Almanac Predictions

Colder than average winter, lot's of snow, get ready for that too, folks!

Getting Geared Up For Fall

Fall, My Fave Time of Year: Leaves, Hunting, Harvest

Okay it has been a bad year business and economy wise, plus I have vegged most of it in the capital district. But I am psyched now for some fall action and maybe some more business. At least the price of gas has dropped a bit. Now it's time for a new tent and a sportsmen license. There is supposed to be a bumper crop of turkeys this year, wanna get me one or two. Going to take my usual busman's holiday this weekend. My utterly brainless boring temp job could get along fine without me and since business and hours are slack there, good riddance. This is Colon's Weekend and I want celebrate a really intrepid explorer. Don't hand me any of this politically correct BS about Columbus, I just don't care. The Indians did't build the Northway, the Erie Canal or even the Waterline Railroad route. I earned a little vacation from the depressing reality around here. Here is a nice picture to calm all of you down:

Whiteface Mountain from Lake Placid Village

Latest Trip

Summer Days

I was up north last week. Trying to save what little business I have and the news was not so hot. But at least one website that went down when the place went out of business got resurrected as the place re-opened as a bistro, the Tavern at Schroon Lake. I spent the night in Schroon, but my fave campsite was taken so I pitched my tent in the skimpy clearing down the road from there. Broke camp just before some torrential downpours drenched the place. Better wet soggy weather than the oven in California with all the redwoods going up in smoke. My brother went out there and they got turned away from Big Sur cause of the fire.
I still care about the 'Daks and my business. I redid the header menus on my sites for a little better look. But the price of gas has cut into what little profit margin I have. As well as hurting my customers. I tried to give away free listing and links to these potential customers, just for stopping by. I put up their listings and links then emailed them, hoping I could get at least a link back to me out of it. But they didn't even bother to answer my email, maybe too much cash to count. It doesn't take much effort to reply to a personal email. So I yanked the links but left the rest of their listings on the page. If someone says he'd give me a link back to my site and doesn't even take the minute to do it, I can't respect him at all. Maybe my sites aren't hot stuff but at least I keep my end of the bargain and answer every customer call or email I get and try to ameliorate it.

Mud Season

Mud Season

I was up north for a couple days. The weather was so warm, as well as the water levels. Looking for some peace and quiet and I found it. But the good weather is bringing out the noisiest pests imaginable, Harley riders. Sorry, but your mass produced macho toughness does not impress me. Biker chic is on the same level as hip hop fashion. You can hear those inconsiderate lowlifes 30 miles away winding out their deliberately noisy machines. Heavy trucks, that we all depend on, make 1/10 the noise you do, as well as drive a lot more sensibly. Even the obnoxious thumper cars(one with huge bass speakers and stereos), which thankfully are on the decline, sound doesn;t carry as far as some load on his "bike". But I guess all that freedom you get by making yourself go deaf as well as annoying others, outweighs all the negative benefits.

I haven't done hardly anything but maintenance on my site in the last year. I have new job, in Pittsfield Mass. This is taking most of my time. Also, my other Worden Safety Products web design, seems to fill up most of the rest. Or maybe I lost my energy and zeal? My old Eagle, always faithful and semi-woods friendly, bit the dust last spring with a bad differential, and it's replacement, an old Subaru(yechh automatic) doesn't inspire me like the Eagle did. Plus the price of gas is a real downer. I didn't even get another hunt/fish license yet. But I haven't forgotten things yet. I vow to get up there a few times before year's end. There are some old friends I really want to see as well as the mountains.

Been Very Inactive, But It loks Like a Good Summer Anyways

Well, I have really let things slide this spring and summer, it has been a bad year for me. I have vegetated in the Albany area since New Years, doing the bare minimum. Guess I am running out of steam, hope it isn't permanent.

Hey Folks, Long Time No Post

Been a while since I posted. Between the weather and lack of new business, I really haven't done all that much. God, I hate this crummy rain. Started a new website, based on Route 100 in Vermont, or VTRoute100.com. Route 100 runs north south, east of the Green Mountains. Almost all the ski areas in Vermont are off of or near Route 100. But so far no customers, it's tough in Vermont, like Lake Placid. Please, let it snow for once!

Halloween is Coming

and I am going to dress up as an itinerant webmaster. Actually, I once won a Halloween costume contest in a bar in Troy. I was going turkey hunting the next day in Cherry Valley, so I wore my complete camo outfit.

Basically, I've been hovering around the Capital District. Last Friday I went up to Johnstown and re-visited my old campsite in Benson, NW of Northville. But the rain and sleet drove me out.

Snow Already

It's snowed up here tonight in Tupper, here's the proof:

Let's hope this keeps up during the Winter so it won't be a washout like the last one!

Fall Colors

Blasted out to Johnstown to work on my new website there, adksportscenter.com, then on to Old Forge. I camped out last night along the old road grade, now a snowmobile-powerline trail, about 8 miles south of old Forge. On my way back from Boonville, I took old Moose River Road to McKeever, where you pick up NY 28 just south of the Moose River Bridge. The trees are in max colors and it was quite the hard core old road drive with fall decor.



Moose River Road in Forestport

End to End

My last post was the start of the Adirondack Trail in Fonda, well, by Sunday I got up to Malone in time to take this beautiful pic of the north end of the Adirondack Trail.

Mohawk Trail Escape

I broke my butt trying to finish this crap in Averill Park so I could get up North. I finally took off around 9 PM, taking NY 7 from Latham to I-890 in Schenectady, to NY 5 in Glenville, then take NY 5 all the way to NY 30 A in Fonda. An anger check was that by the time I got to I-890 in Schen., I was ready to kill 1/2 the other "drivers". But from 890 west, I was fine. Old NY 5 is great, it goes through the best parts of Amsterdam, and you follow the railroad most of the way. In Fonda, just west of the light at NY 30A, I ran into this sign on their remodeled Main Street. Who else would stop to take a picture like this?



The Beginning of the Adirondack Trail Sign

Hello Again

Up in the 'Daks, away from the rabble of the Capital District. A couple of cretins have been lurking at this blog, looking for some useless trivia to throw at other people as if it was scandal. The weather is great today, for once we have a warm and dry day. It is turning into a tropical rainforest with all the extra water up here, but out west it is dry. Printed up some new promo for my sites, something I haven't done for quite a while.

I've been using PHP, basically HTML with brains, on my sites for a while. You can use include files in PHP, or you can insert a smaller file into a larger PHP one. That is how I do all my headers and footers so they are all the same. They are just one file for all pages, as well as my ads, each customer has his own little included PHP file. But the files are all on the same server. I finally realized you can access includes on other, or remote, servers. So I am now changing over my Hunting page, so the meat of the page is a file on NYRoute30.com. This means I only have to edit one hunting file and all three sites will use it. Which is good since the page is way out of shape.

In general, you can use PHP just like an HTML file. Go to PHP.net and you can easily learn how to use this open source, powerful language without paying more royalties to Bill Gates as if you used ASP instead. It is part of Apache server package and that is a free download for a server. ASP is the MS equivalent of PHP, but that ain't free; though the IIS, the personal web-server program included in Win XP, does understand ASP. You can do on-line databases easily with PHP like I am doing on this new on-line store.

0 for 3, you're out!

I bought this wireless hub to hook up to my friend's motel system. When hooking it up the old hub, the old hub(not wireless) conked out on me. No big deal, it was a few years old. So I drove about 100 miles round trip to Radio Shack in Johnstown to get another regular old hub. So I hook the new one up, even plugging in all the RJ-45 jacks before powering it up. But that one fresh out of the box was a loser too. So I had to use the wireless hub in place of the old one so he would have some sort of network. So instead of the wireless hub being upstairs next to the door, I had to leave it in the crawlspace under the rafters where all the cables came together; where it gives poor performance. To top it off, when I got back to Averill Park, I plugged my laptop into it's charger, and the damm charger, less than two months old, craps out on me. A freaking stone simple DC power supply, and two hub, with no moving parts or switches, decide to throw a wrench in my works so I lose almost a whole day with that nonsense. I can understand a car or computer, with tons of moving parts adn related systems, crapping our. But these simple things? I am really upset and depressed, it seems I have some sort of reverse Midas touch, everything I touch falls apart.

I really am not getting much road or woods time in, I spent the last three times dong more webdesign in my room than sales, driving or hiking around. I came back using only 2/3 of a tank of gas. Maybe I am losing my edge, but I have a lot of web work and gas still is expensive, so that's all cool.

Before I left this time, I replaced my LF brake caliper on the Nanny Goat with a nice, rebuilt loaded brake caliper. I did pads and rotors in the front last June, but the RF brake caliper seized on me so I replaced that one with a loaded caliper of the same brand too, from my pals at BAP-GEON. The moral of that story: if you are doing brakes on an older car with caliper/pad brackets, get loaded calipers. Not only do you get a rebuilt caliper piston, but all new hardware and pins and a cleaned up bracket. They even come with pads too. It's only twice as much as good pads alone!! Now the Nanny Goat rolls so much smoother with freed up brakes!

Web Journeyman in Averill Park, NY

I am ensconced in Averill Park, working on a new shopping cart site on Worden Safety Chocks. Try to login and create an identity. I am in the bowels of the old Faith Mills, cranking away on laptop which is pretending to be a desktop, actually the desktop is upstairs.

Northbound Soon!

Gotta get out of this place and go back up North to Tupper at least.

Hello Folks!

Been out of the 'Daks for a while, personal things plus I have some real work in Averill Park, in Rensselaer County, working on my new on-line store sight, Chocks.com, still in test phase. Been doing some camping, fishing and road rat cruising on the backroads of Rensco and Albco instead. Rally miss it so much. Even a weekend in the Green Mountain National Forest in Sunderland VT didn't quite do it. Though the water and landscape is so nice in Vermont. But Manchester is totally over-run with yuppies from out of state and with the quaint Vermont roads, that means endless hassels from people who kill with caution!

Best Swimming Hole Yet at Hull Falls

All the gazillion times I've been down NY 73, from Placid to the Northway via Keene/Keene Valley, I never drove on Hull Falls Road, which starts in the east just past Marcy Field and ends up in the hamlet of Keene at the junction of NY 9N. It follows the Ausable River. Less than a mile from Marcy Field, you cross the bridge at Hull Falls. It is an amazing set of falls and a huge, 40' deep pool at the bottom. You have to snake down along the bridge cause it's private property all around. I was already cool from all the monsoons but some Vermonters were enjoying this class A swimming hole.

Free At Last!

Just got my laptop back from warranty work, it's all better, had to go to the old Park Motel where the great owners kept it waiting!

Tupper Lake Days

Spent some more time in Tupper lately, but I am stuck down in Smallbany too much these days. Camped out behind hte new Wild Center Museum in Tupper for a while, working online, via the desktop, on the workbench in the Park Motel's handyman shed.

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(Notice the all important cafe maker to the left)

Found Some Nice Campsites

On NY 28N in Minerva right where the road crosses the Boreas River, they have fireplaces and the outhouse.

Summer Update

Sorry, but it has been so mixed up, living in Tupper and commuting to Albany for various reasons. Spent some time in downtown Albany and Troy, makes me pine for the 'Daks something fierce, what crummy people and places. Took NY 28N again up here, set up my desktop in the Park Motel's shed where I can get on and do some work unlike Albany, where I had to queue up at library computers. One of those library computers Net Nanny wouldn't even let me get into the PHP reference manual site, such trash!

Spokane, WA to the Pacific Coast back to Albany

Well, my last post was the 18th, from Spokane, WA. The next day, I delivered the Subaru to the owner at the airport, got paid, then drove off to the coast in a car Eileen rented. It was a V-6 Pontiac G6, actually a really good little car, with plenty of two lane passing torque. We went to the pacific coast via Yakima, where we passed the enormous Columbia River Gorge. West of Yakima, the heart of the Palouse, we took US 12 through the Cascades via White Pass and Packwood. In Packwood, I saw my first elk as a whole bunch of them saunteered into town for some grazing. I'd show you some pictures but my laptop's on-off switch is broken and all the pics are on that drive. Also in Packwood, you can see Mount Ranier. Then we pushed on to the Pacific Coast, getting there about midnight. The beaches there are public highways, but watch for drifting sand. We found a state campground close by and got a tent site. Then after 1.5 days, we split, went to Seattle and then caught the redeye to Albany via Pittsburgh at Seatac.

From Albany to Spokane, Washington

We finally left on our little business/travel trip to Spokane, WA. We drove this car that my friend Grumme sold on Ebay to some professor in Spokane. We left Tuesday night and 2800 miles later, on Sat evening, we got to Spokane. We started out on the Southern Tier route west, where an armed band of Troopers stopped us on NY 17 looking for a guy who shot a trooper. We did the usual lame I - 90 to I -80 route through to the Mississippi RIver across from Des Moines, IA. In Iowa, I split off of I - 80 and worked my way up to Minnesota......(more to come, I'm beat here in a hotel lobby in Spokane

Blending in with the Woods

In The 'Hood in Saranac Lake

Interesting Bumper Stickers

Darwin Awards:

Culling the Herd
Population Control Volunteers
Die and Learn
The Shallow End of the Gene Pool

"I(don't) Think,Therefore I Am(not)"~descartes

Chlorinating the Gene Pool
Natural de-Selection
Evolution in Action

Best Darn Blue Route in the USA!

The other day I took a drive through Placid to Schroon Lake, where I landed a new website job at a restaurant there. Schroon Lake is the center of my ADKI87.com site. So after I got the job, i built a fire and hung out in my old site by Schroon Falls. after that I took Blue Ridge Road, CR 84 to Newcomb then to Long Lake. Cr 84 is okay, but at the top, it's twisty and narrow and it was a foggy and rainy night. NY 28N was okay, but a little beat-up. When I got to the junction of NY 30 in Long Lake, I was so happy. NY 30 to Tupper from there is so easy and fast, great for a night like that one. It reminded me why I started this whole business because NY Route 30 is the

Best Darn Blue Route in the USA!

Let's Get Some Perspective

Personal and other setbacks and tragedies have reminded me that I am just another guy, no one special at all. I do what I do now cause I love it. Technically, I am a flatlander, born and raised in Hartford, CT. My hunting and fishing skills are so lamentable that white tail deer have thanked me for scaring the other hunters away. If I was in a hunter gatherer band I would be doing the gathering, not hunting. I have not hiked all, or even most of, the ADK 46 High Peaks. I am not a code whiz on the web, but I am good at what I do and I can also fix cars pretty well, especially my old goat. I wear the clothes I do cause I like it and it's practical and it also reflects my work. I do strive for consistency and accuracy in my work.

Moved to Tupper Lake

Yeah, I've finally done it, pulled the chain on the whole rotten Capital District for my main ville in my main park!

Another Day in Paradise

With such beautiful weather and lush foliage, but the black flies, skeeters and other insect denizens are alight. Went up to Horseshoe Lake and drove around a bit on those rutted out roads and took a slew of new digital pics, have my good camera back this weekend, can't wait!

Oy Vey, what a beautiful day!

It was a great one, starting at 3 am. Working like a dog on Guido's new site as well as revamping my babies. Then I went up Malone way to go turkey hunting. Ended up in Bangor and Westville, but everywhere I went in the farm back country there were road crews doing backed up repairs and maintainance. Scared all the birds away. It was a true green Kodak day, great for my little Walmart cheepo. Green also for growth after all the good rains. But the bugs are out, ready to eviscerate you!

Then I gravitated towards the Mohawk Res then Robert Moses Park and the Power Dam and the Eisenhower Lock at the top of NY State. They closed the visitors center at the dam, it's a Post 9/11 world, whatever that meant. Do they think anyone could devise a bomb to take the dam out, or are they protected from kamikaze airliners from Canada maybe? If some muslim jihader jerk had a nuke, he's going to blast NYC, DC or Philly, not Massena. Don't see any flak or SAM batteries by the international dam. THe new visitors center is on Hawkins Point, by the boat launch. Pretty lame compared to the old one which was open two years ago.

Then I explored old Massena. Looped down NY 56, checked out Norwood village, I added a page just for massena and robert moses.

Back to Canton

Went back up to St. Larry County today, to check out Canton during a business day and get some more shots. Of course, I only have my basic but utterly useful Polaroid and not my zoom Olympus, which is back in Albany, mailed from the ripoff factory repair shop. The Polaroid was the cheapest camera at Wal Mart and recharges itself off the USB cable from the computer, saving tons on AA cells. St Lawrence County is a great place to drive, all the roads are tons of fun. I took some county and town roads in Parishville and came into Colton the back way. Canton seems like a cool place, people were receptive to what I was doing, hope it translates into some business.


Then I hit ole Saranac and Lake Placid tonight. Did some fishing down at the big state landing and campground on NY 3, about 3 miles west of 45 zone. Had some local take a snap of me in downtown Placid. Don't forget to check the tires, my two left ones are weak and I can't afford to get a whole new set now. Maybe I should be like the average slob and drive around with dirty windows, lights out, bald low tires, bad struts, no emergency brakes like so many other "motorists".

Dazed in Tupper

It's in the am and it's snowing, with s stiff NW wind to boot. This weather is truly Adirondack! Today will be a work day.

Huntin', Fishin', Campin' in the Rain

Checked out Port Kent, on Lake Champlain, finally. Got a campground like 2 miles west of there, by Ausable Chasm, but until yesterday never had been there, even had a page on adki87.com too!. Went down the hill, crossed the tracks by the bus stop like rr station and drove down to the beach by the Vermont ferry landing, which opens May 30. Camped out at end of the lot by some trees near the water. Woke up next to this seaplane, cool. Didn't even pitch the tent, it didn't rain till noon. Ausable Chasm was intense with all the rains.


then I went up the hill to Wickham Marsh State Wildlife Management Area, on NY 373, for some turkey hunting. Had the whole place to myself. Like I said b4, it rained at noon, which is the end of the Spring turkey hunting day, 1/2 b4 sunrise - 12 PM. Drove into Ausable Forks, tried to get some business. Thank god they fixed NY 86 through High Falls Gorge, even did some fly fishing on the Ausable in the special no kill zone. I was wearing standard webmaster garb while these fishermen dressed like commandoes on a mission in the Amazon or soemthing.

In Memoriam Redux

My father-in-law, Matthew Joseph Dermody, passed away this morning in Albany Memorial Hospital from cancer. He was born in 1925 in Newcastle, Limerick, Ireland and was a really nice guy and an avid outdoorsman and camper.

Here Comes the Rain

and I am happy. It was too dry, there were fire warnings and the new leaves would have shriveled if it didn't rain soon. Also, pollen-phobes get some relief, as well as the rafters and whitewater folks too, now there's some water to release. Better the rain now when growing things need it than worthless fall washouts. This will top off the water table too for wells.

In Memoriam

Found out my friend, Kim Van Evera passed away. She ran the Back to Basic: for Real Camping in Yurts and Outdoor Experience Near the End of the Northville - Lake Placid Trail. I met her on the web, we were both in some defunct New York State webring and I could tell she was right down the road from my old campsite in West Benson. She lived down in the middle of Bleeker, in Fulton County, in the Park. So I contacted her, at first trying to sell, but I loved what she was doing so I had to check her out. So I did a few times during the Fall and helped her raise a big 32' yurt. She left two beautiful little girls. She was a serious back country hiker herself, and picked up campers at the Northville - Lake Placid trailhead. National Geographic wrote a piece about her. She was totally unique. Bye Kim.

Taking It Slow

Letting my ankle heal up a bit from twisting it last Sunday, then I get some flu for a day, really wiped out. Between slow season and high gas prices, I haven't been doing too much driving, mainly staying local. But I am gearing up for better things. Got behind this lumber truck at Exit 24 - Exit 1 I-87 Thruway to Northway toll barrier in merry Albany.

Read the writing on his bumper:

Please Do Not Hit

Terrible Fishing Accident

After ambling over the Boston & Maine rr tracks to the Hoosick River, right near Vermont, I tripped over some roots approaching the river bank, in front of two xtreme kayak dudes practicing on the small rapids there.
Really sprained it, too bad I wasn't wearing my 'Nam boots. Soaking it now in Epsom salts according to Eileen's explicit directions. Checked out Bennington too, gas is 25 cents cheaper there, less tax, hhhmmmmm! The water in the upper Walloomsac River was nice and clear, but so low. It is way too dry for this time of year, we need rain.

Firearms Paranoia

Last Thursday, the Schenectady(a city that should be scrapped for parts) Police shut the city and the school's down cause some braindead woman, like the one last summer who claimed I "slapped" her car, said she overheard two guys who were going to shoot up Schenectady High School. As a former teacher there, I can bet there are plenty of faculty and staff in Schenectady Skools who would go postal there before the kidz! (The schools in the Electric City have been over-run by dangerous inner city cretins from NYC.) So it turned out to be two active duty, off duty Army guys going out to the target range and one of them just chewed out his slacker daughter for sloughing out at school. So the wonderful cops had these guys, totally innocent of course, at gunpoint like they were some trash from the Bronx. A month earlier in Colonie some Colonie high school knuckle head was shooting his new MP-5 along the Mohawk River, off the worthless bike trail. He wanted to be an Army Ranger and his father bought him the gun, an "assault" rifle, so he could be just like a ranger. Granted, it was a dumb place to shoot but he hurt nor shot at nothing dangerous but the mindless robot police here acted like they cornered Osama himself. If he was on the other side of the Mohawk River, I doubt the cops would have come. He had what the lords of war called hand grenades but I heard they were like M-80's.

The cautionary note is to be totally low key when hunting or shooting. Why let anyone know anything more than necessary? I even dress and gear up off road under cover. Even if it's okay to shoot or hunt in some remote place, why let some scum know that there is a very valuable and easily resalable item in your car? Next to gold or cash, guns are the best things to steal.