Adirondack Almanack

New Book: Salt Lake City Olympic Bid Scandal

2012-01-29T06:00:00.005-05:00

In late 1998 and the early months of 1999, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was an organization in crisis. Revelations of a slush fund employed by Salt Lake City officials to secure votes from a number of IOC members in support of the city’s bid for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games invited intense scrutiny of the organization by the international media.The IOC and its president, Juan

Fort Ti Offers Garden & Landscape Symposium

2012-01-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga is presenting its first Garden & Landscape Symposium, “Planting the Seeds of Knowledge for Home Gardeners,” on Saturday, April 14. This new annually planned day-long symposium, geared for both beginning and experienced gardeners, provides helpful insights from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and Vermont. This springtime event takes

Lost Brook Dispatches: Striking a Balance

2012-01-28T06:00:00.002-05:00

One of the most romantic characteristics of Lost Brook Tract is that hardly anyone has ever been there. This is not a wishful abstraction; we know it to be true. Fascinated by having found it to be old growth forest when we first visited it, I plunged into a research project to find out everything I could about the land. Remarkably, the record is complete enough to paint a fairly thorough

This Week's Adirondack Web Highlights

2012-01-27T15:00:00.002-05:00

Woods and Waterways: Birding Ft. Edward GrasslandsClimberism: Shit Climbers Say VideoWindswept Adventure: Final Leg of Trip HomeAlong the Ausable: Wells Library Next ChapterBrain Mann: GOP Power Grab Good for AdksDid Teddy Roosevelt Write Obama's State of the Union?Brian Mann: Disarray in Adk Environmental CommunityLifecycle: 365 Days of a NYC [Video]On Friday afternoons Adirondack Almanack

Adirondack Events This Weekend (Jan 27)

2012-01-27T13:30:00.002-05:00

Visit the Adirondack Almanack every Friday to find out everything that's happening around the Adirondacks.The Almanack also provides weekly back-country conditions and hunting and fishing reports for those headed into the woods or onto the waters this weekend.Region-wide Events This WeekendLake George Region EventsLake Placid Region Events This WeekendOld Forge Area Events This WeekendTupper

This Week's Top Adirondack News Stories

2012-01-27T06:00:00.002-05:00

Major Changes in New Redistricting PlanPlanning Board Starts Work on ACRAPA Permits 97-Room Placid HotelDEC Seeks to Expand Bobcat HarvestReport: Camping on DeclineFuture of Climate Plan UnknownSaranac Lake Ice Palace Under WayNASA: 2011 Ninth-Warmest Yr on RecordMan Dies at Whiteface Ski CenterAPA Approves Tupper Lake Resort ProjectEach Friday morning Adirondack Almanack compiles for our readers

Adirondack Fish and Game Report (Jan 26)

2012-01-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Adirondack Almanack provides this weekly Hunting and Fishing Report each Thursday afternoon, year round. The Almanack also provides weekly backcountry recreation conditions reports for those headed into the woods or onto the waters.Listen for the weekly Adirondack Outdoor Recreation Report Friday mornings on WNBZ (AM 920 & 1240, FM 105 & 102.1), WSLP (93.3) and the stations of North Country

Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Jan 26)

2012-01-26T16:00:00.003-05:00

This announcement is for general use - local conditions may vary and are subject to sometimes drastic changes.Listen for the weekly Adirondack Outdoor Recreation Report Friday mornings on WNBZ (AM 920 & 1240, FM 105 & 102.1), WSLP (93.3) and the stations of North Country Public Radio.The Adirondack Almanack also publishes a weekly Adirondack Hunting and Fishing Report.SPECIAL NOTICES FOR THIS

Free Cross-Country Skiing: Tupper Lake's Groomed Trails

2012-01-26T11:00:00.002-05:00

Nordic skiers in the northern Adirondacks will want to keep Tupper Lake’s free, groomed cross-country trail system on their radar screen. Expected snowfall should have the 10k trail network skiable this weekend. The trails are located on town-owned land and can be accessed from the Tupper Lake Country Club or Big Tupper Ski Area.Even though the trail system has been in existence for 40 years, it’

Phil Brown: DEC Proposes Killing More Bobcats

2012-01-26T06:00:00.001-05:00

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed a five-year plan for managing bobcats that aims to “provide sustainable use and enjoyment of bobcat by the public.”How would the department achieve this goal? By allowing the public to kill more bobcats.I suspect that many people do not agree that the best way to enjoy bobcats is to shoot or trap them.Maybe DEC suspects this, too. In

Adirondack Winter Athletes Update

2012-01-25T18:00:00.008-05:00

This winter the Almanack has been reporting the results and standing of our local winter sports athletes. The big news this week is Saranac Lake's Chris Mazdzer and the the U.S. luge team, which won a silver medal in the FIL World Cup team relay in Winterberg, Germany.You can find all our winter sports coverage here, and World Cup coverage here.Alpine SkiingAndrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.),

High Peaks Happy Hour: O.P. Frederick's, Chestertown

2012-01-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yet another gem was unearthed while mining the Adirondacks for the 46 best bars and taverns. Located at the backwater of Loon Lake near the intersection of routes 8 and 9 in Chestertown, O.P. Frederick's Restaurant and Tavern is a year-round destination highly worthy of a visit. Much of their clientele are seasonal residents of Loon Lake, snowmobilers, and skiers from Gore Mountain, but many

Lightweight Backpacking: Sweat the Big Stuff

2012-01-25T12:00:00.004-05:00

Reducing the weight of one’s backpack is essential for journeying into the depth of the Adirondack backcountry, where trails are nonexistent and obstacles plentiful. This is especially true as time passes and endurance of youth gives way to the slower plodding of middle age and beyond. Shouldering less of a burden reduces the stress on the legs resulting in more comfortable hiking, healthier

Adirondack Native, Local, Outsider or Stranger?

2012-01-25T06:00:00.005-05:00

A few years ago I noticed a small sign taped to a cash register in a local store. It read “no checks from strangers.” Well, I reasoned, this is a quirky establishment so I smiled and went on my way. Sometime later I was talking with someone who asked me where I was from. I answered and she raised her chin, looked down and replied, “Oh, you’re an outsider.”I live on a road that is closed this

Adirondack Family Activities: Paul Smith's Chili Snowshoe Fest

2012-01-24T14:50:00.000-05:00

The Chili Ski and Snowshoe Fest will take place on January 28 no matter the weather conditions, according to Paul Smith’s College VIC Interpretive Naturalist Educator Sarah Keyes. The event will be jammed with family-friendly activities such as a modified “poker run” where kids will search on skis for animal cards and an obstacle course. There are also kids’ freestyle ski races, a bird walk and

Dave Gibson: 10 Votes Gave Away the Park

2012-01-24T06:00:00.002-05:00

The outcome to approve the Adirondack Club and Resort was not a surprise. The ten to one margin of the vote was a surprise. Nor was it surprising that Commissioner Richard Booth assembled the reasoned arguments why this massive, speculative real estate subdivision should be denied. He has an excellent mind, an articulate voice, and a logician’s ability to arrive at the kernel of a matter in

Maria Speck: Going with the Grains

2012-01-23T15:00:00.001-05:00

Every year over the last decade, I’ve compiled a list of cookbooks or food-focused books for holiday gift-giving. This past holiday season, ‘Ancient Grains for Modern Meals’ by Maria Speck was one of my favorites (subsequently listed as the Washington Post’s 2011 Top Ten, as well as the New York Times’ 2011 notable cookbooks) – a real gem of a cookbook. While many might think of cooking with

Mary Hill Johnson: Civil War Combat Veteran?

2012-01-23T12:00:00.001-05:00

In Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922, while working in a private home, Mrs. Mary Johnson was badly injured in a fall. At the age of 82, with few resources at her disposal, neither Mary nor her husband, Peter, could care for themselves. During the next two years, the couple was housed in three different poorhouses, living at Fitchburg and Tewksbury before moving to the Worcester City Farm. At

Wildlife: Inside A Beaver Lodge in Winter

2012-01-23T06:00:00.003-05:00

The lack of a deep covering of snow this season has been a benefit to some forms of wildlife, and a detriment to others. Yet for the beaver (Castor canadensis), the limited amount of snow on the ground has had little impact on this rodent’s winter routine.Throughout the autumn, when the water around its primary lodge remains open, the beaver scours the shore near and far in search of those

24 Hour Adirondack Student Photo Contest

2012-01-22T06:00:00.004-05:00

The Lake Placid Institute for Arts and Humanities is inviting all high school students in the Adirondack region to participate in a visual interpretation of their surroundings in the Institute’s program: “24 Hours – A Photographic Interpretation of Life in the Adirondacks”.Photos must be taken within the Adirondack Park, from April 14, 2011 through April 15, 2012 and represent one hour of a day

Lost Brook Dispatches: A Wilderness Primeval Aesthetic

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lost Brook Tract is a miracle both modern and ancient. Steeply situated on a high ridge in the central Adirondacks, miles from the nearest road and with no trail to it, it is a sixty-acre swath of Adirondack territory virtually unknown to all but a handful of people. That it exists today, an utterly unspoiled piece of high mountain boreal forest tracing unbroken lineage all the way to the ice

This Week's Adirondack Web Highlights

2012-01-20T15:00:00.001-05:00

Sustainability Round-Up: Top Trends for 2012Kateri Tekakwitha: Passions Grow Over 1st Native SaintGear Junkie: Winter Biking Gear Top 10Scientists: White-nose Has Killed More BatsAmy Ivy: Ice, Cold, Burden for Trees, ShrubsBrian Mann: Airport Debate Highlights BalkanizationTheodore Zoli: Champlain Bridge Engineer ProfilePost Star Editor: Online Readers Will Pay, SomedayNCPR: 1962 Wright Peak

Adirondack Events This Weekend (Jan 20)

2012-01-20T13:30:00.002-05:00

APA Approves Tupper Lake Club and Resort Project

2012-01-20T11:58:00.011-05:00

The Adirondack Club and Resort project in Tupper Lake has been green-lighted by the Adirondack Park Agency in a 10 to 1 vote. APA Commissioner Richard Booth was the lone vote no.In addition to being livestreamed via the APA's website, Jessica Collier at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann have both been tweeting each speaker's comments as the vote took

Got Road Kill? Contact Adirondack Wildlife Refuge

2012-01-20T09:00:00.004-05:00

This note in the Jay Community News from the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge's Steve Hall caught our attention:At the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge, we’d like to congratulate you on your careful driving. Or perhaps we should cite the nimble evasiveness of our local white-tails. In either case, we haven’t had a road-killed deer carcass since the New Year, and our wolves, bobcats, fox and coyote have been