Happy Thursday!
This past week in a nutshell… This past weekend opened with some rain… cool nights. Rain persisited through the week. Squshy lawns and the river is high! Seems like the rain is making up for not being around all summer. Man, listen to those rapids! Tamaracks are full yellow spleandor glow! “Ladybugs” in the house!! Coyote a’howlin. Robins, nuthatch, chickadee and more out in the yard. Ducks and geese, too! Trees still have leaves but not many more. Could be totally tree-leaf free within a couple of weeks. Last weekend the main Wanakena trailhead parking lot – the one that was JAM PACKED all summer was pretty empty. The Cat Mountain trailhead parking lot saw more traffic for sure. Hikers up the Moore Trail on Saturday reported spontaneous isolated hail event! Down here in the village we experienced some rain. Ranger School campus IS STILL CLOSED TO THE PUBLC! Students out and about on bike over the weekend. MOOSE out and about – keep dem eyes peeled! The smell of balsam floats through the air. WEAR ORANGE IN THE WOODS (HUNTING SEASON!). AND WATCH OUT FOR THE MICE (they’ll get ya)!!!!!!!
Upcoming… Regular hunting season begins this Saturday the 24th!! BANG BANG!!! A full moon Halloween next Sunday! The Star Lake and Newton Falls fire department are hosting Trunk-or-Treat events that day. ROUST III ON THE 1ST, 2PM! Weather forecast says… might get close to 70 degrees Friday! Temps drop through the weekend and into next week – daytime temps in the 40s, 30s by night – showers here and there; sounds about right! 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 - Also, always beautiful photography at the Wanakena Tracks facebook page.
Bridgework continues! GREEN MACHINE! The new car bridge has been capped off with a texture of woven green rebar. This is BIG! Quite possibly the next step is pouring the concrete. Apparatuses which will aid in the pouring and setting of the concrete are in place as well. Possibly pouring the cement FRIDAY!!!!! Groundwork fine-tune-ment is being done on the approach to the bridge on both sides. “YOU READY TO DRIVE OVER THIS BRIDGE?” As they say around Wanakena: WE’LL BE DRIVING OVER THAT NEW BRIDGE IN NO TIME!!!!
If you hadn’t already seen there is an interest-piece article published by an online media conglomerate called Advance Media. Advance Media is based out of Syracuse, NY but also has offices in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Utica. Some of you may have even met the Author, Ngoc! We’d tell you more about it but figure it may be easier for you just to read it yourself here: https://www.newyorkupstate.com/adirondacks/2020/10/wanakena-in-the-adirondack-wilderness-a-sense-of-community-endures.html
It’s truly that time of the year – post-Columbus Day weekend slow-down. Lots of folks who spend summers up in Wanakena have shut down their camps and relocated back to where they live when they don’t live in Wanakena. This also includes the resident village-gnomes who summer in Wanakena just uphill from the beach. Outdoor decorations have been packed-up and the village’s smallest seasonal residents have ventured off for the winter. See ya in the spring!
ROUST III : One year and one day later… ROUST returns for it’s third installment. The first ROUST was held within Otto’s Abode and was smash! Musicians and spectators mingling about the low-lit sonicized atmosphere. ROUST II was held this past summer out on the lawn due to Covid safety measures. So, before it gets too cold and snowy ROUST will take one more stab at playing out on the ZPARK lawn. Next Sunday October, 1st around 2pm – wear a mask and keep your distance and take a stroll through the sound garden! More info to come or ask! Here’s a shot of some ROUSTERS (Potsdam's Dean Thornton, Dekalb's Claude and Ola Aldous and Norwood's W.T. Eckert) at the first ROUST event last November:
Down at the Abode… BEAUTIFUL Wildflower Drawings by Wanakena’s own Kathie Nevil remains ON VIEW through October 25th. C’mon down and check the show – top-notch work! THIS WEEKEND IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SEE THE EXHIBITION. Planning on big changes in the shop as we attempt to rearrange the furnature to safely allow a couple coffee-sippers to do what they got to do during the long cold winter months when drinking coffee on the porch is not really a viable option. While you’re here take a peek around the shop. There’s LOTS MORE to look at; art, maps, historical displays, and MORE! Perhaps you’ll go home with something you did not realize you needed. Perhaps you’d find a perfect gift for someone. Perhaps you’ll go home with ingredients for a DELICIOUS dinner. You’re purchases down here at Otto’s Abode help keep us open and going all year long.
WANAKENA’S BLACKWATERS CAFÉ AND TRADING POST FALL/WINTER hours/menu/etc. announced! Breakfast at B-Dubs returns! Hours are: Tues+Wed+Thus: 8am-3pm and Fri+Sat 8am-7pm. Call to make DINE-IN RESERVATIONS! 3153094040!!!! Open for pick-up/take-out too, 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
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. Here’s a story about it all: https://www.nny360.com/news/stlawrencecounty/property-sales/article_eeec3094-901a-531a-8a18-ab1b991b3a79.html
WESTERN ADIRONDACK PRESBATYRIAN CHUCH zoom-zooms every Sunday at 10:45 using meeting #6663654813 and every morning at 9am zoom-zoom for a Morning Prayer. WANAKENA CEMETERY ASSOCIATION announced 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.
Important information from the other end of the CRANBERRY LAKE: The Clifton Community Library is open FIVE DAYS PER WEEK plus Wednesday evenings by appointment. Call 3158483256 or clklib@ncls.org for an appointment. Curbside pick us is also still available. At the Clifton Community Center, Cranberry Lake, NY 12927. ALSO, a message via their Facebook Page: Our grant from the Foundation for Rural Service has ended, and so we have shut down our wireless hotspot in Newton Falls. We hope the community made good use of it and enjoyed it there. If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you to the fire department for partnering with us to provide this resource for the past 18 months! LAKESIDE GENERAL STORE IN CRANBERRY LAKE IS CLOSED FOR THE LONG WINTER SEASON. Stone Manor Diner and Motel open, The Clifton Community Library and Tooley Pond Duck Decoy Showroom in Cranberry Lake are open! Check out the Cranberry Lake Boat Club and The North Shore Hub online, too!
OUT WEST: Coffee Fever, Todd Hardware, Adirondack Pharmacy and Circle K in Star Lake are open! Mountain Gate Redemption near Benson Mines is open! The Clifton-Fine Municipal Golf Course is open seven days a week. Hillside Diner, UB’s Mercantile, Green Pinkly Farm and Adirondack Rustics in Oswegatchie are open! Both Twin Lakes and SOS in Star Lake got a fresh paint job but remain temporarily closed since March 2020. Word on the street is Twin Lakes is re-opening SOON!
Kim’s Lost Dog Report: As of today, there are NO lost dogs in Wanakena. No lost dogs but reports indicate the rugged Wanakena cat, Blackie, is out and about and on the prowl getting ready for another long, cold winter – YEAH, BLACKIE!!!!
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
“With man all is uncertainty. He does not confidently look forward to another spring. But examine the root of the savory-leaved aster, and you will find new shoots, fair purple shoots, which curve upward and bear the next year’s flowers, already grown half an inch or more in earth. Nature is confident.”
-Henry David Thoreau (Oct 21, 1858)