EXCURSION: Adirondacks: September 23

Above: Lower Saint Regis Lake looking over a sluice gate.

This day found me taking a journey that I hadn’t expected.

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I started out of Saranac Lake with the simple intent of doing a ‘sunrise-run’ on some less familiar roads then heading back to the Blue Moon Cafe to do some writing for a client. In the end I made two new friends and learned more about the northern Adironcks (and slew of other things) than I ever could have imagined.

(As always, click on images for an enlarged view.)

Above: I started shooting these tracks with the diminishing fog on Route 50 before I ever saw the deer.

Above: Trying out a fine art crop of Osgood Pond near Paul Smiths.

Above: Just a hundred or so feet from the shot above, an old paint can makes for good fine art fodder.

Above: Sluice way off Lower Saint Regis Lake.

Above: Dave Johnson and Cheri Cilley. I met Dave as I was angling shots for the Lower Saint Regis Lake sluice way. Dave came walking by where I was parked with three Nikons hanging off his neck and asked me “What’s the best picture you’ve taken today?”

Dave was wearing the same camera and lens that I was which was the gateway to beginning our conversation. We got to chatting, something I learned was very comfortable for Dave, and next thing I knew I had taken him up on his offer to hike nearby Black Pond and Long Pond with him and his companion Cheri.

Above: An early hike attempt at a fine art subject along the inlet to Black Pond.

My fine art eye doesn't engage well when I'm with others, so I turned most of my attention to conversation and documentation-type images. We walked slow and methodically along the Black Pond trail, partly because that is Dave’s way and partly because Cheri was recovering from recent knee and hip injuries. Cheri recently retired from a full career as an RN and is enjoying letting Dave expose her to some new life adventures.

Above: The old growth White Pines along Black Pond were beautiful and inspiring. You must click on this image to begin to get a feel for the enormity of this tree.

Above: A picture of me that Dave took with Long Pond in the background. Dave has a long and broad experience with photography, beginning as an 8" x 10" film photographer, in addition to being a an aquatic scientist and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and all-around highly educated, intelligent, and passionate person—what the heck was he doing talking with me?

Above: This lean-to is one of four or five that Dave helped build around these ponds circa 1959-1963. We walked with Dave in front, me in the middle, and Cheri taking up the rear. This arrangement allowed me to carry on conversations with both of them simultaneously. 

Dave and Cheri found each other several years ago after some challenging circumstances that affected each of their lives. Cheri and my children balance one another—my four sons to her four girls. Dave and I discussed photography technology and our experiences in Alaska, among numerous other things. 

Above: I love these giant egg-like rocks on the water’s edge.

Above: Dave, standing next to the last remaining sign he had posted when working on a project for the State of New York Conservation Department, back around 1968, part of an initiative against foreign fish introduction into Adirondack waterways.

Above: A female Common Merganser we spooked a second time on our return hike from Long Pond. A true walking-encyclopedia, Dave explained that the Indian name for this water fowl means “ugly bird”.

After our hike I followed Dave and Cherri back to Dave’s beautiful 300 acre property near Gabriels where he and his family harvest maple syrup. The picture above shows their distillery, stocked and ready to take on next year’s harvest. Dave’s sugarbush is a 200 acre section of his property that was clear-cut in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The remaining 100 acres is all old growth! Dave was kind enough to sell me two quarts of syrup from his personal stash—incredible color, consistency, and flavor!