Happy Thursday! Back to school we go!
This past week in a nutshell… like a switch getting flipped… fall has arrived – sort of. Sure feels like it at least. Dipped down to 31.5 this past Monday night. Warmed back up for a couple days and will return to below freezing night-time temps. The leaves are certainly starting to change. River/lake level remains quite low. Raccoons still around town. Coyote too. Trailhead parking lots remain active – people still getting’ out and around. Fort Drum war-play can be heard booming through the valley. Census workers doing last-rounds around town - checking-in with people around town (proxies) to confirm if homes are seasonal or not – most were. State-sanctioned work along the river just up from the footbridge. A small, isolated power outage on Third Street - neat little fireworks show, though – NatGrid was on it QUICK! The sunlight is orange, maybe from the forest fires out west? We think so. Ranger School Students poking around town over the weekend. The Stone Manor in Cranberry Lake went up for sale. Bo says the Lakeside General Store will stay open though the end of the month.
WEATHER FORECAST: Down into the LOW thirties though the weekend! Bundle’em up! 50s by day…. And sunny! Campsite Cleanup Monday!!!!! Weather’s lookin’ good. This weather forecast is brought to you by Wanakena’s own PATTIJACKNAN weather team – a Wanakener garage pole mounted weather station and crew. THANKS, TEAM! This weather station can be found at: https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ny/wanakena/KNYWANAK8
Bridgework continues! Large Mitchell Stone trucks rumble through town. Bridge workers back and forth with pickup trucks. Clanging and banging heard up and down the valley. The traffic lights at the four intersections still freak people out. Everyone asks: so, when’s it gonna be done! Well, as far as everyone knows: before it gets too cold! A lot of people coming in asking for directions say: “oh, I didn’t know I could drive across it!"
WANAKENA CEMETERY ASSOCIATON announces via NEW flyer hanging on the message board out front that Cremation Remains burial has gone up from $150 to $250. Also, there is no longer a backhoe charge for cremation burial because they don’t use a backhoe for cremation burials any longer. Either that, or the backhoe ain't workin'... a lot of big rocks up in there, we heard.
A WANAKENA MYSTERY in front of the future Wanakena Historical Association’s Wanakena History Center! It was found in the dirt in the yard of one of the Rich Lumber Company’s Executives’ homes on Front Street. WHAT IS IT?!?!? The consensus is that the large metal object is of the decorative nature. Perhaps a large part of the Wanakena Hotel which was up there on the hill over there. Could be part of a train, too. The train did not go up the hill over there but maybe someone dragged it up there. WHAT IS IT??!?!?! C'MON, MAN!
THE ADIRONDACK TRAIL RIDE went through town! Each year we get an email from Jody Dixon of Northville (who and where the race originated). About twenty riders departed from Northville around 9am last Friday morning. The leaders of the pack started trickling though town packed VERY lightly Saturday afternoon. They had enough time and energy to take a break for some snacks. Others moved a long a little slower and filtered through town though out the beginning of the week – some camping out right in Wanakena at the Wanakena Picnic Area. Here's a shot with some Hooligans'de Otto interrogating the FIRST rider to come through Wanakena. Turns out he set a NEW course record 3 days 6 hours!:
Down at The Abode! This is the LAST WEEK/END to check out Jack William’s Photography Exhibition! The exhibition has been on view since early August. C’mon down and check it out if you have not done so already. Or take another look if you already have. Jack has affordable prints for sale and a majority of the proceeses will go to support The Wanakena Historical Association’s future Wanakena History Center. This past Saturday friends and local artists CLAUDE AND OLA dropped off THE NEWEST edition of DEFT ESOTERICA!!! An experimental music quarterly Claude writes and Ola illustrates. We’ve got copies in the shop for sale OR take a browse the house copy! TWENTY FIVE YEARS exhibition still ON VIEW! We’ve got maps, photos videos and MORE exploring the 1995 Microburst. Lots more art/ifacts up on view and around the shop – take a peek! Books, maps, gifts, clothing, etc for sale in the gift shop. Get your groceries and drinks while you’re here! FRESH CANTON APPLES AND CIDER, too. HOT COFFEEE!!!! C’MON MAN! Here's Claude and Ola and D.E.III
RANGER SCHOOL IS IN SESSION, BUT THE CAMPUS IS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC!!! That means no hunting. Here’s a message from the Ranger School: The Ranger School's James F. Dubuar Memorial Forest will be closed to the public for an indefinite amount of time beginning Saturday, August 15, 2020. The Cranberry Lake 50 trail, which passes in front of the school, will remain open. This action is necessary to protect students and staff as they begin a new academic year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it is a critical precaution as we work to ensure the health and success of the Class of 2021. Thank you for your cooperation.
Blackwaters Café and Trading Post in Wanakena is open for pick-up/take-out Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat 11-6:30 pm. PICKLE SOUP, YA’HEARD! Picnic tables and port-o-john out front! Picnic tables out back by the river, too. Order though their take-out window or better yet do it online at their website www.blackwaterscafe.com Susie says indoor dining soon!
Cranberry Lake State Campground – closed **early** after Labor Day Weekend because of construction project, NOT Covid.
Regional Notes: Someone said Packbasket Adventures is renting rooms - no walk-ins please! Stone Manor Diner and Motel in Cranberry Lake, Lakeside General Store in Cranberry Lake, UB’s Mercantile & Adirondack Rustics in Oswegatchie, Coffee Fever, Todd Hardware, Adirondack Pharmacy and Circle K in Star Lake, Mountain Gate Redemption near Benson Mines, and Sevey Point remain open for business in one way or another (open, take out, pick up, drop off, etc…). The Clifton-Fine Municipal Golf Course is open seven days a week. Post Offices are open too (Thanks, Mary!) Duck Decoy and MORE showroom open for pop-ins. “Showroom FILLED” 481 Tooly Pond Rd, Cranberry Lake – 315-848-4223. Always beautiful photography at the Wanakena Tracks facebook page. The Clifton Community Library in Cranberry Lake is open for curbside ONLY!
Hillside Diner in Oswegatchie re-opens October 1st!!!! Twin Lakes and SOS in Star Lake remains temporarily closed.
Kim’s Lost Dog Report: As of today, there are NO lost dogs in Wanakena.
All for now!
Any questions, comments, concerns, trail condition inquiries, legends, jokes, animal sightings, etc… feel free to email otto@ottosabode.org or call 3158483008 or pop-in the shop! Wanakena Weekly archive here: http://www.ottosabode.org/p/wanakena-weekly.html
I have been digging my potatoes… a pleasant soothing occupation, but not poetical. It is good for the mind, unless they are too small (as many of mine are), when it begets a want of gratitude to the bountiful earth. What small potatoes we all are, compared to what we might be! We don’t plow deep enough, any of us, for one thing… Life has few such moments. But then, they must be picked up. The picking-up, in this world, is always the unpleasant part of it. – C.D. Warner (1870)