Adventure Travel Photography Blog
Before I left for the Hudson River Valley, I reveled in the headline in the local paper over breakfast at Danny’s house in Long Island. Additionally, I made one more visit to the float that Danny’s daughter was creating with classmates for homecoming. It was very sophisticated for high school. The wheel turned, the scarecrow’s arms moved just as if it was full of straw, and the float, loaded onto the trailer, was ready for the the parade.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
I started day in New York’s Hudson River valley touring West Point. My grandfather briefly attended here until it was determined he had cheated on the vision test by memorizing the eye chart. As a result, he got kicked out. But that is aside from the point. The West Point tour was excellent.
West Point is a self-contained community with its own post office, shopping, grocery and the like. We first stopped at the chapel. He we could glimpse the back of the barracks where the cadets enjoy fun events in the courtyard as well as not so fun events like walking off their demerits. Obviously, with very little free time, walking off demerits for five hours at a time is not the most enjoyable for them. If the cadets rack up over 100 demerits, they join the century club of which two of our presidents were members, Grant and Eisenhower.
The chapel, technically a cathedral, but called a chapel in the military, is home to the largest pipe organ in a religious building in the world. The pipes range in size from a pencil to over 30 feet. Inside the chapel, the hymnals are placed in measured alignment and flags from different times of the United States hang overhead. In addition, a row, marked with a candle always sits empty no matter how many church goers are in attendance as it honors those missing in action.
After visiting the chapel, we stopped at the most photographed place at West Point, the point with the view of the Hudson River. Next to this point, a statue inscribed with civil war leaders’ names stands in the middle of a ring of granite balls. Aside the balls are canons inscribed with the names of the significant civil war battles. Another ring of cannons surrounding the monument are buried downward into the ground as a symbol to never fight among ourselves again as graduates of West Point were fighting each other in the war.
One item at West Point that I have never seen was solar power compacting trash cans. Our government dollars at work! I had to take a picture of it just because I was so surprised. The trash compactor stood in front of the visitor’s center which features an interesting weaponry museum. The displays include all sorts of spears, knifes, guns, as well as cases for atomic bombs and small tanks.
After my tour of West Point, we continued through the Hudson River Valley to Bear Mountain State Park. The dogs and I took a walk with what seemed like a Japanese photography class. They stopped continuously to snap photos. On the other hand, Scout, Petey, and I circles the lake and up the Appalachian Trail about half way to the nearby summit. Fall foliage surrounded the sometimes steep, rocky trail, while geese floated peacefully in the below lake.
After our jaunt in nature, we left the Hudson River Valley for Long Island where my cousin Danny and his wife Allison hooked me up for an evening. I met Liam here, an Irish Merchant Ship Captain who just got his European Flying License. He is looking to meet the US FAA regulations as well. He went into the City for the night while Danny, Allison, and I went to an Irish Pub in the neighborhood to watch the Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees! That was once in a lifetime and fun to see a New York Bar. After the Rangers win, we checked on the progress their daughter Claire’s Sophomore class homecoming float. The theme was Wizard of Oz and the float was great. I’m curious to know if they won. ETB
For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.
Day 40 – New York’s Hudson River Valley – Part 2
Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop. Each card has a travel story associated with it. 20% of proceeds are donated to charity.
Picking up where I left off last night, I didn’t watch the sunset with Kord, as he was putting his kids down. It wasn’t the best view for a sunset anyway. We did end up sitting by the campfire until late. He’s an ex tennis pro, who coached tennis at William and Mary. The women’s tennis team was 8th in the country. He has written an unpublished children’s book about Ollie the Camel and Goat the Sheep. And at one point he was planning on running for Congress on the Republican ticket, but I didn’t get the details on that.
Today I finished the southwestern part of the loop around Lake Champlain. I drove through Port Henry, Westport, and Essex, though I don’t have much to report. I planned to stop in Essex at one of the “harbor’s charming cafes” for coffee, but I didn’t see one. There were about 5 buildings and a ferry. Perhaps I missed something. As a result, I continued on to Willsboro Point.
Willsboro Point is home to New York State’s first fish ladder that “affords migrating salmon a chance to overleap Willsboro Dam”. I must have arrived after spawning season, as I didn’t see any fish swimming upstream. None the less, I wanted to see a fish ladder as I had never before seen one.
With extra time on my hands due to my planned stops being shorter than expected, so I drove back to Lake Placid. I spent part of the afternoon in the deli snacking on a chicken sandwich and charging my computer because I shorted out the 12 volt battery system in the back of the van. As a result, I can only charge my devices when I’m camped on electric, which is lacking at Vermont’s state parks.
After lunch Scout, Petey, and I went for a hike in the High Peaks Wilderness near Lake Placid. Judging by the cars, the 4.4 mile roundtrip Cascade Mountain Trail is very popular. Too long for my dogs, we just hiked for an hour through the waterfall beds. While the trails in the Adirondacks are active waterfalls in the spring with the snowmelt, they are dry in the summer and fall, unless of course it rains.
With all the rain over the last week, the rocks were slick and the mud was deep. Some people sunk up to their ankles in it. Along the rocky and muddy track, I met Eric and Patty who were from Saratoga. Eric has an app on his phone that provided him score updates. Since I’ve been in the dark recently without television and little internet service, Eric updated me.
The Texas Rangers are still in first place and the Cowboy’s didn’t play. Of course, he updated me on his New York teams as well. Being from Saratoga, he didn’t like the Cowboys. He confirmed Bill Parcells was beloved in New York. Unfortunately, he didn’t last long as a coach with the Cowboys. Good old Jerry Jones interfered again. I gave them three years to unravel after his departure. We’ll find out this season. I hope I’m wrong.
Well, enough talk about football. After our hike, we turned around and crossed back over Lake Champlain to Vermont via ferry. It’s weird to see the picture of your car on the GPS in the middle of the lake! Back in Vermont, I met up with Kord again. He knew of a private campground on the river not far from the direction I was heading in the morning. We enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken and mushroom ravioli! I plan on meeting up with him tomorrow night too. ETB
For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.
Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop. Each card has a travel story associated with it. 20% of proceeds are donated to charity.
Today I woke up to rain in Ames. I was so exhausted, I could have slept two more hours and what was the rush in leaving given another dismal day of weather. As a result, I began my morning getting VANilla’s oil changed (which is required every 5K miles or my warranty is voided). Linda’s friend Staci suggested that I go to Millennium Express Lube in Amsterdam. Thankfully, Linda kindly directed me, as otherwise I would have never found it.
I was expecting to post Day 16 of my blog while waiting, but when I asked how long it would take, they said 10 minutes. WOW! Mike changed the oil, checked all the fluids, and even let me keep my mutts in the car despite the no pets sign! Millennium Express Lube was awesome and sent me on my way in record time.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Today I started from a campsite near Lake Saranac in New York’s Adirondack Park. I couldn’t tell you the name. I arrived late and left early, both in the dark. The attendant wasn’t even there. I had to call, tell them I used a site, and give my credit card over the phone. Driving around Adirondack Park was a learning experience.
First and foremost Lake Saranac is the town name, while the lake is called Upper, Middle or Lower Saranac Lake. Second, the well known lakes like this one are typically surrounded by private property. While there are a few boat launching spot, access to hiking trails is non-existent. The hiking trails are near the campgrounds or around smaller lakes and ponds in the area.
Additionally, the signage in the area is very restricted. All the street signs, private driveway signs, boat launch signs, trail signs, even for sale signs are brown and yellow. As a result, when winding through forests and hills, it is difficult to both recognize a trail sign and stop, especially when private homes and lodges are called “camps”. Needless to say, I regularly passed the pullout or had an annoyed driver behind me. TOURISTS!!
Struggling to find a place to hike, I carried on to one of my mother and Bart’s favorite places, The Point on Upper Saranac Lake. I wound up a four mile driveway to the top of the mountain to find the gate closed. Well, at least I saw the sign and tiny part of the lake whose views have been regularly blocked by forest of colorful trees. The Point was on the way to my next stop, Tupper Lake, so the dead end wasn’t a big, except that after all the rain over the last few days, I was ready for a hike, preferably around water.
Along the way to Tupper Lake, I stopped two more times at Follensby Pond and Fish Creek Pond Campgrounds, respectively. Follensby Pond, according to Reader’s Digest, “was the setting for the 1858 Philosophers Camp where writer Ralph Waldo Emerson and several other scholars came to enjoy the woods and exchange ideas.” The area where I stopped really only had room for a boat launch, so I’m not sure where the 150 year-old camp would was held, but I got a few nice pictures out of it.
By now, I was 0-3 in finding a hiking destination, so before I paid a day use fee to sit by a lake at Fish Creek Pond Campgrounds, I peppered the attendant, Robert, with 100 questions. Poor Robert!
He nicely confirmed what I had figured out, that most the trails weren’t by the big lakes. Additionally, he informed me that there was one four mile trail at the campground. Four miles was too long for my old mutts, so he suggested instead that I go to Rollins Pond Campground, farther back in the Fish Creek Pond complex. He said I could just walk around there as it was closed to campers…so that’s what we did.
Before I drove up there, though, Gerald and Nancy (I think were their names, from Michigan) waved me down. They wanted to know all about VANilla. John at JDB Imports may be getting another customer. Anyway, soon we reached Rollins Pond and Scout, Petey, and I, ready for our hike, strolled half way around it. We likely could have gone all the way around, but turned back as I didn’t have a map to know the distance or if there was a full loop.
After our walk at Rollins Ponds, we continued south through Adirondack Park where views of the lakes became more plentiful. Sometimes we even passed along the shores. Also, more trailhead signs were popping up. While stopping at one trailhead, whose branching trails were too long, I met couple from New York who suggested Buttermilk Falls just past Long Lake.
If there wasn’t a car pulled off the side of the road, I would have never noticed the “parking lot” for Buttermilk Falls. The dogs and I took short walk down to the river where I met Bill. Bill was down by the river’s edge with his wooden tripod balancing on the boulders. I’m surprised he even heard me walk up, as it took a shout to hear over the river’s roar…perhaps it was the faint jingle of my dogs’ tags. With photography being a hobby, he nicely volunteered to snap of photo of me and my dogs below the falls.
As we chatted, I learned he is retired military who worked in electronics on planes and served in the Vietnam and Desert Storm wars. As always, I thanked him for his service. After explaining my challenges of finding things to do around the lake, he suggested that I tour Great Camp Sagamore, built by William West Durant in 1897 and later sold to Alfred Vanderbilt.
Great Camp Sagamore is only one of four camps with the designation “Great” in Adirondack Park and is located near Raquette Lake. Three of the four camps were built by Durant. The designation was given based on architecture in the natural habitat, the lake, and a variety of other characteristics. Durant built the camp for his family and supervised every detail.
The first building at the camp was a blacksmith shop. All the iron work hinges, hooks, handles, chandeliers for the camp were made at the blacksmith shop as were the horseshoes for the horses used to haul in materials. The upper camp also included a chicken coop, barn, ice house, and housing for the workers.
The lower camp had different buildings for dining, sleeping, playing, and even had its own covered, outdoor bowling alley so that guests were forced to walk outside on occasion. After all, the point of escaping New York City was to enjoy nature. It took 36 hours for guests to arrive from New York City by train, stagecoach, steamship, and carriage.
Ultimately, Durant had to sell the camp because he was going bankrupt from lawsuits and perhaps from being a perfectionist. He was known to have ordered the fireplace be rebuilt due to one stone was showing chisel marks which wasn’t natural. He sold Great Camp Sagamore to the Vanderbilts.
When the Vanderbilts owned the camp, the railroad extended to just a few miles away, thus their guests were much more refreshed upon arrival. Also, the Vanderbilt’s expanded the camp so that they could entertain more guests. In addition to adding more dining space and guest cabins, they added another workers’ quarters in the upper camp.
Of course, the workers’ quarters was out of sight from their guests, but that was on a road that took J.P. Morgan’s guests to his camp. The Swiss style chalet was designed to look nice enough that J.P. Morgan’s guests would hope to be invited to the Vanderbilt’s. The philosophy being: if they treated their workers that well, just think how they would treat their guests.
I finished my day in the Adirondack Park by driving through the Fulton Chain Lakes with numbers for their names, Old Forge hamlet, and past Custard’s Last Stand before ending in Ames, NY at John and Linda’s. We’ve known John and Linda in Dallas for as long as I can remember. They purchased their second home here in New York in 2002 and a year later bought their neighbor’s home so they can spend the summers in cooler weather with their kids and grandkids.
I got a house entirely to myself. It was so great…a hot shower, washer/dryer, a bed, and a kitchen loaded with breakfast foods! Even better, Linda took me to a wonderful dinner at The Rose & Kettle in Cherry Valley. I savored a giant crab cake as well as a dried cherry and walnut salad with a glass of cabernet. It was fantastic and a nice change from PB&J. For all the Democrats out there, I’m told it is one of Hillary Clinton’s favorite restaurants.
Linda wouldn’t let me take a picture of her for the blog, but I did get a picture of the house. Thank you John and Linda for a wonderful evening after a day in New York’s Adirondack Park.
For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.
Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop. Each card has a travel story associated with it. 20% of proceeds are donated to charity.
I got a late start this morning as I was up too late working on google maps trying to track my road trip. I didn’t succeed…bummer! I’ll try to figure something else out. Anyway, for our third day on the scenic Seaway Trail, Scout, Petey and I continued northeast. We made our first stop of the day at Southwick Beach State Park on the coast of Lake Ontario. The beach displayed a “No Dogs Allowed” sing, so that settled that. There were a couple of trails that led to the adjacent Lakeview Wildlife Management Area. But given it had rained for the last 18 hours straight, from a sprinkle to a downpour, I skipped the mud and continued Sackets Harbor.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!I awoke with no bear sightings at Golden Hill State Park on the Seaway Trail in New York. While I sort of wanted to see one, it is likely best none visited the campgrounds as if they become a nuisance they could be euthanized. I stopped by the lighthouse at the campgrounds once more, but the attendant wasn’t there at 9:30 am, so I didn’t get to take the tour. Oh well, I marked it off as another virtual cache and continued on the Seaway Trail to Rochester.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
On my way to the Seaway Trail in New York, I crossed a bridge spanning the Ohio River and took 11 North to Ashtabula, Ohio. I was still lacking a cache from this state and wasn’t planning on returning over my year long road trip. Consequently, in order to grab a geocache in every state, I pulled in a gas station, referred to the app on my iphone, and found a cache was hidden 0.5 miles away.
The geocache was located on private property with approval, but across the street from a church. Being Sunday, I had to watch for “muggles” (the geocaching word for observers) and use stealth. After a quick grab, I was back on the highway heading to the Seaway Trail. I drove through four states today (West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and finally New York).
It took about 4 hours to get to Niagara Falls State Park, and much of the drive was through the rain. While the weather stunk, I considered stopping off in Buffalo to watch the Bills game at a local bar, just to get the flavor, but fortunately it cleared up. Improved weather would enhance my visit to Niagara Falls, though I suppose rain every few weeks isn’t too bad. I get a badly needed, free car wash.
I didn’t expect to spend much time at Niagara Falls, as I had been there previously and had seen the falls from above, from the boat (Maid of the Mist), and from beneath the falls in the Cave of the Winds. Surprisingly, I still stayed at least an hour, likely due to my fascination with waterfalls. I’m glad I finally got to one that hasn’t dried up from the drought like my previous two stops in Ohio!
In the process of getting to the oldest state park in the United States (established in 1885), I completed my daily requirement of getting lost. I tried following the signs, but some of the roads were under construction and some signs pointed to Canada. I didn’t want to end up at the border with my dogs trying to show them proof of rabies vaccines. As a result, I kept exiting prematurely. Finally, I just looked up and saw the mist…from miles away. Wow, such force!
The American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are to one side of Goat Island and split by Luna Island, making Bridal Veil Falls just a sliver comparatively. Terrapin Point Horseshoe Falls passes by the other side of Goat Island. Horseshoe Falls’ crest line is 2,500 feet, its height is 167 feet, and its summer flow is 675,000 gallons/second.
American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls have a crest line of 1,100 feet, a height of 176 feet, and a summer flow of 75,000 gallons/second. It’s hard to imagine that anyone ever survived going over these falls in a barrel. Both these falls qualify as an “earth cache” if you have your picture taken by the falls and you can quote their flow, so I’ve already logged two caches while being in New York.
My driving tour along the Seaway Trail led me through the historic district of Lewiston complete with a street fair. Merchants sold their crafts on the tent-lined streets, while pedestrians meandered in and out of quaint restaurants and stores along the way. I continued through town and followed the Seaway Trail to Old Fort Niagara.
Old Fort Niagara is located at the mouth of the Niagara River and controlled access to the Great Lakes and the westward route to the heartland. It was considered vital until the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825.
The fort has an extensive history having been owned by three different nations, the French, the British, and the Americans. The French were the first to establish a post here. They built two different forts beginning in 1679 before erecting a permanent fortification, the “French Castle”. The building was designed to resemble a manor house in order to calm the suspicions of the hostile Iroqouis.
Britain gained control of Fort Niagara during the French & Indian War in 1759. After almost 40 years under the British hand, the English were forced to yield the fort by treaty to the United States after the American Revolution in 1796. The United States controlled the fort until the British recaptured it in 1813. After the War of 1812, however, Britain again ceded it to the United States. Later, Fort Niagara served as a barracks and training post for American soldiers during both World Wars.
Given I’m not much of a history buff, I debated even touring Fort Niagara. I’m glad I did. Nothing is off limits. I entered every building, floor, and room. The fort also affords lovely views of boats sailing in the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, and on a clear day the skyline of Toronto can be seen some 27 miles away (I saw it).
After my tour of Old Fort Niagara, I followed the Seaway Trail for 30 miles past what seemed like countless state parks to end my day at Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse in Golden Hill State Park. The 61 foot lighthouse was built in 1875 to mark a dangerous offshore sandbar that once sunk a ship owned by LaSalle in 1678. It also sunk the HMS Ontario during a Halloween blizzard. Of the 88 passengers, none survived. The lighthouse wasn’t open when I arrived, so I hope to learn more about it in the morning.
The sunset, however, made up for the lighthouse being closed. It was truly one of the most amazing I have ever seen. The sky was filled with an array of pinks, purples, yellows, and oranges and while the lake reflected an almost crimson color…absolutely breathtaking! Now, if only I get to see the bear that visited yesterday. To be continued…ETB
For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.
Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop. Each card has a travel story associated with it. 20% of proceeds are donated to charity.
