It seems hard to believe it’s been a week now in the wilderness – starting out in Perkins Clearing for three nights, then Horseshoe Lake for three nights, and now Floodwood Road in the St. Regis Canoe Area. It’s funny, while Polywog Pond has a big group of campsites around it, this campsite on East Pine Pond is pretty quiet and isolated, though there is another campsite some 1/4 mile down the road.
Hell of it is, I doubt I’ve driven 150 miles so far on this trip, and that there is a good chance that I’ll make it home on Sunday on one tank of gas. It’s been a very direct trip, first Perkins Clearing (via Mason Pond as I was hoping for campsite there), then a b-line to Horseshoe Pond, then it was pretty much straight up to Floodwood Road, with a brief stop at the the Village Park in Tupper Lake, but that was maybe 2 miles out of the way, along with the local IGA grocer. Most of my travel has been via bike, as once I’ve set up camp I’ve not driven Red at all, though a few nights due to the cold and lack of sunlight I’ve idled the truck to keep especially the starting battery fully charged.
Today was no different. I rode down to Tupper Lake via the new Adirondack Rail Trail, having to stop a few times, because I got a flat tire, but I was able to pump it up and then eventually the fix-a-flat did it’s magic and I rode the rest of the day. Rode down to the Tupper Village Park, it was much nicer then the previous day. Then I rode through the village, and down NY 30 to Raquette Pond and took in the view. Then I decided to ride to Arab Mountain Trailhead in Piercefield. I tell you that Faust Hill outside of Tupper Lake, especially heading west bound on NY 3 is a bitch to climb, though it was fun riding back down. St. Lawrence County Highway 67 was another pretty good hill, as was the road over to Mount Arab. Made the mile trail up to the firetower seem relatively easy. A beautiful day, and not so cold. Still some nice color up at Arab Mountain, though not so much on some of the other peaks.
Riding down from Arab Mountain back to Tupper Lake was much more fun, though still you have to climb over Faust Hill, though it’s not as steep of a grade heading east bound on NY 3. The nice thing is NY 3 has very wide shoulders, as it was likely originally a 3-lane highway with a shared passing lane, removed some time later when that seen as unsafe. Then I spent some time at Tupper Lake Park for a while, uploading photos and thinking, replying to some work emails. Then I stopped at Save-a-Lot, which I didn’t realize is much like an Aldis, and got some more olive oil, as I was out of fats to lubricate pans with as I don’t have any bacon from For the Love of Bacon, and I was out of olive oil. I don’t use vegatables oil anymore, though I thought about that as a fall back as it would be better while camping, as it won’t solidify like olive oil does in cold.
Tomorrow I am planning on hiking Floodwood Mountain. I was surprised to hear what appeared to be cows mooing up here in the wilderness – but I was studying the maps and there is an in holding on West Pine Pond, and somebody must have a cows on their off-grid homestead, as there is no electric on most of St. Regis Canoe Area. But I can’t imagine having cows up here, with the demands of hay and grain, with no farms nearby, seems like an expensive proposition but some people like fresh milk and meat. Watched the sun set on East Pine Pond and cooked up btoen rice, canned chicken meat, onions, and carrots into a delicious soup. Always a filling meal after a busy day out on the trail, as I don’t do processed foods anymore and rarely eat meat, with the exception of bacon. It’s like saying I’m not smoker, despite liking an occasional Marlboro Red in the woods with a cold beer or a toke up in wilderness. But its’ so much better then the food most people eat dripping in saturated fats from cheese and meat.
I’ve been listening to more of Eva Shaub’s The Year Without Garbage. While there have been many years when I’ve only gone to transfer station once a year with accumulated milk bottles and all of the tin cans and glass bottles from the past year, I have to admit I don’t think nearly enough about all those plastic wrappers and coatings I’ve tossed in the fire over the years. While I don’t think I would ever have a smoldering burn barrel when I have my own land, I don’t really see the harm of burning the occasional wrapper in s hot fire when you have no neighbors nearby. A big part of my garbage these days is compost, being that I eat healthy, so I have a lot of apple cores and banana and onion peels. Those flour bags, frozen fruit bags, and dried bean wrappers pretty much disappear into the flames almost instantly with very little stink or smoke. Speaking of which, I think I want to have a fire tonight. I’m sitting by the heater, but a fire is nice, especially with the nights as long as they are this time of year. Plus I don’t know how long until the low voltage shuts off the electric lights as there was not too much solar for a charge today.
After dark, the curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to find out more about the cows I was hearing. So I went for a night time ride up Floodwood Road. I was surprised beyond the state land there is several hunting cabins and off-grid homesteads including a farm with cattle and other animals that I couldn’t see well in the dark. I rode to gate at the end of road in St. Lawrence County. It was neat looking at the off-grid cabins and homesteads after dark, mostly dark except for the lanterns and lights indoors, mostly not lit up outdoors. Then I decided I had a lot of energy, so I went for a ride on the Adirondack Rail Trail in the dark, some 5 miles from Floodwood north to Hoel Pond then Little Rainbow Pond. While part of Hoel Pond has grid-tied houses, much of the rest of the trail up through the St. Regis Canoe Area is completely dark and star filled. I probably would have ridden further but after checking the battery level on my bike light, and realizing I haven’t charged it in weeks despite a fair bit of night riding, it would be best to head back to camp. I had a small fire for a while, a beer and soon I’m heading to bed.
And so that was the day that was. It was a good day.
Really one more fun morning like this with the peanut butter and banana pancakes watching the sun rise. Two more mornings if you count Sunday but no giggles as I’ll be heading back home that is after maybe finishing up the last uncompleted section of the Adirondack Rail Trail from Lake Placid to Saranac Lake and then ultimately driving my big jacked up truck home. Then it’s just back to being the Grevious Angel. I do love Gram Parsons and Karen Dalton. All this folk music, bike riding and well 34 percent THC grass, is about memories of the giggles but like anything it will come to an end.
I really spend too much time dreaming of the future 🔮 and not seizing the day today. It’s going to be a beautiful day and not so cold ❄️ like yesterday with the wind roaring 🌬️as I was at Tupper Lake. It was fine as I didn’t want to dilly dally too much but instead find a nice campsite on Floodwood Road or Little Green Pond. I ended up at the Campsite 13 near East Pine Pond, which is really perfect as there is no other campsites nearby so I can listen to music 🎶, smoke pot and have fires 🔥, oh and yeah carry my kayak to Pine Pond or drive the 1/3rd mile to the Rollins Pond Loop – and I’m only a third of a mile from the Adirondack Rail Trail. 🚂 Eight miles north of Tupper and 16 miles east of Saranac Lake. I know, yesterday afternoon after setting up camp and frying up some onions I rode out to Saranac Lake.
That said, the campsite isn’t perfect. 👌 The trees mean I won’t have a lot of sunshine ☀️ for solar, and my cell service is spotty here, though good enough for streaming radio 📻 – I like having entertainment at camp especially as I didn’t download a bunch of audio books and podcasts like I often do when I’m heading up to remote parts of the Adirondacks without cell service 🔕 like up along NY 8 and East Branch. Might head up there after Thanksgiving, depends on cold and snow. No outhouse at this site, I set up the bucket shitter. 🦆 The loons are loud this morning at this campsite. I kind of liked those sites on Little Green Pond, as they are scenic, with more sun and good cell reception but I was set up on Floodwood, and with the proximity to the St. Regis Canoe Area Lakes and the location on rail trail, this is probably a better location. Not knowing if I would have anything to listen, I got Eve Saub’s Year with No Garbage, about living the zero-waste life. A little more serious then just having fires and burning it and going to transfer station once a year, and definately an ideal though I don’t think tossing the occasional wrapper in the fire 🔥 is the worse thing ever. Though why pay for something you’re literally turning into toxic black smoke? 🗑️
It’s funny, I did not intend to go all the way out to Saranac Lake but sometimes when you start riding the bike, 🚲 you end up just going farther then expected. The Adirondack Rail Trail, even for a rail grade, is remarkably flat with only the gentlest of inclines. Plus it’s brand new stone dust, so it’s incredibly smooth. There are some nice wilderness sections in the St. Regis Canoe Area though most of it is more developed then you think – a lot of cabins and houses sprung up along the rail lines over the years. It really isn’t quite as much wilderness as the roads around the Bog River Flow.
I actually ended up not turning the lights on my bike on until I was back to Floodwood Road about quarter to seven, just because while it was dark, I both wanted to save the batteries on my light which haven’t been charged for a while, and because I wanted to see more of the wilderness after dark. When I got back, I scrambled up some eggs and canned tomatoes with sweet onions and some Frank’s Hot Sauce (ha! I remembered the name – not Mike’s Hot Sauce), and they were very good. 🥚 Those Extra Large Giroux Poultry Farms eggs were good, I don’t know why, maybe I was hungry and stoned, or maybe they actually taste better then the cheap eggs I usually get from Wally World packaged in Styrofoam that I always recycle into black smoke. 🔥 I did not have a fire last night, though I did get firewood – there actually is a fair amount if you walk a short distance from camp.
Today’s plans are to ride down to Tupper Lake via the Rail Trail. 🚉 🚴 I am thinking I will poke around Tupper for the balance of the day and then ride back to camp – I don’t know around 4 PM or so. I have some more data jobs to do for my other work job today, though I’m waiting on approval on the export request. I did one last night, dang laptop 🖥️ battery was dead in the cold, so I ended up having to start up Red 🔋 and idle the truck while I pulled power to run my laptop. Breathing in all that carbon monoxide as the truck rumbled and ran the various scripts and checked outputs. 🖨️ You know that shit goes. I might do Arab Mountain Firetower, a lot depends on the time and my mood – that’s a few miles west of Tupper Lake – and it’s a mile or so hike to the top. Tomorrow I want to actually use my kayak, for once, 🛶 and paddle around Rollins Pond Loop or at least East Pine Pond, which I am right next to. Then Sunday, of course, Lake Placid, ride to Saranac Lake, then drive through the yuppie/greenie high peaks with all the physical fitness people and then get on the Northway and make a b-line home. But again, too much of a focus on the future, lol. 😁
Well, maybe I should smoke a little more pot, get picked up, and swap out my jeans. 👖 Yesterday, peeing I jammed my jean zipper on my boxers, and ripped off the zipper. Hell of it was these jeans aren’t super stained or worn, but they’re also two or so years ago – they were one of the ones I bought after I lost all that weight. So yeah without a zipper and these loose and wornout boxers, my dick was flapping around in the wind, in the cold, riding back to camp in the wilderness. It was cold, but there wasn’t anybody really on the Rail Trail except around Saranac Lake, and I’m on the bike, roaring along as it was getting dark, so I doubt anybody knew I was a man. That said, I don’t want my dip stick to freeze off, because someday, I might decide to settle down, meet a girl and besides raising hogs and chickens were her, have some fun in bed. 🛏️ God bless the grass and the wilderness. Maybe when I own my own land I’ll want cows too. 🐮 There was so many deer 🦌 along the rail trail with all that grass. Especially around dusk.
After six days in wilderness, I am increasingly feeling pretty dirty, being too cold to do much swimming or even washing. Of course it probably didn’t help that for the first four days of the trip I didn’t change because I didn’t really feel like getting changed in the cold.
But I rode miles and miles on the bike, hiked, and chopped woods, getting more then a little bit sweaty. And now I’m getting more then a little bit stinky, and there is still four days left to go. It’s fine, eventually I’ll be home, get cleaned up and presentable for work. Maybe I should just enjoy the wild side of things for now.
It is easy to forget how cold and dark that mid-October tends to be. More hours in darkness then light, plus it’s been fairly windy since the front came through on Monday then Tuesday was drizzle.
Another day of taking camp down, and setting up on the other side of Tupper Lake in St. Regis Canoe Area or the Saranac Lake Wild Forest. 🛶 Despite having my kayak, with the cold breeze and low water temperatures, I don’t know if I’ll ever find the time or desire to put it on water. Sometimes October paddles can be quite desirable but not when it’s 40 degrees and the wind is blowing.
Most of this trip has turned out to be wake up in the dark, smoke some grass, hop on my bike and ride to whatever suits my fancy without much of a plan, snapping photos and making observation on the land. 📸 Heading back to camp, cooking dinner and some nights having a fire. At least the fire risk is low though I wasn’t happy to see someone had left a rip roaring fire with a big bed of coals on the other side of Horseshoe Lake. I should have tried to put it out but I didn’t have a shovel or bucket and it was like 2 or 3 miles away from camp. But not good. Things are a lot damper then they’ve been but it’s been a dry autumn.
I was up early this morning as I awoke and said I want coffee ☕ and pancakes with the remaining cranberries I had plus some carrot fiber to make them soft. Served with some Greek yogurt. I still have a bit of milk left but I’m going to try to drink that this morning, and mid-day get to the store in Tupper Lake, get eggs and milk as I’m out of that, maybe some rice and certain to be absurdly expensive bananas 🍌. Rural grocery stores kind of suck but there is no Wally World in over 75 miles of here.
Going to watch the sun rise on Horseshoe Lake, then pack up camp and try to be on the road by around 9 AM. ☀️ Bump-bump-bump, go easy along NY 421 so I don’t break something on big-jacked up truck, as I want this final “big” adventure to go smoothly with Red. Still only have used a half tank of gas, because it’s been a straight shot up here, bar driving through Mason Lake/Perkins Clearing area last Friday looking for a site, and idlign the truck a little bit on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to ensure I kept the starting battery 🔋 healthy with the cold and relatively lack of sunshine. But other then that, I’ve ridden everywhere around camp on my bike.
Once I find a campsite that I can camp in Red with, then I will get things set up this afternoon and if I’m close enough to the Adirondack Rail Trail, ride that for a few hours. 🚲 Then another cold and dark night, followed by hopefully somewhat warmer weather tomorrow and Saturday, which I might actually do some paddling. Sunday, I want to head out fairly early, especially if it is going to rain, head home, get unpacked and out to visit my parents house. 🏡 Then the next few weeks I don’t have anything planned until probably Veterans Day Weekend, that is if I take off November 10th and make it a four-day weekend, probably spent at Stoney Pond State Forest in Nelson/Cazenovia. Always a lot of neat little parks to explore that way, and I like seeing the agricultural landscape, 🚜 even if it is a bit pungent with the manuring that time of year. Or maybe just stay at the Charles Baker Horse Camp 🐴 if I want to ride the Erie Canalway between Utica and Rome, the one section between Albany and Syracuse I’ve never done before.
Bog River Ski Trail Hike from Winding Falls along the Bog River across the Goodman Bridge to Bog River Falls then along NY 421 back to the Winding Falls parking area. About seven mile round trip. Rode my bike the five miles each way to the trail head. It was a cold and breezy day decided too cold to kayak so I decided to ride until I found something of interest.
Many people might think I’m a Trump supporter with my Don’t Tread on Me flag. but if anything, with the era of the imperial presidency, I think Don’t Tread On Me these days has a very different meaning – opposition to power more generally, and the abuse of power more specifically.
It’s not to say I’m not sympathetic to many things Donald Trump advocates, particularly his belief in second amendment rights. Indeed, I even voted for him last November, though I would say it was hardly a ringing endorsement as much as protest vote against the state saying my only choices should be Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump by throwing the third parties off the ballot. Plus I wanted a disrupter, an outsider, somebody not so wedded to conventional wisdom.
Still this is hardly an endorsement of a king, or the selective prosecutions or abusive acts of Donald Trump in the White House. Nor is an endorsement of the migrant and immigrant round-up or harassment of those of non-white complexion. Things needed to change, new ideas introduced and decades of grime leaned, but so much of Trump 2.0 has been about grift and vindictive acts. I’m not impressed.
