Beautiful views of the setting sun tonight on Mount Coney. We had a blast hiking up to celebrate the summer solstice! Thanks to the Canton Girl's Soccer Team for joining us!

Marcy's Great Chimney (aka Empty Tomb) & All Ryled Up-2017 June 15. (First ascent by Kevin and Jaryn DeShane) Mt. Marcy is home to a large vertical trap dike/chimney though it only looks like a pencil thin shadow from Mt. Haystack. Jaryn Deshane and I spent last Thursday on an intriguing climb, one that has taken 4 years to come to fruition. I didn't expect the route to be as clean or as varied. A couple sections had slightly overhanging trap rock..what a surprise.

Out for a morning run I spotted this painted turtle by the side of the road. It didn't want to stay out for a picture so I crouched down and took an in-shell view. Was a beautiful morning for a run, where I saw a Great blue Heron hunting in some wetlands off of Eel Pond Rd. just a little further along the run. I love exploring these back country roads!

Checking out trees at Indian Creek Nature Center with our new Nature Up North summer naturalist interns Molly and Maya. We had fun keying out some familiar and less familiar species, and the labs had fun getting in water!

After several days of rain the skies finally cleared, revealing a stunning joint sunset and rainbow to entice students to finally emerge from the shelter of their townhouses.

A sunny day on the Grasse in Clare, New York called for a little afternoon fishing. We hooked a couple brookies and threw them back to catch again another day.

Caught this little snapping turtle making her way across route 27 this morning while biking. Here she's pictured recovering from the shock of being picked up and carried the rest of the way across the highway. Snapping turtles are all over the roads this time of year, often looking for banks to nest in. I wouldn't encourage picking one up (for their safety and yours!), but if you must a good approach is to grip the shell on either side of the tail.

Wonderful trip out to Stone Valley with some of this year's graduating St. Lawrence students last week. So nice to share one of our favorite places with these students before they leave the North Country. We especially enjoyed listening to the warblers and catbirds calling along the trail. Stone Valley will be waiting when you come back to visit!

Today the students in the SLU Conservation Biology class, composed of all seniors, took our "final exam" as a hike to the giant beaver dam in the Wolf Lake State Forest. Great way to spend some stress-free time together as a group before all these wonderful folks graduate and get out into the world to make a difference for the environment. I'm always proud of these students, and this year was no exception!

Morning walk at Stone Valley. The water was high, and we were just in time to catch the first spring leaves unfolding.