Category: High Peaks

Far More Than Wrinkled Brown Lines on a Map As I put pen to paper it pains me to know that in today’s cell phone technology driven GPS “land navigation” environment, many folks are reading the title & thinking to themselves: “Contour lines? What’s this guy yammering about now?...

Author’s Note: I penned the first drafts of this story as a poem in the summer of 1983, while working out of Lake Colden’s Interior Headquarters as a trail hand on the NYSDEC trail crew, during one the two summers I served as assistant to Lake Colden’s caretaker. I...

With a month long string of record breaking temperatures, low water extremes, droughtlike conditions, and a fire hazard driven state wide burn ban, as I climbed from my old friend the Saranac River’s waters after an unseasonably warm October afternoon bottle dive, I couldn’t help but wonder. Was this...

Fall Foliage, BBQ Chicken, Broken Bridges & an Ampersand SOS My wife Robin & I celebrated our 35th wedding anniverary in our traditional way, with a day trip to take in the fall foliage in and around my heart’s home of Saranac Lake. Due to life circumstances beyond our...

Climate Change, Chainsaws & a Camping Chronology This piece begins with a question: How many folks out there have spent ten days or more at a single stretch with family in a remotely pitched ADK camp? I’m not talking about “going into camp”, sitting in hunting camp playing cards...

Why do some people think defacing our beloved Adirondack lean-tos is acceptable? For many folks out there; hunters, hikers, campers, explorers, outdoorsmen and other Adirondack souls of like ilk, these lean-tos are more than just cedar log structures providing a convenient stopping point on our trek through life’s wood....

MIDDLE SARANAC LAKE EDITION It was an early Saturday morning in the middle of July. My brother Ray & I were camped in our usual Middle Saranac Lake Bull Rush Bay lean-to spot. I arose from lean-to embraced slumber, stretched, and went down to the lake to inhale the...

Could the earth’s shifting magnetic poles impact lake effect snow patterns? Let me be crystal clear. This piece is not about climate change or global warming. Nor is it in any way, shape, or form an attempt to deflect blame for their escalating impact from the true culprits. This...

I was out along one of my back trails on my afternoon walk yesterday. I love walking my network of trails. It’s so tranquil and quiet. Whether it’s the fluttering flush of a frantic ruffed grouse, or a crisp set of critter tracks breaking trail through fresh fallen snow,...

A Pre-Civil War Bean Pot & Mysteries Surrounding an Early 1800’s Ale Bottle Researching a Pair of Early Adirondack Artifacts My Ongoing Quest for “Before” ********** “Before” That’s a powerful word. The desire to discover it is in large part what drives me. I just love finding old bottles....