Do crisp fall nights make you think of pumpkin spice and wooly sweaters? OK. For an Adirondack Dad, this is a great time for a night walk under a starry sky.
There is no outdoors as big as the night sky. Cool, low-moisture nights open those skies amazingly. Do some of research before you go, or bring a star map, or a night-sky app, and you can add a bit of education to the experience.
Too early to ski?
Sure, if you are a eager backcountry type you’ve driven and hiked to find snow.
Me, I’ll wait till the snow finds me, although I am tempted to take a trip to the Whiteface Toll Road for an early season session.
Too late to hike? Sure, many of you hike all winter.
Me, once the temps dip and the trails get icy, I keep my hikes on the flat lands of the Champlain Valley. Thanksgiving is often my cutoff, although a brisk hike up Lyon Mountain can make the turkey taste better.
So what to do in the between-times?
Geocaching is the perfect outdoor fun in the fall/winter, winter/spring transitions.
A solar eclipse in stages.
Now that the “Great American Eclipse” and all that solar hoopla is over, let’s turn our attention to the April 8, 2024, solar event: The Great Adirondack Eclipse.
On the afternoon of that early spring day, a total solar eclipse will be viewable from almost all of the Adirondacks and northern New York.
Draw a line from Plattsburgh to Watertown and you’ll have the path of totality.
So if you are in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid or hiking in the High Peaks that day, you’ll see it. Of course the path of totality also includes Burlington, Syracuse and a big swath of the central and southern United States as the eclipse track heads through Dallas and into Mexico. But in the interest of marketing, let’s ignore that.
Adirondack Dad 