Biking and Hiking

We've seen lots of beautiful ocean and dunes the last two days. Yesterday was sunny and calm so we took our bikes to Sandy Hook. We rode the 5 mile bike path the length of the hook and back. W found a tiny turtle on the path. It was the size of a half-dollar and had really neat markings. Too bad we didn't have the camera.

Today was also forecast to be calm(ish) so we loaded the kayak on the car and headed for Island Beach state park. We were going to paddle in Barnegat Bay, but it was very windy by the time we got there. So we gave up on paddling and took a long walk on the beach instead. The sand there is nice and firm once the tide has gone out a bit, so it was very comfortable walking. There were quite a few fishermen and their trucks on the beach, but that was better than all the buildings that we usually see on our shore walks, so it was a nice change.

Diet Watch :)

144.5 pounds; down 1 pound for the week. My short term goal is to keep losing a pound a week through the middle of December so I can fit into my palazzo pants for the December chorus concert.

AMNH

We had a nice trip into the American Museum of Natural History in NYC yesterday. We spent several hours touring some of the galleries. We then went out and had dinner at Cafe Frida. Then in the evening we (and about 900 other people filling LeFrak theater) heard Oliver Sacks talk about his new book Musicophilia.

Kayaking the Shrewsbury River

We paddled on the Shrewsbury River again today, and this time I took the camera.

Diet Watch :)

145.5 pounds; down 1/2 pound for the week. Normally, that wouldn't be much to crow about, but given the week, it is really amazing that my weight is not up. The reason I'm a day late in weighing in is that we spent the last few days in MD with W's folks -- and ate restaurant food all the time.

Kayaking the Shrewsbury River

We kayaked from home today and saw lots of birds:
Many double-crested cormorants
Several great blue herons
A pair of common loons in winter plumage
A pair of swans
Several common terns
And some small gulls that were probably Bonaparte's

Diet Watch :)

146 pounds; down 1 pound for the week. Which is really amazing, since I ate out twice yesterday on the way back to NJ for the season.

Cool Dragonfly

This is a female "Common Green Darner" that I found resting on the window screen this morning. Isn't she neat?

Leaf Peeping from Space

Isn't this cool? It is from the October 2007 issue of Adirondack Life magazine and was taken by a NASA satellite. It really makes the Adirondacks stand out.

The article points to the Earth Observatory Web site where I could get lost for hours looking at the cool photos.

Walk Around Mirror Lake

A neighbor had told me about the walk around Mirror Lake so we tried it today. We were going to eat lunch in Lake Placid so figured we had better exercise first. The walk is 2.7 miles on a nice brick sidewalk all around the lake. We got to look at all the neat homes and had some nice views of the lake. Then we ate lunch at the micro-brewery in town. It was a very nice outing.

Kayaking the Floodwood-Rollins Loop

Today we took advantage of having two cars (W came back late Friday evening and the Lake Clear car rental place is closed on the weekend so he kept the rental car until this evening) and did a one-way kayak trip. We always make sure we do the Rollins-Floodwood loop at least once a season and W hadn't done it yet this year. I'm not sure we ever did it this way before. We started at the boat launch on Rollins Pond and ended on Follensby Clear.

It was an 8 mile trip through some of our favorite waters with no portages. The only downside was the three trips we had to make into the Fish Creek/Rollins campsite in order to shuffle cars. Since it is a holiday weekend, there were lots of folks in the campground so it was a slow drive. But the weather was perfect and the colors are still pretty.

Diet Watch :)

147 pounds; down 1 pound for the week.

I've realized another reason that Weight Watchers works. You weigh in the same day every week. So no matter how bad you are during the week, as long as you get your weight down for that one day, you made it. But that means your weight is down going into the next week. My posting my weight every Saturday has the same effect. It's definitely an added incentive to have that goal every week.

Hike near Tupper Lake

Today's temperatures approached 80 degrees, so I chose a woodsy, shaded trail for my hike today. I parked along Route 30 between the two parking areas on the southern end of Tupper Lake (the lake, that is, not the town) where I had seen what I thought was the trailhead. I was right. It is not marked but obviously used to be a road. I had hoped to get over to the beach we found when we were kayaking in the area, but it would have taken some steep bushwacking since the trail remains up on the ridge. It ends at what must have been a house site and is now a campsite overlooking the lake. The trail would make good x-country skiing or snowshoeing, though there would have be enough snow to sift through the overhanging trees. And if there where that much snow, there might not be a place to park the car. But it might be worth checking out this winter.

Kayaking Lower Saranac Lake

I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and kayaked on Lower Saranac Lake today. It has been sunny and in the 70's. It sure doesn't feel like October.

I paddled around the islands in the middle portion of the lake, climbed around on Bluff Island, and took lots of pictures.