Climb of the Bottle Slide (and technical Bottleneck route) in 2013 with Phil Brown, editor of Adirondack Explorer news-magazine.

More at Adirondack Almanac: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/06/hitting-the-bottle-on-giant-m…

Very cool fungus found in the woods by my house. I couldn't identify it, but there are many different types of fungi in the North Country.

EDIT: This fungus is possibly Dryad's Saddle, a type of shelf fungus. It is very young, making it hard to identify.

Male ruby meadhawks have a bright red body, while females have a brown to orange color. Meadowhawks are found throughout the Northern US, but are very hard to identify.

The Lance-tipped darner is a large dragonfly, like most darners are, which is identifiable by it yellow-green markings under its wings and blue striping on its tail.

Blue Gray Gnatcatcher heard singing off in the woods just outside Colton-Pierrepont Central School

Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly spotted in the fenced off marshy area next to the school

Today, I found a very large jack in the pulpit. The leaves grow in groups of three, and are usually 8-15 cm long. This one was closer to 25 cm! The flowers of jack in the pulpits grow between the two sets of leaves, with a large, cylindrical, hooded flower. Male flowers die before the females grow, so females have to be pollinated by a different plant (COOL FACT!).

The Twelve-spotted Skimmer has three brown spots on each wing, making twelve spots. Males form white spots between these brown ones, while females don't. Sometimes they are called Ten-spotted Skimmers for the number of white spots.

Burying beetles are black with reddish markings on their backs. They are true to their name, burying carcasses of rodents or other small animals.

Wood frogs are found all over the North Country. They blend in to their environments very well (as seen in the second picture) with a brown or tan color, and have a dark eye mask.