We did our first paddle with the group today, putting in at the northern Stoney Creek Pond and paddling through the ponds and out Ampersand Brook until we stopped at a beaver dam that was a bit too high to pull over. Then back out the brook and down to the Raquette River to Axton landing. Since there was a car shuttle involved, the boats sat for a while before we got on the water.
We finally made it back to the Adirondacks yesterday. We made an early morning trip to Price Chopper in Lake Placid this morning, the first in-person shopping here since the pandemic started. There were very few people around so we felt very safe.
We were interested to see the progress being made ripping up the railroad tracks between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid to make way for a walking/biking path. This is the view of the "tracks" between Saranac Lake and Raybrook. While they have made a lot of progress removing the rails, they clearly have a lot of work left to do.
Then I of course had to explore our woods for wildflowers. There seem to be more painted trilliums each year.
And we have lots of red ones as well.
The only other thing I saw blooming were tiny white violets.
I took a new photo of our camp with its current deck. Hopefully we will have a new, larger deck before too many more weeks.
We had another great New Jersey day today. The temperature was in the mid-80's so time to head to the beach. Our daughter has talked for years about the amazing bird rookery on the island which also houses the Ocean City welcome center.
Once I list the birds we saw, you will think we went to Florida. Great Egret doing a mating display.
Yellow-crowned night heron
Black-crowned night heron
Tricolor heron
White ibis, along with some more yellow-crowned night herons. And there were lots of glossy ibis but they were deep in the trees or flying around so it was hard to get a photo.
And we saw two families of Canada Geese with their very cute goslings
After getting very warm watching the birds we drove down to Corson's Inlet and took the short walk to the beach.
We explored another Monmouth County park today; one we had never been to before. Clayton Park is about a half hour drive south of here. I had read it is a good spot for wildflowers and we weren't disappointed.
The Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia in the Ranunculaceae)
and the Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictroides in the Ranunculaceae) were new to me.
There were LOTS of Spring Beauties (Clayton virginica in the Portulacaceae)
and Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema atrorubens in the Araceae)
and Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus in the Araceae).
The trout lilies were just starting to bloom.
We had to go to a store in Point Pleasant today to look at patio furniture. We are going to have to order furniture for our new deck at camp and wanted to see some examples. So while we were there we of course had to go to the boardwalk for a walk, some boardwalk fries, Kohr's ice cream,
and a game of mini-golf.
We had a good New Jersey day today. This afternoon we drove to Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge to ogle and pick tulips.
Then since we were out anyway, we drove all the way to Neptune to get pizza at Pete & Elda's. We drove to nearby Memorial Park on the Shark River to eat it.
Just a note so I can remember our latest hike. There were quite a few wet spots we had to detour around so we walked about 3.5 miles.
The weather seems to be making up for the lack of snow last winter. This storm is bigger than the last one. Hard to tell how much snow we got since there was so much blowing, but definitely over a foot.
It is hard to tell in the photo but this drift on the front walk is a couple of feet high. It is covered with bird footprints since I have moved the feeders to the front of the house so I can see the birds from my window.
We drove the 8-mile road around the ponds at Forsythe today and saw lots of snow geese.
I just finished this Christmas quilt. It is hanging in a narrow hallway so I couldn't get far enough away to get a full width photo, but you get the idea.
