A Wildlife Investment: The Value Hiding in Brush Piles
I honed my trail maintenance skills as a young man on a DEC Trail crew team in the Adirondack high peaks. There I learned a wide variety of valuable skills and techniques, everything from axemanship, to two-man blowdown clearing bowsaw skills, crafting freshly felled cedar trees into water...
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Raising A Glass
Celebrating my Adirondack Bottle Diving adventure forward into 2022 This past year brought what appeared to be an exciting culmination point in my three- year Adirondack bottle diving adventure. First, I discovered a one-of-a-kind vintage Saranac Lake “F.M. Bull” glass & wood stopper pharmacy bottle. Then, Historic...
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Hunter’s Reflections
A Season’s End Hunter’s Poem ********** Each Season’s End Harvests Hunter’s Reflections What Was What Wasn’t What Might Have Been ********** Fallen Waterfowl Feathers Fall Foliage Breeze Trail’s First Frosted Tracks Fresh Buck Rubbed Trees ********** Morning Pre-Dawn Stealth Silence Hunter’s Hart Prayers for Luck ‘Til That True Shot’s...
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When The Gales Come Early
My True Father/Son Adirondack Outlaw Duck Hunting Survival Story Author’s Note: This story appeared in the October 29, 2021 online edition of The Adirondack Almanack. “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee’ The lake it is said, never gives...
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The Phoenix Rises
The New Bull Rush Bay lean-to,
Site 63, Middle Saranac Lake,
Fall 2021...
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Free
Soar High Above Windswept Waters with Eagles Breathe Crisp Mountain Air Through The Trees Rise to The Sun Each Frosty Fall Morning Live Each Day Mother Earth’s Outlaw Way One With Nature Under God Free ********** Until Our Trails Cross Again: Live Each Day True To Your Own ADKO...
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Just Ducky
“In September of 2020, DEC adopted new regulations that added two veteran and active military waterfowl hunting days in four of the five NYS waterfowl hunting zones. During the special season, military active duty and veterans can hunt migratory game birds.” NYS DEC Announcement, September 2020 ********** As...
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Adirondack Dinosaurs
Author’s Note: This story appeared in the November 12, 2021 online edition of The Adirondack Almanack. “Adirondack Dinosaurs are far from extinct. In fact, certain species are quietly expanding their territory, migrating. Ancient carnivores slowly reclaiming what was once their domain. Patiently biding their time while they plot their...
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The Great Canoe Race Conspiracy of 1977
“The untold story of how the Adirondack Park Agency’s scheme blocked the Environmental Conservation Department team from certain canoe racing victory” ********** The year was 1977. I was 13 years old. It was the summer before I entered my freshman year at Saranac Lake High School. My Dad,...
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Dill Pickle Pike
Author’s note: This story appeared in The Adirondack Almanack’s Friday, August 13th, 2021 online edition. “While many pickled pepper’s Peter Piper may have indeed picked, I sometimes ponder: How many pickled pecks would have Piper picked if perhaps Peter were instead picking dill pickle pike.” My first youthful...
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