Indholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2023 i Adirondack Life

SHANGREEN-LA Robert Stieve’s article “Seeing Green” (August 2023) really hit me. I “grew up,” so to speak, in the Old Forge/Inlet area—I visited Limekiln Lake, Bald Mountain and the Enchanted Forest every year. The Adirondacks do speak to you! Many mornings I’ve paddled out in my kayak to listen to the forest and lake “wake up.” I drink in the birds, the lapping water and, if I’m lucky, a loon will call in the distance or maybe close by. Thank you, Mr. Stieve, for your article about “my” slice of paradise. Thank you, Adirondack Life, for an outstanding magazine that brings memories and emotions out so vividly. Chuck Dunbar via email BALANCING SCALES Erin Schumaker’s comprehensive overview of Eurasian Watermilfoil (“In the Weeds,” August) effectively addresses many of the initiatives…

WHEN YOU’RE 1,200 POUNDS with a set of horns fit for an oilman’s Cadillac, temperament is everything. As such, there is much to like about Drew, the herd sire at Raven Moon Yaks, a majestic creature who resides down there somewhere beneath his great blanket of black and white fleece, and moves slowly and elegantly around the pasture like a fringed parade float, seeking grass and adulation in the shadow of the low peaks that flank Lake Champlain. One other thing to know about yaks, say Raven Moon owners Steph Larsen and Noah Weber, is that temperament is hereditary. So Drew’s offspring are in high demand, giving a boost to the breeding operation they brought to the North Country from Montana on the eve of the pandemic. Yaks, Larsen said, are…

BARRY GREGSON BARRY GREGSON RUSTIC FURNITURE, SCHROON LAKE “Functional sculpture” is what Barry Gregson calls the pieces he makes using materials from the woods. “The find makes the fashion,” he says, and these days a finished piece is likely a chair, one that appears to have pushed up from the earth itself, elegantly gnarled. “I really love making chairs and get a kick out of supporting the human form,” says Gregson. In the 42 years he’s been crafting rustic furniture, he’s put a lifetime guarantee on everything he makes. “Now that I’ve got my gray hair and I’m 70, people kind of say, ‘Well, big deal,’” he laughs. But “fussed-over furniture takes a long time to make. The first priority is durability, the second is comfort and the third priority is…

My life changed when I bought it,” says Roger Jakubowski. The “it” he’s referring to is Camp Topridge, on Upper St. Regis Lake near Paul Smiths. And more than 30 years later there’s still plenty to say about that, like how a hardworking hot-dog vendor rose from the Atlantic City Boardwalk to the soaring great room of General Foods founder Marjorie Merriweather Post’s summer estate. For years I’d been trying to get Roger to tell me—on the record—about his Adirondack life, about what it was like to own Topridge, one of the most iconic Great Camps. I’d visit him at Ledge Rock, in Wilmington, the motel he runs and where he lives with his family. In his Jersey accent he’d drop stories about meeting this person or that, about what…

Years ago, when I ran across a place called “Coot Hill” during one of my deep dives into local newspaper archives, I gave a little giggle and stashed the info in the quirky-names file I keep in a half-forgotten part of my brain. (For another example see “Bungtown or Bust,” from our February 2014 issue.) But then the tiny outpost, which is snuggled in the highlands between Port Henry and Crown Point, kept popping up in my research. Given that the topics I favor tend toward the naughtier side of old-timey Adirondack life, I noticed that a good many members of the Coot Hill community—back in the day, anyway—seemed to attract a good bit of trouble. Coot Hillers were referred to as “scrappers” in one newspaper writeup, and that designation…

If by chance The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier lands in your bookstore this November and you are bold enough to try to lift it without a small crane, you will be amused to know I first envisioned this production as a pamphlet. Maybe 50 pages max. That’s how much I didn’t know about how much I didn’t know. Because a story line as clear as this—how much was there to say? Land baron has a big idea, and it tanks. Adirondack history abounds with these. Morehouse, Gilliland, Macomb, the geniuses who dreamed up Castorland. My land-rich visionary was an antislavery reformer named Gerrit Smith who, in 1846, rolled out a plan to donate 120,000 of his Adirondack acres, in (mostly) Franklin and Essex Counties, to…

Kyle Hall, Hall’s Stick Furniture & Signs Gary Pierce Chipman Woodworks Ken Kenia Mad River Antler Chris Mays Vine Valley Rustics Bob & Linda Jones St. Lawrence River Decoys Ted Keenan, Keenan Family Rustics Gary & Barb Casagrain, Casagrain Gallery Bob Stump, Robert Stump Studios Barney Bellinger Sampson Bog Studio Jim Schreiner, Great Sacandaga Designs Barry Gregson, Gregson Rustic Furniture Larry Jenne ADK Rustiques Jeannette Brandt & Mike Parwana Chicken Coop Forge Paul Lakata, Paul Lakata Artwork Anto Parseghian Abiding Branches Frank Hamm Frank Hamm Co. Dave DeVoe, Out of the Adirondacks Bob Brown Brown Enterprises Rick Pratt Around the Bend Randy Holden Elegantly Twisted Gary Chudzinski Fauna on Flora Jamie Sutliff Cold River Studio The Post family L. Post Rustics Josh Bishop Josh Bishop Art Russ Gleaves Hope Falls…

Some of my kin consider it odd that a person who already “lives out in the woods,” as they say of me, spends much of each summer many miles away, in the deeper woods of the Adirondacks. I suppose they are right. My home is at the end of a long gravel driveway in the Alleghenies of southwestern New York and is surrounded by forest, and my Adirondack cabin, located on a forested hillside at the end of a seasonal road between Blue Mountain Lake and Long Lake, is two miles from the nearest power line. The cabin lacks running water, even from a pitcher pump, but a short walk takes me to the running Salmon River. To some of the people I know, it must seem that my trips…

BIG MOOSE LAKE, EAGLE BAY, NY 13331 The Waldheim. Seventeen cottages with fireplaces overlooking scenic Big Moose Lake. Established in 1904, The Waldheim has changed little since. Rates include three delicious meals served daily in a central dining room. Unstructured opportunities allow guests to relax, recreate or be with family. 315-357-2353. www.thewaldheim.com. BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE, NY 12812 Potters Resort. Discover history, and enjoy Strong Rope Brewery’s Taproom. Explore the lake by kayak or paddleboard from your cabin door. Lakeside Cabins with home away from home amenities. Enjoy private firepits, picnic areas, charcoal grills. Stay, Play, Explore More. 518-954-5365. www.pottersresort.com. LAKE PLACID, NY 12946 Best Western Adirondack Inn. This beautiful Inn is ideally located directly across the street from the Olympic Center and the Public Beach! The spacious and comfortable rooms…