Funday

Sunday, we went over to Lake Placid to pick up a guidebook, some lattes, and head out into the windy woods to hide a geocache and enjoy the day outdoors.


We walked along the Osgood River north of Paul Smiths, found a great spot for the geocache, and hiked up and down through the woods...




This bend in the river made a perfect spot to stop and sit for a moment...leaving all of us with wet bottoms...



We saw a Great Blue Heron, and this tree...chock-full of woodpecker holes...our walk took us through a bunch of different forest types...



After we found our way back to the car, we went for a snack over to Mountain Pond, a gorgeous little pond with fall colors, high cliffs, a family of loons, high winds in the trees, and not a soul anywhere nearby...



Gail took a small lay-down, while Ben ran around in circles, enjoying the strong winds, which at times blew clouds of water droplets off of the surface of the pond...like rain from below...some loons were fishing about 50 yards off-shore...



Ben and Gail and I shared some granola-bars and dried fruit and water in lieu of lunch...Ben likes dried banana better than dried mango...



Gail took this cool picture of a huge pine tree over her napping spot...when the wind was blowing at full strength, she could feel the roots underground flexing and swelling the ground under her...



Ben and I rough-housed a bit, and played chase around the campsite at Mountain Pond, before heading out for another walk...



We walked back into the woods, on the way up to Grasse Pond, and had a beautiful walk through some ancient forests, some of which had been burned over in the great fire of 1908...this huge-plank bridge over the Osgood River made a nice stopping point, on our way in and out...the water passing under us and wind carried along the corridor of open sky made by the river made for a very pleasant break...



By the end of our walk, Ben had skinned knees and was wiped out, but he had a great time running around and exploring the woods and looking for (and finding) wee-beasties along the way...



We found this toad hopping along the trail, and Ben hopped after it to pick him up and check him out...moments before finding the toad, we came across a huge snake sunning itself in the middle of the path, and Ben was ready to chase and tackle the thing in his excitement about exploring the woods...



One of the trees that we came across was a huge white pine that had been hollowed out by fire, perhaps the fire of 1908!!!...Ben went inside and had fun looking up the hollow into the tree for what seemed like 40-50 feet...as you can see from the picture below, the interior is still charred from the fire, and the bark is thickened and darker than that of the surrounding trees...



It was a fun day out and about...exploring the woods in places that we had never been before and wringing the juice out of what could have been a "stay close to home" day...

Caching in Long Lake

Gail's away this weekend (Happy Birthday La-La!!!), so Ben and I decided to do a bit of geocaching today...it was supposed to be gorgeous from sunup to sundown, but there was serious fog in the morning, so we hung out for a while over breakfast and Jimmy Newtron...

We drove down to Long Lake, where there were a number of caches new to both of us, courtesy of our friend Shane (aka GeoLobo)...we bumped into him in our journeys (it's a small town) and caught up a bit, cached a bit, and found a couple of caches with him along before he had to go...

The next geocache we went after was a puzzle-cache, with a relatively simple puzzle to figure out in order to find the cache container...and while we were working out the coordinates, a float plane took off right in front of us...Ben thought it was awesome (so did I), and we both agreed that we'll have to go for a ride over the Adks sometime next summer...


After the plane took off, we wandered over to the cache location, and Ben selected...



and hurled perfect rocks into what is really a very long lake...


While he took care of important business, I found the cache, and we traded and logged our visit...


The next cache was brand-new...just hidden...completely unfound...which offered Ben and I the rare opportunity to be "First-to-Find" (FTF)...I enjoy being FTF because it often provides you with more of a challenge than finding the container after dozens of people have made their way to the given coordinates...there's also the possibility that the hider's coordinates are 100 feet off (although in this case, being Shane's cache, I knew they'd be on...so there is only the ever-present 20-40 feet variation between 2 different GPS receivers)...we found it pretty quickly, but not before I found this amazingly tiny toad taking his ease on a...wait for it...toadstool...while I don't know how he got up, I do know that moments after I took this picture, he leapt off the mushroom with a surprising and total lack of grace...landing on his head, and kicking his legs for about 5 seconds before righting himself and micro-hopping away from us...


Altogether, we found 6 geocaches today...a new personal record for Ben and I...

We had a superb lunch at the Long Lake Diner (LLD)...grilled cheese and apple juice for Ben...A bacon and blue-cheese burger with a side of exquisite sweet-potato fries and many beverages for dehydrated Daddy...I drove around town for awhile (which takes some doing, given the tininess of Long Lake) looking for the restaurant that Ben wanted to eat in...he was certain that he had enjoyed eating in a place called "Woods", but after we settled in at the LLD, he remembered that "Woods" was only his name for his favorite restaurant, which was in fact the LLD...because they have lots of pictures from tree identification books on the walls as trim...we enjoyed lunch...

After we were done caching for the day we went in search of a playground...and stuck gold over by the, incredibly oversized, Long Lake Central School (it's as big as LPHS, and Long Lake graduates something like 7-9 seniors each year...I think that K-12 are all in the same building, but still...). This one had all of the usual amenities that Ben looks for in a playground, but also had a climbing wall...Ben was a little freaked out at first, but after a demonstration by dad on the use of the handholds and footholds, he went up like a champ...once...



He was very proud to have done it, but stuck to the slides and ladders for the rest of our visit to the playground...we'll be back to this little gem again...I have to get more of those sweet-potato fries anyway...


All in all, a superb day! I have no idea what's on the menu for tomorrow...maybe a final canoe-trip of the season...we'll see

Another early morning...

School is back, and I am getting up early again (well, earlier anyway...I have a hard time remembering the last time that I slept past 6am)...

Our dogs, particularly Cedar, the beagle/chow mix started walking up and down my length at a bit before 5am...tried some growling and whining, and eventually shifted into gentle biting of any exposed flesh by a few minutes after 5...I got up...5am is the line that I have drawn in the bedclothes, I have to be up and about soon anyway, so what the heck...

I am not always at my best first thing, but that's when the dogs have to go out...we put Cedar on a rope/run and let Zeke walk alongside me...that's the plan anyway...this morning, it went a bit differently...

With sleep still in my eyes and brain, I hooked up Cedar, and let zeke run over to the bushes to take care of business, when I hear an amazing racket in the garage...our garage is a building designed to house cars in name only...it is filled with camping and outdoor gear, boxes of stuff we haven't moved back inside since we changed the carpets (4-5 years ago...I know...I know), geocaching stuff, and cardboard boxes which haven't been dealt with yet...




The sounds from the garage are like the end of the world...screaming, crashes, thuds, barking...I look down at Cedar, and notice...finally... that Zeke is attached to the rope, and Cedar is attached to the noise in our garage...Zeke looks embarrassed, but assures me that he loves me anyway...

From the level, variety, and intensity of the sounds emmanating from the garage, I am certain that Cedar is not alone, and that he is not either chasing a chipmunk or fighting a bear (it would already be over in both cases, and it is, if anything...if possible...continuing to grow louder with each passing second)...

The garage is, as I have mentioned, filled with bulky, pointy, and heavy things which I will likely trip over if I venture in there...I also don't relish the idea of entering through the door which connects the garage to our house, lest they bring the battle inside...

I throw Zeke back inside, with his legs crossed I hope, and race outside in my boxers to face the mystery-beast...I peer into the dark through the grimy garage window, and become certain that I have no wish to navigate the dark and angry-sounding garage almost naked, but feel that Cedar's playmate may soon figure out that he is a wimp after you get past the noise...

I flip on the headlights of Gail's car (parked in the driveway for reasons I discussed earlier) and pull the garage door up...and see...a raccoon "tree-ed" up our ridiculously tall taboggan...both coon and Cedar snarling, snapping, and spraying drool and invective all over each other and the garage...I dart in lithe and lean as a sleepy, clumsy bear wearing boxers and boatshoes...grab Cedar by the neck (hoping fervently that the coon doesn't decide to pounce on my head, which must be feet from his jaws, although I swear I could feel his breath and saliva on my neck)...and drag the brown-dog (an insult created in his honor, in our family) back to the house...

I ran back out to close the garage door, so that the beastie wouldn't assault Gail and Ben later when they went off to their respective schools, and to take some pictures...you can see from the long range shot how cluttered the garage is, and why I was scared to venture into the maelstrom of snappy little teeth...the close-up shot shows how pissed off Brutus (the raccooon) was...he was snapping and hissing and growling and taking silly swipes at me with his claws...



I got back inside just in time to hear Ben calling for me to come in and help get him up...he likes to wait for me in his bed...I made warmed milk for him, coffee for me, and bagels for both of us, sat down to enjoy it with him, looked at the clock, and saw that it was...

5:20am

I was ready for the day to be over, but it was just starting...I got through the day fine, am about to go pick up Ben, and am looking forward to a weekend of geocaching with him down in Long Lake!!!

Ben's 4th Birthday

Ben turned 4 yesterday...and he had a a great day! We started off the day early, with a couple of presents and cards, before all of us went off to our respective schools...he had a party and cake and some treats and fun...when we picked him up, he was treated to a treasure hunt (he's all about pirates these days!)...


Gail made a map for him that featured places in, and outside of, our house as stages in the search for treasure...



At each stage, Ben found a fun little present and a card from us, or the dogs and cats, before heading off to the next hidden treasure...



He had a great time exploring the house, and opening a few more presents over the course of a 1/2 hour...



The last stage led him to a new "little-guy" tent with some new books inside of it...he loves his new reading tent!!!

Over the preceding long-weekend, Ben enjoyed a visit from my parents...Muz and D stayed at the Best Western in SL...he stayed for an overnight with them, and went swimming in the hotel pool, and has decided that they should move into the hotel permanently...on Monday, Ben and I hid a new geocache together after a nice walk, watched some Scooby-Doo, and snuggled our way through a wonderful (if cold/gray/drizzly day)...