Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2024 i Adirondack Life

THE HUMAN TORCH Wet wood? Windy? That’s no problem for this gal, who can coax a spark to life anywhere, anytime. DJ JAZZY When this fresh prince shows up with his hand-held speaker—charged to the max, of course—and pre-downloaded playlists, the tunes can follow the party onto the water or around the campfire. MS. MCGIVER If a camp chair goes kaput, the ancient plumbing gets clogged, or the dock buries a splinter in a derriere, she’ll have all the duct tape, tools and know-how you need. SIR MIX-A-LOT Between his cooler fare and whatever’s been forgotten in a corner of the pantry, this maestro can mix up the perfect camp-colada.…

A Great Camps haven and fun for those who played there, including Albert Einstein. He rented a cabin on Lower Saranac and was often seen sailing around the lake—and needing rescue—in the 1930s and ’40s. It was on his camp’s radio in 1945 that he heard the news that an atomic bomb had leveled Hiroshima. Every winter, volunteers gather on Raquette Lake to help harvest more than 2,000 22-by-22-by-14-inch blocks of ice, a tradition that dates to the 19th century. In the past, Raquette Lake ice was shipped by railcar to Utica and Manhattan; now it provides air-conditioning and refrigeration to Raquette Lake Supply, the town’s blocky general store, bakery, tap room and hotel.…

Scholars say composer Samuel Barber wrote Adagio for Strings in Austria. But watch a sunrise from Lake George’s shoreline—waves lapping, light breaking through the dawn mist—and you can imagine how Barber’s heart-stirring masterpiece that crescendos and crashes might have been inspired by this place. It’s possible. From the 1910s on, Barber spent time at his Aunt Louise and Uncle Sidney Homer’s summer retreat in Bolton Landing. The Homers likely looked to the lake for the same reason—Sidney was an accomplished composer and Louise sang with the Metropolitan Opera, as did her friend Marcella Sembrich, who also summered on this lake. For centuries the arts have flourished here. Thomas Cole and Georgia O’Keeffe painted Lake George and its surroundings. Alfred Stieglitz photographed it. David Smith sculpted it. And now, on a…

Though Saratoga Springs is not in the Adirondack Park, that fact is merely technical for people from downstate heading north on Interstate 87. After the three-hour push out of metropolitan New York and up the Hudson Valley, the exit signs for Saratoga are the starting gates that signal the homestretch. And it works the other way as well. From the beginning, Saratoga—that’s Mohawk for “Place of the Rapid Water”—has enjoyed a reputation as a bold exception to every imaginable rule. In the colonial era, when New York’s wild country was a war zone for rival tribes, Saratoga, home to scores of cherished therapeutic springs, was off-limits, an oasis of tranquility. Two centuries later, Prohibition-era gangsters honored a summer truce while ensconced in sumptuous Saratoga digs. In the 19th century and through…

90 Mi. Lake Marathon to Have Local Girl Pitting her Skill Against Scores of Men” read the headline in the Lake George Mirror of Friday, August 17, 1962. “Bulletin! Miss Ginger Henry will be the only feminine entry in the power-boat marathon on Lake George to be held at Hague Sunday. She will drive an extra-fast boat of the AU class and will compete against up to 100 men drivers from many states,” the article began. In researching the history of the marathon, I came across the clipping, opening a floodgate of memories. I can recall being scared to death of this race, despite the fact that I had grown up around these stock utility outboards. From the time I was a toddler, I had accompanied my parents on the…

In the mid-1970s, my parents bought a small, rundown cottage on Fourth Lake, somewhere between Old Forge and Eagle Bay. It was a single-level clapboard building with a century’s worth of furniture down a mile of dirt drive from the main road. We had two neighbors but neither was visible from the cottage. Surrounded by a dense pine forest that grew right to the lake’s edge, the place was secluded. It was a four-hour drive from our house in Fowlerville to the cottage, where we would go to clean the place between renters. Sometimes we’d stay three or four days at a time. At that age, around eight years old, nothing could keep me out of the lake, not even its freezing May temperatures. I was in the habit of…

A little over a week after their colleague Robbi Mecus, 52, fell to her death while ice climbing in Alaska’s Denali National Park, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Forest Rangers Rob Praczkajlo, Allison Rooney and Drew Lewis sat on a rock wall near the top of Whiteface Mountain. Behind them the landscape—peaks, valleys and waters in miniature—stretched on and on. There was no mention of why they chose this spot to talk about Mecus, but getting closer to the clouds makes sense when you’re remembering a hero. The rangers’ grief was fresh, shifting between anguish and disbelief. That morning Mecus’s personal vehicle and ranger truck were still parked in her Keene Valley drive-way, vases of sunny daffodils left on her front step. The only comfort, said the rangers, was knowing Mecus…

This spectacular view of the Whitney Wilderness Area and Little Tupper Lake comes to you courtesy of a very good boy. In 1933 two veterans of Byrd’s 1929 South Pole expedition, Jack Bursey and his lead sled dog St. Lunaire, hauled the bones of a 60-foot fire tower up Buck Mountain, in Long Lake. Now the tower has been rehabbed, and an easement donated by Cedar Heights Timber allows a new generation to follow in St. Lunaire’s pawprints. The 1.2-mile trail was a group effort—Hamilton County, the Town of Long Lake and the Adirondack Mountain Club collaborated on the path up the peak, adding almost a dozen hand-built rock and wooden staircases. Climbing all those steps will get you more than a can’t-miss view: the hike checks off boxes on…

Between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, our modern Lake Champlain—one of the largest lakes in America—was just a small part of the Champlain Sea, a saltwater mammoth. In 1849, the bones of a beluga whale that once swam in its depths were discovered in Charlotte, Vermont. In more recent times, there’s a different giant creature haunting the lake. In 1819 a Captain Crum spotted what he called an almost 200-foot-long black monster with three teeth and a star on its forehead. Since then there have been more than 300 reported sightings of the Lake Champlain Monster. Sandra Mansi, the photographer behind a hotly debated 1977 image of “Champy,” compared the creature to a dinosaur. Two important naval battles were fought on Lake Champlain: the Battle of Plattsburgh, a significant American…

Brooktrout Lake, in the West Canada Lake Wilderness Area, is one of the success stories in the reintroduction of brook trout to its native habitat after being extirpated by acid deposition. This body of water is ringed by ridges, has a lean-to, and requires an almost five-mile hike to reach it. IF YOU GO You’ll find parking for and the trailhead to the Brooktrout Lake trail along Indian Lake Road, deep in the Moose River Plains. The road system here is open through the summer and fall, so careful planning is advised. Learn more at dec.ny.gov.…

Almanzo Wilder and his brother and sisters had been very naughty. Before she left for Uncle Andrew’s for a week, Mother specifically told her cubs, “Don’t eat all the sugar.” And what did they do as soon as their parents were out of sight? Whipped up some ice cream with six cupfuls of worth-its-weight-in-gold sugar—not the homemade maple kind, but fancy white stuff from the store. Later that same day they made pull candy with even more. The next day they made another batch of ice cream. And a pound cake. By the time Mother was due home, the siblings could see the bottom of the sugar barrel. But that wasn’t the worst of it. As they rushed to put the house back in order after a carefree week, Almanzo…

The first time I saw Cali Brooks it was 1999 and she rose like a yellow-haired spirit out of the vegetable garden at the Blue Mountain Center, the former central Adirondack Great Camp turned writers’ retreat. It was only my third or fourth day in the Adirondacks. I was utterly lost. Brushing her dirty hands on her blue jeans, Brooks put me at ease with a laugh (I asked, she has no memory of this meeting) and sent me in the right direction. “It was like an endless summer,” Brooks told me recently, recalling her time working in Blue Mountain Lake. “It was magic. I swam across the lake every day.” A quarter century later, the woman in the garden has emerged as one of the most influential behind-the-scenes power…

Wagon Hitch Wagon trips into Newcomb’s Great Camp Santanoni were in limbo this spring after a dust-up over a new wheelchair-accessible wagon commissioned by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Since 2001, an Americans with Disabilities Act ruling has required the state to provide people with disabilities access to Santanoni, a settlement complicated by rules that make its five-mile carriage road off-limits to motorized vehicles, except for those used by state employees for administrative purposes. For years, Newcombe Farm has been contracted to provide horse-drawn wagon rides to the historic site. But in March the DEC terminated the farm’s contract for noncompliance, after owner Larry Newcombe refused to hitch his team to the new 3,500-pound wagon, citing weight and safety concerns. The DEC has since failed to locate a replacement…

Approaching from the west, the water splays out, peppered with islands, the mountain itself a giant backstop. The lake and mountain are forever one, like Buddha cradling a huge bowl, the forest slopes holding the rain and snow, then sending it all down to the basin. Dribbles and seeps combine into rivulets, then brooks named for creatures (Beaver and Minnow), families (Potter), industry (Sawdust) and such. The notion of watershed plays out here in vivid commotion, these streams cutting under roads, past homes and cascading in gentle falls and the rare raging torrent. High up on Blue Mountain, miles from the marked trail, pinched-together topo lines indicate what should be a dramatic waterfall. I’ve looked, but have yet to clamber over the rocks and among the brambles to find it.…

In the Adirondacks, the answer doesn’t have a clear consensus, according to Phil Snyder, water quality research manager with the Ausable Freshwater Center (formerly the Ausable River Association). He says that “generally lakes are large and deep enough to stratify, while ponds are small and shallow.” But the naming distinction between lake and pond doesn’t always fit the definition. For example, Taylor Pond is large and deep and Lake Colden is small and shallow. According to Snyder, as the Ausable Freshwater Center goes forward with its Survey of Climate Change in Adirondack Lake Ecosystems (SCALE)—a multi-partnered effort to document and understand the impacts of climate change—scientists “are considering any permanent body of water, natural or impoundment, larger than about 0.3 hectare to be a lake,” which, he says, includes bodies…

Loon Language A hoot is an unhurried call used to keep in touch with other birds; tremolos—or the “laughing call”—can indicate a threatening situation, a bird in flight, or a “night chorus” performance by a pair or several loons; the birds will wail when they want to move closer to one another, often parents calling to chicks; only males will yodel, to defend territory or fight with other loons. Learn more at www.adkloon.org. Beaver Rebound In 1904, after the beaver population in New York had been decimated by trapping—fewer than 10 remained—the state imported seven Canadian paddle-tails in an effort to repopulate. Within a decade, that Noah’s Ark of beavers blossomed to 15,000 in the Adirondacks alone. Today, there are more than 70,000 in the region. Fish Facts Though rare…

Eurasian watermilfoil is thought to have entered the US on ship ballast more than half a century ago and has been the bane of the Adirondacks since it was first reported here in 1979. Since then, it has spread to at least 65 water bodies in the park and every year it spreads to a few more, according to the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP), which surveys lakes for invasive species. “It looks like a feather,” says Brian Greene, aquatic invasive species coordinator at APIPP. The Adirondacks has native weeds, including native milfoil species, but Eurasian milfoil can be recognized by its distinct clusters of four feathery leaves whirled around a pink or reddish stem, and blunt leaf tips that look like their edges are cut. In late summer,…

The Adirondack Anglers Outpost, in Wilmington, is a one-stop shop where you can buy gear and a fishing license, hire a guide and, if he’s behind the counter, coax Max Hogg into sharing the sweetest spots—and the best tackle—to catch fish. The Outpost carries live bait and thousands of lures, of course, but Hogg curated a handful for these pages that are creatively crafted and solid choices for spin-fishing in the Adirondacks. SPOOK By “walking the dog”—mimicking a struggling baitfish that zigzags on the water’s surface—this lure catches trout, perch, bass and pike. Successful just about any-where at sunrise and sunset. POPPER This floating lure mimics a baitfish, such as a minnow, struggling on the water’s surface. Perfect for catching panfish just about anywhere in the Adirondacks. JERKBAIT This yellow perch…

Jay Mountain Avoid the High Peaks traffic on this local favorite with a two-mile ridge trail that offers stunning views every which way, plus, in season, bountiful blueberries. IF YOU GO From Route 9N in Upper Jay, take Trumbells Road (which becomes Jay Mountain Road) 3.3 miles to the parking lot across from the intersection with Upland Meadows Road. Total distance to the east summit: 9.2 miles round trip Difficulty: Strenuous Noonmark Mountain Pointy Noonmark lies almost directly south of Keene Valley, “marking noon” when the sun’s over the summit. From here there’s a grand view of the Great Range. IF YOU GO On Route 73 in St. Huberts, turn onto Ausable Road, across from the Roaring Brook trailhead. (This is part of the Adiron-dack Mountain Reserve; parking is free,…