Indholdsfortegnelse for Guide to the Great Outdoors 2023 i Adirondack Life

Wynde Kate Reese hikes barefoot. That’s how she’s taken on the Adirondacks’ 46 highest peaks as well as mountains around the world. For decades Bob Lubeck has photographed birds in the park, documenting their comings and goings. And with a brush, the late boatbuilder Pete Hornbeck captured dreamy scenes of beloved fishing holes and places to paddle. You can read about these folks and the pursuits of others—plus where to hike, paddle and camp—in this Guide to the Great Outdoors. These stories show that what we do here and what motivates and inspires us is personal. We all need this place for different reasons. But what’s missing in this issue of the magazine and, honestly, the hundreds before it, are stories of the kids who will inherit the Adirondack Park,…

Nestled within the southeastern corner of the Adirondack Park are three tiny lakes atop the Kayaderosseras Range: Hunt, Jenny and Efner, carved out as glacial bowls during the Ice Age 10,000–12,000 years ago. I’ve owned a camp on Jenny Lake since 1970, where as a bird bander licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation, I have conducted research on some of the summer and winter avian residents. One of those summer residents is the Eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), a small, inconspicuous, brown-colored flycatcher. It is solitary in behavior and nests in close proximity to human dwellings and outbuildings. It is unusual among flycatchers in its ability to tolerate the advancing frost line in April, sometimes while snow is still on the…

Part canoe and part rowboat, guideboats were the pickup trucks of their day, and they were worked hard. Few originals have survived, but I managed to make a trade seven years ago that landed one in my garage. My first look at it was not encouraging. It was more than 100 years old and you could see through the bottom. Fence staples and bent nails were rampant, along with a dozen broken ribs. But the lines were still there, the planks were fair and the wide hackmatack stem and stern, though battered and bruised, were intact. Eighty percent of the ribs would need to be removed and replaced, but perhaps it was possible that this shell could be brought back from the brink of extinction. Layers of original (likely lead)…

PETE HORNBECK AND I shared a birthday, though we were born 10 years apart. My sign is definitely Capricorn, my stubborn little goat feet firmly planted. Pete was an Aquarius for sure, the water bearer was his spirit guide. But Aquarius is not a water sign, as you might think; it’s an air sign. His creative streak fluidly combined air and water in canoe design along with scores of Adirondack landscapes. His favorite medium was watercolor, evoking Winslow Homer in scenes of rushing streams bordered by deep woods, guides in canoes, fishermen casting for a rise. These paintings often were not literal but interpretations of places he knew well from more than half a century of exploring the Adirondacks. What Pete searched for was the free expression of place through…

Spring is as much a “feeling” as a season, one filled with hope, anticipation, urgency—and a lively new soundtrack. A big part of it all is the new wave of avian characters that begin to appear in April and May, thanks to the migratory compulsion that about half of bird species exhibit. This perilous instinct isn’t aimless wandering or restlessness. It’s part of an ancient genetic recipe that has a critical purpose, to enhance survival by successful reproduction. The move to new neighborhoods is not only about singing, dancing and romance. It involves opportunities related to egg production, food availability, long days for feeding and fewer predators. And after fledglings have graduated in late summer or fall, the empty-nesters go back home to Margaritaville to await the return of that…

Mount Adams is a dazzling but somewhat difficult hike, with a distance and gain in elevation similar to the High Peak of Cascade, even though its elevation is some five hundred feet less. My gizmo clocked it at 5.3 miles round trip, but then I tend to poke around a bit, so my totals always come in on the high side; the official distance round trip is 4.8 miles. If Mount Adams were on the northern side of the High Peaks, safe to say it would be crawling with hikers like Ampersand and Hurricane. But it sits to the south, far from the madding crowds and relatively unnoticed. The southern access to the High Peaks is starting to draw a bit more attention, but it’s still just a trickle compared…

More than a century after it was erected on top of Swede Mountain, in Hague, the metal fire tower still stands. In its early days the only folks who scaled it were up there to spot fires; now anyone can climb the 47-foot tower’s seven flights to take in stunning views of Gore and Crane Mountains and Brant Lake. A new trail was recently completed and hikers will find an easy, 1.8-mile roundtrip—with abundant wild raspberries in season—to add to their southern Adirondack peak repertoire. And word is that the Adirondack Mountain Club plans to add Swede to its Adirondack Fire Tower Challenge. IF YOU GO At just under 2,000 feet, Swede Mountain has an elevation gain of 238 feet. The peak’s trailhead and parking area, by North Pond, can…

Wow. You’re having a really Adirondack summer.” It was just an offhand comment by a friend last year, but it struck me at the time. I live within spitting distance of the Blue Line and I’ve worked all corners of the park over my decade-plus at Adirondack Life. Aren’t all of my summers “really Adirondack”? But I knew what she meant. Although my husband and I camp, hike, paddle and party in this vast playground at our doorstep, we tend to do the same things in the same places every year. Gathering with friends and family at camps on Chazy, Chateaugay and Mountain View Lakes? Check. Anniversaries on our special site at Forked Lake? Check. Celebrating my birthday with a float down “our” stretch of the Saranac River? Check. Scoring…

You may have noticed a little more activity during the summer at the busy intersection of Routes 28 and 30, the crossroads for Indian Lake, Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lake. Across from the Corner Store, colorful umbrellas shade picnic tables. A food truck is often set up to the left, a musician strumming a guitar on the right, all in front of Potter’s Resort’s new taproom featuring craft brews from Brooklyn’s Strong Rope Brewery. On a steamy August afternoon, Rebecca Zeh, of Ballston Spa, cools down in the shade with a red ale. Her family has been coming up to stay around the corner at Hemlock Hall since she was a kid. Her husband, Brent Pickerd, strolls up with hot dogs from an Old Forge–based food cart and a…

ADRENALINE JUNKIES should look elsewhere; Bike the Barns is “a tour, not a race,” says BikeADK’s Doug Haney, organizer of the fully supported event. Each October, 300 bicyclists cruise the Champlain Valley’s bucolic backroads at the height of fall color, with pit stops at small farms along the 25- to 35-mile route. Greeting participants who complete the route at “whatever pace makes them smile the most” is a celebration with local food, beer and music. This year’s tour, on October 7, begins and ends at Ausable Brewery, in Keeseville. Proceeds benefit Adirondack North Country Association’s (ANCA) Local Food Systems Program. Learn more about the tour at www.bikeadirondacks.com and about ANCA at www.adirondack.org.…

4.4 MILLION AMERICANS tried fishing for the first time in 2020* FINGERS AND FACES: most common body parts to get fishhooked 88,000+ PEOPLE per year ingest fishhooks or other tackle** DARTS was banned as a game of chance in the United Kingdom until 1908 THE OLDEST KNOWN FISHHOOK, fashioned from shells up to 23,000 years ago, was discovered on East Timor in 2011 TRADITION holds that if a woman’s bread falls off her fondue fork, she must kiss her neighbor. Modern men should think twice before suggesting this to a woman holding a fork PREVENT INJURIES by wearing gloves, using pliers to remove hooks from fish, or using barbless hooks Three methods for emergency fishhook removal: 1. PULL THROUGH 2. STRING YANK 3. CUT IT OUT THE TERM “BROKEN ARROW”…

Portrait #1 The girls and I took to calling him “Boneless Weasel,” a groundhog who one day announced himself from under the empty barn on our land in Essex. He’d dart between the dandelions and split the unmown grass until spring labored into summer, and summer into the first thin, cool day of September, jellied paunch undulating as he skittered over lawn and into bush. When he hoisted his block frame atop a stump like a kind of fur-spangled orator, he seemed eager to direct the goldenrod and aster to please open their hymnals. His visits never failed to bring joy, my youngest daughter, Sophie, alerting her big sister, Grace, “Look, look, there he is!” as he bounded from the sugar maple to the relative safety of the barn. Or…

Fishing provides its own competition, a high-stakes (for the fish, anyway) game of chess played along a lonely stretch of river or on a quiet backcountry pond. But for those who want to test their skills against fellow humans on bigger waters and for bigger stakes, there’s the Lake Champlain International Father’s Day Derby on June 17–19, with more than $200,000 in cash and prizes on the line for netting one of 13 different species in nine categories. Register by June 16; learn more at www.mychamplain.net. For the small fry, the Long Lake Fish and Game Club (longlakefishgame.com) puts on its Youth Fishing Contest at Jennings Park Pond—which is stocked with trout every spring—on June 3 starting at 9 a.m. On July 1, the Indian Lake/Blue Mountain Lake Fish &…

My family’s dock on Schroon Lake is 50 years old this year. Like the classic paradox of the ship of Theseus, it has been patched and repaired, new boards added, a spine rebuilt, and foam floats replaced—so thoroughly worked over that we are not quite certain it is the same dock that first went into the water in 1972. Our dock is the most visible sign of my family’s relationship with Schroon Lake. Ninety years ago, in the depths of the Depression, my great-grandparents Luisa and Andrew Vollaro, both Italian immigrants, purchased land on both sides of the lake. In those days, the family operated a cabin rental business with five bungalows on the west shore, in the “narrows.” Many of their customers were families that drove up from New…

I’d like to say I have warm memories of my first time camping, but the truth is I don’t remember it at all. Camping was simply part of my childhood: learning to roll up a flannel sleeping bag, chasing crawdads through the creek, cooking breakfast over the coals of the previous night’s campfire. I do, however, remember my first time camping in the Adirondacks. It had been a while since I’d slept in the woods, and I’d gotten used to living in the city. Falling asleep every night to sirens and the hum of an air conditioner made me jumpy in the quiet. I was too quick to believe my tentmate when she said that the sounds we heard outside must be coming from an angry wild boar—as it turned…

WYNDE KATE REESE sets off for a day hike that will take her to the top of Rooster Comb Mountain in Keene Valley. She’ll pick her way over gnarled tree roots, pine needles and rock for several hours until she reaches the summit, just shy of 3,000 feet. On this trek Reese lacks a piece of gear most hikers wouldn’t consider going without. “Anytime I’m feeling confused or anxious or a little lost or depressed, I’ll step into the woods in my bare feet,” she says. For 44-year-old Reese, hiking barefoot is a natural extension of her longtime connection to the natural world. As a child, she grew up on 20 forested acres in Tupper Lake, scrambling through the woods, often without shoes. That early foundation instilled a sense of…

ONE OF THE MOST VERSATILE TOOLS in the camp cook’s arsenal, according to Emily Vikre, author of The Family Camp Cookbook (Harvard Common Press, 2022), is a cast-iron skillet. “[It] may be heavy, but it makes up for it by being able to cook darn near anything all while toning your biceps in the process. Cast iron is nice because you can use it on a camp stove, or over a campfire on a grate, or even sitting directly in coals. And they last forever.” Here are two recipes that make use of the Swiss Army Knife of cookware. SKILLET “LASAGNA” Lasagna is the Coziest. With a capital C. It’s also a pain in the butt to make, even under the best of circumstances. This simple skillet version subverts all…

Home gardeners embrace optimism each spring. Market growers combine informed aspiration with hard reality. Jeffrey Rugen, with 15 acres and eight greenhouses, lives in Hope. The week after a spring storm dumped more than a foot of snow on his place, knocking out the power and forcing him to tend to generators reluctant to keep the hothouses warm, Jeffrey said, “Farming is not as romantic as people think.” His Hope Valley Farm is tucked amid the hills and creeks of southern Hamilton County. In the 1800s this area supported about a thousand residents, many of them living off the land, their vegetable plots, orchards, fields and livestock sustaining them. Now, according to Jeffrey, the population is half that number, and when it comes to growing food, “I’m kind of a…

This cyanotype of two gentleman picnicking atop Panther Mountain was captured almost 130 years ago by Grotus Reising. Panther, near Tupper Lake, a short scramble with extraordinary summit views of the Seward Range, was, as it is today, a favorite among folks looking for a quick up and down. Reising, who grew up on a farm in Wilmurt, in Herkimer County, was custodian of the Morehouse Lake Club for sports looking to hunt and fish, and later became a guide. He knew the southwestern Adirondack terrain inside and out and often photographed life in lumber camps as well as Adirondack characters doing their thing. Reising must also have known the importance of a silent summit, of showing reverence for the landscape. In this image there’s a sizable pack basket as…