Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 182

Outdoor Adventures vol. 183

The tracking snow is mostly gone after the all-night rain and the water is running in my little brook. I did get the blower out for the second storm and shortly after I jumped on my skis and went around the loop out back just because I could. The Forest Rangers had a couple difficult rescues in Lewis County working in more than four feet of snow. Working with the local snow groomers breaking trail, they completed both rescues. I saw a new rig that I hadn’t seen before, a truck on snow tracks which might come in handy in other situations in that snow country. Some other hikers got off the trails in the High Peaks in the snowstorm and they were luckily found not far from the trails, all ok. Hikers and hunters should check the weather before going out and maybe wait for a better day rather than risking their lives and the lives of the rescuers.  

For the last ten days, I’ve been checking Pine Marten traps and got my limit of six in three checks of my traps. They were everywhere I went to set traps and looking for food as one of their main sources of food the beech nuts weren’t there this fall. Using my secret formula and a little essence of skunk for an attractor, they were not much of a challenge this fall. Last year, with all the beech nuts, you could hardly get one to come to set. I did get two at three different locations and certainly didn’t hurt the population as there were still tracks in all areas when I was pulling traps. I trapped them for several years going to different spots in the area each year and this year they were wherever I went. I checked other areas and saw tracks there also. The colors of the fur on these members of the weasel family always amaze me, as no two look the same. I did get five males and one female. The males have bigger territories than females and that’s why you normally catch more males than females. There is only about an inch or two difference in size in the adults of each sex. Most were caught in pole set conibear traps with only a couple sprung traps in the ten days and that could have been red squirrels or flying squirrels as they come to these sets also. 

The Old Forge Library announced that there are now two electric car charging stations in the back right corner of the parking lot. These will operate even when the power is out as they will be run by the library generator. A nice addition for the town of Old Forge.  There is also a charging station at the rest area in Eagle Bay. 

With this on and off weather pattern, there have been some super red sunrises and sunsets. Those red sunrises mean a storm is coming and they usually do not too long after it fades into black rain or snow clouds with some kind of storm soon to follow. ‘Red sun at night, sailors delight; red sun in the morning, sailors take warning.’ These sunrises and sunsets made for good photo opportunities. I got one sunrise from the upstairs window and missed the super sunset one night as the whole western sky was a fire red. 

This is the last week of Big Game season here in the Adirondacks and as far as I’ve heard, it has been a safe one so let's keep it that way by using hunter safety guidelines, treat every gun as if it was loaded, keep the barrel of the gun pointed in a safe direction, identify you target and what is beyond, never use your gun scope to identify a target use binoculars, wear hunter orange a hat or vest  as required.  

The numbers of Evening Grosbeaks have gone down some, but I still had over fifty today. I’ve banded forty-five and some of mine have either gone further south looking for some wild food as well as using feeders. One did get a good finger nip as it was leaving my hand out the window and tried to take my finger in flight with her. I did have over one hundred of them for a few days and they should be called Morning Grosbeaks as they are here at daylight and not here much in the afternoon or evening time. 

Talk about name changes. I’ve heard they want to change the name of Squaw Lake in the Moose River Wild Forest. I think it should be called Osprey Lake as there was a pair of Ospreys nesting here when I came in 1966, one of only two pairs nesting in this area, the other was at Shallow Lake. The ones or their offspring have nested successfully at Squaw every year since and again this year.  I haven’t heard anything about Indian Lake, which is just down the road, and it is a road not a trail if they are going to count the mileage. Let's make it a road again, which it is. 

A search on Cascade Ridge in two feet of snow, but that’s another story. See ya. 

Photo above: Sunrise Eight Acre Wood

Six Pine Marten