Found a great spot just below the falls, not far from the Colton trail head, for a picnic and relaxing swim. It's hard to believe some of the trees along the water are already sporting deep red leaves - it's only July!

The trail was a bit iced over, but it made for a nice peaceful walk. Great spot to watch the raging water with a cup of tea.

While technically it isn't winter, the peak of St. Regis seemed pretty wintery to me. Such a nice winter hike for those who aren't quite ready to tackle the iced over high peaks!

I was walking back to our 33.5 acres of land behind our house where I had to take pictures of our fort students had worked on for a blog. When about 15 feet into the woods I came across huge tracks in the pathway. I knew they weren't deer tracks because they were humongous. They had the shape of a deer track but about the size of a grown mans hand. What is shown in the picture is half a stride one stride looked to be about six and a half feet. I have never seen a moose up in the North Country, but have seen one in the Adirondack's.

Note to future hikers: this trail is confusing! The trail in is quite beautiful as it wanders through a dense coniferous forest, crosses a bridge near a beaver dam, then follows a stream as you rise in elevation. Nearing the summit, the trail seemingly ends at a steep rock face or turns to the left following orange and pink flagging. While I followed the flagging for signs of hope, the truth is, you actually need to ascend the rock section - there were enough roots to scramble up and trail markers did eventually appear though they were few and far between.

Perfect for a short little walk and with a little bushwhacking it offers a great view of the falls. Great finds of the day: a very large and intimidating spider, a snake skin, and a geocache box!

So many experiences packed into one day. We started out from our lean-to at Marcy Dam and headed up the main trail to Marcy for our first summit of the day. The views from Marcy were incredible and live up to their hype and the trail was easy going with a nice steep section of open rock perfect for a sprint to the top. After summiting Marcy, we headed to Mt. Skylight which had views just as epic as Marcy, though it was much more peaceful.

Pyramid Peak was the way to go - dramatic views of slides on several nearby high peaks made the 12 mile trip worth the work. It was a nice hot day with the sun radiating off the trees leaving thick air dense with the smell of balsam in our lungs. On the way down, we stopped at Beaver Meadow Falls for a nice splash of cold water on our faces before continuing back to the trailhead.

Baker Mt. made for a nice morning run with a friend. Great views of the high peaks in the distance and another one of the Saranac Lake 6 knocked off my list.

I completed my Saranac Lake 6er today on Ampersand. I met quite a few other soon-to-be-6ers along the way too. It was a perfect day for a hike and fungus spotting - the trail was loaded with several varieties!