Friday, February 20, 2009

News from the North Country

For those that follow my posts of New York's wild and beautiful North Country, The Adirondacks, I stumbled across a blog that I think folks will find very enjoyable..
It's called "The Adirondack Naturalist," and it will spend a period of time at the top of the blogroll, as is my habit with all new blogs that are added.
Peruse it all, as it's eminently worthwhile, but there's a story, for me at least, connected with the post of February 13, "The Mighty Hudson"... Oddly enough, when I was searching for acreage to build on in the ADKs, the Newcomb/Long Lake area was at the top of my list, because I had spent so much time in the area, and loved it's wildness and natural beauty. One of the parcels I looked at was just to the left of the small building on the Hudson in the first picture.. The parcel banked right on a bend in the Hudson, as shown. It was, at that time, owned by National Lead, who at that time also owned the old McIntyre Mine up at Tahawus, only a few miles away. The acreage was still being logged, was criss-crossed with logging roads, and was not in pristine condition to locate a camp. NL also would not deal in any way whatsoever on the asking price, so we never made the deal. But, I still remember that piece right on the river, and how beautiful it could one day be, with the High Peaks in the background..

So, spend some time reading "The Adirondack Naturalist," and don't forget to notice my all time favorite little creature of the forest floor, the red eft, pictured to the right. How many hours I've spent mesmerized by these diminutive creatures while on post in the deer woods... and god only knows how many bucks passed within inches of me while entranced by their slow and deliberate walk ....

Enjoy the weekend!

1 comment:

  1. Bill,

    This stirs a couple of memories.

    I've only been up Marcy once (the day Spiro Agnew resigned) and we did it the "back way" around Lake Colden, starting at Tahawus (actually at the old village of Adirondac, a bunch of log buildings) which I believe was National Lead property at the time.

    And how fondly I recall the old red "eft" (we called 'em newts) from my days of "creek-truckin'" in my youth. We spent a lot of time exploring the ravines and glens around Elmira, NY and the Finger Lakes and red newts were easily found by turning over a few rocks. Kept 'em as pets now and then but it always ended badly.

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