Wild leeks are in! Spent some time walking in the woods the other day and came across a few impressive patches of these early spring arrivals. It's always good to be careful when collecting wild edible plants, but I find leeks (or ramps) are easily identifiable by their soft green leaves, the purple color between leaf and bulb, and their delicious garlic-y smell. These were great sauteed with butter.

Nature Up North and friends at a "Green Up" on the Grasse River today in honor of Earth Day. We collected a total of 5 bags of trash and 3 of recyclables along the trail to the Sandbanks and along the river! It was great to spend the morning outside meeting new people, and it felt good to clean up an outdoor spot where so many enjoy spending time. We also encountered a full deer skeleton along the way, which nature was in the process of "recycling". Thanks to everyone who came out to help!

Took a recreational field trip to Lake Massawepie with my Adirondack Literature class! We had fun paddling the lake, exploring Arcadia, the yurt village where the Adirondack Semester from St. Lawrence University is, and checking out the Massawepie Mire. We spent the whole day in the sunshine, learning about and experiencing first hand a piece of this beautiful region we've been reading about all semester

Finishing this year's sugaring in the woods. Great way to spend time outside. My favorite picture is the second one, with maple trees reflected in the not-quite-syrup.

Mt Arab is always a fun hike. The trail was broken with modern style snowshoes, that made going with traditional wooden frame ones pretty brutal, just wasn't wide enough. Other than that- an awesome hike! For more on this trip, you can visit my blog page at https://hikingthetrailtoyesterday.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/mt-arab-coni…

The chickadees were everywhere while I was out on The Nature Center's trails; they even landed on my dog! I felt guilty because I didn't have any seed with me!"

Warm weather, 72 Fahrenheit at our house, was followed by a couple inches of rain. Then it cooled. The unseasonable weather created a veneer of hard crust and depleted the snowpack by roughly two feet. The conditions were ideal for a visit to the gorge. Veteran Alan Wechsler was on board to go hunt some ice. We watched the forecast during the week preceding March 10; predicted temperatures for the weekend dropped daily and, with wind-chill, settled at about -40 at the elevation where the climbs are located. We moved the climb to Friday so we’d be racing the oncoming cold weather.

The Feline Wall, about ¼ mile into Panther Gorge on Mt. Marcy, sometimes hosts a thin ice smear down its center line. It seems reliable in that it forms every year. The caveat is that it is thickest at the top where the water feeding it seeps from the krummholz. Sun heats the dark underlying stone and often delaminates the bottom portion. Whether it is bonded to the anorthosite when one visits, is a persistent wildcard.

I nice day to be on the trails. First up to the fire tower- 2.25 miles round trip.... then the Peavine swamp lean-to, 2.8 round trip. The last pitch up to the tower is sketchy today. I didn't bring crampons (i could have used em). I hate ice!

Seeing as the sun was shining and the temperature up to 48 degrees, we just had to spend some time in the fresh air! Mom, Gizmo, and I went for a refreshing walk and ended on our back porch, soaking up the warm rays for a few moments. Enjoyable, but strange to hear all kinds of birds singing back and forth to each other, even robins who shouldn't be present until the springtime. But it's always fun to find traces of life wherever we go!