efficient at containing them.

Cosmo
10-04-2019, 19:04
The border that’s signed (https://photos.app.goo.gl/U5FchUtCqib6jH6p8) in Mass is the stream through the ravine, the actual border is a couple of tenths south near the Paradise Lane junction. We developed that distinction with the CT maintaining club since they have had funding for a full time caretaker/RR at Sages Ravine Campsite from an endowment created when the AT was rerouted to the west side of the Housatonic in the latter part of the last century. The no-fires rule in CT extends to Laurel Ridge Campsite, first official overnight site in Mass. We instituted this to attempt to preserve the understory that helps separate the individual tent sites built when the place was built in 2000. Of additional mild interest is the fact that another part of the Trail in CT is actually in NY.

Cosmo

Cosmo