This has been a rough, hard week.
Emotionally draining, devoid of little but work and a much to few hours sleep.
Lots of emotion, taking things personal that I probably shouldn’t.
The only salvation for this week,
is I will be up in the woods in 8 hours.
Then it finally be all over, and just a memory of the week that was.
Today is tax day. The day where we look back at how much of our income we paid in taxes, and how much additional we must pay by today to avoid even further taxes and penalities.
It would be one thing if taxes always served a purpose of benefiting the people. Yet, we know that increasingly is not true. Increasingly taxes buy deregulation of corporations, tax breaks on wealthy individuals, and increased regulation on working folks.
Take Obamacare. The Individual Mandate is just one example of the government supposedly helping the people, while it’s mostly just a way to drum up additional income for insurance companies by forcing everybody to buy landyacht healthcare policies.
We don’t really have much of a choice in paying income tax. But we as citizens have the ability to advocate that our government use such monies for our interest, and not just for corporate benefit. We can advocate against waste and corporate giveaways. We can fight back against such policies that force individuals to buy corporate products and those that are deregulation solely in favor of corporations.
After a fresh snow fall it was a winter wonderland in the Albany Pine Barriens, a forever wild ecosystem on the outskirts of the city. It felt like one was walking through a marshmallow forest.
A cold winters day at my parents house in late January, after a long cold spell that never seemed to want to end.
A icy sheen shown on the snow at Partridge Run, as I went for an afternoon walk with the dogs up there in the middle of the month.
Snowshoeing back down Bennett Hill in late February.
A recently logged section of Cole Hill provided breath-taking views of Irish Hill and the Fox Kill Valley down in Berne.
What a clear spring day up at Horseshoe Clove at Thacher Park. Warmer, nicer days can’t be far way.
April 9th was the first day I got out camping in 2011. Spent the day exploring Rogers Environmental Center, camped at Moscow Hill Horse Assembly Area.
It may start to warm up earlier in lower elevations, but winter is still very much a force in late April in the Adirondacks. The East Sacanadaga River on this morning looks icy and cold.
There’s Albany! From my kayak. I kayaked up to Downtown Troy from the Corning Preserve.
Spring finally comes to Adirondacks by late May. Paddling around Cheney Pond, looking towards Sand Mountain in the distance, on the other side of Hoffman Notch.
Kayak camping on Stockmans Island in the middle of the Hudson River. What an adventure, one I picked on a night when they had fireworks up at the Coxscake Town Park.
Oswegatchie River up in Watson’s Triangle in Adirondacks. There are few places as remote as this that you can drive on largely unmarked and rarely traversed back country roads. Watson’s Triangle is a place far of the beaten path.
A dramatically cloudy day, looking down towards Tupper Lake from Mount Arab.
Cooling off at the Potholers on an oppressively humid summer’s day.
Exploring Beaver Creek at the Brookfield Railroad State Forest in Brookfield, NY.
Watching the fog burn off Beaver Creek at Brookfield Railroad State Forest on a summer morning..
A beautiful late summer morning at North Lake in Adirondacks. North Lake is such a jewel, especially as you head farther north on the largely undeveloped portion of the lake.
Fall was well underway, and even past peak at Moose River Plains by September 20th.
Second week of October, I went up to the North Country for some leaf peeping, hiking, and kayaking. The colors may be faded in Central Adirondacks, but still were good in lower elevation parts of the Northern Adirondacks.
And later in October, I drove up to Snake Mountain in Vermont, overlooking the Champlain Valley and the Adirondacks. Colors lasted the longest
And by October 30th, we had snow, actually several inches, as seen up at Lake Taghkanic State Park.
In November I visited Monreau Lake State Park for the first time, and checked out the Palmerstown Ridge above the Hudson River and Spier Falls. These power lines transfer power from Spier Falls Hydro Dam over to Corinth.
I also hiked up Windham High Peak. I hadn’t been there in many years, and it was interesting to look down at Preston Hollow and Medusa, far, far below.
On Christmas Day, I hiked up Hadley Mountain. While cloudy and cold, it was very beautiful.
While the pond at Thacher Park was frozen, there still is very little snow locally.
Today will take a look back at Year of 2011 in photos. Next week, I plan on doing an article featuring the Best of Photos of 2011. UNIX_TIMESTAMP(‘2011-1-1’) AND `date` < UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2012-1-1') ORDER BY `date` ASC"; $query = mysql_query("$sql"); while ($series = mysql_fetch_assoc($query) ) { $date = strtotime($series['dated']); if ($prevdate != date('F', $date) ) { echo '
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This past year, I got up to nine different Adirondack Wild Forests as part of my explorations of the Adirondack Park. Did a lot of hiking, kayaking, and camping. The map below shows the Adirondack Park’s various units.
I camped in Aldrich Pond (1 night), Black River (4), Debar Mountain (3), Ferris Lake (5), Independence River (2), Moose River Plains (3), Taylor Pond (2), Vandwhacker Mountain (1), and Wilcox Lake (4). My preference for certain Wild Forests over others, is not just based on scenic beauty or activities to do, as much as closeness to Albany and compatability with weekend plans.
I saw quite a bit of Adirondack Park for sure.
Camped one night on Streeter Lake Road in Aldrich Pond Wild Forest near the hamlet of Oswagatchie. Paddled part of Little River and Streeter Lake.
Camped two nights at Wolf Lake Landing Road. Paddled around Woodhull Lake, hiked over to Remsen Falls.
Camped two nights at North Lake. Sat down by the lake, enjoyed the moonlight. Explored Atwell and part of South Lake.
I camped for two nights at Mountain Pond near Paul Smiths, NY, while visiting the Saint Regis Canoe Area.
Then coming back from North Country, I decided to spend a night at Jones Pond, which is between Rainbow Lake and Paul Smiths.
I did two weekend trips up to Ferris Lake Wild Forest. The first was during Memorial Day Weekend, which was pretty wet and rainy for most of the weekend. The second was during the mid-summer on a super oppressive, hot and humid day out. While I explored Edick Roadside Camping, and also Good Luck Lake, both times I roadside camped on Piseco-Powley Road, three nights at PR 9, one night at PR 4, and one night at 11.
Camped two nights at Independence River Wild Forest on Smith Road, at field Campsite 1. There are ten campsites on this road, including one with an outhouse. Several of them are located in old logging load pads, that are now mowed as fields for camping. Nothing particularly fancy here.
Planned to spend a week at Moose River Plains, brakes failed on third day up there. Still got three days of fall camping in along Cedar River – Limekiln Lake Road. Camped one night at Campsite 24, and two at Campsite 57 this year.
Camped up at Union Falls for two nights in the fall, while hiking and exploring several locations in Clinton County and eastern portion of the North Country.
Camped one night at Cheney Pond at the Vanderwhacker Wild Forest.
Camped three nights up off of NY 8 — one at an old Gravel Pit along the East Sacandaga River in April when the snow was still there, two nights at Fox Lair Campsite, and one night at Hope Falls Road, which is off of NY 30, near Northville.
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