Northeast Wild

  Aug 24 - Car camped at MASON LAKE for 2 nights - sites 1-4 were occupied so had to take #5 near the outlet which had a picnic table & firepit but no privy - close enough to the lake to hear loon calls. Broke camp Thursday morning then paddled this small lake with an irregular shoreline. 1 loon, gb herons, ducks; road noise from NY 30. The best part was the outlet where I found cranberries, pitcher plants, pickerelweed, & jewelweed & smartweed on a beaver dam at the end of navigation. 1.6 hours. July 18, 2005 - MASON LAKE. Camped at drive-in site on Perkins Clearing Rd (dirt) near the outlet of the lake. Hazy morning paddle - nice setting marred only by the proximity of Rt.30. 2 adult loons dove & rose to feed 2 growing but still fuzzy-looking chicks. Boggy shores along the outlet offered much interest - pitcher plants, sundews, bladderwort's yellow flowers; white fragrant & yellow pond lilies in the shallows. Visit us on Facebook Welcome to the Adirondacks NYS...

  Aug 23, 2023 - RICH LAKE & FISHING BROOK paddling. Most of the shoreline is owned by ESF - obey any "No Trespassing" signs. You can drive down the access road (dirt), drop off your stuff, & drive back to the parking area off Rich Lake Lane. Easy 200' carry to the beach. Paddled W across the lake, saw a loon, & entered the pickerelweed-lined S channel. Took a R thru a narrow channel, slid over a beaver dam, & into the main channel of Fishing Brook. Paddled upstream & was shocked to see that the bridge had been replaced by a dam with several culverts (not sure if this was done before or as a result of the July 10/11 high water event - Phil Brown mentions a bridge in his 2019 edition of the guidebook) - heavy machinery was working in the area, so we turned back. Over 2 small beaver dams & then along the N shore of RL. Lots of cedars line the shore with some white pines, cardinal flower was ubiquitous, and bottle gentian at our lunch stop. The 2 trai...

  Aug 2, 2023 (Wed) - BUCK MOUNTAIN hike from Pilot Knob. 15 cars in the parking area at 9:30 am, 20 when I finished (I have been here when there were 100 cars - a reason to do this hike midweek). Temp rising through the 50s & 60s, low humidity. The route starts wide & flat but gets steeper the further you go. The first couple of miles look like old woods roads, sometimes smooth, sometimes rough & rocky. At ~3 miles there is an open area with blueberries and good views of Crossett Pond (private; I had become curious about that area when camped at Inman Pond some time ago) & the southern end of Lake George. Good views W & N from the summit area (I could easily pick out Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, & Gothics in the distance), a bit more civilization (like Bolton Landing) in view than I would like - had to bushwhack a little to get a view E to the Greens. More blueberry picking - they were mostly very small. A few families with kids on the trail. 6.8 mil...