Friends Weekend

  Friends Weekend is always a cherished time spent with several of my oldest friends from Westfield, and this year had the added bonus of being held in Lake Placid.  Never one to pass up a chance to get up a mountain or two, I coerced Amy into going early to join me in climbing two more of the Adirondack peaks over 4000', Cascade and Porter.  They are considered two of the easier ones, and with spectacular views, are often overrun with people.  We had the advantage of getting there early on a weekday after most of the leaves had fallen so had both summits to ourselves.  While we ate lunch atop Porter we could see a small crowd gathering on the bald summit of Cascade where we'd gone first.  Both offer stunning, unobstructed views of most of the High Peaks, Lake Champlain, and the Green Mountains in Vermont.

  Based on a tip from the Zamboni driver on the speed skating track, I got up Saturday morning for a short hike up Cobble Hill near the village.  The High Peaks were obscured by clouds, but I could see the cut in the mountains where the Ausuble River and Rt. 86 cut through the mountains.

  After the clouds burned off it was tough to have this view of Whiteface and not be climbing it, but the purpose of the trip was to spend time with friends.  Maybe a ski trip up the Veterans Memorial Highway on an equally beautiful day is in order.

Friends Weekend

  An annual rite of passage, Friends Weekend is a good time to gather and have too much to eat and drink while catching up on another year.  Sue and I showed no restraint in the eating part. 
  The house we rented this time was fantastic, and rich in history.  It was the first in the hood, many have surrounded it, but still excellent for a large reunion.

Friends Weekend

  A few of us made it to John Brown's Farm in North Elba.  I'd been trying to get there for several years, and when Gail went in 2018 she was moved by a new permanent exhibit titled "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" that tells the story of Gerrit Smith's efforts to give away lands to blacks so they could have the $250 in property wealth required to vote in NY in the 1840's.  John Brown supported Smith's efforts so moved his family to North Elba to help the new landowners get established (as well as transport escaped slaves to Canada). After the exhibit traveled around for several years it was given a permanent home at his farm.
  A lovely spot to learn history.

Friends Weekend

 

  We hit the weather window perfectly and were able to spend quite a bit of time outside.  Everybody enjoyed a couple walks around the village of Lake Placid, the lawn was sufficient for various games,  a few of us visited the ski jump, and best of all, we missed another 100-year storm with destructive winds and flooding by a week.

20th Caroline Walkabout

  Hard to believe it's been 20 years since a bunch of young, ambitious people set out to walk a 26-mile marathon around the hills of Caroline.  Many blisters, bunions, corns and callouses later, we've scaled it down to about 15 miles, but the spirit remains.  Hosted by Connie and Andy and attended by participants from far and wide, we walk on. 
  Already looking forward to next year.

20th Caroline Walkabout

  Nice day for a walk, and the colors didn't disappoint.  We headed down McGrath Road with the leaves as expected, but the first rolling fields of hemp any of us had ever seen.  Probably the best aspect of the walk is having extended time to catch up with friends.

20th Caroline Walkabout

  As always, Connie put out a sumptuous lunch that kept everyone who was continuing through the afternoon nourished and in need of a walk.  Two views near the end gave a great display of fall colors, and the sky put on a decent show too.

NY NY

  Before returning to work in September I made an overnight trip to Brooklyn to see Ting and meet her adorable boy, Hison.  He's growing so fast, the outfit I got him was already too small though it was for a baby two months older.

  Xiao was there too and I taught him some of the finer points of collecting scrap metal.  Unfortunately the scrap yard was closed so we just left our offerings by their gate.

NY NY

  While the kids slept I went to two places in Brooklyn I've come to love: Coney Island at sunrise, and Greenwood Cemetery.  Had a nice swim in the ocean and saw some interesting graves, trees and views of the Manhattan skyline.

NY NY

  Thanks to a tip from Gail, I got to see a wonderful and broad exhibit celebrating the life of Leonard Cohen.  More than a dozen artists were given space to use so there was a great variety of genres.  This is a picture of one of the many self-portraits Cohen did that were projected onto a wall. 

Northeast Mountains and Lakes

  Summer has come and gone, and as usual it was spent doing lots of great stuff.  I'm lucky to have two full months off, Gail took off the last three weeks of August that allowed us to take a trip to the mountains and lakes of NY, VT and NH.
  Our first stop was in Piseco to see her brother, Geoff, and his family, Kristi and her parents, Chips and Ann, and our nephews, Harper and Dusty.  We hadn't been able to do that in a few years.  The boys are growing fast and it was wonderful to spend a few days with them.  They are really into birding and it was amazing to see how much they've learned about the world around them.

  Speaking of birds, the bald eagles have nested on the island of Piseco Lake again.  The adults aren't around much this time of year but the juvenile hangs out and cries for food all day.

  Gail had a nice sunrise swim around the island, I went along in one of the canoes.

  I also got a chance for a solo hike up Pillsbury Mountain and another fire tower.  It was near Snowy Mountain which Gail, Geoff and Kristu and I hiked together a few years back.  That's Snowy in the distance, I had to mess with the color to make it more distinct.

Northeast Mountains and Lakes

  Much of what we do these days revolves around Gail's love of swimming, and why shouldn't it?  When she mentioned a series of swims in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and her desire to participate in one, I was on board as her support kayaker. Of the eight swims, she chose a three-mile event in Caspian Lake.  It was a beautiful day with little wind and lots of sun.  The swimmers went to a rock in the lake and had to touch it before swimming back to the start, many climbed out and jumped in.  The kayakers just cruised along enjoying the day, some with a dog on the bow.

  The day before her swim, by a lucky coincidence, Gail was a support kayaker for a friend, Mary, during her five-mile swim of Lake Willoughby.  Willoughby is flanked on each side by Mt. Pisgah and Hor, with dramatic 1000' cliffs dropping to the lake.  I planned to hike each of them while the ladies were in and on the water.  I did in fact hike, but once I'd climbed a few hundred feet I was completely socked in by clouds and had no views of the lake or cliffs.  This ended up being OK as I decided to hike a different trail north back down to Willoughby and maybe time it so I'd see Gail and her friend going by.  Worked like a charm, and the trail was one of my favorites of the entire trip.

  Another nice lake swim took place in Crystal Lake, just the two of us and perfect conditions again.

  Gail bought an underwater camera, it captured some cool shots like this one in Crystal Lake.

  I got into the swimming act on many occasions, but more to cool off and not for any kind of exercise.  The top photo is from the last day of the trip when we went out on Lake George in the Adirondacks with our friends, Glenn and Mary Ann, on their boat and docked on Sara Island for the morning.  A daily feature of our stay in Peacham was a swim in the pond.  Only in New Hampshire did we not have access to good swimming, but there was a brook that we got in to cool off and rinse off when needed. 

Northeast Mountains and Lakes

  Once we left NY behind we headed for Vermont to stay in a lovely old farmhouse an Ithaca friend lived in and still owns.  It was the kind of place that makes one wish to be with a dozen friends, and we did invite some, but they couldn't make it so we had to stick it out alone.  We survived.

  The first full day there we did our only hike of the trip that involved raincoats.  Near the house was Spruce Mountain with a fire tower on top.  It gave us nice views of the surrounding mountains in the Groton State Forest.  On the way back to the house we passed the Martin Covered Bridge, a rarity in VT in that it was constructed by a private farmer.  This made it unique in several ways, most notably by the height of the opening which was greater than most because they used it to bring wagons piled high with hay from the fields to their barns.  Also unique is that it survived the flood of 1927 that washed away some 1200 bridges.

  Lake Willoughby is a bit to the north of Peacham.  We got a fantastic view of it and the cliffs of Pisgah Mountain from Wheeler Mountain.  Near the end of my hike while Gail kayaked I got a closer look at the same cliffs from Mount Hor.
  The closest body of water to the house we stayed at is Joe's Pond, but we neither swam nor kayaked in/on it.  Next time.