The Adirondack Mountains are a large range of fairly small sized mountains in Northern NY State. New York's best kept secret, the park is a vast tract of both private and public land -- making it a bizarre blend at best. Sometimes, the ideals of maintaining a natural park and the rights of private property owners clash. The laws maintaining a naturalised park, for instant, prevent the creation of many of the large chain stores many of us depend on -- you won't find a Walmart or a K-mart within the Blue Line.  While this gives a great atmosphere for tourists, it can create a little frustration fro locals -- it's not fun to have to drive an hour each way to pick up a pair of underwear.         Each year, millions visit the park, coming from as close as New York City and Montreal from as far away as... well, anywhere. They're attracted not only by the free land but by such varied things as some of the nations best skiing (Lake Placid, NY, has hosted two Winter Olympic Games), an amazing variety of restaurants, very "posh" hotels, inns, and B&Bs, and the just plain charm of the area.      While skiing and posh hotels aren't my thing, I do love the outdoors. The Adirondacks are well-known for the 46-High Peaks. Each of these peaks are at least 4000 feet high, with Mount Marcy, the highest, coming in at 5,344 feet. Algonquin, number two, tags just behind it at 5,114 feet. In case your wondering, Whiteface -- the famous skiing peak -- is number five, at 4,867 feet. I'd like to say I've been up all of them... last count left me a few shy. I've been up about 30 of them, as well as a number of the smaller peaks. As time goes by, I'll upload a few pictures onto this page of each trip.      Mountains aren't the only things I do. I love to snowshoe, and flatland often offers just as many challenges as mountains. I also love to paddle. The Adirondacks have more lakes than I can count -- many of which are connected by small streams, rivers, or separated by only short portages.      Beyond lakes and mountains, there are many bogs, swamps, and just plain bits of beautiful country to see.  Some of the lower resolution pictures were taken using an old Sony Mavica FD-7.  I recently upgraded to Fuji FinePix S7000Z, which was a nice little camera until my trip to Bermuda.  Time to "upgrade" again....  All images have been shrunken and resized for your convenience.  All images (C) Joshua L. Wiegert yadadadada.  Don't steal my pictures or I'll send bad Mojo your way.

A Dragonfly at Keese Mill Bog A Pitcher Plant above Lily Pads A Bog-Pond Frozen Lakes from the Summit of St. Regis   A red eft on the Algonquin Trail Starflowers