People often ask why I choose to stay in upstate New York. It gets cold. We get a lot of snow. Summers are too short. But my answer is always the same. I love the Adirondacks. This one place is my all time favorite. It's the place I feel connected and home. I can't even properly explain it. When I'm there, I feel happy, relaxed, and there's a weird feeling in my chest that tells me I belong here. I've even told my daughter that when I die, to cremate me and spread my ashes here. I belong here.
Amazingly, it's not my private oasis, it's part of a state park. My state park. A rustic place with camping but no electricity, no water, or sewer hookups. No motor boats allowed. There is quiet, the sound of water lapping against the shores, the smell of cedar trees, the whistle of the wind through those trees. There are usually families of ducks and a variety of birds to watch. Chipmunks and squirrels entertain instead of TV. There are often black bears. There are many huge rocks that were left behind from the last glacier.
Cell phone reception is iffy, which I like. If I want to commune with nature, I don't want my cell phone buzzing constantly. There's an island you can row over to with a large rock you can jump off of for old fashioned swimming. Every few years, visitors to the park build new natural ladders to climb that rock. The state doesn't do it, just people who come there all the time and love it as much as I do. I was even a little disappointed a few years ago when they converted the old pit toilets inside the park to flushing toilets. I know, most of you just said..EEEWWWWW! But it was a symbol of modernization mixed into the back to nature goodness that is Brown's Tract Ponds. I came up and walked into the park on May14th, 2016 to see it even though it was closed for the season. It was rainy and windy, but I still couldn't wait to get back. My pictured don't do it justice. My avatar is my campfire from last summer while I was here. This is my true home.
The beach from the side.
A panoramic view of the pond
Another attempt at beachview
The island
The color of the water. Water here has a brownish hue due to the decaying pine needles in the water.
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