Non-Randomized Scoots Just South of the Northern Adirondack Blue Line

Immediately after marrying a lovely North Country girl in 1978, I began exploring from her parents’ “base camp” routes and places inside the Adirondack Blue Line.

In 1983, I bought a newly-introduced Chevy S-10 Blazer. I was itchin’ to test its 4WD capability out, and so, after reading what Paul Samuelson had to say about the Wolf Pond Road in his “Adirondack Canoe Waters – North Flow,” I decided to try it out there. Here’s how Samuelson described that “road” in 1981:

 “…the Wolf Pond Road from Standish to Mountain View is venturesome. It is a winding, one-lane dirt road used by lumber trucks and an occasional quixotic motorist. Avoid it if you are addicted to claustrophobia. The forest shuts you in as tight as a clam in its shell. Avoid it too in wash-out season or when pressed for time. Chances are that you will meet no more than one truck and one car in the 12.5 miles. It is a road you will never forget.”

Samuelson got it right. The Wolf Pond Road is highlighted in red on the map below.

Fourteen years later, I took another scoot, this time down Route 99 (the map’s blue highlight) southeasterly from Duane. The highway at that time was nicely paved, but save for one property near Loon Lake, it was the only reminder of civilization until the road terminates at Route 3.

That remaining property was what was left of the Loon Lake House, a resort famous and well attended at the turn of the 20th century. You can read more about Ferd and Mary Chase and their resort here.

Apparently the golf course was still open in 1997, although probably not nearly as well kept as it had been in its salad days. I stopped in and picked up a score card.

The course was designed by Seymour Dunn, who also designed the Craig Wood and the Links Courses, both in Lake Placid.

I’m not sure whether Mother Nature has entirely reclaimed the property, as I haven’t been back there since. But I’m glad I had the chance to see what was left of a grand Adirondack resort.

Juvenile delinquent finally quits his low-down ways

 As a young pup, our Jake was a bouncy, bitey handful. Actually, he was several handsful, and all at the same time.

 But we hung with him through thick and thin and thinner. And then, beginning last year, he suddenly realized

 

 

that his ol’ Dad knew lots of groovy places where he got to do fun things. All he had to do was be cooperative to earn attaboys and ear scritches and encore performances.

 

By May of this year, he was progressing so well that I thought he might actually, mirabile dictu, be able to earn a ribbon with a “Pass” in a doggie contest called a Hunt Test. In such a test, he has to find two live birds in the woods and fields, and retrieve them to me after they’ve been shot. He also has to fetch a dead duck from a pond and, again, deliver it to me. A "soft" mouth is expected from the dog; tooth marks or worse on the delivery are serious no-nos.

 

On a recent Sunday, Jake and I traveled to his first-ever Hunt Test, run in NY’s Southern Tier. Boy, has he ever come a long, long way.

 

August 7, 2022