Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 280

Tracking snow in the morning the way it is coming down here today with more expected tonight and tomorrow. That will be the last day of brook trout season here in the north country and I guess I will have to use snow flies for bait. I have done it once before and it was a chilly day of fishing, but they were biting. I had a good chilly day of fishing earlier this week and got a nice catch for supper. They were good along with some donated brussels sprouts right off the stalk.

I think this is the last weekend for leaf peppers around here as most of the leaves except for the beech are on the ground. I was up at Paul Smith’s Visitor Center yesterday 10/13 and there was still much more color up that way. If you are up in that area the Loons are again fishing in Lake Clear and worth the trip to watch and enjoy. You can canoe right among them as the fish for smelt, stocking up some fat for their flight south. There were over fifty on the calm lake yesterday but mostly at the far end from the parking lot and beach at the west end. The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation had a paddle out among them in the morning on Sunday. Then there was the year end celebration at the Visitors Center in the afternoon with the largest crowd ever with me as guest speaker giving my Loon Program. 

Around Inlet and Old Forge, the parking lots at all the trail heads were overflowing with leaf peepers. I took a small group down to Fred’s Bog on Saturday morning and it was a tad chilly with a brisk wind blowing at about 45 degrees. It was a surprise birthday gift for one in the party from his wife. I was in the parking lot waiting for them and when he got out of the truck I wished him a happy birthday. He said how do you know it is my birthday and I said a little bird told me, your wife and he was surprised. She said you are always so tough to buy for. We had met a few times, but he had never been on a guided hike where I showed him and some of his friends things along the trail and even tasted a couple, one was creeping snowberry leaves that I call nature’s Tic Tac. No berries are to be found this time of the year, but the leaves of the plant tasted the same and everyone agreed. I identified the bog bushes and showed them the seeds of sweet gale which make a nice addition to your pot puree if you have some in your home. I would sometimes sneak some in when Karen was not at home, and she would say when she came in you have been in the bog again. 

Coming back to Inlet from there the parking lot and Rocky and Black Bear Mountain was overflowing at both ends and the grassy areas out front, over fifty cars. They must have been walking up hand and hand on the trail. Last weekend I went up the Rondaxe Road and the Fire Tower Parking Lot was overflowing on both sides of the highway past Fly Pond making it a one lane road. It was such a nice weekend I am sure parking areas all over the Adirondacks were experiencing the same conditions. 

Time to get the bird nets up and catch a few Saw Whet Owls, but that’s another story. See ya. 

Photo above: Me taking a bite while getting a bite; photo by Kerry Rogers