[Rockhounds] Adirondack Mountains Trip Report

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

I got home tonight, as the sun set, from a 13+ hour drive from NY and 
am (still) trying to unwind. I'm downloading 22K+ email messages 
(mostly spam) for the third time (volume crashes computers). Trying  
(again, #@%$!) to share my trip report...

We left early last Sunday morning and drove almost 15 hours from Grand 
Rapids (MI) to Raquette Lake (NY) - bad traffic in Canada - and finally 
got our tent set up at the Brown Tract Pond Campsite before dark.  I  
can highly recommend the campsite (but you need to take bear 
precautions).

Monday we drove about an hour to Garnet Hill, near Ruby Mountain, to 
collect at the Hooper Garnet Mine. The local ski resort allows parking 
for the mine and the other public lands hiking trails. I brought down 
two small pack loads of garnet specimens down the half mile hike from 
the mountain top mine.  It was a step above collecting at the nearby 
Barton Mine for a fee.

Tuesday we hiked to various waterfalls. I was camping with one of my 
sisters, who climbs mountains for a hobby.

I injured my back the week before the trip (enlarged disk) and had to 
limit my activity. Wednesday we hiked from Brown Pond to Raquette Lake. 
My sister went on to a local mountain and had a knee problem.

Thursday we decided to limit our activity, avoid the rain, and try to 
find the Opalescent River, where Labradoirite can be collected.  We 
found one specimen down-stream in the Hudson River, but did not find 
access short of a 7 mile hike (one way).

But Thursday did find Tahawus; 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahawus,_New_York. It was a _very_ good 
day collecting.  I regret not making a second trip; my back is still 
very sore from what I carried out.

Friday we visited the "Great Camp" Sagimore, and learned about where 
the words 'vacation'  and 'recreation'  came from.  I highly recommend 
the tour. We share the 'commons' as we experience the 'wilderness' 
during our collecting trips. The nominal fee was wel worth the hours of 
the tour.

We all need to learn from from the experiment of the Adirondack 
Mountains. The NY constitution  preservers the pard as wilderness 
forever. If there is a bigger protected  park I am not aware of it.

I had a great collecting trip.  I have had much to think about. It has 
been a great vacation! I got to escape the normal and do something very 
  different.

Kreigh