Jdubs

High/High. This is good because I need freezer meat, freezer meat.

Thanks Moho! I haven't decided how I want to do the last one yet, but it will be epic!

Ugh. If this had to happen, why couldn't it have been Natalie Portman and Mila Kounis that hit you? Was the Juicy Goodness any good?

Good mojo right there. It always comes back around.

Thanks Dave! There will definitely be a celebratory beer or two after the Haystack hike is completed.

That made me LOL pretty good! It's taken me 6 years just to reach this point. Granted, there was a gap of 3 years, but this hasn't been easy.

After nearly 30 miles of hard hiking and two nights of relaxing camping, I am now set up for the grand 46er finale on Haystack! What a perfect weekend in the ADK's! Day 1: I returned to the Upper Works lot to hike Marshall. What a huge difference to be hiking this trail with a light day pack instead of the heavy full pack I had on my last trip! I made great time to the start of the Herbert Brook herd path and started right up. While unmarked, the herd path crosses the brook a dozen or more times and proved easier to follow than I had been warned. I made the summit about 3 1/2 hours from the trailhead and spent a few minutes taking pics of the limited views. Truth be told, my bathroom has more square footage than Marshall's treed-in summit. Good thing there was no one else around. The best views were below summit - a stunning up-close view of Iroquois and Shepard's Tooth. With plans to car camp on Corey's Rd about an hour away, I soaked in the view then quickly headed back down. As I signed out, DEC Ranger Jameson pulled into the lot and we talked for good 20 minutes. I told him about a family I met that had a bear encounter the night before. Also, I mentioned the unapproved bear can left in the Herbert Brook lean-to. He confirmed that the bear activity is really high right now due to limited natural forage and what I will paraphrase as "camper stupidity". He told me of multiple examples of unprepared hikers venturing into the High Peaks just to check the box towards a 46er patch with ZERO wilderness preparedness, skills or concern for safety. With only two Rangers patrolling the entire Eastern High Peaks region, these guys have their hands full. Apparently, changes are coming to help alleviate the impacts from the increased volume of hikers. I threw on flip-flops and started the drive up to Corey's though Long Lake and into Tupper Lake. I had packed a celebratory dinner of pork tenderloin and rice then enjoyed a Stewart's hot fudge sundae for dessert. After icing down my cooler, I made the final drive to Corey's Rd and scoped out a camp site. I pulled into one of the primitive sites and noticed an eroded truck trail running down the back side of this site. This wasn't on the map so I decided to check it out. Much to my surprise, this dropped down to another camp site right on Ampersand Brook. Yahtzee! This hidden gem would be home for the next two nights. After enjoying a fire and some snacks, I hit the sack and dozed off only to be woken up by a lone wolf howling in the distance. Amazing end to the day. Day 2: Rest day. Another beautiful weather day on tap started with hot coffee, breakfast burritos and bacon. After cleaning up, I decided to go check out the surrounding area. First up was a trip back into Tupper Lake where I found Big Tupper Brewery. Their Summer Ale and IPA are both very good and the novelty t-shirts an absolute riot! Next up was a drive to different points along the lake. Gorgeous. Between Tupper and Long Lake, I've got to come back up sometime soon. Next up was a quick stop along Rt 3 to buy more camp fire wood for the night. $5, what a deal. I continued east back to Saranac Lake and stopped at the DEC public boat launch. The launch provides access to 87 island camp sites on Saranac Lake. How cool is that, you can rent out your own island! Needless to say, demand is high and these sites are reserved months in advance. Heading back to camp, a grey fox darted in front of my Jeep on Corey's Rd. A cool sighting, but still not the black bear or moose on my wish list. Upon arriving back, I learned that a friend had to scratch his plans to make the trek up from PA to join me in hiking the Sewards. Bummer. The night continued with a good camp dinner, cold brew and, of course, some s'mores. Then a pair of ladies from Ottawa staying up at the site in front of mine stopped down to say hi. They had just hiked Seymour and would also be hiking the remaining Sewards the next morning. Faye had completed the 46 twice already while her friend Kim had just finished her 46 on Haystack the week prior. It was looking like I might have company on the trails after all. Day 3: The morning started much earlier than expected when a moose started calling in the stream behind me at 3 am! By the time I woke up enough to process what I'd heard and throw on a fleece, flip-flops and grab my Surefire, the moose had moved on. Ugh. It was a chilly morning so I quickly crawled back into the sleeping bag. By the time the alarm started beeping at 5 am, I wasn't in any rush to jump up and break camp in time to meet Faye and Kim at the trailhead. Once packed up, it was time to head up to the Seward parking lot. Even at 6:45 am, the lot was full with cars now parking along Corey's Rd. I signed in at 7:11 am and started the hike in. By ADK standards, the Blueberry trail and Calkins Brook Truck trail are about as tame as it gets. It only took an hour to make the 3.3 miles to the start of the herd path up to Donaldson. No sooner did I reach the rock cairn marking the start of the Calkins Brook path then a large black blur was headed right for me. A bear?! Thankfully, no. A huge jet black great dane named Jack had enthusiastically decided to come say hi. Boy did that get my heart rate up! His owners quickly called him back and the whole meet & greet was over in seconds. Good doggie. The Calkins Brook trail runs almost 3 miles and I made the top 2 hours later at the same time as another hiker named Derek. We were both solo hiking SDE and decided to hit Seward first together. Derek set a quick pace and I pushed it stay with him. After a quite a bit of elevation loss and gain, we finally made the tiny treed summit then dropped down a bit lower for a quick break. It wasn't long before we started our way back to Donaldson that we ran into Faye and Kim who had started early and were about to finish on Seward. Thankfully, they reported that the ridge trail from Donaldson to Emmons, notoriously muddy, was actually bone dry. Sweet! Back to the S/D col for a quick stop and then we made the 5 minutes rock scrabble up to Donaldson's summit. There were already a half dozen hikers standing here on a summit resembling a medium-sized area rug. One nod to Derek and we agreed to keep moving to Emmons. While on paper this looks like an easy ridge traverse, in reality the herd path weaves its way below ridge line and through a very narrow lane of pines. You may as well call me Groot after having 8000 branches scraping and jabbing across my face, ears and legs for the full 1 mile traverse. Forty-five minutes later and I was standing on the summit of Emmons, my 45th High Peak! Nearly 100 years ago the first 46ers stood on this very spot. Humbling. Emmons offered some decent views and the ridge trail especially has some great views of Long Lake. After snapping some pics, the only piece of business left was for Derek and I was to head back to Donaldson. The summit party had cleared by the time we returned. We were able to enjoy great views of the entire High Peaks region and a well-deserved rest. If not for the hot afternoon sun and need to get back to the parking lot at a reasonable time, this could have been a decent summit to linger on. Derek again set the quick pace back down and even with a break to filter fresh water, we still made it out in just 3 hours after leaving Donaldson. Derek now has 5 more to go before he completes his 46er journey. For me, only Haystack remains.

I think you already know the answer. You'll sleep just fine regardless of the outcome. As for the kid, I'd strike up a conversation if the opportunity presented itself and see what you're working with. If it were me, I'd at least offer to help him set up his stand safely in a place where he has permission to hunt and give him a safety harness if he doesn't have one. If he isn't remotely concerned about his own safety, then it will be tough to have any productive conversation about safe shooting lanes for others. Good luck.

Perfect weather weekend for that! I loved it in TL and will certainly go back.

Drinking and editing pics from the last hiking & camping trip.

Current status: Enjoying a cold one at camp. What a banner day in the Dacks! Tomorrow I'll be up early to hike 3 more peaks, capping off a 30 mile hike & camp fest..

You're right, that comment was from Steve D. My mistake. I stand by the assertion that you are WAY OFF calling me a liberal. You don't have a clue that you don't have a clue on that one. I mean hell, liberals hate LE and waste no time bashing them in the absence of facts. Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago...the libs bash those departments constantly. By contrast, every single comment I've posted here is very much in support of this officer's actions under extreme stress. You don't like it? Oh well.

So almost a DIPA, but not quite? I'll have to try that if I see any around.

Exploring the sights in Tupper Lake while camping on Corey's Rd. Went with the Summer Ale as it's pretty interesting. The IPA was a close second choice. Good stuff!

That's cute, you think I'm a liberal. Way off buddy. A couple posts back, you were speculating about the media calling for this guy's badge. You seem awfully bent that the LEO shot back at the bad guys and ended the chase. Seems legit. /that's my conservative sarcasm speaking/

Dude, you're screwed. They're giving away FREE fries the rest of the year! https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/mcdonalds-is-giving-away-free-fries-for-the-rest?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bffbbuzzfeedtasty&ref=bffbbuzzfeedtasty

I believe the technical term for this specific situation is called a "Shit Sandwich". Why you are so angry about this officer's 18 shots from his vehicle that actually connected frequently enough to end the chase and not the 30+ shots that came from the suspects is beyond my comprehension. Have a good one.

I can't think of any classes where students train from inside a moving car, but maybe the pointy tip operators get that stuff. For a typical patrol officer, I'd expect the vast majority to be shelling out of pocket for training classes like this. Many will not. Calling this flat out luck takes away the credit this LEO fully deserves for stopping those threats and saving lives. Guy is a hero in my book. You can see that he adjusted to a full grip mid-fight to get more hits on target. He positioned his car for better angles and close distance on the target. He stayed in the fight til the fight was done. None of that happens without reverting to skill sets learned from training. Putting all those together from a fast moving car on a two-way range, I call that BALLS, not luck. YMMV

Sorry you see it that way. From my chair, I see the LEO did get good hits on both subjects under extremely difficult circumstances, ended the chase and threat to others and one of the bad guys is cooling his heels in the morgue. No one else was injured. Like Nomad said, the results were good. Here is a link to one of the many qualified trainers out there discussing the topic of shooting through glass. There are entire courses dedicated to shooting into and out of vehicles. It's not "spray & pray" to those with training.

Not sure if serious? The murder suspects in the SUV had already shot 30+ rounds at police during the chase, endangering every single bystander in their wake. There is plenty of training out there for shooting through vehicle glass (no idea if this LEO had any) so it's certainly possible to get rounds on target. The LEO looks like he reverted back to his revolver training on the reload, but that dude still came out on top in a very intense gun fight.

There has got to be security cam footage of this!

Pretty reasonable compared to other craft brews on the shelf. I believe this was $14/4 pk pints. I've paid more ($5-$5.50/pint) for beer that wasn't nearly as good as this Singlecut. Trying out different stuff is part of the fun though.

I like it a lot! This is the 18 Watt IPA.

Finishing the 4 pk.

REEL, REEL, REEL!!!