I spent a snowy Veteran's Day exploring some old camp ruins around the Horseshoe Lake area. These were fairly off the grid, but I found them without "too" much difficulty. I've been to the ruins of the Hitchens camps many times, but I wanted to find these particular ones. The most prominent features of these sites are the fireplaces.

The camps were burned by the DEC when they acquired the property as they were non-conforming structures, a common but unfortunate occurrence when dealing with Adirondack properties.

Sunday started cold (around zero) but warmed to the lower 30s by mid-morning and made for a great hike to Goodman Mt in Tupper Lake. The 3.3-mile trail is in pretty good shape, snowshoes are not really needed yet, but microspikes were a welcome addition. This hike is part of the Tupper Lake Triad. This is always a nice shorter hike and is pretty enjoyable at any time of year.

Sunday was a dark and dreary day, but not cold or stormy- so we visited Mt Arab in Piercefield. The trail is hard-packed and microspikes are perfect right now. The visibility was only about 100 feet, so the normally great views were absent. The now-retired fire tower usually offers even greater views, but not today.

The weekend wasn't the greatest weatherwise, but good enough to make the long-overdue trek to St Regis mountain in Paul Smiths. The Friends of St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower have been working hard at restoring the fire tower and are doing a great job. The '2,874 mountain originally had a wooden tower constructed on the summit in 1910 and was upgraded to a '35 Aermotor LS 40 steel tower in 1918.

Azure was covered in a layer of light fluffy snow, and just as we got to the top the sun broke through the clouds. For a relatively small mountain, Azure is always such a worthwhile hike and has some really amazing views.