The Adirondack Almanack publishes occasional guest essays from Adirondack residents, visitors, and those with an interest in the Adirondack Park. Submissions should be directed to Almanack editor Melissa Hart at editor@adirondackalmanack.com
By Anna M. Butler
Breckinridge “Breck” Chapin of Saranac Lake, New York passed July 11, 2000. He spent the last ten years of his life serving as the Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center, where he worked to establish the Butterfly House. » Continue Reading.
By Ann Morgan, North Country Healthy Heart Network
For the last five years, the North Country Healthy Heart Network’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program has worked with partners across Franklin County to increase access to affordable, nutritious food for all age groups.
Rural municipalities and school districts in Franklin County are frequently isolated from bigger grocery stores and farmers markets, thus limiting access to healthy, fresh produce. Healthier food options help lower the risk of chronic disease and improve health outcomes. Students need nutritious food to perform their best at school, and the tools and education to incorporate healthy living into their lifestyles.
By Vanessa Banti
Awake! Open your eyes, my friend from that small Adirondack town. Do you hear the distant sound of my car exiting the Northway? It’s me, the young city dweller! I am coming to visit.
My Subaru is stuffed with gear, and I’m listening to a liberal podcast. I’ve started driving at 4AM to snag trailhead parking. I’m coming to AirBnB, to regular BnB, to hammock, to hike, to paddle, to leaf peep, to mountain bike, (even to take Instagram photos!) and to generally hang around in your wilderness. Yes, I know, because a lot of people remind me: it’s your wilderness, and I am but a visitor.
But perhaps you don’t think that last bit is quite right. Since I’ve woken you up, my headlights strafing past your window, I think the least I owe you is an explanation.
By James M Schaefer
The Long Path was created in 1931 by my father, the late Vincent J Schaefer (1906-1993). It followed in the tradition of the Appalachian Trail (Georgia to Maine) and The Long Trail of Vermont. Both the AT and Long Trail popularized “End-to-End”—through hiking.
The Long Path was designed as a corridor rather than as a singular blazed trail. My father’s hiking philosophy was to leave no trace – “all one needs is a compass, map and good woods sense.” From the start his concept was to engage hikers in finding landmarks on the Long Path — a mountaintop, a waterfalls, a geologic anomaly, or a cultural or historic site.
By Joseph M. Dash
Oh the perils of winter camping – at least when you use modern equipment. I read the article, “A Winter Trail Too Far,” (posted Jan. 29, 2020 in the Adirondack Explorer) with great interest. My sympathies to the brave team hiking the Northville-Placid trail in winter. Hearing about the toil of breaking trail, frozen clothes, iced-over boots and the physical exhaustion from days in the cold made me realize how inadequate modern equipment is for winter.
By Paul Czajkowski
It was a warm clear morning when I met Ben at 4 a.m. to go hiking in the High Peaks of New York’s Adirondack Mountains. The weather was forecasted to be sunny, dry and very hot (100+°F).
We had a great drive up to the trailhead and arrived around 6:30 a.m., it was already around 80°F.
Our plan for the day was to hike up over Blueberry Mountain and summit Porter, one of the Adirondacks’ designated 46 high peaks. We made good time getting to the shoulder of Blueberry where we stopped to take a break. Ben said he wanted to make a video to send to his old college friends back in Ohio. He said to go on ahead and he would catch up to me. I went ahead about 100 yards and found a nice rock outcropping facing towards Whiteface where I stopped to have a snack and take a couple pictures.
By Connor Smith, 2020 ANCA Graduate Fellow
My introduction to the Adirondack Park was made through a summer camp in 2016 when a friend convinced me to work in Saranac Lake. As a resident of the West Coast, I was excited for an opportunity to explore the East as I knew nothing about the area. Somewhere along the way, I must have caught the Adirondack bug, because four years later I am back in the area.
I’ve been working this summer as a Graduate Fellow at ANCA, supporting the work of the Center for Businesses of Transition. As I ponder what my future will look like upon the completion of my fellowship, moving to the North Country is an option I am considering. I do have reservations about transitioning to full time life inside the Blue Line. Here are some of the questions I ask myself:
Denuding the Adirondack Woods.
There is in the previous sentence a title of a book. There are many reasons why we go into the Wilderness. I go to be away from people and visit my church, if you will excuse the expression.
The natural wonder of nature and of being in a wild place calms my nerves and feeds my soul more than anything else I can do in my day to day life. The Adirondacks feel timeless, and throwback to an early period in American history. Trees, water, rocks, sand, wildlife, all of this profoundly changed during the many periods of ice advancement from Canada almost down to Virginia. Advance and retreat, then repeat and repeat again.
By Paul Kalac
I was a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy in the early 80’s when I started fly-fishing for trout. I’m not sure if I instinctively understood to keep my favorite trout streams to myself, or if I was taught to keep them to myself by the old-timers who made me a fly-fisher. But I was imperfect. I shared my favorite trout streams with some high school buddies. I know some of those guys were not my closest friends. So there’s no telling with whom they talked after we fished together. I’m sure word got around to some degree.
A watershed association made up of key groups and individuals formed on my favorite trout stream in the 1990’s and I became secretary. I had since learned that trout streams need friends, not button-lipped fly fishers. The minds of the old-timers who wanted to keep the stream’s secrets to themselves were flawed; all those who enjoyed or profited from the resource needed to come together to discuss and tackle issues related to the health of the watershed.
Hi! My name is Maura Maguire and I graduated this past May from Clarkson University with a Bachelor’s in Global Supply Chain Management and will start my Master’s in Environmental Policy in the fall. During this lengthy economic pause, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences as a supply chain major and watch local and global supply chains alike falter under the pressure of a pandemic.
What is a supply chain?
The concept of supply chains is thrown around a lot in industry, and it can be difficult to find a clear and concise definition on the topic. I will admit that I chose to be a Supply Chain Major without knowing what a supply chain was! All I knew is that I wanted to work in business and engage in activities that help businesses and communities run efficiently.
By James Sullivan
On July 15, the Morgan Duke Conservation Society, along with seven new volunteers came together and had a litter clean-up day at the Hudson River Special Management Area, known as the Buttermilk & Bear Slides in Lake Luzerne.
The new volunteers came from Hudson Falls, Glens Falls, Hadley, and Lake Luzerne and other places. They helped picked up garbage throughout the area, along the road, and around campsites near the Hudson River. Several of the volunteers removed some of the graffiti that was on the rocks.
By Anna M. Butler
Dr. Janet Mihuc is a biologist who specializes in entomology, which is the study of insects. She is a professor at Paul Smiths College in their Natural Sciences Department where she teaches courses in entomology, aquatic invertebrates, invertebrate zoology, and guides senior students’ research for their capstone projects. For several years she has been building a checklist of the moth species present on Paul Smith’s College lands. She served as the Director of Project Silkmoth, a citizen science project designed to document sightings of giant silk moths in northern New York State. She holds a Doctor of Arts in Biology from the Idaho State University.
National Moth Week is an international citizen science project. It runs July 18-26 this year.
By Patrick Dowd
Polluted stormwater isn’t just a problem in developed areas around Lake George. Just last week Lake George Association staff worked with the Town of Putnam’s Highway Superintendent, Gary Treadway, to implement a solution that stems the flow of polluted stormwater and protects the Lake’s water quality.
A small grassy swale (designed to capture stormwater) adjacent to the Town of Putnam Fire Department’s Lake access area in Glenburnie (northern Washington County) was filled to capacity with sediment, causing polluted stormwater to run into the lake and onto the neighbor’s dock and property.
From the July/August 2020 issue of Adirondack Explorer, editors asked the question: “Is now the right time for New York to move forward with the Restore Mother Nature Bond Act?”
Latest News Headlines
Latest News Headlines
The Adirondack Almanack is a public forum dedicated to promoting and discussing current events, history, arts, nature and outdoor recreation and other topics of interest to the Adirondacks and its communities
We publish commentary and opinion pieces from voluntary contributors, as well as news updates and event notices from area organizations. Contributors include veteran local writers, historians, naturalists, and outdoor enthusiasts from around the Adirondack region. The information, views and opinions expressed by these various authors are not necessarily those of the Adirondack Almanack or its publisher, the Adirondack Explorer.
General inquiries about the Adirondack Almanack should be directed to editor Melissa Hart.
To advertise on the Adirondack Almanack, or to receive information on rates and design, please click here.Catch up on all your Adirondack
news, delivered weekly to your inbox
Help us keep bringing you the Adirondack information you value.
Email
Twitter
RSS
Facebook
Locals Say No To Heartbeat International In The Adirondack Park
Back in March, the Saranac Lake Development Board approved a new “Hospital” to open its doors in town: the innocent-sounding Adirondack Pregnancy Center (APC). However, a closer look at the APC reveals a very nefarious motive, one that poses a great danger to Saranac Lake and the Adirondacks at large.
» Continue Reading.