Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 328

I think it is as dry as it was back in the early sixties when there were several fires burning in the Adirondacks. I started working for the Conservation Department in March of 1964 as Junior Forest Surveyor in the Warrensburg office working on mapping all the landowners and docks along the shoreline of Lake George. It was a survey but only a six-foot rule and a one-hundred-foot tape were the only tools used. There was much work to be done in the Warren County Clerks office looking up all the landowners to put on the maps. There 177 shoreline maps on the east shoreline and 170 on the west shoreline and I got my name on all of them before I left for the Forest Ranger position at West Canada Lakes in August of 1965. Before that just after getting out of Wanakena Ranger School in 1963 I started to work for the Saratoga County Reforestation Program as a foreman. I had worked in this program as a laborer before I went to Ranger School in 1962.

What I was getting to is that there were several fires in those years and I went from my job from the county and state to help fight these fires, many times on a night crew on some what I called weird assignments but there was always a fire at the end. One of the first I went up to Stony Creek meeting up with Lynn Day the Forest Ranger there and we went back in toward Wilcox Lake, a place I had hunted with my Father-in-Law the fall before. I don’t know if it was a lightning strike which caused the fire or from an unquenched campfire. There was a group of about twelve of us packed in the back of his pickup which already had a slip-on unit (tank filled with water, pump, and hose on top) in it. He drove right to the edge of the fire, and we used water from his slip-on unit and hand tools to put a line around this fire mostly in total darkness and smoke.

The second one was even more bazar in sixty-four there were lots of fires burning and a call came that was one on Tongue Mountain a lightning strike. I went over with Forest Ranger Charlie Severance, and we met up with a group of locals from Bolton Landing, most of whom were wearing side arms. I asked one of them what is that for and he said there are rattlesnakes in this part of the mountain. It was just before dark when we started up the mountain with one of the older men in the group leading us up the mountain. He would shine his light around and lead us on. We traveled until just before daylight and he said we are remarkably close to the fire as we could smell smoke, but we took a break until daylight. When it became light the fire awoke and we could see flames from where we stopped. It didn’t take long to get this under control and out with our hand tools. Charlie said to me I think this guy may have hunted before and I would follow him anywhere. We didn’t see any rattlesnakes.

The 90 Miler Canoe Race from Old Forge to Saranac Lake started on time as the fog rose off the Fulton Chain of Lakes. The lake front was full of 275 canoes, kayaks, guide boats, and paddle boarders, 600 racers and many spectators as the race started. They did the entire Fulton Chain with carries from Fifth to Sixth and Seventh to Eighth Lakes, then the mile carry to Browns Tract Stream and into Raquette Lake. They went up the Marion River to the Carry into Utowana Lake where they picked up a tail wind into Eagle Lake and across Blue Mountain Lake to finish the first day. On the second day, start on Long Lake above the bridge to the outlet then a carry down into the Raquette River. That day’s weather was in a light rain, and temperatures were not over sixty all day, which was a challenge. The third day started at Fish Creek Ponds Campsite into Upper Saranac, to Middle Saranac and Lower Saranac through a channel and lock into Oscetah Lake and Lake Flower to the finish.

On Saturday I worked for about two hours clearing the burr grasses from around the shore of my pond to prevent further spread. The pond is down over a foot so I could walk right along the edge. This is about as low as I’ve seen my pond as some big boulders are about to appear. Near the end of my pulling I found a dragonfly which was attached to one of the plants coming out of pupa into adult stage. I put it on a weed to dry out and took several pictures as it unfolded its wings and looked more like a dragonfly. I went down Sunday morning to get some more photos, but it had taken flight.

Doing some more Steward volunteering on Stillwater Mountain Fire Tower but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Geddy Up Crew leaving the dock