Adirondack has been in my mind ever since I encountered an inspiring fine art photography web page of Kurt Ross: Journeys Through Wild Light. His dreamy images of Adirondack deeply moved me, especially those otherworldly colors of Adirondack mornings. In my mind, Adirondack is forever associated with fogs: either a winding road blends into the fog with the sky, or just a thin layer of fog gathers on the surface of a lake, a river....

Prelude

Towns along 9N were still asleep. The air was fresh and wet. Lakeshore resorts flashed by... My timing was perfect. Not long into 9N, the sky had started to brighten, but the half-moon still hung aloft. My first stop was at a resort called Stepping Stone Resort near Diamond Point.

As I moved along 9N, the sky was clearing, and I felt a rush to find the best location at the best time. Unfortunately the best places are always private properties. Occasionally I detoured into side roads toward the waterfront, sneaking into a private property, setup, shot and ran. I kept this "drive-by-shooting" through the towns of Bolton, Bolton Landing, Hague... Yeah, I did feel a bit poetic :-)

Shortly after Hague, a scenic lookout (the only one) along Rt.9N gave an expansive view of the Lake George: to the south-west, the picturesque Lake George embraced the warm morning Sun; to the north-east, a few clouds were brilliantly backlit by the Sun and hung below the mountain top, with the dark mountains as the backdrop...

Recharged after the nap, I decided to use the remaining time of the day to visit some of "tourist spots", as an orientation to the area. Whiteface Mountain, High Falls Gorge and Olympic Ski Jump Complex came into my mind, all according to the AAA TourBook. I headed toward Lake Placid then north to Rt.86 to the Whiteface Mountain.

Rt.86 here winds along the beautiful Ausable River. High Falls Gorge is a segment of the river being fenced off with a $5.50 tag. It is claimed that the water falls 700 ft. The view is quite nice, but it not as grand the 700 ft should sound.

I dined at a McDonald's again, and got back to my camp at 9pm. I set my alarm clock at 4:50 for the next morning, and planned to shoot sunrise at Upper Saranac Lake.

Day Two: Saturday, August 30, 1997

Woke up to the clock's alarm in the morning, I headed for the Upper Saranac Lake via Rts.86-186-30. It was a cloudy morning --- no sunrise. On my way there, all of a sudden, I saw two young deer standing at the road side staring at me. I stopped my car as smoothly as I could, and looked back. They were still there. I reached for my camera, and fitted a long lens. Damn, they were gone!

Moving toward the town of Tupper Lake, I detoured into a side road that runs parallel to Raquette River. In the early morning, the river was as calm as a mirror, and almost all living things but me (no mosquitoes here :-)) were still asleep. One stepping onto the grass could wake up a school of wild mallards screaming away.

I watched a vacationing family launched their boat onto the river, the boat motor hummed away and broke the mirror...

Again, I had a brunch at a McDonald's to start my day, and at the end, I asked for a cup of ice in put in the cooler that I used to keep all my films cool. I was looking into some kind of hiking somewhere between the towns of Tupper Lake and Blue Mountain Lake, but I couldn't get any information. Somehow, I drove aimlessly along Rt.30 South. Actually I was pretty happy for such aimlessness, since it fitted my "no destination, no hurry" mood of photography, and this was a beautiful road (listed in National Geographics' Scenic Highways and Byways) that passed through many nameless lakes, small and large. The only thing that saddened me was that Mother Nature kept reminding me, by those burning red colors, that the autumn was just around the corner.

I saw on the map the Rt.421 branches out from Rt.30 but ends in a few miles. I thought that could be something leading to a mountain, so I detoured into Rt 421. A road sign says the Horseshoe Lake is 4 miles away.

Rt.421 continues after the lake. The pavement ends just about a mile further, then a dirt road forks out. A bumpy branch leads to an overcrowded parking lot at the Low's Lower Dam (on the Bog River) Flora Area, and local folks were launching their canoes. The view from the dam was very picturesque. I set up my tripod and waited a canoe to appear to decorate the foreground of my picture.

A snowmobile trail starts at the other end of the dam. I decided to hike the trial a bit. Wondering into the woods is my strategy for such a lousy lighting condition.... but I stumbled into a mosquito’s' heaven. In the trail, mosquitoes were all over me, even clothed areas. I was really hoping that I could have 4 or 5 hands to slap myself.... Just about 1/2 miles, and having literally killed hundreds of mosquitoes, I concluded that the trail was too unbearable and called a quit.

Down the Rt.421, I decided to go back to spend the afternoon in Paul Smith's VIC to do some close-up works in its butterfly house. But at the junction of Rts.3 and 30, I saw another trail. I had to admit that, without sufficient information of trails (as one of web sites listed at the end of this page proudly claims: there is no free info about Adirondack trails!), I was quite desperate to hike a trail in Adirondacks, any trail! So, there it was, the Trombley Landing Trail, which is 1.3 mile long. I'd just forget Paul Smith. This was an extremely easy trail with extremely boring views. I headed back as soon as I could after reaching the end, and went straight back to Lake Placid, planning to visit the Olympic Ski Jump Complex and the Olympic Center.

I hit another bummer finding out that the Olympic Ski Jump Complex was closed for the day at 4pm. Back to the town, I visited the Olympic Center. The Center mainly consists of two ice-skating rinks. One of them was open and some young skaters were practicing. I saw a little boy skated beautifully while showing off to other older girls. I regretted that I forgot to bring any ISO400 films for the trip.

After that dinner, I went back to Saranc Late. I had decided that morning when I passed Lake Tolby, which was located at the north-west corner of the town across the Adirondack Medical Center, that this lake would be a spot for the sunset shooting. Lake Tolby has a public beach. The sunset was not spectacular, but as always, the twilight was beautiful in its own right. After the shooting, I happily headed back to the camp and went straight into a good night sleep.

The sky in the eastern sky had some clouds above the horizon. The surface of the Raqutte Pond had a layer of mist evaporating from the water. A fisherman was on a canoe under the bridge greeted me with a strange look :-) I setup the tripod and shot away, with all kinds of lenses in my camera bag, from super wide angle to tele. Gradually, half of the sky turned pink, even the western sky turned purple. The sky continued to change and brighten. The sun under the horizon drew bright outlines of almost every piece of cloud. Then, all colors subsided. Few minutes later, the Sun came out, but behind the fog. The layer of mist above the water was lit brilliantly by the Sun, and looked like glowing under the sky.... I have shot many sunrises in the past year, but this was the one I would call breathtaking. I finished one roll of film in about 30 minutes.

Click here for a complete series of sunrise photos.

Moving on, I drove further south toward Long Lake. A section of the road rolled in front of me and blended into the fog, along with the trees and mountains. Along the way, on the roadside, over a bog or a pond, the mist above the water had started to dissipate, and they even looked fibrous...

At Long Lake, the Sun was high over the sky. The early morning Sun was still soft and gentle. The fog over the lakes had not completely disappeared. The scene was completely different in the moods, as compared to that in the Raquette Pond. The sunrise at Raquette Pond was extraordinarily intense and glorious. But the mood here was soft, gentle and romantic. Indeed, I always have the impression that the fog makes romantic people.

Buttermilk Falls is just a short walk from the road. The water (Bog River) descents about 30 ft in a long range of rocks. The scene is no much special, just plainly classic. (So, "much-photographed" is indeed a very accurate description.) But, listening to the sound of falling water in deep woods in such an early morning is quite romantic, and there were a few couples enjoying such romance.

The Ski Jump Complex is a pair of remarkable concrete structures. The starting points are 75m and 120m, respectively, above the ground. It is said that the first ski jump, built in the 20's, takes 15 days of continuous casting of concretes! The view from the top was breathtaking (in part because of the height and the rusty- looking squeaky-sounding supporting frames :-)). This was the first time when I was high above the ground seeing the surrounding towns, lakes, rivers...

Mt. Baker is located on the east side of the town. I found the trail recommendation, as well as the trail head location, from a brochure I got from Lake Placid's visitor center. The trail is only 0.9 mile long, and ascends 900 ft. It was a rather easy hike, although the trail markers were helpless. The top of the mountain was full of trees. There was only one area with an unobscured view of the south side of the town and the surrounding lakes. Since a shower was on the way, I couldn't see the Sun, except some clouds over the southern sky being tinted orange briefly. The sunset was a disappointment. I waited until I estimated that the Sun had gone down the mountains, and started descending the mountain. Actually, the trail markers were so badly placed that I lost the trail immediately after I left the summit. It was dark. I descended the mountain based on my own sense of direction. When I got down to the trail head, total darkness had gulped everything, including my camera's battery :-)

I finally got up at 8:30. Pack up all my belongings, and headed toward Indian Lake. On the way, took one shot at Lake Durant, and a couple shots at Adinrondack Lake for the namesake.

Indian Lake stretches a few miles along Rt. 30. The most scenic portion is the Lake Shore Drive off Rt.30 in the village of Sabael. As expected, there are all private properties along the shore, and probably I'd gotten enough of the scenes of lakes...

I then headed back to Blue Mountain Lake. The Blue Mountain Trail is probably the most popular trail in the Adirondacks, judged by the number of cars in the trailhead parking lot. This is a 2 mile hike ascending 1550 ft (the summit is 3798ft above sea level). Basically the trail goes along a mountain stream. The first mile is mostly on the small rocky streambed, and the last mile is on the surface of large rocks. The rain of the previous night made the trail slippery. I didn't keep track of time. "Hiking and photographing" is exactly what I was doing at the same time. The top of the mountain was flat and bald, with a fire observation tower providing an excellent view of the surrounding areas. But the day was very hazy...

Descending the mountain around 4pm, I started to head home. I did another "drive-by shooting" along the way in Lake Mason and the towns of Spectalator, Hope. Finally I stopped by the town of Northvill for a dinner. Then shot the sunset at the east shore of Great Sacandaga Lake. The sunset wasn't anything special while I was at it. So I swiftly left to continue the last leg of my trip in Adirondacks. But I kept looking at the western sky while I was driving. At the juncture of Rt.30 and Rt.29, at a small town called Veille Mills about 3 miles north Amsterdam, I saw the western sky was beautifully purple. I pulled off to the side of the road, and snapped the last shot of my trip.