About NY Route 8

Please patronize my sponsors! They are good people and run their own small, often family, businesses. Many are unique and internationally famous. Most folks in the 'Daks won't begrudge you the use of their water, bathrooms, or parking lot when your out "sleeping around" on state land, just ask first. But like your webmaster, we all have a bottom line that has to be met. Prices and services are great in the 'Daks so help all of us out and spread the wealth!

Some Facts about NY 8 and New York State:

New York State is easily the best value and shortest trip for any type of outdoorsman be it snowmobilers, backpackers, hunters, fishermen, rivers, etc. It packs more state land and public access points than New England and Pennsylvania combined. Our hunting and fishing licenses are great deals because they entitle an outsider to access all the state lands. The Adirondacks have 6 million acres, which 60%, or 3.6 million acres, are state land open for all to use. NY Route 8 goes straight through the Central Adirondacks which boast more wilderness, less people and lower prices than the High Peaks-Placid-Saranac region or the Northway, I-87, Lake Champlain corridor. My NY 8 site starts from Utica at the Thruway ends in Hague on Lake George. The route is a line that traverses the Central 'Daks SW to NW. It passes through the Villages of Poland, Speculator and Hague and through the towns of Russia, Morehouse, Lake Pleasant, Johnsburg, Chestertown, Graphite and more. My town pages start from Utica in Oneida County to Hague in Northern Warren County.

The area code from Hague to Russia is 518, then it's area code 315 to Utica. There are 62 counties in NYS, I cover four of them on this website: Warren, Hamilton (the only county wholly in the Adirondack Park), Herkimer & Oneida. All counties are divided into towns, usually with rectangular boundaries. Villages are located in towns, but are incorporated areas with their own definite boundaries, cops, 30 mph zone and government free from the surrounding town's laws. They are just like small cities. The road goes through no villages in the park. Any town south of Poland towards the Mohawk Valley is not in the park.

Why?

It came to me in a flash one day, driving back to Latham, through Mayfield on NY Route 30, after hunting all day and seeing a noted local merchant's web address on his banner sign outside. That's what we need up here to get things going, some website run by a dedicated webmaster, designed to promote all the outdoor life in the NY Route 30 corridor! So I started NY Route 30.com to cover NY 30 from Amsterdam to the Canadian Border. After covering NY 30 all winter, I decided to expand my net of roads by covering the main east - west road, NY 8. After all, NY 8 & 30 run together from Indian to Blue Mountain Lake so I use NY 8 often. But I never had been west of Blue Mountain Lake on NY 8, in the 'Daks, before this winter. So in the middle of March, 2003, I registered and started this site. I borrow heavily from NY Route 30.com but it is a separate site with it's own character. I'm trying to boost tourism, travel and the great outdoors on the NY Route 8 corridor. This is not only a business venture, it's a labor of love, a personal travelogue and a bet that the future will be better. It was a great summer and hunting season plus the coldest, snowiest winter on record. I've had a fantastic time but what a winter. I've learned 10x what I thought that I knew about life in 'Daks, especially the Central Adirondacks. This site will work! Even if I only break even, I will keep this site going for at least as long until anyone who paid will get their year's worth. My old Escort finally bit it. The right rear strut tower blew threw the right rear speaker but I nursed her back home on the Northway. My car now is an all wheel drive 5 speed Eagle Summit. It's a mountain goat compared to the Escort, which says a lot 'cause that Escort went through places most 4 x 4's wouldn't venture.