Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 278
It was a beautiful weekend here in the Central Adirondacks with the leaves peak in most areas. I had a moose hike to Rockdam in the Moose River Area with a couple from Massachusetts on Saturday and we only saw tracks, but it was a beautiful day. We flushed a couple Ruffed Grouse along the trail and the day before when I walked in checking the trail I heard one drumming. We saw a small peeper frog jump across the trail and one big American toad looking for a place to hide for winter. The river was high going over the natural dam across the South Branch of the Moose River where it joins the Red River after we got over two inches of rain during the week and the colors along the riverbanks were in full fall beauty. Other birds heard along the trail were a Hairy Woodpecker, Black Capped Chickadee and both Red Breasted and White Breasted Nuthatch.
On Sunday I was the steward on Stillwater Mountain and the color up there was just about peak with big puffy white clouds all over the skyline. A little wind was blowing from the south when I first went up in the tower and the red squirrels were still dropping cones down from the red spruce to store for the winter. A Pileated Woodpecker gave us a few calls not far from the tower and a Common Raven flew by giving us a look-see. The Red Breasted and White Breasted Nuthatches, Black Capped Chickadees, Golden Crowned Kinglets, Slate Colored Juncos, and a couple Purple Finch were around the tower most of the day working for bugs and cone seeds to eat. I had forty visitors and ten dogs; one dog came up into the tower and did not want to leave. One visitor was a navy submarine Veteran who was on the USS Wyoming, and he told me a couple interesting sub stories. He was still working in the nuclear program and updating the sub training base in West Milton where he trained before going out on a sub. I told him that was right in my backyard from 1954 to1965 years of my life, what a small world. He was doing the fire tower challenge, and this was the third one he had done that day, and he was heading to Rondaxe after leaving this site. He put on some miles that day on the road and in the woods as he had done Spruce in Saratoga County and Kane in Fulton County before heading north to here. While he was up in the tower a wheel airplane made a few passes by the tower taking photos I guess as they came pretty close to the tower a couple times. The hiker was taking photos of his travels, and he got a couple of shots of the airplane going by. I told him of one time I was painting the Wakely Mountain Fire Tower roof with a roller. I was standing out on the end of a plank which was under the map table out the window and the observer on the other end of the plank. The observer said we have company, and I looked down where the trail came up near the cabin and I said I do not see anyone. He said look south in the air and an A-10 fighter jet was approaching fast. It went by and I could read the numbers on the pilot’s helmet. The observer said they go by here all the time. I got in, off the plank for a brief time and took a break but got back out and finished painting the roof, moving the plank from window to window. I think it was the only orange roof on a tower in the Adirondacks. No fear of heights that day!
Hurricane Helene which hit in the panhandle of Florida just south of Tallahassee as a Category 4 moved north from there into Georgia, South and North Carolina and states further north, with over a foot of rain in many places. The loss of life is over one hundred and twenty, most were lost from high water where people just could not get out as the water rose so fast. A dam in North Carolina in danger of failing with all the water falling in the mountains flowing in that direction could cause even more damage and destruction. Some towns were completely wiped off the map by water. Former president Trump in Georgia yesterday claimed that the federal government is not doing anything to help those in the states affected by the flooding. All lies, cannot even tell the truth during such a tragedy!
Karen’s roses are blooming for a second time and even out growing the hollyhocks that covered their blooms earlier in the year. My toad lily finally showed its colors with many more to come. Still no frost here at Eight Acre Wood.
The fringed gentians are all in bloom in the field by the dry hydrant between Inlet and Eagle Bay.
Inlet Kids Day will again take place on October 5, 10am to 5pm, check with the town hall 315 357-5501 for all attractions for the day but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Karen's Rose
