Sliding Into Autumn

We have been waiting for the right weather to take our annual kayak paddle across Lake George from the Ticonderoga Beach to Roger's Rock. Yesterday morning was it, with a light north wind becoming glassy calm.

We headed across to Windmill Point at the southern end of Heart Bay, although the windmill no longer has its blades. Somewhere near where I took this photo, is the underwater remains of the wreck of the Ticonderoga that burned and sank in 1901. The water is so clear and we keep looking for it, but never seem to find anything. Our neighbor and Dave have decided to go dive and find it next summer.

(Photo found online)

The leaves were starting to show their colors as we approached the shoreline along Roger's Rock and Slide. There were two rock climbers that were getting ready to ascend the slide, but they were still in prep mode, so we didn't watch them very long.

It was such a spectacular morning and although it was about 65 degrees in and out of the water, Dave couldn't resist one last swim of the season. Not only did he dive once into the water that is really deep to shore, but he did it three times!

If by some chance we don't get to go out again, we definitely ended this summer on a high note!

Gull(less) Pond

What a spectacular day for a short hike to Gull Pond, which is near Schroon Lake. The sun was shining, making the changing leaves even more vibrant.

This is another new trail for us, and it was a little over half a mile to the pond. It must be wet in the spring, because someone had taken great pains to divert some of the creeks and make a stone walkway and wood bridge to keep everyone dry. 

This looks to be a heavily used trail, aka a herd trail. Even though it is a little out of the way, we were disappointed to see several other vehicles in the parking area already, and it was only 9:30 AM. We didn't pass anyone though, until we were almost at the pond, and it happened to be a couple portaging a Stand-Up Paddleboard that they must have explored the pond with (quite a feat...I wouldn't want to do that with our kayaks). The wooded knoll before the pond is really pretty and looked to be a good picnic spot amidst the carpeting of pine needles.

Then we heard before we saw, a 3 generational family at the water's edge (actually we could hear them when we first entered the trail). The two little kids were having a good time, but very noisy and yelling. There was also another couple sitting on a rock overlook, but at least they were quiet and enjoying the serenity. When we get to a place like this, I feel like we need to be quiet and almost reverent. Plus noise scares away a lot of the nature. We were standing off to the side and suddenly everything got quiet and we realized we were all alone! We ventured out to see the different views of the pond. No gulls were there, but we did see a kingfisher diving into the water in the distance. The cliffs across the lake are quite impressive and I have read that there is a very rough trail around the pond, but one we wouldn't attempt.

There is even a tiny rock island in the middle of the pond. We did see a turtle, and wondered how far it had to come to get to this body of water.

We had a guest come visit us, and we could tell that this chipmunk was used to people and being fed, since it came right up to our feet. At least it can get some food on its own because it looked like it was eating a bee honeycomb. A small brown snake went right in front of it at one point, startling it...and me!

The walk back reminded us of Hansel and Gretel and we were looking for the witch's house or at least some kind of troll house. It certainly is a very picturesque place, especially if you time it right.

Exploring New Trails

 For the past two days we have been hiking new trails, so I guess you can say we have been seeing a new horizon! Yesterday we tried out the hiking trails in the Splitrock Wild Forest Preserve, along Lake Champlain, just north of Westport, NY. 

As you can see from the map, there are many different trails, and after reading about each, we originally thought that we would attempt the Calamity Trail (maybe a bad omen?😉) since it is supposed to go through an old rock quarry. The road access must have been unmarked because we couldn't find it, so it was best to leave that for another day after more research. Instead we decided to 'wing it' and head out on the main trail. Once again, fate was good to us and we found the trails to be in great shape and easy to handle, with gentle inclines and declines and rock formations on each side of the trail. 

"Gary's Elbow' Trail met up with the trail to the Snake Den look-out over the lake (luckily not a snake in sight). We ended up being up higher than we thought and sat on a rock at the edge of the cliff. To add to the ambiance and serenity of this spot, we heard a strange bird call, almost like a squealing, and looked up to see a pair of bald eagles flying next to each other, almost at our eye level. 

There was lots of converging of different trails, but thankfully they were very well marked. 

On the way back, we opted to take the Lewis Bay Clearing trail and came across the remains of an antique car that Dave thinks was from the 30's. There were rusty car parts strewn around and half buried, so I bet it would be a great place to do a little excavating to see what else could be unearthed. This is a forest preserve though, so that isn't possible.

This was a very nice 4 mile walk and on this day we were lucky not to encounter too many other hikers. So many of the trails in the Adirondacks are now overrun with people and our goal is to find the out of the way places that hopefully aren't popular. Of course the terrain has to be easy for us two old goats, so we have our work cut out for us. My next post is on today's hike and we weren't quite so lucky with avoiding people, but it all worked out well in the end. Stay tuned!

Tree Teamwork

 I recently noticed a pile of wood shavings under one of our trees near our driveway. I looked up to see that the tree was riddled with woodpecker holes and looked half dead. Our power line to the house runs overhead right next to the tree with one branch actually over the wire, so if it fell, it would take out our power. I knew it was time to call in 'the specialists', Dave and Karl, who work great as a team when it comes to cutting down trees. Yesterday, Dave started up Hercules, the Ford 555, and attached our gigantic 1 1/2" tugboat rope to the tree and Herc. He pulled the tree away from the power lines and house while Karl cut the tree. I was the relay person, watching Karl's progress and telling Dave when to start backing up.

As you can see from the photos, there are lots of other trees it could have taken down along its way to the ground. Things didn't go quite as expected, but actually it turned out even better, because it got jammed between two small trees. Dave just pulled it the rest of the way down with Hercules and it made less of a mess than if it had taken the other trees with it. "Great minds at work"...

Then it was time for me to join the team and get on the New Holland to clean up branches and pull the tree trunk into the woods (Karl will cut it up later to burn and help heat his house this winter).

You can see why I was concerned about the condition of the tree. The woodpeckers will hopefully stay in the woods now, where there is so much more to choose from.

Allen Head Hike

A few days ago, TOGs decided to go hiking the Allen Head trail at Shelburne Harbor on Lake Champlain. It has been many years since we have done this, so we knew it was time to add this trail back to our repertoire of hikes. The walk started out fine and we even remembered this bridge and stairway across one of the small creeks. 

However, once we got to Allen Hill, one old goat turned into a chicken....me! I started up the steep, well worn trail, but with my fear of heights, remembrance of a broken ankle and the rolling stones along the way, I felt like I was going to fall backwards and opted to go back down. The photo below makes it look like just a flat trail, but it wasn't and this is only the first part with the second half steeper. 

Luckily there are several other trails that lead to the bay overlook and beach, bypassing the actual hill and cliff. I tried to convince Dave to go up the hill by himself, but being the good husband he is, he stayed with me on the inside route. We made it to the little beach and the boats were serenely floating on their moorings, protected from the south wind...

You would never know that the wind was blowing 25-30 mph, unlike the Burlington waterfront where the boats were not protected in the southerlies. Look close at the one sailboat doing a 'wheelie' as  it pitches in the waves, and another is blown sideways and leaning over.

The ironic thing about this blog post is that I was trying to find out how long ago it was that we did this daytrip, and found the post about it from five years ago. I had to laugh because the photos were almost exactly the same! History repeats itself, although I did make it up the hill that day. Oh well, it's all about compromise and as Dave said, "it's better to be a live chicken than a dead goat." 😉

Hydroplanes & Motors

The Mohawk Chapter of the Antique Outboard Motor Club was actually able to hold their hydroplane show and swap meet at Schroon Lake today. Unfortunately it was too windy to have the hydroplanes out on the lake, but there were still some on display on land. There were lots of outboards and engines also, and just by looking at the photos below, you can imagine how loud a few of them are! Despite the wind and cool temps, it ended up being a great event, especially since there were so few events of any kind held this summer. Enjoy the photos...