Irish Creme and Coffee

I went to work this morning, in a light drizzle, and attended a couple of meetings...as the last one was winding down, I noticed that the sun had come out, so I snuck out and headed over to Lower Saranac Lake to try my luck at a new geocache that was just listed last night...don't worry taxpayers of Lake Placid, I'm not on the clock yet...


It's a beautiful paddle, with lots of small islands and glacial rocks littering the lake, above and below the water...like a giants' game of bocce...



I stopped for a mini-picnic at a favorite spot of mine not too far from the posted coordinates for the geocache...in the hotter part of the summer, you can watch bean-heads jumping from the cliffs while splashing around in the shallows between these 2 islands, and swim/snack while watching the lake and the world go on around you...



This is a picture of Wolf Island, aptly named, as I came across lots of deer bones and carnivore poop laden with bones and hair...



Once ashore, I came across this huge toad parked in a seldom-used fireplace...he was no help at all in finding the cache, but probably keeps the bugs under control...



I found the cache in short order, logged and traded, and headed back to the water, to paddle around some of the nearby islands, and on to a swim...



The light breeze and wispy clouds and myriad island and still water and rocks above and below the surface blew my mind, and made this one of my best paddles of the summer...



I stopped at one point to cool off with a swim and a float...those are Tevas, not shark fins between me and the camera...



At the put-in, I reluctantly headed in, loaded up my car, and promised the mountains and waters ahead a visit sometime soon...maybe after my meetings tomorrow...



The boat-launch was chaos...filled to overflowing with people from Massachusetts (all of them, I swear, at least by the license plates) running around...clucking and dropping stuff and grumping at their kids...so I put everything (including the boat) on my back, and huffed it to my Element in the parking lot, which was quiet as suburban Lake Clear at 10pm...



The flavor of the day was Irish Creme and Coffee...it was spectacular!!!

Saturday in the Park...

Ben and I went out after a geocache that's been on my mind for awhile...I've been waiting for a perfect day, and this morning was gorgeous. After a morning of lounging and waiting for it to warm up (36 degrees this morning), we headed over to Lake Placid.


Cobble Hill is located in Lake Placid, not too far from the school where I work...we drove around for awhile looking for the right place to park, and then just picked one...there seem to be about a dozen criss-crossing trails that all lead upwards after approaching the hill.



It's pretty easy to climb until the very end, when it gets astoundingly steep...Ben and I were scrabbling up the last 100 yards on out hands and knees...at the top, we stopped to rest on a hugely cushy bed of moss...



We found the geocache quite quickly (there's a little toad living in the geocache's hiding spot, he watched me grab the cache, and return it later, without moving or reacting in the slightest), logged, traded, and took the trophy picture for eternal glory...



Although it was the perfect temperature up top, with just a touch of wind to dry and cool our sweat, you can see the clouds starting to roll in...



This is a shot of Lake Placid in the background, and the somewhat extreme rockface climb that Ben and I made...we found a slightly easier way down once we had the perspective gained from the summit, but there were some scary moments...



Ben sitting on the mossy bed scarfing raisins to reload on energy for the climb down...



More raisins...this was a 3 box (the tiny box) hike...along with a granola bar and about a quart of water going up and down...



You can see how steep the summit of the hill is looking down past Ben...



On the way down, Ben and I found a trail along the side of the rockface that was slightly less scary, although we both slid down parts on our butts...Ben was very brave, and stopped here to show off the rockface we climbed on the way up...



We stopped a couple of times on the way down, to eat more raisins and rehydrate...he was getting tired, but was excited for Lunch at "Tail of the Pup", a barbecue place in Raybrook where they do hot-dogs and corn on the cob exactly the way that he likes them (and they do a super pulled pork supper as well, that I often have...as I did today)...

When we got there, we were surrounded by dozens of bikers enjoying a ride en masse through the mountains...gave, and received, our orders (including orange cream soda for Ben), and were additionally treated to...wait for it...remember, barbecue and bikers and... wait for it...






A jazz quartet noodling around on stage in a perfectly pleasant lounge-lizard mode. Ben was table-dancing while eating his corn and dog, bopping and humming and conducting with his corncob...

All in all, a great morning...we returned home, where we retired to the downstairs to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with Johnny Depp and the exquisite Oompa Loompas) while Ben worked his way through 1.5 PB&Js, an apple, and a couple of glasses of milk...he must have had a calorie deficit leftover from the hike...

squeezing...

I'm in the last few days of my summer vacation, and trying to have some fun before getting back into meetings and organizing my room for the upcoming school year.


I was FTF, first to find, on a new geocache yesterday between Tupper Lake and Long Lake. The geocache was underwater, and required my using a mask and snorkel and tethered float (as seen below).


After the hydrocache, I headed up to Canton and did some caches in the area, including one on the campus of St. Lawrence University (my alma mater)...Zeke and I had a great time on the Avenue of the Elms...I ended up finding 4 geocaches, and not-finding 2...


Today, I went after 2 more geocaches North of me...the first was a canoe-cache on Rainbow Lake with a great paddle and lots of wildlife to be seen...Zeke was a bit sore from the day before, so he slept in the car while I paddled...


The day was beautiful and the water was still...I heard loons, watched herons, chased ducks (a bit...I'm not a saint...)...


These ducks were certain that they were invisible to me, and perfectly camouflaged as bumps at the end of a log...I floated to within about 5 feet of them...


My solo-boat has served me perfectly for 12 years, and brought me flawlessly to the best swimming spot in this hidden body of water...


The campsite near the geocache was littered with toilet-paper from inconsiderate campers...so I made use of a cathole, and posted a brief tutorial on catholing (along with the coordinates for my cathole, so interested parties can check on the viability/sustainability of my method)...the above shows the cathole, post-use...


There are the remains of an old bridge near the geocache site, and I paddled around the island a bit before returning to the car...I met Gail for lunch at the Paul Smiths College, at their new student center on the waterfront...after lunch, I found another cache before heading home...I'll be going out for 4 or 5 more geocaches tomorrow...hopefully...

Another fun summer weekend!

We had a fun weekend with friends, old and new. Friday night we camped out at Little Green Pond, Saturday there was a geocaching event, and Sunday we made a big brunch and hung out at Casa Sheffield.


Gail was unable to stay out with us Friday night...she had to take care of Zeke (who had another bout of stomach issues) and had to address the board at Paul Smiths College the next morning...but she came out to help set up camp, share supper and some beverages with us, and hang out for a bit...



Little Green Pond is a gorgeous spot not too far from the fish hatchery in Lake Clear...we had some great weather on Friday and a bit of Saturday...



Ben had a great time on the campout, he ran around like crazy, enjoying the woods and the company of Autumn and Ayla...he likes sleeping in a tent and eating camp-food...



Dano read, "The Cremation of Sam McGee" to all of us...while the smoke from the campfire worked some magic at keeping the bugs down a bit...



Becca and Gail logged a travel bug (TB) for the geocaching event on Saturday that required using the TB/bottle-opener to uncork and drink and review a bottle of wine with a friend...



Dano went out the next morning to try his hand at geocaching...he found 3 during his visit, and hopefully will bring the fun back with him to Utah...



About 50 people came to the geocaching event on Saturday...everybody brought some food, and there was a ton of great stuff for all to share...we hung out, talked about geocaching in the Adks and beyond, tried out fun foods, traded travel bugs, and had a fun time...



One of the guys who came to the event had a travel bug tattooed to his leg...a bit intense for me, but pretty cool nonetheless...



Some friends from Vermont who came to the geocaching event gave me this sweet swag-bag (a bag for holding trade-items for geocaching)...this event was the 200th geocache for me, and it was made even more special by friends like DJ and Cal and the other folks who shared the day with me...



Saturday night we split up a bit, with Gail and Becca and the kids staying at our house, and Dan and Topher and I going to the Buerkett house...Sunday morning we went over to our house and made a mess of eggs and bacon and hung out and watched some movies of Rowan, Dan's 8.5 month old son...

Hobson

This morning, after dropping Ben off at school, Gail and I spent some time with Hobson, our 16 year-old cat, and then drove her over to the vet for the last time.

Her health had been failing for the last year or so due to kidney failure; over the last 2 months, it had taken a serious downturn. More and more frequently, she became confused and frightened and lost in the house, was having trouble keeping herself clean, and in finding the litterbox. Although she probably could have lived for another year or more with veterinary intervention, we doubt that it would have been a happy time for her.

We have been struggling with this decision for awhile, but feel that it was the best thing for her, and for us. Gail stayed up late with her last night (because she had always been Gail's cat, since long before I knew Gail), and I gave Hobson some love this morning before Ben was up. The vet and vet-techs at High Peaks Animal Hospital were warm, respectful, tender, professional, and loving: they had a blanket on the exam table to make Hobson extra-comfy, along with a box of tissues; they gave us as much time before and after as we needed to prepare and say goodbye to Hobson; the vet explained exactly what was going to happen, and that it would be entirely painless; although I paid as we left, they assured me that it would be fine to do so the next time we were in...it was just very nice.

She was sweet, pink, fluffy, happy, loving, beautiful, and nearly perfect...a princess...




Hobson liked to lay in the kindling box by our woodstove in the winter and bake herself...when the fire was roaring hotly enough that you would think that she would roast, instead you would hear her purring like a pink and fluffy truck engine...that's how I remember her.



On the way home from the vet, we stopped off to buy her a Rosa Rugosa (pink, of course). I picked out a nice spot for her between 2 small trees, and laid her down on a bed of flowers.

In a house full of men (not counting Gail and tom-boy Thumbelina), she was Grace Kelly...

Geocaching weekend, part 2

On Sunday, we got a less-early start, but still managed to find 4 geocaches and have a great day!


We started off with a hike of about a mile into the woods between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake...it was a beautiful spot...



Ben and Mommy loved walking the trail, and watching the forest-types change...



We saw this cute little toad while walking, and Ben picked him up very gently to talk with him for a minute...


When we found the cache, everyone had a good time signing the log and trading our stuff for stuff in the cache...



A family shot using my spectacular tripod...it grabs onto trees, like the balsam in this shot, with ease...



After hiking out, we stopped in Saranac Lake at Mountain Mist for lunch...this may be D's favorite restaurant in the ADKs...



Feeding ducks used to bother me much more than it does now...I had all sorts of wildlife welfare and ecological soundness arguments, but Ben likes feeding ducks, which trumps all of that...


The next cache we visited was brand new (and we were the "First to Find" or FTF in geo-lingo), and along a gorgeous river outside of Lake Placid...


Ben was tired after 2 caches and lunch, so the next one was obtainable close to the car...in fact, Ben didn't even need to wake up...we traded for him...



Our final geocache of the day required a visit to a beautiful cemetery to find out about some of the history of the area, and the interesting people buried there...it's a very peaceful and beautiful spot...finding the required information gives you the necessary clues to find the cache (which is located outside, but near, the cemetery)...



We found the cache in short order, and logged/traded...



and enjoyed the beautiful location adjacent to Church Pond...




That night, we had a campfire before heading to bath and bed early...all in all a wonderful weekend...