Category: The North Country

A Young Adirondack Outlaw’s Recipe for Justice Mid-seventies Saranac Lake was a magical place. It was a great time to be an Adirondack kid growing up. Kids were allowed to be kids. Cell phones and the internet had not yet been invented. Today’s crowded high peaks lakes, mountains &...

A Weapon So Devastatingly Deadly, It Oughta Be TOP SECRET. ********** Saranac Lake, circa 1975: Our Pine Street Gang was pretty firmly established by then, ensconced in our family’s home headquarters on Stevenson Lane. There was me, of course. I was about twelve at the time, accompanied by the...

Returning Farmland to Forest A Lifetime Investment It was not part of the plan when my wife and I purchased our home, situated on one nine-acre post bank foreclosure subdivided parcel of an old north country farm lot. It was never anything I ever initially even remotely envisioned. It...

Exploring Adirondack Artistry Using Nature’s Canvas It’s funny the little things that quietly provide inspiration, those seemingly small childhood details that stay with us through life. I always admired the engraved “artist’s conk” scene pictured above. It adorned the fireplace mantle in our Stevenson Lane home through most of...

Every Goal Has Its Price ********** For nearly half a century the sprawling ranch style house situated just beyond the small north country city’s reach had been his family’s home. A young man’s version of he and his wife proudly bought it as newlyweds. It had grown with them...

********** He had never been a particularly religious man. At least, not overtly. Most of his conversations with God involved hurling a profanity laced framework of frustrated anger towards the sky’s cloud covered heavens around questions like, “Are you happy now?!?” “Do you find this amusing?!?” “Is that all...

My Adirondack Outlaw 2023 Year End Review A Wedding, a Retirement, an Epic Plane Ride, Speaking in Tongues, My Return to the Almanack, Cedar Log Surgery, 30,000 Readers, Ari Rae’s Apple Tree, an Alamo Shootout, a Green Christmas, and the Journey to SIXTY! Well, another hike through a year...

One Lone Hunter Sat in silent surveillance Watching swamped woodland landscapes Until God’s sunset found him One Lone Hunter Quietly unloaded his rifle Climbed down from his tree stand And made his way home ********** Until Our Trails Cross Again: ADKO...

My mission seemed simple. My planned route, straightforward. Little did I know of the myriad perils lying in wait on the trail before me. It all began innocently enough. “Hey Dad. Carrie & I were wondering. You know those trailhead register boxes? Well, we thought it would be great...

The Saranac Lake Uppers Locks Construction Project An Adirondack Outlaw Scouting Report The NYSDEC announced in early September that the upper locks on the Saranac River between lower and Middle Saranac Lakes would be closed until further notice beginning September 18th due to a planned reconstruction upgrade of the...