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I was amazed and shocked over the years at how much many of the merit badges and other requirements were dumbed down from what was once required. During my short time as a young scout, I had to learn and be tested in Morse Code to make it to First Class rank. Nothing llike that any more.

I spent a very few short years in scouts as a kid, until my rural small town troop disbanded when the scoutmaster quit and no one else was willing to step up to the task. Many years later when my son entered Cubs, my wife volunteered as den mother. When my son advanced to Boy Scouts I became...

This has been an unusually cold and snowy winter so far here in north central NY State, on the western edge of the Adirondacks. I have a simple one room hunting camp that I inherited from my dad. It is in the highest snowfall area east of the Rock Mountains, directly in the path of the highest...

I would look foward to a demo day in the Adirondacks this seasson. The last time Bill had a demo in Saranac Lake, I ended up with a new Cruiser. After having purchsed no less than three new carbon canoes over the past two years, please nobody tell my wife that I just viewed Bill's new Cirrus...

Nehasane Forest Lodge on Adirondack Lake Lila when I was there some time before 1979 when it was razed by the state because the land it was on became a designated wilderness where no man made strructures were allowed. Not knowing that, my wife wanted to visit the "Great Camp" the next season...

A trip I have wanted to repeat for more than 60 years is to repeat a trip I made with my father and mother in my tathere's then International 4x4 Scout. I was probably only 8 or 10 years old at most. We drove north from Ottawa through Senneterre on what was then only a dirt road all the way...

So my sad story turned out to be a good one. I have had a first generation Placidboat RapidFire (with relatively heavy wood gunwales compared to the later "cobra sox" gunwales) that I bought from Joe Moore new quite a few years ago. Not sure how long it took to build since I ordered the color...

Well take heart, today, our buddy "Phil" has prognosticated that we still have to wait out six more weeks of winter before spring "officially" arrives. A check of the calendar shows there are just six and a half more calendar weeks until the first day of spring. Who would have thunk it, on this...

Amen. I grew up not far from the Adirondacks on a good size slow moving river where I did not get into canoeing as much as with a tiny Jon boat for rowing and fishing before I later got a small motor. I bought my first canoe (light thin skin 17' Grumman which I still own) while in the Air...

When I was making a lot of solo bushwhack wilderness trips, I would leave a written semi-itinerary, although I often modified some of my destinations and routes in real time. The DEC forest rangers would know where to look for me from my baseline route. Often when on a multti-day trip I would...

Regardless of where you roam, wilderness or not, as a minimum you will always see numerous commercial airliners in clear skies overhead leaving streaks of contrails during the day and flashing lights at night. And they are not completly silent either. There is no escape.

Choppers are most likely from Army Fort Drum, on the northwestern edge of the Adirondacks, east of Watertown. F35s are from Air Force Vermont National Guard. Previously A-10 tank killers could be seen training usually in pairs flying low level over the high peaks and through the valleys...

i have always sought solitude in places where I see no one for many days. Very near my home are many state forests and wilderness areas of the Adirondacks. For my pleasure, since I was much younger, I have gone into the wild areas portaging between ponds with a lightweight canoe, such as a...

Here's what I am dealing with tomorrow, very typical for here ever since I was a kid. at least they are measuring it in inches. A couple of weeks ago the warning was for 3-4 feet. This latest snowfall will be on top of that which is already here from before. Lake Effect Snow Warning URGENT -...

i would think those short noodles would tend to rotate away from your ankles. Although I am not typically a kneeler, a kneeling friend showed me what he does and i made the same. It is a rectangular cheap thin foam pad as wide as my stance with a half pool noodle cut in half firmly taped...

This video was typical of the snowplowing on my rural road a15-20 years after this video was made when I was growing upon the shoulder of the Tug Hill Plateau lake effect snow area east of Lake Ontario, NY. In my time we had even larger heavier OShkosh built snowplows, still used in the area...

Oh, the famous "January Thaw". Usually happened around the 10th of the month melting all of the winter snow so far. When I was quite involved with BSA, we too often had our Council winter training outing scheduled around that weekend, Gawasa/Ookpik. Gawasa, the Iroquois snow snake, an ornately...

As a kid growing up in the 1950s - 1960s, in northern NY lake effect country of the Tug Hill Plateau, with a bent toward the sciences, I distinctly remember looking forward to at least two periods, usually in Februrary, of experiencing temperatures as low as -40F (=-40C). We heated our home...

This is what I have today where I live. But not the worst by less than half of what we have had twice previoiusly already this season so far. URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Buffalo NY 1151 AM EST Mon Jan 13 2025 NYZ006>008-140300-...

Having raced the Y1K twice (the first ever Y1K race in 2009, and again in 2011), there was quite a load of required equipment that had to be checked in by race officials on the day before the start. I do not have my old list, or a photo of everything laid out to see. Some of the highlights: a...