New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the completion of three new bridges in the Essex Chain Lakes Complex in the towns of Newcomb and Minerva, Essex County.
The bridges provide safer public motor vehicle access to the Essex Chain Lakes Primitive Area and sections of the Blue Mountain Wild Forest, and are accessible from the end of mud season to first snowfall. » Continue Reading.
TAUNY is set to host a variety of programs during the St. Lawrence County Arts Artists’ Studio Tour November 1st to 3rd. The community is invited to stop by The TAUNY Center and to meet local artists and see art-making in action.
These programs will begin on Thursday, November 1st with a 3-day barn quilt making workshop led by Ruth McWilliams. On Saturday, November 3rd, the next Folkstore Artist Spotlight exhibit featuring the work of Susan Robinson will open with a Meet the Artist Opening Reception from 1 to 3 pm. Visitors can drop by The TAUNY Center throughout the day that Saturday to see Folkstore Artists Mary Harding, Tina Charbonneau, Debra Monteith, and Elaine Boots demonstrating their skills in the TAUNY Gallery. » Continue Reading.
All of the buildings of the Gooley Club hunting camp on Third Lake on the Essex Chain Lakes have been removed. The site is cleared. The dozen or so cabins, the shower building, the main lodge clubhouse, the various storage buildings, and the network of docks are all gone.
Under the terms of the state’s purchase from The Nature Conservancy in 2012, the hunting camps and clubs on these lands were allowed to remain until the end of September 2018. Their last exclusive big game season was 2017. The Essex Chain Lakes Complex Unit Management Plan (UMP) called for the removal of the Gooley Club buildings once their term of exclusive use was up, but some members of the Gooley Club, along with allies at Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) and local government leaders, made a last stand to keep these buildings. They argued that the Gooley Club should stay and be preserved and maintained by the state as a kind of living museum of Adirondack hunting and fishing camp culture. » Continue Reading.
Every autumn, when the air tastes of apples and leaves crunch underfoot, my thoughts turn to tiny owls – northern saw-whet owls (Aegolius acadicus) to be exact. Just eight inches in length with a round head and bright yellow eyes, the saw-whet is arguably New England’s most endearing owl. Deer mice, I suspect, would beg to differ.
Saw-whets are small, secretive, nocturnal, and very often silent. As a result, until relatively recently, their migration patterns were poorly understood. Project Owlnet, a network of researchers spanning much of North America with a particular concentration in the northeastern U.S., is changing that. » Continue Reading.
More than thirty students from correctional facilities across the region are the first class of graduates from North Country Community College’s Second Chance Pell program.
The Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015, provides need-based Pell grants to people in state and federal prisons through partnerships with 65 colleges in 27 states. NCCC is the only two-year college in the State University of New York system to offer Second Chance Pell, which allows non-violent inmates with less than five years left on their sentences to earn an associate’s degree. The goal of the program is to improve their chances of finding employment upon release from prison. » Continue Reading.
The public will be able to drive up Prospect Mountain Veteran’s Memorial Parkway and enjoy the views for free on the first weekend in November and on Veterans Day, November 11.
Prospect Mountain Veteran’s Memorial Parkway climbs 5.5-miles from the entry gate to a parking lot just below the summit. There are three separate overlooks along the parkway — the Narrows, Lake George, and Eagle’s Eye — from which to enjoy the scenery of the Adirondack Mountains and Lake George. » Continue Reading.
When the topic of animal intelligence comes up, we might argue whether a crow or a parrot is the more clever, or if dolphins are smarter than manatees. Seldom do we ascribe smarts to life-forms such as insects, plants or fungi. And it is rare indeed that we question our intellectual primacy among animals. It is true that no other species can point to monumental achievements such as the Colosseum, acid rain, nerve gas and atomic bombs. But that does not mean other species are bird-brained. Metaphorically speaking.
It makes sense that elephants and whales are whiz-kids, given the size of their heads. Depending on species, whale brains weigh between 12 and 18 pounds (5.4-8 kg.), and Dumbo’s cranium would tip the scale at around 11 lbs. (5.1 kg.). Compared to them, our 3-pound (1.3 kg.) brains are small potatoes. What sets mammal brains apart from other classes of animal is the neocortex, the outermost region of the brain responsible for higher functions such as language and abstract thinking. » Continue Reading.
Close to Timberline
I want the spacious
sweep of a
green mosaic,
those Tupper Lake
marshes and
fountainheads of
majestic streams.
I want countless
warm ponds
wrapped in cold
weather. The
teardrop of the lake
itself. I want the
secret sources of the
Hudson, log bridges,
and vanished paths.
I want a thin mist.
Ferns, sedges,
grasses, and white-
cedar thicket.
The deep woods.
The spring thaw.
Just early snow on
the tumbled rocks.
This 3.4-mile roundtrip hike in the Horseshoe Wild Forest summits 2,178-foot Goodman Mountain. The hike is over easy to moderate terrain and offers spectacular views of Coney, Tupper Lake, and Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is set to present Julia Goren, coordinator of the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship program, with its 2018 Wild Stewardship Award, and Phil Brown, former editor of the Adirondack Explorer magazine, with its 2018 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award.
They will be recognized at Adirondack Wild’s Annual Meeting of Members and Friends on Saturday November 3, 2018 in the Saranac Lake Free Library, 101 Main Street, Saranac Lake. » Continue Reading.
Perhaps the single-most-recognizable symbol of the Halloween season is the traditional hollowed out pumpkin carved into a smiling or ominous, illuminated-in-the-dark face. But, “Why,” I’ve often been asked, “is it called a jack-o-lantern?”
While much of what’s known is ambiguous at best, the first widely-accepted mention I can find dates back to the five classes of fairies in Cornish lore: the Small People, the Brownies, the Spriggans, the Buccas, Bockles, or Knockers, and the Piskies. The Piskies went about confusing wary travelers; getting them hopelessly lost and eventually leading them into bogs and moors with a ghostly light called Ignis Fatuus; ‘the foolish fire’. Among the named Piskies were Will-O’-the-Wisp, Joan the Wad, and Jack-O’-Lantern. » Continue Reading.
This weekly report of outdoor recreation conditions in the Adirondacks is compiled each Thursday afternoon and fully updated by Friday afternoon.
Contribute Your Knowledge: Add a comment below, or send your observations, corrections, updates, and suggestions to adkalmanack@gmail.com.
Learn and practice the seven Leave No Trace principles. Carry out what you have carried in. Do not leave gear, food, or other items at lean-tos and campsites. Do not litter. Take the free online Leave No Trace course here.
BE PREPARED! Start slow, gain experience. Always carry proper safety equipment – including plenty of food, water, flashlights, space blanket, emergency whistle, first aid kit, fire making tools, extra clothing layers and socks, and a map and compass – inform someone of your itinerary, and be prepared to spend an unplanned night in the woods in cold temperatures. Just before entering the backcountry or launching a boat check the National Weather Service watches, warnings, and advisories here. Follow Adirondack weather forecasts at Burlington and Albany and consult the High Elevation, Recreation, or Lake Champlain forecasts.
Ticonderoga is rattling the cupboards in hopes of conjuring up all the ghosts with its annual Halloween Festival and Fort Ticonderoga’s Maze by Moonlight.
Before or after getting lost in the Heroic Corn Maze, stop by the town of Ticonderoga for a five-day festival of fun, October 26-31. Each day a range of activities are planned that are suitable for the very young to those wanting the traditional scare.
Pumpkin carving, a variety show and pumpkin walk are just a few of the listed activities. Other fun ways to celebrate Halloween include the costumed competition of Glow Bowling or treat n’ treating through a round of Monster Mini Golf. Enjoy a Halloween photo shoot and even a costumed parade for pets. North Country Community College is offering a scary movie or a chance to meet The Great Pumpkin so people of all ages can choose their own level of fright. » Continue Reading.
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