The nation’s best fly anglers will be returning to Lake Placid, Wilmington, Saranac Lake, Redford and Malone, June 1–4, 2016 for the U.S. National Fly Fishing Championships, and organizers are looking for volunteers to assist anglers over the three-day catch-and-release competition.
“The event relies on volunteers to record the size and species of every fish caught, and is a great opportunity for avid fishermen to learn from these top anglers and share local ‘intel’, too,” said Ken Crane, event and volunteer organizer. “Anglers will be fishing on the Ausable, Saranac and Salmon Rivers while wading, and Mirror Lake and Lake Colby from boats. No experience is required.” » Continue Reading.
A Franklin County angler died after his utility-task-vehicle broke through the ice on Union Falls Pond, according to state police.
Gregory N. Manchester, 59, of Franklin drove his vehicle onto the ice on Sunday to go fishing. He was reported missing the following morning.
A state police helicopter flew over the area and spotted his UTV partially submerged. State forest rangers followed footprints to a seasonal cabin and found Manchester lying on the floor, suffering from severe hypothermia. He was unresponsive.
The 3rd week of August artists assemble in Saranac Lake for the Adirondack Plein Air Festival. This year, from August 18 to 22, fifty painters from all over the east coast and Canada are taking part. Registration opened online March 1 and filled in less than 48 hours, as both new and repeat artists were eager to attend. In order to keep the annual Show & Sale at manageable numbers, it was decided to limit participation to 50. » Continue Reading.
Trout season opened on April 1st, so it seems like a good time to review a few interesting fish tales (and truths) from the North Country’s past. Just like tall tales are an Adirondack tradition, fish stories are told wherever anglers are found. The most common are about the big one that got away, which just about every dedicated fisherman has a version of that includes at least some truth. What follows here are interesting and unusual fish-related stories from the past 90 years. » Continue Reading.
I wanted to find an excursion in my solo canoe that provided solitude and where I’d feel challenged, but not in danger. A big order, as in 1993 I had no friends, or even any colleagues, in the Central New York area I could consult who had knowledge of remote areas of the Adirondacks. So I read guidebooks and studied Adirondack maps.
Descriptions of the headwaters of the Saranac River caught my interest, as my first canoe adventure had been through a Girl Scout trip on Upper Saranac Lake many years before. » Continue Reading.
Big changes are planned for the Imperial Dam on the Saranac River in Plattsburgh.
On Friday, the state Department of Conservation announced that it is taking comments on a plan to modify the dam, which is located a few miles upstream of Lake Champlain. The proposal calls for decreasing the height of the spillway by 8.5 feet and constructing a concrete fish ladder on the left bank, or northern side, of the dam, which the DEC owns. The other side is privately owned. » Continue Reading.
On Saturday, July 5, North Country residents will bear witness to the one-year anniversary of the deadly oil train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec that killed 47 people and to raise public awareness of crude-by-rail transport in the Lake Champlain region.
Participants will gather near the mouth of the Saranac River at 3 pm, walking out on a pedestrian bridge about 50 feet from the Canadian Pacific railroad bridge, and gathering in canoes and kayaks below the bridges.
The demonstration is part of a week-long action by citizens and groups across North America opposing the escalation of crude-by-rail shipping. The Plattsburgh event is being spearheaded by Center for Biological Diversity and People for Positive Action. » Continue Reading.
When Ed Kanze moved to the Adirondacks in 2000, he was moving to an area his ancestors had been connected to since 1797. It was like coming home, even though he had grown up in New York’s Westchester County and had traveled and worked all over the country and abroad.
In his new memoir, Adirondack: Life and Wildlife in the Wild, Wild East (SUNY Press, 2014), Kanze brings the unique history of this area to life by sharing stories about many of his ancestors, including an aunt treated for tuberculosis and a great-great-grandfather who owned tanneries, a lumber business and a hotel, and who also served as a judge and assemblyman.
A naturalist and licensed guide, Kanze got his love of the outdoors from his grandfather, who took him on long fishing trips when he was a kid. In addition to the history in Adirondack, he also provides a crash course in Adirondack geology, climate, flora, and fauna. » Continue Reading.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is preparing to restart a management plan for nearly 60,000 acres of Forest Preserve and other state-managed lands in the Chazy Highlands Complex. The lands spread across 493 square miles in 34 separate parcels in the northeastern Adirondack Park and are located in the towns of Bellmont, Duane, and Franklin in Franklin County and the towns of Altona, Black Brook, Dannemora, Ellenburg, and Saranac in Clinton County.
Natural features in the Complex include Lyon Mountain, Haystack Knob, Norton Peak, and Ellenburg Mountain; Upper Chateaugay Lake and Chazy Lake; and Saranac River and Great Chazy River. The primary recreational uses are fishing and hunting; however the public also participates in hiking, camping, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and bird/wildlife watching on these lands. Both the trail to the Fire Tower on the Lyon Mountain and the Lewis Preserve Wildlife Management Area are frequented often by the public. » Continue Reading.
This week we finish the tale started two weeks ago, the story of when the North Country saved the Republic. Like all great stories of war this one has its heroes. The naval exploits of one of them, Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough, are fairly well known, credited among students of war if not the general public.
The story of another, Brigadier General Alexander Macomb, is all but unknown. In this final installment I will introduce you to a third gentleman, a lesser player in the story to be sure, but one who happens to be one of the most iconic characters in Adirondack lore and who represents the gallantry of all the militia, the citizen-soldiers who helped turn the tide. » Continue Reading.
The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative (Cooperative) will be applying lampricides to kill lamprey in portions of five tributaries to Lake Champlain and two deltas during the months of September and October. Treatments are scheduled to begin with the Saranac River delta on September 10th, but weather conditions may affect planned treatment dates.
“While trout and salmon populations of the lake are the primary beneficiaries of these efforts, lake sturgeon, walleye, and many other species also benefit from sea lamprey control,” according to a Cooperative statement to the press. “Sea lamprey control also generates economic activity by increasing angling opportunities and the time that boaters, anglers, and their families spend in the Lake Champlain area.” » Continue Reading.
On Sunday July 1, 2012 will mark the 50th annual Willard Hanmer Guideboat Race commemorating Willard Hanmer the preeminent Guide Boat builder of his era. The race has been celebrated every year since 1962 on the Sunday closest to the 4th of July. This year, to celebrate the craftsmanship of this uniquely Adirondack craft, the organizers are planning a display of over 50 guideboats in a guideboat parade on Lake Flower prior to the race.
Following the parade will be guideboat, canoe and kayak races. This year the one-person guideboat race will follow the traditional route on Lake Flower, carry around the dam and down the Saranac River to the Fish and Game Club where there will be food, refreshments ands festivities for the whole family. Canoes and kayaks will be following the one person guideboat course, also going down the river. For those wishing to race in either the guideboat, recreational canoe or kayak classes contact: 50thhanmer@gmail.com. » Continue Reading.
Those interested in joining statewide efforts to track invasive species can attend an iMapInvasives online mapping tool training session. Anyone can help keep the New York map up-to-date and accurate by reporting invasive species locations.
Volunteers, citizen scientists and educational groups will find the simple reporting interface easy to use for local projects, and conservation professionals can use the advanced interface to manage detailed information about infestations, surveys and treatments in a standardized format. Training is required to enter data, and then users can enter observations of invasive plants, aquatic invasive species, forest pests and agricultural pests. » Continue Reading.
After moving to Saratoga Springs thirty-five years ago, Anne Diggory started looking for scenic landscapes to paint and soon gravitated to the Adirondacks. She’s been painting them ever since.
Over the years, Diggory has created several hundred paintings of mountains, lakes, and streams in the Adirondack Park. Starting this week, fifteen of them went on display at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City. The exhibit, titled “Turbulence,” will run through January 28. Why “Turbulence”? Diggory, who majored in art at Yale, explained that she tried in these works to capture the energy of the natural world—whether a stormy sky, a frothy stream, or a wind-whipped lake. “I have a real interest in things that are moving or changing,” she said.
Depending on circumstances, she will paint on the spot or work from her sketches or photos. For Ripple Effect II, the painting of Rogers Rock shown above, she shot video from her Hornbeck canoe on Lake George. Later, she watched the video at home and created a seventy-inch-wide painting. (For a portrait of the artist at work,check out this New York Times story.)
Other Adirondack places depicted in “Turbulence” include Lake Clear, Lake Durant, and the Saranac River. The exhibit also includes paintings from beaches on Long Island and in South Carolina.
She made several of the paintings last summer while working as an artist-in-residence at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. (The name of the gallery is just a coincidence.)
Fortunately, you don’t have to travel to New York City to see the paintings in “Turbulence.” Most of them can be viewed on Diggory’s website. Just click here.
Not surprisingly, Diggory is an enthusiastic hiker and paddler. She and her husband used to take their daughters, Ariel and Parker, on camping trips when the girls were young. Ariel went on to earn a master’s degree in conservation biology from the State College of Environmental Science and Forestry and now works at the Adirondack Park Agency.
One of Diggory’s favorite Adirondack paintings depicts the view of Panther Gorge from Mount Marcy, the state’s highest summit. So far, she has climbed seven or eight of the forty-six High Peaks.
“I’m not going to climb all of them, but I’ll paint them all,” she remarked.
The Blue Mountain Gallery will host an opening reception 6-8 p.m. Thursday (January 5) and a closing reception 4-6 p.m. Saturday, January 28. The gallery is located at 530 West 25 Street in Manhattan.
The Adirondack’s summer flatwater racing season begins this weekend with the ‘Round the Mountain Canoe Race, a fun and scenic 10.5 mile course that goes around Mount Dewey, May 15th.
The race begins at Ampersand Bay on Lower Saranac Lake. There, kayaks and canoes of all types will depart in a staggered format. You’ll see avid races with tight-fitting shirts and sleek, tippy racing canoes, guideboats, kayakers of all stripes, and canoes ranging from 1 to 8 people.
After the race begins at 11 a.m., competitors head through Lower Saranac Lake, down the Saranac River to a short but slippery portage. From there, the race traverses the left side of Oseetah Lake to the finish line — only a few miles from the start. The race is the first of a half-dozen regional races, culminating in the famous three-day 90-miler in September. You’ll recognize the serious competitors by their odd-looking racing boats, and their various time-saving techniques (such as taping energy food to the side of the boat, or attaching a tube to a water bottle to make for instant access to a drink).
Those who don’t expect to win might want to take a breather now and again to enjoy the fantastic views, along with the sheer thrill of being part of a racing pack.
When I joined a team of four last year, rain was threatening and the wind was blowing hard. On Oseetah Lake, we made the mistake of following a lost kayaker into the middle of the maelstrom. It was only by divine providence and a well-slapped paddle from the experienced racer in the bow that kept us from being knocked over in the huge waves.
Eventually, we turned around and made it safely to the other side, passing several other dumped boats whose former occupants were not so lucky.
For those who have never canoe-raced before, it’s a great way to try out the sport — and you can rent a local, lightweight boat if you don’t have one. The race begins at 11 a.m., and entry is $25.
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The nation’s best fly anglers will be returning to Lake Placid, Wilmington, Saranac Lake, Redford and Malone, June 1–4, 2016 for the U.S. National Fly Fishing Championships, and organizers are looking for volunteers to assist anglers over the three-day catch-and-release competition.
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