Noonmark & Round Mountain: 09/19/2015

Noonmark panorama (Full size)

It was supposed to be Whiteface. I should have been arriving at the top of Whiteface right around the time I was leaving Noonmark’s summit and heading over to Round Mountain. But the Whiteface Mountain Uphill Foot Race was cancelled, leaving my Saturday morning open. I already had the date reserved on our family calendar (a significant effort), so the last thing I was going to do was waste the day on yard work.

Bay to beach and back, connecting Edward Hopper and Henry Beston: Cape Cod Nat'l Seashore

For 7 out of the last 8 years we've taken a week's vacation at the same part of Outer Cape Cod (Truro), and it seems we keep searching for the perfect rental house with the right combination of price, availability and location, location, location. Maybe this year's house, steps from a quiet bay beach, Fisher Beach, is the one.

Last year's house, tucked behind a dune overlooking the Atlantic, lay on the edge of a vast stretch of ocean beach that evokes Henry Beston's description of the Outer Cape:

At the foot of this cliff a great ocean beach runs north and south unbroken, mile lengthening into mile. Solitary and elemental, unsullied and remote, visited and possessed by the outer sea, these sands might be the end or the beginning of a world.

The landscape surrounding this year's house, just a few miles away, is entirely different. Rolling hills overlook a comparatively calm Cape Cod Bay. Sometimes wooded, sometimes open, this is the landscape of Edward Hopper, the iconic American landscape artist who summered at Fisher Beach for 40 years.

While reading Beston's The Outermost House, I got inspired to put together a mountain bike ride that would connect the two landscapes, staying entirely off pavement. A bay-to-beach-and-back ride.

Exploring Chimney Mountain's Eagle Cave: 08/09/2015

It seems like the junior spelunkers in our family have been asking me all summer long "When are we going back to Eagle Cave?" We had explored the entrance and upper reaches of the cave on a trip back in mid-June, but had turned around when we reached a point where a rope would be necessary to explore further. This time we came prepared.

The Pinnacle: 08/08/2015

In a textbook example of environmental groups, local government and citizens working together, the Lake George Land Conservancy just last month closed on its purchase of the prominent peak outside Bolton Landing known as The Pinnacle. The closing was the culmination of more than 5 years of negotiations to protect the parcel. A trail has been marked and is now open to the public leading to the spectacular summit overlooking Lake George. We hiked the new trail this past Saturday.

The trail can best be described in one word: easy. That's not to say that you don't have to work for the view, but it's as easy as 400 vertical feet and a mile each way can be. I'm seriously considering bringing my parents up, and they're in their upper 70s (now I'll find out if they really read my blog). The route follows a jeep trail that would have been the driveway leading to 3 homesites on the ridgetop, climbing rather steeply at times but with good footing and a steady grade. Compared to the rough jeep road up Thomas Mountain (another nearby LGLC site), the Pinnacle trail is much easier.

Paddling the Floodwood - Rollins loop: 08/01/2015

Before I was a hiker or a skier or a climber, I was a paddler. Granted, the term “paddler” may be overselling things a bit, but nonetheless my first introduction to the Adirondacks came as a kid at Scout camp, where paddling the lakes and ponds near Upper Saranac Lake on mulit-day canoe trips was an integral part of the program. I paddled those waters for 5 years as a camper, 5 more years on the camp staff, and have returned many times as an adult. In a way, those waters represent my Adirondack roots.