I began my 19th/20th/?? season as a leanto adopter in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks yesterday. I've lost track of how many years I've been doing it. I was shooting for 20 years but I'm not sure I'm there yet. I had a pleasant hike in to Scott Clearing. The brooks were running a little high and the crossing by the leanto was a bit tricky. I made it without falling in like I did last year though and finished my work there without incident.

On my way out I hadn't gone too far when I met two young men (late teens/early twenties) who asked where I was coming form. I told them and then they asked if I knew where the turn off for Street & Nye (two of the High Peaks) was. I replied that I did and that it was "back that way" indicating the direction they had come from. "Where?" one of them asked. "Just after you passed Heart Lake". The one who had asked then said "That must be two miles". "At least" I said, "probably closer to 3." They then wanted to know where this trail went. I told them either Wallface Mt. or Indian Pass. They looked at one another blankly, I said something to the effect of have a good day and left them there. I wondered after if I should have offered more advice. It was clear from their sagging, half empty day packs that they were ill equipped to spend a night in the woods and there was no way they could reach their objectives in the time remaining. It was almost noon and they didn't even know how to find the mountains they intended to climb but I've resolved not to give unsolicited advice so I said no more.

When I got back to Saranac Lake I got a sub and took it to the lake in the middle of town where I made the above photo. I was attracted to the reflection and really wanted to photograph just that but my lens wasn't long enough. I shot this photo and went to change the lens. Before I finished a couple of guys decided to race back and forth in a motor boat and ruined the reflections. Looking off from the park in another direction I found the photo below in which I removed all color except the red in the chairs, their reflections and the two floats. Red was the only color that mattered. The others were just a distraction.

Both made with a Canon 7D, the first with an 18-135mm and the second with an old Tamron 70-300mm. I wonder if I should have offered advice to those guys. I wonder if they got out of the woods before dark.