Courtesy of Michael, the CNY Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, in conjunction with the 174th Fighter Wing, NY Air National Guard and the 157th Air Refueling Wing, NH Air National Guard has invited me to observe and participate in an F-16 tactical fighter refueling mission on Thursday.  I am pumped about the opportunity to ride and  watch 174th Fighter Wing F-16s refueling at the aft of the tanker and visit the cockpit and chat with the tanker crew – something I have never done.

Tim & Chris came to visit this past weekend arriving Friday afternoon. We took a quick walk through our woods prior to dinner. Eric was the tour guide showing off the many apple trees and the hornets nest – if you look close you can see several hornets crawling around on the nest.

The group ponders where to go.

Eric ambushed the group from behind.

A happy hiker.

We were treated to a special moonrise upon our return.

“Decided to sleep in lean-to, floor like C-ment. To those who come behind us, bring a mattress. – Griffin Rapids.”

Tuesday night Kathryn & I went to the local ADK chapter meeting. I have been and ADK member for several years and participated in ADK classes and outings, but I have never attended a club meeting. They had Stuart Mesinger the author of No Place I’d Rather Be: Wit and Wisdom from Adirondack Lean-tos as their program speaker.

We have all read the lean-to registers. Stuart took several years and read hundreds of registers to compile his book. Stuart received permission (and sponsorship) from the ADK to go through the register archives. Stuart flagged the interesting entries, had a High School student type them up and then organized the book into themes: love stories, tall tales, partying, complainers, weather, critters, bugs, food, the privy, the campfire, the long walk, adventures, culture clashes, hunting and fishing, companions, religion and solitude.

Stuart read excepts from his book for 30 minutes and was very entertaining. Unfortunately he ran out of books at his signing and we did not pick one up to read. I plan to remedy that in the future.

I had a few notes and left over items from my Leave No Trace class that I thought were worth sharing:

Colored Ziploc plastic bags make it easier/more acceptable for people to pack out toilet paper and feminine products than clear bags would. I purchased a case from www.Uline.com (along with my emergency Tyvek coveralls). I will be distributing some of these bags to participants on future WinterCampers.com trips.

For two days this week Skip, Bob & I went 4wd truck camping to scout for future outings. Our 1st destination was the 359 acre Jerseyfield Lake in Herkimer County which, we discovered, is privately owned and gated.

From there we proceeded northeast on the Powley-Piseco Road, one of the last old Adirondack dirt roads, extending 17 miles from Stratford northeast to Route 10 near Piseco Lake, cutting through the center of the Ferris Lake Wild Forest. We checked out checked out Ferris Lake and Sand Lake. While the “Discover the Adirondacks” guidebook describes the Ferris Lake as accessible through private lands we found it to be gated by a club. Possibly Ferris Lake could be reached via a long portage around the private holdings. From there we stopped in at the Hamilton County Offices in Lake Pleasant to pick up the County road map.

We proceeded to Speculator up Elm Lake Road and travelled across the lease agreement International Paper Company roads. The land in this section was excessively logged about 100 years ago. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps came in and created a plantation of pines, mostly scotch and white pines. We camped on State Land at the trailhead to Rock and Long Ponds at northern reach of the Kunjamuk River. This trailhead is on the old Kunjamuk Road which was the major roadway between Speculator and Indian Lake in the 19th century. We scouted the Kunjamuk as a possible 2 day/overnight through trip.

The weather forecast called for overnight rain continuing through Thursday we set up rainflys and successfully thwarted any rain.

Thursday we drove north on Route 30 and entered the Moose River Plains from the Indian Lake access road. We spent most of the day driving the extensive dirt roads checking out roadside campsites. We explored the Otter Creek/South Moose access, Indian Lake and Squaw Lake.  Otter Creek seemed to provide easy access to the South Branch of the Moose River which tranverses Adirondack League holdings before continuing through DEC land to Mckeever – a possible 2 day trip.  Indian Lake was remote, beautiful with the fall colors and reportedly “dead” due to acid rain.  Squaw Lake was accessible via a .45 downhill trail and it had a gorgeous campsite.  We finally left the plains in Inlet with a loud muffler rattled loose from all the dirt roads.

On Saturday Eric and I went to Schoharie.  On our return trip home we stopped off at Robert’s place so that Eric could fish in his ponds. Eric has been learning to cast his fishing pole but needs a tree-free area to cast in.  The ponds were perfect.  He caught about 6 sunfish and 1 large mouth bass in the 45 minutes we were fishing.  Eric had been having difficulty reeling fish in, but we used this session for him to learn how to pump and reel.  Pictures are below.

During the week of Sept 11-15 I attended a Leave No Trace (www.lnt.org) Master Educator’s Class sponsored by Adirondack Mountain Club (www.adk.org) and the Appalachian Mountain Club (www.amc-ny.org). On the course we furthered our understanding and practicing of the Leave No Trace skills and techniques, developed our outdoor teaching and education skills, explored our Wild land Ethic, created an action plan and participated in all group activities. A central component of the course was for us to practice our teaching skills among peers. Each of us taught one of the 7 LNT principles to the rest of the group. The seven LNT Principles are:
* Plan ahead and Prepare
* Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
* Dispose of Waste Properly
* Leave What You Find
* Minimize Campfire Impacts
* Respect Wildlife
* Be Considerate of Other Visitors

The 1st day of the class was taught at the Adirondack Loj and included a lot of logistics, overviews, and organization. Monday night we distributed food and packed. Tuesday morning we headed out in the Pharoh Lakes area for a 3 night/4 day trip. We taught principles as the trip progressed. We had cool rainy days through out the trip. The last night of the trip we practiced camping in a pristine area – leaving no impact of our presence.
I was really happy to complete the class as it was the 1st time I packed any weight and my backpack was substantial. We only hiked 4 miles a day due to the class schedule and I relied on my trekking poles, but regardless I was happy to be able to backpack again. Because I am not affiliated with an outdoor agency to carry insurance I am limited on being able to lead other LNT classes (Masters or Trainers), but I am hopeful of being able to co-lead, or do an awareness workshop with fellow campers (e.g. WinterCampers.com)

Instead of competing in the Adirondack Canoe Classic 90 Mile Canoe Race Skip & I decided we would arrange for a group camping trip to Massawepi Lake for the weekend of September 8-11. Massawepie is used by the Boy Scouts from Memorial Day to Labor Day so not many people are accustomed to travelling there. Steve, Linda, Bonnie, Cindy, Skip, Kathryn, Eric & I comprised the group. Most of the party left on Friday morning to ensure they could enjoy the beautiful weather on Friday. I was up to my eyeballs writing white papers so I worked on Friday and joined everyone on Saturday morning.

It was raining on and off as I drove north and I had a steady rain crossing the lake in my solo canoe. The group was well set up with tents and tarps and certainly well fed. I brought in some of Rhinda’s marinated salmon to be grilled over a campfire. It was cool and damp most of the day but we stayed dry. After dinner Eric and I went fishing and he caught several small bass. This was Eric’s 1st experience in sleeping in a tent and he did great. I think next time we could do even more of a remote experience. The next morning was dry as we packed up and headed out late morning. I left the group and headed to Lake Placid for my week long Leave No Trace backpacking course.

Steve rotates the sweet corn while Linda and Cindy warm up their clothes; Bonnie warms up her internals while Kathryn and Eric share a hug around the fire.