A Peak Snowshoe Trip & Spring Event Planning

The skiers' snowshoe adventure on Wednesday was beyond belief, it was so wonderful. First of all, the weather could not have been more perfect--not a cloud in the bluest of skies and temps neither too warm nor too cold. But the best part were thewomen--what a group! Enthusiastic, witty, funny, and full of good spirits. I don't know when I've laughed so much or so hard. It was a "10" kind of day. I wish I had some photos to show--many were taken, but not by me, due to a sad camera death. A new one is on the way because I can't bear not to be able to record the kind of peak experience we all shared on Wednesday.

Spring Birding Safaris Are Underway
At home I've been up in my office, working fiendishly on the Spring version of the Adirondack Safaris website. Many spring birding, hiking, and wildflower events have been planned for April and May, and, new this year, two Nature Journaling workshops in late April (before the black flies make it hard to sit still in the wilderness.)

If you like the idea of visually and verbally recording your experiences as you hike, you may wish to check out the Nature Journaling Workshop on Saturday, April 21 and the Wilderness Watercolor Journaling on Saturday, April 28, with noted and award-winning Adirondack watercolorist Kate Hartley. I can't wait. My watercolor pencils are all set to go!

We're Still Snowshoeing

Tomorrow I'll be snowshoe guiding a group of women downhill skiers from the Gore Mountain Ladie's Escape program. The skis will stay at home, although there's still many days of spring skiing left at the mountain. The Big Snowshoe Day is the group's end-of-the season event, and afterwards, we'll head to The Black Mountain for a delicious lunch. They're a gung ho group, and that will make the day lots of fun. I'm hoping that at the wild pond where the otters hang out, we'll see lots of tracks. With tomorrow's promise of bright sun, we'll be hearing a symphony of birds, and may see mink, fisher,and beaver scrambling about.

It's official: Garnet Hill Lodge in North River is hosting a Birding Discovery Package Weekend during the peak songbird migration, May 18-20, and I'm so glad I'm going to be the birding guide. I'm looking forward to birding with a group that I'll have the time to really get to know. Please follow the link above for details. I'll be sharing more about it in coming days.

A Surprise on Kibby Creek

The warm temperatures (50 degrees for a high today) and bright sun are really changing the Adirondack world. For one thing, the birds are singing, chirping, and squawking madly. The sound of many creeks and streams running full-tilt fills the air. This morning Sophie and I were walking early, before the road could defrost from last night's below freezing temps.

We heard the Kibby Creek waterfall roaring from fifty feet away, though the entire waterfall area was still covered with snow. Sophie and I laid bets on exactly when the snow would collapse. As we walked up the road alongside the creek, a flash of movement made my head turn toward the creek's opposite bank. A fisher! Dark, handsome, and thick-furred, he ran alongside the creek, every now and then stopping to peer into the rushing water. He didn't observe me, and the snowbanks hid Sophie, so I had a crystal-clear, lengthy viewing. Oh, thank you! He ran closer to us, then suddenly leapt, turned around, and dove into the creek. An unforgettable moment.

And now, a brief and very exciting bit of family news. The home of Adirondack Safaris, Ken, Judith, and Sophie are preparing for the arrival of Luke!! May Luke grow to be a hiker and a lover of ponds and lakes. (I don't think we have cause to worry on either point because Luke is a yellow Lab.) Luke is very special because he's the son of our two all-time favorite Adirondack Labs, Gracie and Hudson, owned by our friends in Minerva. Luke will be coming home in two weeks.

Judith and Ken cradling four week-old Luke

Incredible snowshoeing in the Crane Mountain Reservation yesterday. An early forecast said there would be snow showers all day, so I didn't bring my camera, and was I sorry. Magnificent views of Crane Mountain from every angle, beautiful beaver swamps, and the tracks! Mink, least weasel, and red squirrel, and all kinds of evidence that indicated the forest was alive with animals when temps rose to 60 degrees last week.

Have you ever seen signs of pileated woodpeckers going beserk? My client and I did. The warm temps caused dormant insects deep inside the tree trunks to become active, and it seemed that everywhere we hiked on Friday and Saturday, we ran into signs that the pileated woodpecker had made a recent visit. He (and she!) prepared for feasting by digging big wood chips from the outer trunk layers to get at the insects inside using his long bill. The bugs must've tasted great after a long winter of slim pickings.

Snowshoeing in Shorts and T-Shirt?

Easy Mountain Snowshoeing Sun. March 18
The weather on Sunday is predicted to be in the high 30s, with a chance of a light flurry. Perfect for snowshoeing!

Vernal Equinox Snowshoe Celebration Sat. March 24

And, of course, Personalized Snowshoe Safaris Anytime

Today the temperature rose to a high of 56 degrees. Too warm, too soon, in my opinion. Our mountain road is awash with mud. Tomorrow when the rains come, I may not get my minivan up the mountain and I'll have to be rescued by Black Bear, Ken's hefty Toyota pick-up.

I was out snowshoeing today in a light-weight fleece top over a jersey and some slacks. I didn't wear shorts, but I could have. The only problem would have been the sopping wet, icy snow I kicked up with each step. Fortunately for the snow lovers, a cold front is coming through on Friday.

Yesterday I snowshoed on a trail just to the west of the western slopes of Gore Mountain, the wild side of the mountain. To get there, I had to snowshoe within sight of Chatiemac Lake, a private lake. (I was on a New York State trail.) People owning lakes and parts of rivers do get my dander up from time to time, especially when they own them in the Adirondack Park, the largest state park in the country. In my opinion, no one should own the waters of the world or the shorelines of oceans, as is the case in England.

Warmer, and the Snowshoeing is Better than Ever

Winter Wilderness Birding Wed. March 14
Easy Mountain Snowshoeing Sun. March 18
Vernal Equinox Snowshoe Celebration Sat. March 24
And, of course, Personalized Snowshoe Safaris Anytime


I love discovering abandoned houses in the wilderness.

It's great--the thawing during the day and the freezing at night is making the snowshoeing better than ever. The freeze-up at night is firming the snow, so my feet don't sink down a foot when snowshoeing. Super! We have weeks of snowshoeing ahead of us despite the above-freezing temperatures. There's so much snow, we'll be snowshoeing into April. When I was out today, a pileated woodpecker settled on a tree right next to me. He walked up to the very top, going out on a fragile limb, and, I suppose, decided that pecking insects out of this tree was just not worth it.


I'm having camera problems. My camera frame thing came loose while hiking and the camera slammed down onto a hard surface, making all the batteries pop out. Not healthy for camera. I'm now getting bad blurriness in 4 out of 5 photos. Strange. I take a bunch of blurries and then the next is clear as a bell. Go figure. Time for a new camera. I can't live without one, and especially not now as winter turns to spring. If you have a digital camera that's reasonably priced and takes great nature shots, please let me know by writing a comment. Thanks!

Warm-Up for the Weekend

I'm not happy if I can't get out for at least an hour or two in the wilderness each morning. Yes, I know, I'm spoiled rotten living where I do, but the cold today was out of my league of tolerance. -25 to -35 windchill isn't something I can deal with no matter how many handwarmers, toewarmers, turtle furs, sweaters, and face masks I put on. And tonight, we're going to -25 degrees. No, that's not the windchill factor. That's how cold it's going to get Fahrenheit.

Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 15 degrees as a high temp, and I don't care about the damn windchill, I'm going downhill skiing. I'm also going for a hike with the dog on the mountain road.

The good news we'll be starting to warm-up by Friday, and warmer temps are on the way for the weekend and beyond.

Kate Hartley, a well-known watercolorist in North River, and I met today, or should I say, huddled today, at Marsha's Restaurant in North Creek to plan our April 28th Wilderness Watercolor Journaling Day. Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm always trying to put together wilderness experiences that are different, fun, and combine the arts with hiking and the outdoors. Stay tuned as I get our information up on the website!

It's Back! The Snowshoe & Yoga Escape Package
Saturday, March 10 10-5pm $55

Winter Wilderness Birding
Wednesday, March 14 10-2pm $20

Personalized Safaris Any Day!

I headed out on snowshoes this morning and went crazy over the clouds. There was intermittent sunshine, snow flurries, and snow showers. Low, low clouds kept wafting over in an irregular pattern, moving very rapidly, and changing the landscape dramatically from minute to minute. I love it when we have lake-effect snow showers. It's amazing to me that they originate as far west and north as the Great Lakes and still manage to drop snow here in the southeastern Adirondacks.

Looking at Gore Mountain Enveloped in Lake-Effect Snow
When I was snowshoeing with a client last weekend in the northernmost Siamese Ponds Wilderness region, we met some people who said that breaking trail in deep snow on snowshoes consumes 1,000 calories an hour. At first I was dubious, and then I realized that when I'm breaking trail, the exertion makes me stop from time to time to catch my breath. Consequently, there are pauses, and in an hour I'm not continuously breaking trail. Given this fact, and the endurance it takes to break trail at all in deep snow, I'll bet it may be possible that the effort could burn 1,000 calories in an hour, if one could do it without stopping, which no one I know can. Still, if you do it, you can have that extra scoop of ice cream with fudge sauce!

More Snow!

Looking for Adventure this Snowy Weekend?
March 3 Snowshoeing & Animal Tracking
March 4 Winter Wilderness Birding

Late this morning I was very worried. The National Weather Service changed its "snow and sleet" forecast to "rain and freezing rain" for the Siamese Ponds Wilderness region (North Creek, Johnsburg, North River). But at one o'clock this afternoon the freezing rain changed to wet snow, and an hour later a fluffy snow was falling. Yay! We'll be dealing with some icy crustiness underfoot, but with more snow in the forecast, we're all set for the great snowshoeing and skiing to continue.

Photo of skier at Gore Mountain by Brian Wallace
And, better yet, another cold blast and more snow is coming through early next week. I'm happy we're going to be able to hang on to the white stuff. I don't see how we'll see bare ground until April. I'd like to keep the snow, not just for Adirondack Safaris' March events, but because I love the wilderness in winter. I love being able to see the mountains through the trees--the views are so beautiful.