Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 288
The snow keeps falling with the promise of rain a couple of days this week which will make a mess of things. I blew snow four days this week. Yesterday it was a little wetter than the lake effect that we got earlier in the week. I cleaned off my back deck and there was a two-foot total on there. Yesterday my back roof slid off and filled the backyard all the way to the bird feeders. When that freezes, I will be able to walk anywhere out there for the winter. I haven’t gotten my Christmas tree yet waiting until mother nature thaws off the snow which should happen later today or tomorrow as I look at the temperatures coming our way. I got all the trimming out of the closet yesterday and put up the little stuff around the house and the covering for the dining room table.
On the last day of Pine Marten and Fisher season I got a sixty-pound Beaver in a trap I had set along my trap line. I did catch four Pine Marten and one Fisher during the week that I trapped. The snow was knee deep up toward Twitchell Lake and only about eight inches over toward Raquette Lake. I saw where the party who camps up by the Eighth Lake Canoe Carry pulled out that weekend. I didn’t see very many deer tracks up that way. Last year the woods there were full of tracks. I never met but one hunter in my travels this fall, and I saw just one tree scraped by a buck right beside the road where I parked. The hunter asked me where my gun was as I was only carrying my walking stick. I said if I saw tracks, I might carry a gun. In the last four years of trapping, I have only seen one deer in my travels. I nearly run over them in my driveway coming and going but none out in the woods.
The Old Forge Garden Club went over to Lakeside Terrace for the annual Christmas singalong and cookies and flowers for the residents there. The Community Chorus provided the Christmas songs, and the Garden Club provided the cookies and three large Poinsettias for the residents. Snowing outside provided the backdrop, and an enjoyable time was had by all.
The Old Forge and area Community Choruses has a program Musical Memories of Christmas program at View this week on Tuesday 12/10 from 7-8:30pm. Then on Sunday 12/15 The Black Bear Players is putting on It’s a Wonderful Life, a live radio play from 2-3:15pm. This program was postponed last weekend because of the weather.
The local snowmobile trails open today as well as the trails in the Moose River Wild Forest Area. This is more snow than we had all last winter and let us hope the rains later in the week don’t take it all away. Be careful riding on trails and drive safely.
Search for Quebec man 22-year-old Leo DuFour who went missing on 11/30/24 on Allen Mountain in the High Peaks is now in its 10th day. Rangers located one set of tracks leading from the subject’s vehicle, but recent snowfall makes tracking difficult. State Police aviation joined in search efforts with Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR). Nine rangers are continuing the search on Allen Mountain on a three-night assignment.
To date, ongoing efforts have not yielded any results. Yesterday’s efforts focused on the east side of Allen Mountain and in Marcy Swamp area. Rangers have established two backcountry outposts to facilitate the search. Updated 12/7/24 1:09PM.
After today 12/9/24, the search will transition to what DEC refers to a “limited continuous search”. This will result in the suspension of the active field search but may include air searches, backcountry patrols and outreach by DEC.
The operation will upgrade to an active search if any leads turn up on the whereabouts of Defour, according to DEC. By Mike Lynch, Adirondack Explorer 12/9/24.
Some more birds have moved south, being pushed by the recent snows and colder temperatures. When I was out scooping in front of my garage the other morning a big flock of over one hundred Canada Geese went honking overhead up in the clouds. Then five minutes later a large V of over one hundred Snow Geese went overhead and they were soon followed by a small V of twenty Brant. I’m sure many more went over while I was blowing snow, but I never heard them. A big flock of Slate Colored Juncos appeared under the feeders when I stopped blowing snow. I set the Potter traps and caught eleven in an hour and one Black Capped Chickadee.
Lots of waterfowl and some land birds in the Champlain Valley. One Snowy Owl has been in the Chazy Mud Flats, and it shows up very well as there was still bare ground over that way.
Think of others this time of the year and good deeds are always welcome but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Snowy Owl by Joe Poliquin
