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.

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.

After a three hour drive we started off the day snowshoeing in Lake Placid. The trail we started on was the section of the Jackrabbit Trail where the Ho-Jo's used to be. Once we came to the connection to the Brewster Peninsula trail we switched to get a view of the lake shore. After we were done we returned to Saranac Lake to watch the fireworks at the Ice Palace.

Harper's Falls is on the Downerville road, about a half mile off of C.R.27. This is the North branch of the Grasse river. The hike is 6/10th of a mile from the yellow gate at the parking spot on the left. It's a nice hike through the scrubby hardwoods common to the area. Where the trail meets the river,there were not a lot of views, as the falls is pretty well frozen over. Walking upstream a hundred yards gives you much better views. You can see the stone walls from the sawmills flume still. Very nice hike on a February day.

It was great to see so many folks out enjoying winter at the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa!

We spent the perfect chilly morning at Higley Flow State Park. Conditions were just right for skiing, and snowshoers, snowmobilers, and ice fishermen thought the same as well!

After a stressful day, I found peace and tranquility in this simple yet beautiful landscape of the river. Afternoon walks with friends can mend any stressed psyche.

Basford falls is located 1.4 miles from the DeGrasse end of the Tooley pond road. It's a pretty easy .7 (round trip) trail to the falls. Once you start down the hill to the falls, you'll go through some awesome white pine trees. Well worth the trip, an even better if you are going to visit the other falls on the road. For more info on these falls visit this link- they have everything you need to get you there. ............. http://www.nnywaterfalls.com/index.htm

Out for a ski on the last day of 2016 I came across a dead birch tree absolutely covered in birch polypore fungi. The fungi visible on the tree are just fruiting bodies of the larger organism -- at this point, what was left standing was probably as much fungal mycelia as it was dead wood!

This was a day to get off the couch and out to the winter world. We started off from the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center, on Wellesley Island . We walked the eel bay trail to the narrows trail, and from there we took the middle trail back to the nature center. We didn't see much wildlife, but the views were great. We had original planned to snowshoe, but the lack of snow made doing it in boots easy enough. Total distance was about 3 miles, +/-. From there we headed towards Cape Vincent and Tibbetts point (by car). The road is very close to the St.