Snow

After waiting a couple of days for the snow storms up north to abate, today we drove to the Adirondacks.  The roads were fine, and the snow was beautiful.

We have a bit to clean off the deck - maybe as much as 2 feet. 

The sides of the driveway are already piled high with snow.  If this keeps up, we'll run out of places to put it again this year. 

Funky Caterpillar

Found this fellow on my clothesline.  It apparently is a tussock moth.  The moth is quite drab.  I wonder why nature makes the caterpillars so fancy.  I guess because it can.

At Camp

We drove to camp yesterday.  Today we walked at the VIC.  I was hoping the orchids would still be in bloom, but we didn't see many.  There was one Calopogon blooming and several of these White Fringed Orchis.  But it was a nice walk through the bog.

Heron Rookery

Today we finally remembered to take binoculars and camera to view the herons nesting south of Sabattis Circle on Route 30.  These photos are the best I could do from a distance.

Biking and Hiking

We've been doing a very good job of playing outside, helped by the good weather.  When we are not paddling we can be found biking, hiking/walking, or both.  Yesterday we took the bikes to Fish Creek and did our usual 2 loops around the campground for a total of about 9.5 miles.  Today we went back and rode the bikes to the Floodwood Loop trailhead and walked about 3 miles on the trails.  Then we finished the campground loop on the bikes.  It was a good day except for the bugs.  We've had so few bugs this year that we didn't think to take bug repellent and the deer flies were really bad.  And they are probably here to stay for the summer.  I guess that means we'll be spending more time out on the water.

Happy Anniversary

We celebrated our anniversary today by driving to Lake Placid with J & C and walking the 3 mile loop around Mirror Lake.  Then we had a very nice lunch at Adirondack Steak and Seafood.

Adirondack Carousel

We visited the new carousel in Saranac Lake this morning.  The carved animals/birds/bugs are very neat.

Relaxing at Camp

After some late doctor's appointments yesterday, we started driving north in the late afternoon and got here at 10 PM.  So it is doable, but not recommended.  Those last couple of hours on the winding, dark, deserted roads were not fun.  We are looking forward to some walking, paddling, and general R&R before heading back to NJ on Monday.

Back to NJ

We woke to this this morning, with temps in the low 20's.Quite a change from the high in the low 80's on Thursday. So it is a good day to drive back to NJ. We want to be fresh for tomorrow evening's final artistic director try-outs. Should be interesting.

Earliest Paddle Ever

I paddled on the Flow today. There is still ice in the upper end where there is little flow, but it is rapidly breaking down. If I'd had the kayak instead of my expensive kevlar canoe, I would have tried ice breaking to see how far I could get. The rest of the lake is pretty ice free. It was great to be out on the water again.

At Camp

Drove to camp today. It was 75 degrees when we arrived. More like the first day of summer than the first day of spring. There is still ice on many of the lakes, but it is melted enough on the Flow that I hope to get out in the boat while we are here.

Winter Activities

Even though there is little snow, we are managing to find things to do. Yesterday we snowshoed part of the Deer Pond Loop. But the microspikes would have worked fine. Tomorrow we are hiking in Henry's Woods outside of Lake Placid with some ADK friends and then going to the pot luck dinner afterwards. And tonight Jim and Cindy are coming to dinner. So we are getting our socializing done. Monday we head back to NJ.

New Gear

We drove to camp yesterday. There is very little snow here and relatively high temps. It was above freezing for the entire drive. This afternoon we joined some of our friends for a hike on the trails between Church and Osgood Ponds, across from Paul Smith's. Since there is little snow and what there is is icy, we needed some new equipment. These are microspikes and they worked quite well.After the hike we had a nice dinner at the St. Regis Cafe, the student-run restaurant in Paul Smith's, and then went to John's talk at the VIC.

Happy New Year

What great friends and neighbors we have. We managed to get 20 people in here for the appetizer portion of the neighborhood progressive dinner. W's penquin appetizers were a hit.Then after more courses and more visiting we headed for the get-together with our paddling friends in Saranac Lake for more good food and company. We left too late to get to any of the First Night activities but one of these years I'll get there. We did go out and see the fireworks at midnight and they were especially neat. The warm temperatures - it was in the mid 30's all evening - combined with the little amount of snow that is still left resulted in a lot of fog. It made the drive a bit of a challenge but it made for some great effects with the fireworks. The higher ones disappeared up into the fog then floated down out of it. And many lit the whole sky, reflecting off the fog. A great way to start the new year.

We're headed back to New Jersey tomorrow.