Wanakena Weekly Newsletter

WANAKENA WEEKLY DIGITAL NEWSLETTER CELEBRATES ONE YEAR
Reporting from tiny, remote village on the edge of wilderness though writing and photography

Wanakena, NY: Every Thursday (around noon) for the past fifty-two weeks, those with internet access were able to experience Wanakena through writing and photography in the form of a digital newsletter called Wanakena Weekly. Readers of the weekly newsletter discovered what went down, what was on the horizon, the weather, local news, plant and animal sightings, trail conditions, Kim and Thom’s Lost Dog Report, and more! Wanakena summer folks who had closed-up their camps for the winter were able to keep-up on what’d been happening around town. Friends of Wanakena as well as the general public may have found interest and entertainment in this attempt to document and archive some of the goings-on in and around Wanakena. Wanakena Weekly is ‘broadcast’ from behind the register of Otto’s Abode in Wanakena.

Last spring, with only five issues under Wanakena Weekly’s belt, Covid-19 changed everything. “What an extraordinary year to report on. Normally, Wanakena would be celebrating concerts on the green, public gatherings, spontaneous parties and more.” said Nolan Fedorow, author of Wanakena Weekly and co-owner/operator of Otto’s Abode. “As it turns out, some of my favorite topics to have written about and photograph were events that might have flown under the radar in a ‘normal’ year. For example: a rouge log naturally working its way down the thawing Oswegatchie River through the village. Every couple of weeks the log would relocate! It was one of the more noteworthy events transpiring during those early and unknown days of Covid-19 this past spring. Looking back, perhaps it was simply an enjoyable distraction from a seemingly unraveling world.”

So, what’s next? Fedorow plans to continue Wanakena Weekly for at least another year. The core of the project remains the same: what are some of the things going-on in and around Wanakena? Moving forward into Wanakena Weekly’s second year, Fedorow invites reader participation with the Wanakena Weekly project though writing, photography and cartoon submissions. Fedorow added: “The project has been ripening. I look back on early issues of Wanakena Weekly, it was really just figuring itself out. Maybe a year from now it will be a radio station or something.”

About Otto’s Abode: Otto’s Abode is a store/visitor’s center/exhibition and performance space located in the heart of Wanakena, NY right next to the post office. Visit Otto’s Abode in person at 6 Hamele street in Wanakena, NY or through their website: www.ottosabode.org, where you’ll find Wanakena Weekly. Otto’s Abode is celebrating five years serving the community.

Blue Mountain Lake - July Lakers & Salmon?

I know July is a long way off, but it’s never too early to start gathering intel for a fishing (err... family vacation) trip in early July right? I will be staying on the water and fishing every day at sunrise until lunch or so from my kayak rigged with a depthfinder, a small downrigger, and a leadcore rod. I’ve never fished in the Adirondacks before but have learned to catch lakers on lake Winnipesaukee on jigging spoons in Early July (but the landlocked salmon are another story), with some trolling success.

I’ve researched a depth map of the lake and see areas to explore for lakers. My primary questions are:

1) what depth ranges should I target for each species?
2) what lures are likely to be best for each? I’ve got a good assortment of jigging spoons. My few trolling flutter spoons are all about 2.5”. Is this the right size? Should I consider flies? With an attractor “dodger” spoon? Are minnowbaits (Rapala, etc) good options?

I may also chase smallmouths some, but I think I have all options covered for them.

Thanks in advance.

P4B (Jeremy)

A tragic loss for one of our beloved members.

On January 23 Deb, wife of Kevin "Mudrat" Mackenzie, passed away unexpectedly.




What follows is the tribute that Kevin wrote.

Deb and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on December 24, 2020. I remember telling her that I could not believe we’d shared 15 years as husband and wife—that she put up with my mountain shenanigans for so long. I never expected to be blessed with such a kind and loving soulmate.

I also did not expect to lose her so soon. Deb, the other half of my heart, passed away on January 23 of a massive brain bleed. I held her hand at the hospital as her heart took its last beat. *Please read to the end for viewing times.

Deb was a Christian as am I. Though I know she’s with Christ in a place free of her debilitating chronic pain and the chaos of the world, the loss is unfathomable. I feel like I am drifting in time with my essence stripped away. I feel as if I will suddenly awake from this nightmare when she walks back into the room. I realize that will never again happen. She is gone. Her three kids, my parents, the rest of the family, and all she touched are devastated by this sudden loss. Her petite frame harbored a larger-than-life personality and left a lasting impact on those who knew her. She was unselfish, kind, generous, and fiercely loyal to those she loved.

She was also a private person. While many of you who know me did not meet her, I want to talk about a small part of who she was (a full account would be a book), something that reflects her spirit. Wendy Hall owner of Adirondack Wildlife Refuge and Deb were best friends for over a decade. Wendy, a gifted artist, paid tribute to Deb’s soul and passion by creating this pastel as a tribute. In the pastel, Deb is interacting with Mellor, a gentle barred owl that was in our lives for 8 years. An upcoming pastel, will reflect Deb’s passion as a fiery golden eagle warmed to her for the first time—Deb was the only one this eagle really took to. She was taking a photo when it hopped on her arm much to everyone’s surprise. It simply liked Deb and realized that she had no fear of it regardless of its size.

Deb was a part of the Refuge and she and I, over years, sat inside the animal enclosures interacting with various critters as we photographed them. Imagine Deb with a red fox clamped onto her pocket because it smelled cheese crackers, a merlin perched on her hand, a fawn nuzzling her neck, or a coyote curiously walking the cage as she soothed it with calming tones. Imagine hundreds of songbirds over the years tucked in her neck or resting on her chest after a feeding—she used her body’s warmth and the rhythm of her heartbeat as part of the rehabilitation process. She “whispered” many from the brink of death to be released back to into the wild—she was a wildlife rehabilitator with a gift. Animals took to her because she had no fear, just an understanding of the unique personality of each individual—yes, songbirds and all wild animals exhibit distinct personality traits even compared to others within their respective species—she could read the nuances of body language and focused her passion into seeing them well again. If they died, she mourned each. Deb’s photography will live on as her spirit will live on in the animals she helped save and now roam free.

Deb was open about her wishes so, in lieu of flowers, please direct a donation in her honor to Adirondack Wildlife Refuge.

An audiobook about canoe trips and starvation

This winter I have been even more of a troglodyte than usual, since the monthly contradances I used to attend are cancelled due to COVID and we can't visit people or be visited by them. I was thinking about taking up a new hobby of some sort when it occurred to me that now might be the time to try recording a book for LibriVox. LibriVox is a site that offers free recordings of books that are in the public domain, read by volunteers. I spend a lot of time in the woodworking shop, and my 'day job' also involves a lot of loud things, so I spend a lot of time wearing earmuffs to save my hearing, and listening to audiobooks.

When I was reading an old (1980s) National Geographic last fall while waiting at the garage for our car to be worked on I read an article on Labrador. It mentioned a book from 1908 that was written by a woman who was the first person to accurately map some of the main interior rivers, after her husband had died while attempting the same trip in an earlier year. I found that the book hadn't been recorded yet, so I decided to give it a try. I got done in January, and it's now available online. It's a free download, and I'll put a link in below in case anyone here might be interested.

A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador by Mina Benson Hubbard

Glading - is it really harmful to the forest?

I know this question has come up before with regard building maintained ski glades on forest preserve lands. As far as I know, the DEC has held firm on their stance that cutting of trees, even saplings, over a large area is against the mission of the forest preserve.

Being a ski advocate, I thought perhaps this was a bit overbearing on the DEC's part. Why would the forest care if a few saplings were missing? Or some other "brush" species. Does the forest really care?

In turns out, based on the most current research, that yes, yes it does!

As crazy as it sounds, all the evidence shows that trees have a vast communication network via a symbiotic relationship with the mycelium of fungi and with other tree species. And within species, it has been shown that older "mother" trees actually "teach" and select the best of their offspring, or even other species to cull the next generation of forest.

It has been shown that forest health, and resistance to pests and disease is largely related to this relationship, and that the old trees "learn" and send messages to the younger generations. It's not understood how this information is stored, but the data shows that trees definitely learn and share information chemically about how to protect themselves, and their community. Therefore removing certain species, even seemingly benign brushy wooded plants may change their overall response to things like drought or pests. It may seem kind of odd to think of it this way, but if a plant is growing near a tree, it's kind of only doing so because the tree is allowing it to. Larger trees control shading and nutrient absorption for most of the forest ecosystem (maybe all!). I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think this is why with single species plantations we don't see understory development. Single species plantations have been shown to have very poor health and very poor relationship with their neighboring trees - very few mycelium connections or root connections. Instead of acting as a multi-species, multi-kingdom super being, they go into a sort of panic mode where they directly compete with each other rather than the collective nurturing that is seen in natural forests.

So blah, blah.

TLDR version: It actually matters if we cull the forest rather than letting the forest cull itself. We may not select the trees that will do best in the next generation, but the older trees will. We also may take species or disrupt interactions that we have a very hard time seeing in the short term. Forests act in a very interconnected way not only between species, but across species and kingdoms. It is shown that vast chemical transfers exist between the whole forest, somewhat resembling a neural network.

So whatever the reasons may be, the science shows our best, healthiest forest are the ones that have the longest time to mature, and learn, and then teach their younger generations the best way to "manage" their ecosystem.

Round Pond Siamese Ponds WA

Anyone been to this pond? It sits next to Kings Flow in SPWA. Wondering if there are any camping opportunities there in winter?

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Pigeon Lake Wilderness Loop, 6/8 - 6/10/20

Click Here To View Full Photo Album

This is a trip that I posted about in detail previously, but I still wanted to get a proper trip report up for it at some point. It's a loop that while it is a bit lacking in some respects currently, with a little bit of extra attention and effort I think it has potential to become a classic Adirondack backpacking loop akin to the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Loop, the West Canada Lake Wilderness' French Louie Loop, the Cold River Loop in the Western High Peaks, and the High Falls Loop in the Five Ponds Wilderness.

I've had my eyes on this trip for a few years now, ever since I noticed that with a few miles of road walking a longer loop was possible traversing portions of both the Pigeon Lake Wilderness and the adjacent Moose River Plains Wild Forest. Finally, this past spring I found the right combination of mid-week days off, nice weather, and inclination to undertake the trip.

Because it is a loop, it can be started at one of several locations. Inlet would seem to be a logical spot (as this puts all of the road walking at either the start or the end of the trip) but I chose to start near Browns Tract Campground as this logistically made it easier to plan to camp in lean-tos for both nights of my trip.

The very first stretch of my trek was on the old railroad grade that runs west of Raquette Lake, along Browns Tract Inlet. With flat and easy hiking I made quick time to the turn off to Brown's Tract Carry (the portage and snowmobile trail that connects Brown's Tract Inlet with Eighth Lake).

From the turn off, the trail continued along a wide corridor through the woods, with a bit more ups and downs than the railroad grade but still nothing to slow me up any. I did take a quick side trip down to the put in at the end of the long dock on Brown's Tract Inlet to check out the views.

At the west end of Brown's Tract Carry lies the Eighth Lake Lean-to. This is a popular one given the lean-to's proximity to both the road (it's about a 10 minute walk in) and the lake, and it tends to attract more car-camping style campers than the minimalist backpacking crowd. Even though it was a week day, I was a bit surprised to see it unoccupied.

I also took a few minutes to check out the lake itself, and the trail down to the lake. Back in the summer of 2009, I spent a couple of weeks working on the water access here as a stewardship intern with the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. The old access trail from the lean-to down to the lake was gullied and washed out; we dug a deeper drainage ditch parallel to the trail, set a small stone wall, and backfilled a bench behind the wall to improve and stabilize the trail. I was glad to see that the trail improvements had held up well over the past decade (although the bench was starting to show some erosion that has the potential to worsen if it doesn't get a few buckets worth of stone crush at some point in the not-too-distant future).

The next stretch of my route lay along the snowmobile trail that connects the Brown's Tract Carry with Bug Lake. The Nat Geo map shows this route as a minimally-maintained herd path. The reality is that it is actually a maintained snowmobile trail- and somewhat decently well maintained at that. But it also clearly gets very little (if any) traffic outside of snowmobile season, and so despite having an obvious and wide corridor, there is not much in the way of an established tread to serve as a navigational guide. I could see some inexperienced navigators having some trepidation at trying to follow this path- at a minimum, it could probably use a few more trail markers.

For the most part this was also a decently dry trail that made for nice hiking through the woods, although as I got to within about the last half-mile or so of the western-most part of this trail I did pass a few muddy spots.

In contrast, the Bug Lake Trail follows a wide, old road that gets a fair mount of foot traffic (and presumably also bicycle traffic since it is in Wild Forest). I turned south along this trail even though this was not directly along the route of the main loop. My intent was to explore Bug Lake and Seventh Lake beyond.

I did spend a few minutes poking around and exploring Bug Lake. I found three designated tent sites there- none of which were obvious from the main trail. There were no markers or signs on the trail indicating their existence, and all were accessed via somewhat faint herd paths that it takes a discerning eye to notice. Two of the sites were gorgeous, and I was sorely tempted to set up for the night in one of them- but the allure of the lean-tos down on Seventh Lake drew me onward. In any case, Bug Lake gets less overnight use than Seventh Lake does, so for groups looking for solitude it's probably better to stay here than to continue on to the later lake (plus the trail to Seventh Lake isn't great, more on that below).

The first designated tent site was on the northwest shore of the lake. This was a beautiful and well-established site in mixed woods on a broad peninsula overlooking the lake.

The other two designated tent sites were around on the southeast side of the lake. To reach them required crossing the outlet on an unmarked and incredibly faint herd path. The Nat Geo map incorrectly shows this as a marked and maintained trail across the outlet (one of a number of Nat Geo map errors in this area, more on this below). The first site, closest to the outlet, was a decently large and obviously well-used but nice site in a stand of hemlocks.

Continuing north a few hundred feet along the east shore of Bug Lake on another herd path brought me to the third designated tent site. This was a smaller site, not nearly as well used or as nice as the other two despite being right on the water. It's clearly a site that is meant primarily as an overflow site especially for when the second site (the one closest to the outlet) is already occupied.

There was also a loon nesting on the shore immediately adjacent to this site- once I'd discovered I'd scared the loon off of her egg-occupied nest, I snapped a quick picture and immediately vacated the area to give the loon space to return to its egg-warming duties.

As mentioned, the Nat Geo map has a number of errors that resulted in some momentary confusion on my part with regards to proceeding to Seventh Lake from Bug Lake (including an unplanned side trip to the Eighth Lake Campground because I missed the turn off for the trail to Seventh Lake, forcing me to retrace my steps all the way back up the hill). These errors are significant enough that some discussion of them in detail is probably warranted. They are as follows:

• The Nat Geo Map shows a marked and maintained loop side trail that branches off of the main Bug Lake Trail south of Bug Lake, crosses the outlet of Bug Lake, and continues on to Eagles Nest Lake before rejoining the Bug Lake Trail. In reality, only the spur between the Bug Lake Trail and Eagles Nest is marked or maintained. There is the aforementioned herd path that crosses the outlet of Bug Lake to access the tent sites on the east side, but it is definitely unmarked and is very unmaintained. (There may be a herd path connecting Bug Lake and Eagles Nest Lake directly, but I did not take the time to explore to see if one existed as it was getting late in the day.)
• The Seventh Lake Trail (Trail 78) is also incorrectly shown. For starters, this is not a marked and maintained trail either despite being shown as one- but rather a very visibly a minimally maintained herd path along the full length of the trail. It gets enough use along the shoreline of Seventh Lake to be fairly obvious, but between Seventh Lake and the Bug Lake Trail it gets a bit brushier. Also, the connection where this trail joins the Bug Lake Trail is incorrectly shown on the Nat Geo map- the map shows the trail crossing the outlet of Bug Lake and joining the Bug Lake Trail east of the junction with the Eagle's Nest Spur Trail, but actually the Seventh Lake Trail remains west of the outlet of Bug Lake and joins the Bug Lake Trail west of the bridge over Bug Lake Outlet (at an unmarked and very unapparent junction).

It did some fair amount of backtracking and exploring to get the trail network in the vicinity sorted in my head, but once I found the herd path to Seventh Lake I was back on track. The path was decently easy to follow for the most part. Despite being brushy, minimally maintained, and unmarked, there was a moderately-well established tread most of the way.

Seventh Lake itself is clearly a popular spot for camping. The herd path here along the shore was well used. In addition to the two lean-tos, I saw 2 designated tent sites, and a whole lot of closed campsites. There were also a few sites of ambiguous legality- missing any indication of being designated or closed (most likely they were closed sites whose "No Camping" discs had been ripped down by less-than-ethical members of the public).

The designated sites were nice open and grassy clearings in the forest along the shore (although one was not particularly level).

Seventh Lake Lean-to #2 is the western-most of the two lean-tos on the lake, and thus was the first I came to. This is one of the few remaining party lean-tos in existence- or as I like to call them, "Double-Wides" as they are easily twice the normal size of an ADK lean-to. Room for you, your friends, and your friend's friends (if only it weren't for that pesky overnight group size limit of 9 people). Marcy dam recently had its party lean-to dismantled, and offhand the only other ones still standing that I can think of are Pharaoh Lake #2, Pharaoh Lake #5, and Woodhull Lake. (There's also Chub Pond #1 but that is a bit of a... unique circumstance behind the design and size of the lean-to.)

The lean-to was well-situated in a stand of hemlocks along the shore and had nice views, so I dropped my pack here, intending to stay for the night.

Before unpacking, I took a stroll out to Lean-to #1 to check it out... and as soon as I saw it (and saw that it was unoccupied), I immediately ran back to Lean-to #2, grabbed my pack and returned to #1 to set up camp for the evening. To say that Seventh Lake #1 is positively, stunningly gorgeous would be an understatement. It is well situated atop a low rocky bluff overlooking the lake in a beautiful stand of pines. It catches the afternoon breezes off of the lake perfectly, and its a phenomenal spot for watching sunsets as well. And while I didn't go in, the swimming looked to be *chef's kiss* perfect.

It's also clearly very popular. This is the sort of lean-to that you could visit 10 times and not have the good fortune to find it unoccupied for even a single one of those visits. As it was, despite being midweek and early in the season I was a bit shocked to find it unoccupied myself (although judging from the hot coals in the fire place it had been occupied not too long before). I knew that I needed to take advantage of the situation, and was glad that I hadn't yet unpacked at the other lean-to. 15 minutes later I had all of my gear at lean-to #1 and was making myself comfortable for the evening.

The next morning dawned a bit grey, and there were a few passing showers on the horizon. I fully expected one of the showers to pass my way but it stayed dry where I was. However, the sky soon started to open up and I did get treated to an early morning rainbow over the lake.

Before departing back the way I came, I did also take a quick side trip down to the west end of the Seventh Lake Trail to see what sort of access was possible there, at the end of Seventh Lake Road. It appears that public foot travel is permitted from the road, but there is no parking whatsoever- as evidenced by the numerous "No Parking" signs. So this really isn't a feasible means of access by the vast majority of the hiking public, unless you can find parking elsewhere and walk the road.

With explorations of the area complete to my satisfaction, the return trip back up past Bug Lake to rejoin the main loop went quickly. Soon, I was turning off from the Bug Lake Trail onto the Black Bear Mountain Trail, which I would take over Black Bear Mountain towards the village of Inlet. (Another possible Nat Geo map error: I never saw any junction with the Black Bear Mountain Ski Trail, shown on the map as trail #76.

The climb up the east side of Black Bear Mountain was moderately sustained but never overly steep. In spite of all of my explorations across the Adirondacks in general, I had never climbed this peak previously (despite always feeling tempted every time I drove past the trailhead on my way to or from adventures elsewhere). The summit had a number of open clearings and offered good- but (in my opinion) not great- views to the south and to the east from a couple of different vantage points.

Continued in next post....