rist camp view ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
tourist cabins ~ Tupper Lake - (embiggenable) • iPhone
SETTLING IN AT RIST CAMP FOR THE NEXT 5 WEEKS. JUST ME and the cat for the next couple days.
Cool breezes rustling through the trees, pack of coyotes right behind camp yowlin' and howlin' in the night, loons calling on the lake, and a flock of geese making a ruckus on the lake shore below the camp last evening. This sure ain't the Jersey Shore.
While it is tempting to just bolt my butt to an Adirondack chair on the camp porch, smoke cigars and drink whiskey-bourbon, scotch, and even some Irish and Japanese whiskey-and watch the clouds go by, my picturing intent is to get out and about and find some seldom pictured Adirondack stuff. Some of that out-and-about will be all-day trips inasmuch as the Adirondack Park is larger than the state of Vermont and is the largest park-national or state-east of the Mississippi River. Larger than Yosemite, Everglades, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks combined.
One referent that comes to mind is the once ubiquitous tourist cabin clusters (such as seen above). Some have been lovingly preserved / restored while others sit vacant and deteriorating. Many, of course, are long gone. However, unlike the Jersey Shore where the past character of the place is dead and gone, the Adirondack region is dedicated, by intent and zoning decree, to the preservation of its long standing character, both the man-made and the natural world.
FYI, the natural world in the Park is protected by the 125+ year old amendment to the NYS Constitution, the so-called "Forever Wild" amendment. The Park is the largest protected area in the continental U.S. And, much to my ever-lasting pleasure, it is where I live.