El Niño Thanksgiving

I’ve gone into this season flat footed, not really ready in any way. Life was especially difficult this offseason and without significant blasts of cold air to focus my attention, my preseason prep was non-existent.

Gore Mountain opening day 2015

The car thermometer read 61 degrees driving up Route 28 towards Gore on Friday. I almost didn’t care. One benefit to my lack of prep: I’d left my mountain bike up at the cabin, and it paid off. The trails were in great shape.  We rode and walked after we settled in.

Saturday morning was foggy up high in North River. The afternoon had the potential to get sunny and I wondered, for a moment, if we should wait to let things soften up.  As is my way, we headed over early and it was the right call.

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What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Everything changes and from what I can see summer vacation is no different. In the old days, we’d use our time off to explore the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and the south central Adirondacks.

water-sports

We’d push our week or ten days of time off as late in the season as possible. That time right after Labor Day is possibly the best time of the year in the mountains, outside of ski season.

Now we take it when we can get it. When our daughter entered kindergarten, like many families, we moved our vacation into late August, after camp and before school. Sometimes, our schedule of activities shortens that long week in the mountains into a long weekend.

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Paddling Thirteenth Lake

I put in another work weekend at our camp in North River.  It’s not really work to me — stacking firewood and improving our trails — it’s exactly what I want to do with my free time in summer.

paddling Thirteenth Lake

I actually daydream about cabin projects from my desk at work. Six million acres of opportunity for adventure all around, and I’m completely content on just a handful of hectares.

But Thirteenth Lake is practically in our backyard. Big and beautiful and right there, the lake is hard for us to ignore. After working on the Red Trail for the better part of the day we drove to the boat launch and put in. Even on a gray day the lake is a special place.

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