Autumn in the Adirondacks

I got the 5:15pm ferry from Oak Bluffs to Woods hole. I couldn’t wait to grab an Italian sub from Falmouth - it felt like years since I had had one; “large Italian toasted with everything on it including hots. Don’t forget the hots!” Just like that, I was back in the continental US, and my annual fall vacation had begun. On the docket: Become an Adirondacks 46er, see some old growth in Western MA, do the Pemigiwesset Loop, hike North Brother mountain in Maine, see the Big Reed Forest Preserve in northern Maine, drop down to see my uncles Paul and Walt downeast, check out Acadia, then visit my siblings and mom before returning to the banana belt. Whew, that was a mouth full... 

Today I woke up in the trunk of my SUV at a rest stop outside of Albany NY to learn that the Donald has the Rona. I made an early morning push to see Chapman Museum in Glenn Falls per an old lady at an antique shop in Warrensburg a few trips ago. She sent me to see Seneca Ray Stoddard’s (What a guy) collection of vintage photographs and maps after I bamboozled her for an original map of his for half price. The curator and I hit it off, spending 45 minutes talking forest ecology, maps, and history. He taught me quirks about the Stoddard 1912 “Adirondacks” map I had scored, and then I was off to the Hudson River to paddle. Last time I was at this spot, Kinley and I camped here and we woke to Whipporwills singing. I ended the day at my favorite Anorthosite outcrop overlooking Middle Saranac Lake, which did not disappoint. I’ll share some photos, but not the pot of gold I found. Cheers-