National Trails Day events: June 2

This Saturday, June 2, is the 20th annual National Trails Day. A number of local organizations have scheduled volunteer trail work projects and events to introduce people to natural places. Following is a partial list:

Wilton Wildlife Park & Preserve, Scout Road, 10am – 3pm. WWPP’s Lupine Festival will be held at their Camp Saratoga parcel and is expected to coincide with the peak of the wild blue lupine bloom and the first brood of Karner blue butterflies for 2012. Events include nature walks led by DEC and Nature Conservancy personnel and presentations with live local reptiles, amphibians, and birds of prey. Children’s activities include nature craft projects and pond exploration with dipping nets. The recently restored Cornell Hill fire tower will be open. Check their website for directions and a complete list of activities.

Wild blue lupine

Haystack, Basin and the last snow on Marcy? 05/27/2012

Mount Marcy and its snow bowl, viewed from Haystack's summit

My wife Beth and I have a deal: when there’s an opportunity for her to get another peak towards her 46, she gets to hike. On Sunday Beth teamed up with three of the women she hiked with last summer to tackle Haystack Mountain in the upper Great Range. Haystack is often cited as having the best view of all the High Peaks, not only for its close-up perspective on surrounding peaks like Marcy and Gothics, but also for its feeling of all-encompassing wilderness. As a bonus, the view on Sunday included what may be winter’s last remaining snow in the Adirondacks.

North Creek summer 2012 update

The Saratoga North Creek Railway recently announced their summer operating schedule for 2012. Daily passenger service will begin this Saturday, May 26 and continue through late October. SNCR and its parent company, Iowa Pacific Holdings, expect ridership this summer could approach 24,000 passengers – double last summer’s number - due to a longer season and expanded schedule.

2011-12 Ski Season Wrap-up and Highlights

You wouldn't necessarily know it from the title of my article in Adirondack Almanack earlier this week - 2011-12 Ski Season the Worst in 20 Years - but I actually had a very good, maybe even excellent, ski season. Of course, that article was more about the decline in skier visits at Adirondack ski centers (and nationwide) than about my own personal experience this winter. To some extent, a skier's season is what he or she makes of it.

“Grossly" unprepared lost hikers should be fined

Yes, there’s a pun in the title, but the subject is serious.

Last Thursday, May 3, a group of 5 hikers became lost in the High Peaks. When they were reported missing at 11pm, state police and DEC officers launched an overnight search. The missing hikers were found by rescuers around 10am the next morning, after they spent a cold, wet night outdoors. According to published reports, the hikers were grossly unprepared. They lacked essential hiking gear like a map and compass. Their "plan" had been to hike from the Upper Works trailhead to the Ausable Lakes and back – an illogical route of at least 30 miles. As if to underscore their lack of preparedness, they informed DEC officers that they had urinated on each other to keep warm overnight. That gives something of a new meaning to the phrase “grossly” unprepared, doesn’t it?