Chapter 585

6/15/2021

White Pine Camp 2021

into the wild

link to White Pine Camp 2021 photos 

This is the first sunset of our stay at our Presidential retreat. Let me off this merry go round of life. I don't normally go from two weeks vacation (?) to running up into the Adirondacks, but we did this time. It was for just 3 nights so rather easy, and oh so relaxing. 

You see this White Pines Camp was once the  Presidential summer camp of President Coolidge in 1926. Built in 1906 it has basically remained the same and is considered to be one of the Adirondack Great Camps.

Our first cabin was the Hermit's Hut just about in the center of the picture on the eastern shore of the Osgood Pond outflow, the small Osgood River, but unseen because the pine trees cover everything. In fact I had to turn off the obstacle avoidance sensors on the drone so I could manually fly it upward thru the narrow clearances between the tall Red Pines.  Saint Regis Mountain is at the center on the horizon ( a drone vid) , a hike we had started one winter and we considered finishing except we instead focused on canoeing since they were provided free. There are two big boathouses. The one we used is at the end of the walk bridge you can see at the mouth of the river that goes to a little Tea House on the peninsula.

There is much here to remind me of my 10 week summer forestry college  courses in remote cabins at Cranberry Lake Biologic Station.

The photo link has too many display on one page. Love the creative artistry of editing my photos to tell the story. Too many architectural elements and interesting historical items to (boringly) write about.

First day we paddled down the Osgood River and hooked into a 22" Northern Pike. A hundred years ago the President hooked into a similar maybe great  great grandfather of my fish. Yo can see it in the picture folder above along with a full picture documentation of this historic journey back in time. It's a unique experience to feel like you are a hundred years back in time.

We came with a little concern about the Black Fly season which can be unbearable. but you can see I didn't encountr a single one and applied NO bug spray. A few mosquitos - yes. It's bear and moose country but did not find any on this trip - Yes, we re-booked for next year.

Colleen loves going thru the Lily Pads. Don't know why, but it is peaceful. She fished but only briefly. It's Black Spruce and Balsam Fir country. The VIC at Paul Smiths tells it all. Just breezed thru their Visitor Center one morning but it deserves more attention - the trails, information, & butterfly center.

We think that it's the wood everywhere along with the masonry fireplaces and spaciousness that really make these camps cozy. There are only a couple handfuls of cabins, but we prefer this Hermit's Hut, the most remote and cutest one. We had the screened windows open most of the time but it was chilly at night at times. One big thunder boomer storm came thru one night.

Renting once a year seems like an economical and  great alternative  to plunging into a second vacation home for a variety of reasons.

This is how the Osgood River looked the next morning looking northeast. We had traversed up thru the light colored waters before it turned more west and you stop at a small beaver waterfalls, although it is passable further downstream as it goes into Meacham Lake. There was no wind and the waters were placid. During the night we hear the Loons diving, swimming, and squabbling their beautiful calls as they proceed thru the river looking for fish to eat.

 Continuing on the fishing theme, the next day we went up the Jones Pond outlet. We had to exit the canoe  to get over the sand bar delta at the mouth of our Osgood Pond. That was successful although Colleen did incur a slightly physical imbalance situation further up the river. I'll not describe it in detail to let your imagination run wild. She'll laugh about it in the future. Ask her about it sometime.

Cocktails in front of our Cabin 3 living room. After a hard day of slogging thru the woods and waters we felt it was deserved and not too hedonistic to wind down a tad and have some refreshments. 

We moved into this cabin for the remaining two nights. The fireplaces are amazing. We have one in each bedroom as well, a real nice feature that we used. Was hesitant to light them up fearing smokiness. Not a problem because the fireboxes, and flues are large , well designed for efficient draw.

The pleasant and serving staff prepare the logs on kindling and tinder for a simple match set off. The well dried and stocked wood was in an exterior box here going thru the wall into each room with lids. Very convenient and fun. The door goes to a little bed room sufficient for some little guest such as Lucas.

This Great Room is in a separate building that all guests have access to. It's the only place for WiFi, two low volume hot spot portals. Cell phone coverage is minimal with one bar connection. No TV's. Tuning to radio stations you'll get many French Canadian jibbers.

This is 2 miles into the woods above Paul Smiths, NY in Franklin County where there are more bears than people. Woodsman guide, land baron, and hotelier Paul Smith sold this land to a New York City banker who employed NY architects to design the two dozen buildings here. Note the triangle accent windows and other interesting design tid bits. Later owners included a Kansas City newspaperman and Sears & Roebuck family, and the Paul Smiths College which had forestry students here. Some of my classmates at SU were transfers from Paul Smiths. Perhaps some of them were the "Pinners", guys who would manually spot the pins in the onsite bowling alley that was also available to us.

A few miles south along Rte 86 there is a beautiful overlook of a meadow and a mountain range. I got up at 5 am for the sunrise passing two plein air artists attempting to capture the mist on Jones Pond Outfall. Snapped above quick shot with iphone before launching drone because I was 15 minutes late for the sunrise .

Before I could take off I got a warning I couldn't fly within the Adirondack Region Airport approach unless I requested permission. Did that and got an authorization code and was flying within 3 minutes. A deer hopped out of the tree line to see what I was doing, so I included her in the photo. The fog is arising over Twobridge Brook in the bnackground. That photo is in the folder but the lighting had already lost the contrast and the iphone turned out best.

Did I mention we'll be back to this spot.