[Journal entry for Independence Day, July 4, 2008] I drove up to the village of Lake Placid, New York in the morning to attend the International Canoe/Kayak Regatta that is being held there this weekend. The afternoon is sunny and pleasant, so I take a long walk north along Wilmington Road (Route 16) towards Whiteface Mountain. Many wild flowers are growing along the side of the road. The daisies are particularly bringht and beautiful in the strong sunlight, but there are black-eyed Susans, irises, Queen Annes Lace and many other kinds as well. The highway passes many small wetlands, mostly vegetated with cattail. Small streams flow though them, supporting water lilies and blueberries. Little Cherrypatch Pond, off the west side of the road, is mostly cattail marsh, with a few open patches of water. The scarred slopes of Whiteface Mountain sit behind it. The West Branch of the Ausable crosses the highway near its intersection with Tenth Mountain Division Memorial Trail (Rt 21). At this point the Ausable is a shallow, meandering river perhaps a hundred feet wide and a couple of feet deep, with several mid-river bars. I hike through the woods up above the west bank for a few minutes until I come to its confluence with a small tributary. Here I descend down to the river and wade barefoot through the shallows for a while. It's tricky buisness, for the river bottom is pretty mucky in places. My feet sink to ankle-depth. I passes several anglers, so I suppose that the river supports sports fish. I see only a few tiny fingerlings, no more than a half an inch long, though. After a few hundred yards of slow but relaxing progress, I climb back up onto the bank, and walk back along the highway to town. Puffy clouds float above the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. About two and a half hours, round-trip.

Addendum. Saturday, while at the Regatta at Mirror Lake in Lake Placid Vilalge, people pointed out to me a young raccoon that had climbed up into a white pine tree and that was afraid to come down. Eventually, Animal Control personnel extracted it, using a noose on a pole.