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The Adirondack Mountains

This area was about 80 miles north of Albany, NY. North of Lake George.
Here's a link to a topographical map from Topozone.com, so the curious reader can follow our trail.

We started at Putnam Pond in the upper right side. Went west to Treadway Mountain, then south east to Grizzle Ocean and spent the night.

The next day we returned to Putnam Pond, then drove to Crane Pond, just barely visible at the top left, went south to Pharaoh Mountain, then to Pharaoh Lake and camped there for the night.

The third day we walked around Pharaoh Lake (from the western side, counter-clockwise, south, then east and then north), passing by Wolf Pond, then around the east side of Pharaoh Mountain to Glidden Marsh and back to Crane Pond. We got off the trail just south of Wolf Pond and had to "bushwack" for about 30-45 minutes, but we knew the trail stayed close to Pharaoh Lake, and caught back up to it pretty quickly (we had maps and compasses and such, so we knew we weren't too far off the trail, so we did not have to resort to cannibalism at that point). The whole hike was probably around 21 miles.

	This was a little island in Putnam Pond, just beyond the beach, by the main public picnic area, near where we started our hike. There's a public phone by the parking area, which was the principle attraction for us. (Aug 2003)
	Cool lily pads in the water at ... uh ... somewhere. (Aug 2003)
	We climbed to the top of Mt. Treadway the first day and had a late lunch. The last 45 minutes was quite rocky. Nice view. I used my mini-tripod and the self-timer to get this shot. The sign indicates the mountain summit. (Aug 2003)
	Another shot of us atop Mt. Treadway. I felt a pose was necessary, thus we are pointing...that-a-way. (Aug 2003)
	This is the tent we used. 4 seaon tent, 4 pounds. It was enough for both of us, and warm and cool enough. We camped by Grizzle Ocean. (Aug 2003)
	How do I avoid ending a sentence with a preposition and mention that we camped near a lean to? We kept our packs in it. In this shot, Deepak is filling out the visitor journal in the lean to. His backpack is next to him and mine (the same kind) is to the left. Note the 50 feet of bright yellow rope on the side, which we used to hang up our food in the bear bag. (Aug 2003)
	A shot of Grizzle Ocean at the end of the day. It was a very peaceful place, hardly anyone around. Unfortunately, there are some artifacts from the scanner in the coloring of the lower left area of the picture. Damn you, color gamut. (Aug 2003)
	As the sun set, a mist started to form on Grizzle Ocean. Kind of spooky. Actually, quite cool. (Aug 2003)
	Take two engineers. Give them 50 feet of rope, a kevlar lined bear (avoidance) bag, and two PhDs. What do you get? A complex system of pulleys and mechanical advantage devices that, in theory, forms a free-standing suspention structure that isolates any food or food-contaminated items from any indigenous wildlife, viz. bears. In theory. In reality, you get something that uses all the rope, involves a bunch of trees and winds up placing the bear bag about 3 feet from a tree, hanging 6 feet off the ground, directly over a 2 foot tree stump. The apparatus shown in the picture is actually the better of the two that we made. (Aug 2003)
	The hike to the top of the mountain was of "moderate" difficulty. It only took 2-3 hours total, but it was for the most part, all uphill with no level-offs, no vistas, no clues about where we were going, and no intermediate goals we could use as stopping points. So, we'd just hike until one of us (viz. me) would decide a break was needed. We remained in the trees almost the entire way, so we really had no view of the area. Until we got here. We stopped, enjoyed the view, and rested. A couple coming the other way passed us and gave us the wonderful news that were were almost at the top, 5 minutes away. That was good motivation. The previous day, a family going the other way told us (again, accurately) that we were about 30+ minutes away from the top of Mt. Treadway. At this point, I was happy to hear it wasn't going to be long to get to the top. 40 lbs. packs tend to slow you down... (Aug 2003)
	A shot from the top of Pharaoh Mountain. (Aug 2003)
	Another shot from the top of Pharaoh Mountain. (Aug 2003)
	Yet another shot from the top of Pharaoh Mountain. We ate lunch here the second day. (Aug 2003)
	A shot of Frank and Deepak on top of Pharaoh Mountain, taken by two people we met at the top. (Aug 2003)
	Another shot of Frank and Deepak from the top of Pharaoh Mountain. You can see Pharaoh Lake in the background, which is where we camped that night. (Aug 2003)
	You don't want to make Deepak angry. Then Deepak smash! This was on the trail around Pharaoh Lake, the last day, as we headed back towards Crane Pond (before getting lost). (Sep 2003)
	This was from the campsite at Pharaoh Lake of this couple we met the previous day on top of Pharaoh Mountain. They explained to us how it got its name. The hill looks sort of like a sarcophagus of an Egyptian pharaoh. The left photo is his head and arms across his chest, and the right photo tapers down to his feet. Look, that's the story we were told and I'm sticking to it. (Sep 2003)
	Another shot from the campsite of our "friends" from the previous day. They had taken a canoe in and had it tied up by their site, and I thought it looked cool in the picture. I was actually playing with the depth of field to see how it would look to focus on the canoe with the foreground and background out of focus. To be honest, it doesn't work as well as I had hoped, and it was a gray morning, so that muted the light and colors. (Sep 2003)
	We passed by Glidden Marsh on our way back to Crane Pond. Lots of dead tree husks sticking out of the water. Again, cool and creepy. This stuff would be good background or source material for a story or a mythology. (Sep 2003)
	Deepak took a break at Glidden Marsh. (Sep 2003)
	Frank drinks some water at Glidden Marsh. I don't always pose for every picture. (Sep 2003)
	At the end of the roll...a shot of my sister Marlene taking a picture of her dog, Java, from her back yard. This was after a few failed attemps of me trying to take a picture of both of them facing the camera. (Sep 2003)

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