Adirondack icons and Vistas,…

Here we see the Racquette River at Tupper Lake, a fresh water ecosystem at it’s Bass bustin’ best!  This is the view you’ll get on Rt. 30 as you head for the Wild Center, and once you spend a day there, you’ll never look at this scene quite the same again!This is the Wild Center in the dead of winter, your view during the summer months is much different as you and your family will have the chance to experience the Adirondacks here as few have in the past.  I took he boys there last summer, and was absolutely astounded at the breadth of the experience!  From the otter pool where wild river otters splash and play right in front of you, to the trout tanks , to the labyrinth of trails surrounding the center itself, there is no better introduction to the natural world of the Adirondacks than tis outstanding facility.  There’s food onsite, plenty of benches, and programs running throughout the day.  Don’t miss it!

Further down Rt. 30 you’ll find the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY.  Above you’ll find Silas standing in the BIG Chair out in front of the main entrance, probably one of the most photographed sites in the Park!  This year, on both August 10th and 11th I’m leading musical tours through the museum for the general public!  No two tours are quite the same, and if you haven’t been up to the Museum in a while, this is the time to come up!

There’s always something cool going on at the Museum!  Here you see some of the staff and volunteers teaching folks how an Adirondack lean-to is built by actually building one!  That’s right, they start with the logs and go from there.  Having been one of the artists-in-residence there over the years, it never fails to amaze me how kids and adults alike flock to all these hands on presentations.  Some of the folks you least expect to want to dig in are the first ones to pitch in!

Leave it to my boys to find the trout in any given situation!  Here’s Silas again, feeding the trout at the Marion River Station exhibit in the middle of the Museum grounds.  Every day about 12:30 one of the volunteers will help anybody interested feed these beauties.  The days of a museum being a spectator sport have come and gone!  When you come to the Adirondack Museum, you’re right in the middle of it!  From basket making, fly fishing, primitive camping, logging exhibits, millionaire’s railroad cars, and even a song or two, your day at the museum will be one you and the family will remember for years to come!

If you haven’t been to Hoss’s Country Store in Long Lake, NY, you’ve missed an Adirondack icon.  To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, “If you can’t find it at Hoss’s, you can probably get along without it!”  From fish hooks to flapjacks, hiking staffs to coffee tables, Hoss’s provides the weary traveler with pretty much anything they can ask for!  They have a legendary collection of Adirondack books and music, and have featured my stuff for longer than John Hosley and I want to admit!  Every year they offer “Author’s Night”, when they invite the authors and musicians in their collection to have a “meet and greet” with the public right there at the intersection of Rt. 28 and Rt. 30!  I’ll be there this August the 11th at 7 PM, come up, grab an ice cream and say hello!