What's Your Nature?
Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!
Encounters
It was an uncharacteristically pleasant day for the middle of December in the High Peaks. Virtually no snow, but there was plenty of ice- we used microspike the entire way up and down. This is the older trail that sees much less traffic than the new trail leading from the Olympic complex on the other side of the mountain. Round trip mileage was just under 5 miles with 925' of elevation gain. The day was quite hazy, so the views of the MacIntyre Range were not as spectacular as usual. Still, it's a fairly easy hike (for being in the High Peaks) with some nice views.
A nice easy trek along two Adirondack Ponds- Black and Long. The trails are part of the Pauls Smiths VIC. Three lean-tos along the way are nice to stop and take a few pictures. Total mileage was about 3.4 miles RT.
A nighttime stroll on the St. Lawrence XC Trails with the SLU Powerhouse searching for cryptids like Bigfoot or Mothman ended with us spotting an owl!! Most likely a barred owl, we watched it for a while before it eventually took off. Although the picture is a little blurry, I was surprised to even be able to make out the owl since it was dark except for the moon behind the clouds. So exciting!
Baldface is a short but steep (gains over 1000' in a mile) mountain that is a real gem. The trailhead is virtually unmarked, and there is nothing but a few old ribbons on the trail. It is old school -straight up the mountain, no switchbacks. It had rained the day before and the leaves were very slippery. The steepness got our attention, but the views were awesome from the mountain's bald summit. Debar Mt. is west of the summit and Debar Pond between the two. There is a second lookout that has views south towards Loon Lake Mountain.
I spent Columbus Day with a solo kayak trip up the Oswegatchie River (Fine NY) to High Rock. The leaves are well past peak, and the water was REALLY low. I didn't have to carry over anything, but I ran aground several times. The temperature was great considering it's October
Although a cloudy day, the leaves on the trees were absolutely beautiful! Captures the true image of the Fall season in the North Country.
