Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Adirondack Health Hits $12M Funding Goal

Saranac Lake surgical servicesAfter two years of fundraising, the Adirondack Health Foundation has surpassed the $12 million community goal established for the Future of Care Campaign.

The Future of Care Campaign supports Adirondack Health’s $45.8 million capital improvement project, which includes the construction of a new health and medical fitness center on Old Military Road in Lake Placid and a new surgical services wing and MRI suite at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. Between donations, grants, bequests and proceeds from special events, the comprehensive total amount raised has grown to more than $16 million. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 27, 2018

Tony Goodwin: Peaks Don’t Need Permits

hiker on Giant MountainThe July/August issue of the Explorer carried an impassioned call from Chris Amato for the Department of Environmental Conservation to implement a permit system for the High Peaks Wilderness Area.

Amato’s rationale was that the High Peaks no longer meet the definition of a “wilderness area” contained in the Adirondack State Land Master Plan (ASLMP). The ASLMP definition includes the phrases “untrammeled by man” and “outstanding opportunities for solitude.” » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 27, 2018

High Peaks Projects Underway, New Regulations Taking Effect

High Peaks boundariesThe High Peaks Wilderness Complex and the Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest Unit Management Plan (UMP) Amendments are final and implementation of the management actions described in the two amendments has begun according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

Currently group size regulations for all of the High Peaks Wilderness, including the former Dix Mountain Wilderness lands, are in effect, limiting day use groups (hikers) to no more than 15 people and overnight use groups (campers) to no more than 8 people.  Parking areas along Route 73 have been striped and parking rules are now being enforced there. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 27, 2018

A Lake George Mystery (Conclusion)

No one knew for certain what had happened to Alma Gatti and Jerry Walker after their disappearance on Lake George in summer 1949. To a certain extent, dragging for the bodies was a crapshoot because no one knew for sure where the presumed accident had occurred. There were no reported sightings of them that day, and no way to determine how far their canoe had drifted before reaching the shore.

Within a few days, first one paddle and then another, both stamped as belonging to Lamb’s Boathouse, were found in the vicinity of Watch Point, indicating that searchers were dragging the area likeliest to yield results. A Conservation Department boat continued working a five-square-mile area between Watch Point and Shelving Rock. Meanwhile, four state police divers spent an entire day probing the depths, but came up empty. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 26, 2018

Questions Raised Over Adirondack Conservation Easements

lumberyard by Mike LynchWhile some conservationists are concerned about what they perceive as recently increased logging in the Adirondack Park, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has begun providing more information about the nearly 781,000 acres of privately owned timberlands covered by state conservation easements.

Those agreements govern many of the larger logging tracts and prevent other commercial development. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 26, 2018

Hobofest: Free Saranac Lake Music Festival Sept 2nd

Blind Owl BandThe 10th Annual Saranac Lake Hobofest has been set for Sunday, September 2nd, 2018. The one-day free music festival takes place from noon until 10 pm, rain or shine under the Big Top. This is the fourth Hobofest at the bandshell at Riverside Park; it’s no longer at Union Depot.

This year’s Hobofest celebrates the bands that collaborated to build the event, plus a couple of special guests. Frankenpine, a band made up of former Saranac Lakers and downstate performers, is set to return for a reunion. They were featured the first two years of Hobofest. Two local ensembles that actually premiered at Hobofest are also back: Crackin’ Foxy and the Biscuit Rollers. Crackin’ Foxy presents early swing jazz with special guest drummer Bob Meyer. Biscuit Rollers takes Steve Langdon’s solo act into a fully-realized foot-stompin’ blues experience. Bucket Ruckus, the first act to kick off Hobofest in 2009, will open the Biscuit Rollers’ evening set with the fanfare that used to open Hobofest as the train rolled in. The Blind Owl Band returns for the grand finale, featuring their energetic Adirondack Freight Train String music. The band played Hobofest in 2011 and 2012, early on in their career. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 26, 2018

Buff Mittens in the Adirondacks

buff mittensCarol Pearsall of Johnsburg, wife of local historian and author Glenn L. Pearsall, is writing a book on “buff mittens” and is looking for stories and examples.

Buff mittens differ from the modern mittens as they were tufted like a shag rug for extra warmth. They required three times the usual amount of yarn that one would use in knitting modern mittens. Often merino wool or a merino cross was used and the art of making these mittens rose and fell with the cycle of wool availability. Warm and durable, they are considered an Adirondack tradition that reached a heyday in the 1880s to early 1900s. However, a reference to buff mittens is found in the diary of Ruth Henshaw of Leicester, Massachusetts in 1803. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, August 25, 2018

Meet Rosy Maple, Contender for Cutest Moth

Rosy Maple Moth The church service was about to begin when some breathless kids pulled me out of my seat to “come see this awesome, pretty, pink-and-yellow, fuzzy baby moth!” on the Sunday school door. It was a rosy maple moth, Dryocampa rubicunda, notable for its dipped-in-sherbet coloring.

The moth’s coloring can vary from pink to purple and from yellow to white. “Our” moth had purplish-pink forewings with a creamy-yellow band across the middle. The hindwings were pale yellow with a touch of pink along the edges. Its woolly body was bright yellow above and raspberry pink below. The same pink spilled onto the legs, much to the surprise and delight of the kids. The head looked like a yellow craft pompom. With wings spread wide, the moth was just over an inch across and just under an inch long. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, August 25, 2018

Poetry: At Sodom Community Church

At Sodom (NY) Community Church

“Restoration can follow”
says the preacher of our litanies of loss.
His name is Oliver, no ordinary guy.
Of the gift of tongues he will allow
an incident in Desert Storm, glossed
by Holy Spirit wind. A Bedouin came by
by camel with a child needing–needing
what!? “One of our Assemblies of God boys
prayed that someone understand.
And God said ‘Why don’t you?'” Heeding
which he did, reducing Babel’s noise
to apprehend the need at hand.
At hand today: Oliver’s stated theme:
“Except the Lord build, we build in vain”
–from Ezra’s ancient Hebrew book.
Grief and loss can blossom as a fruited plain
and compost be more and sweeter than it seem.
Lift another rock; take another look.


Saturday, August 25, 2018

Featured Hike: Big Pond Trail, Schroon Lake

big pond trailBig Pond is located 1.0-mile from the Big Pond Trail Parking Area in the Hoffman Notch Wilderness. Big Pond is great for fishing and is dominated by northern pike, but also contains brown bullhead. Hikers can choose to hike the 1 mile to the pond or continue down the Big Pond Trail another 4.7 miles to intersect with the Hoffman Notch Trail. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

Cold Water Shock: A Mysterious Lake George Tragedy

The combined stories of Alma Gatti and Jerry Walker reveal two offspring any parent would be proud to claim as their own. Their young lives were filled with activities and accomplishments, suggesting a promising future ahead.

Jerry (Cuthbert Orton Walker Jr.), an Arkansas native, spent most of his childhood in Little Rock. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle in the early 1940s, and roomed with three friends while working as a furniture-store clerk. Life was interrupted by World War II, and beginning as an army private barely a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he spent 30 months in Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East. His service ended in 1946 as a first lieutenant whose awards included the Philippines Liberation Medal and the Bronze Star. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

The Adirondacks Around The Web This Week


Friday, August 24, 2018

Women’s Equality Day Commemoration In Plattsburgh

A Women’s Equality Day Commemoration has been set for Sunday, August 26, from noon to 4 pm at the Clinton County Historical Association, located at 98 Ohio Avenue, in Plattsburgh.

August 26 was set-aside in 1971 as an annual event to celebrate the August 26, 1920, adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The Commemoration’s goal is to raise awareness about the importance of gender equality and to commemorate the work and sacrifices made by women during the suffrage movement. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

Blue Mountain Lake Flotilla Festival Sunday

Prospect House on Blue Mountain LakeThe 2nd Blue Mountain Lake flotilla has been set for August 26, 2018.

136 years ago on Blue Mountain Lake, a steamboat glided through towing some 75 rowboats and their passengers. An orchestra played, a cannon roared salute, Gospel singers raised their voices, and shining Chinese lanterns hung from the boats, and floated on the waves.

Last summer, the Blue Mountain Lake Flotilla sailed again. It marked the first time the event took place since the original was held, on the same waters in August of 1882. And now the boats are returning again, highlighting a day of music, food and fun for the whole family. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

This Week’s Big Adirondack News Stories



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The Adirondack Almanack

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