some folks here at work know exactly where the accident occurred. they hike there all the time. they said it really isn't that big of a drop....but it is rocky.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Someone explained it to me, about the similar falls at Canajoharie, that the kids try to wade across the shallow water at the top of the falls, which doesn't look all that dangerous to do, but the current can pull your feet out from under you on the slippery rocks.
Madam X. The Canjo Falls at high water is very dangerous, but as water levels drop, swimming or jumping off the falls is much more doable. Townies have been jumping off those falls for years and they've been dying there for years. Finally the town closed the falls to everyone rather than put up with the issue. No doubt, with enough deaths at the Plotterkill, the same thing may happen.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Madam X. The Canjo Falls at high water is very dangerous, but as water levels drop, swimming or jumping off the falls is much more doable. Townies have been jumping off those falls for years and they've been dying there for years. Finally the town closed the falls to everyone rather than put up with the issue. No doubt, with enough deaths at the Plotterkill, the same thing may happen.
Based on the available reports, they were not jumping into the falls...they were on a trail and both the girl that died and another guy slipped and fell at almost the same time. The guy suffered minor injuries...All of their party was wearing proper gear, shoes, etc...Hiking can be inherently dangerous, depending on the terrain. It was just a very unfortunate series of events.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
I've hiked the Plotterkill since I was a kid. It can be steep and it can be dangerous... so the question is what to do about the situation where people keep getting injured and need to be rescued. According to News 10, it took a team of 47 people to rescue her.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
I've hiked the Plotterkill since I was a kid. It can be steep and it can be dangerous... so the question is what to do about the situation where people keep getting injured and need to be rescued. According to News 10, it took a team of 47 people to rescue her.
I'm not a hiker... is there ANY way to build a barricade in those dangerous areas? I know it would be expensive and/or destroy the pristine area, but other than close it off to hiking, what else can be done?
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
Teen falls to her death in Plotter Kill Preserve Mekeel student first to die in preserve since 1993 By Kathleen Moore May 14, 2015 | Updated 12:24 a.m.
ROTTERDAM — This story has been updated and corrected to included the 1993 death of James Oliver.
The teenager who fell to her death at the Plotter Kill Preserve Tuesday night was the preserve’s first fatality since 1993.
Ten others have fallen from the waterfalls or ravine walls in the past three decades, were rescued by the Plotterkill Fire Department’s rope rescue team, and survived, according to Plotterkill Fire Department Chief John Tobiassen.
Carly Sinnott, 17, attended Mekeel Christian Academy in Scotia. She lived in Clifton Park and attended Shenendehowa schools until two years ago.
On Tuesday, she was hiking at the preserve with her longtime boyfriend and four other friends.
They were walking in the evening, but it was still light out, Rotterdam police Lt. Michael Brown said.
Shortly before 7 p.m., the group reached the second of three waterfalls in the Plotter Kill Preserve, a public wilderness area owned by the county. It’s just a short drive from Scotia, in the town of Rotterdam.
From the second waterfall, a steep, narrow dirt path — an unofficial, unmarked route — heads down to the bottom of the falls. She fell from the top of that path, Brown said.
It’s not clear why she slipped, but the ground was slippery from recent rain, Tobiassen said.
“These banks are very unstable,” he said. “It’s mud over shale. We have had a couple injuries there. Three times at this spot.”
Her friends saw the accident, but it happened too quickly for them to act, authorities said.
James H. Oliver Jr. died in September 1993 after falling off a cliff in the preserve.
Sinnott fell about 50 feet and landed face-down into the pool of water at the base of the falls. Her boyfriend hurried down to her, getting bruised and cut, and pulled her out of the water. He did CPR but she was not responsive, friend Scott Voelker said.
Police said their investigation indicated that the teenagers were not drinking or fooling around before the incident.
Tobiassen agreed.
“It was just an unfortunate mishap,” he said.
Friends called 911, and firefighters carried Sinnott out.
Due to the rugged terrain, it took them 17 minutes to reach her from the time of the call, Tobiassen said. It took a total of three hours for them to bring her out to an ambulance. She was flown to Albany Medical Center around 10 p.m. Tuesday and pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. Wednesday.
It was a horrific incident, as friends tried to save her life and waited for help, Voelker said. Her boyfriend, whom police are not identifying because he is a minor, is extremely distraught, Voelker said.
“He keeps going over and over it and telling us,” he said. “It hurts. It’s like we were there.”
Friends have taken turns staying with him, and stayed with him overnight after he was treated and released from the hospital Tuesday evening.
At Mekeel, where Sinnott was a junior, counselors gathered to help the students mourn and remember their friend.
She was captain of the volleyball team. She sang in the select choir and was on the honor roll. Photo by Marc Schultz
Mekeel Christian Academy students honored fellow student Carly Sinnott with a memorial at the flag pole in front of the school located on Sacandaga Rd. in Scotia. Sinnott, 17, died as a result of a fall at the Plotter Kill Preserve on Tuesday May 12, 2015.
But she was more than a list of accomplishments.
“Carly was very special,” said music choral director Rachel Brownell. “Every place Carly went, she smiled. She brightened everyone’s day. She was always a joyful person.”
Voelker, who is best friends with Sinnott’s boyfriend, came to love her dearly.
“It’s like, you have a best friend and you get another best friend on the other side,” he said. “She’s as chill as one of the guys. If we’re at a soccer game, she was with us cheering too.”
They were lab partners in chemistry and shared an English class. Although Sinnott was a good student, Voelker remembered her quiet jokes.
“She would always make you laugh,” he said, adding that she came up with humorous captions for another friend’s artwork. “She was funny. And she was always happy.”
Brownell acknowledged Sinnott’s penchant for jokes as well.
“She was humorous, she was funny,” Brownell said. “But at the same time, she was a great student. She was right with you, focused, dedicated.”
Sinnott joined the select choir because the only friend she knew at Mekeel was in the group, Brownell added.
“Her voice developed, and she ended up becoming a major player in that,” she said.
Sinnott also excelled on the volleyball court, where she played on the varsity team.
At the end of the last volleyball season, she was given the Heart of a Lion award for her “exceptional commitment to her teammates and her coaches.”
“Carly will be sorely missed by all of us,” said her coach Kevin Islip. “She had such a great spirit.”
Her smile lit up the room, and she was friends with everyone, school officials said.
“Her relationship with Christ was evident in her joyful interactions with students and teachers every day,” said English teacher Katie O’Leary.
School officials called her caring and compassionate, saying in a news release, “Carly’s kindness left a permanent impact on our school and community.”
Police said her fall was a tragic accident. Although officers attended an autopsy Tuesday, they said there were no indications of drugs, alcohol or foul play.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
I'm not a hiker... is there ANY way to build a barricade in those dangerous areas? I know it would be expensive and/or destroy the pristine area, but other than close it off to hiking, what else can be done?
Not really.
Just continue to educate and warn people about the dangers there.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
Beautifully dangerous Plotter Kill Preserve's natural beauty comes with inherent dangers By Kelly de la Rocha May 14, 2015
ROTTERDAM — I understand how easy it could be to take a fall in the Plotter Kill Preserve.
It’s a place I’ve hiked for years.
The 632-acre county-owned property is filled with cliffs, ravines and breathtaking beauty that never fails to lure me in. Time and again, against my better judgment, I inch toward the edge for a glimpse of the Plotter Kill burbling far below the trail. I lean out over precipices for a view of a waterfall, an arm around a tree giving me the illusion of safety.
The preserve’s trails hug the top of a steep ravine and unofficial paths offer tempting but dangerous shortcuts to scenic spots below. Seventeen-year-old Carly Sinnott of Clifton Park was on one of those paths Tuesday evening when she took a fall that resulted in her death.
She and five friends hiked in from the preserve’s Mariaville Road entrance and took the trail that travels along the north bank of the ravine. The Plotter Kill flows at the bottom, dropping 900 feet in its 3.5 mile descent from Rynex Corners to the Mohawk River.
Two spectacular waterfalls are visible early in the hike. The first is 60 feet high, the second 40 feet. Sinnott and her friends were working their way down to the base of the second waterfall on an unofficial path when she slipped down a steep, muddy, slope, landing in the creek bed below.
Her boyfriend rushed down to help her and friends quickly called 911, but rugged terrain slowed the rescue effort, which took a total of three hours.
She was the preserve’s first fatality since 1993. Ten others have fallen from the waterfalls in the past three decades, were rescued by the Plotterkill Fire Department, and survived, according to Plotterkill Fire Department Chief John Tobiassen.
Wednesday afternoon, Sinnott’s story was told by a fresh, muddy track down the steep northern slope beside the 40-foot waterfall; by a mylar emergency blanket glittering on the hillside, likely left behind from the rescue effort; and by three teenage girls walking solemnly along the bluff, one carrying a bright bouquet of flowers.
They said they were friends of Sinnott’s, on their way to pay tribute to her at the site of the accident. They didn’t want to talk.
“Nobody knows we’re here,” the girl carrying the flowers said.
Her words brought to mind another danger — setting off on a hike without letting others know where you’re going.
Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said hikers need to be mindful of and prepared to encounter dangers when trekking to some of the area’s most beautiful natural attractions. There might not always be signage or fences to point out those dangers.
At the Mariaville Road entrance to the Plotter Kill Preserve is a sign cautioning hikers to stay back from the bluffs and cliffs, but there are no warning signs or fences along the trails.
“It’s really important not to approach an area like a cliff face or ledge or waterfall of that nature without knowing where you can safely stand, so particularly going with somebody [knowledgeable about the area] or doing a little research on the area is very important,” Woodworth said.
“In some places, like in the Helderbergs, in Thacher Park, people were getting so close to the edge that they were falling off the cliffs. Eventually the office of parks had to put up expensive and very obtrusive fencing just to keep people back, and that’s not what we hope to do. A place like the Plotter Kill, you want to keep as wild as you can.”
Rachel Othmer of Mexico was hiking in the preserve Wednesday afternoon. She has family in the area and said she’s been enjoying the preserve’s natural beauty on annual visits since she was a small child. She said the dangers associated with hiking there are not a deterrent.
“It is extraordinarily dangerous. You just see how dangerous it is,” she said. “You treat things with respect and nature is always a place you have to be careful. … You just have to use a lot more caution and be aware that footings can shift and you can slip very easily, so use a lot more care, but you’ve still got to do it.”
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
It wouldn't do much good to close it and ban hiking. People would just go in there anyway.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
maybe just maybe, it would be wise to have hiking seminars for those who like to do this outdoor sport......maybe, just maybe, it would alert the dangers of
going where you are not supposed to go....maybe, just maybe, everyone has to be more disciplined when attempting something as a beginner....
we all have been there where we think nothing is impossible....but in the same sense we have to think it is improbable...
The young ones are still in the "it won't happen to me" mindset, probably because not much has happened to them yet. They take risks not really understanding what they're risking. I think the fact that the Plotterkill is so close to home gives a false illusion of safety to some. You don't think something that bad can happen to you in your own back yard, so to speak. Even going where you really shouldn't, there will be a hundred people doing the same thing, then the 101st does it, conditions have changed just enough.. A true tragedy.
The Plotterkill has attracted people for centuries. My grandmother used to tell stories about school (elementary and high school) trips taken there in the 1st two decades of the last century. I have enjoyed hiking through there, too. The falls aren't going away anytime soon -- so it will be attracting hikers and tourists for many years to come.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
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