Essex, New York Guide and Community Blog
Temperatures are starting to swing subtly up, and yesterday a spot or two of sunshine even tempted us to dream of spring. And despite the impending threat of more snow on Thursday and Friday, I am thinking of springtime and seedlings. The Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District is selling bare-root tree and shrub seedlings [...]
Another one of the stories entered in this round of the Champlain Area Trails (CATS) writing contest is E. C. Hughes‘ Visiting Coon Mountain: A Walking, Hiking and Boating Adventure! If you haven’t yet, you should go vote in the contest. Voting ends today! Hughes and a friend decide to travel to Essex, NY, to hike Coon Mountain. Taking the ferry [...]
The old maple trees in front of our house remain green except for a few splashes of color. Unlike higher elevations deep in the Adirondacks, most of the foliage in Essex village is only just beginning to change color. But on Wednesday I experienced a Technicolor preview while driving south on I-87, soaking up the [...]
Elizabeth Lee wrote a wonderful essay extolling the similarities between Montmartre in Paris and the Champlain Valley for the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing Contest. Lee’s “This Could Be Montmartre” gives a beautiful comparison between the park and staircase of Montmartre with local features of Coon Mountain. Despite the ocean between the locations and the different cultures, Lee [...]
Sunday, May 6 from 1-5pm At the Whallonsburg Grange Hall “Imagine six different, divergent futures for the Park . . . 25 years from now. Everyone welcome. No registration fee. This scenario-planning workshop will help participants develop a vision for what our region could be like in the future. It is one of a series [...]
Split Rock is a geographical monument steeped in history and heritage, and of course natural beauty, located in Lake Champlain’s Whallons Bay in Essex, NY. The place we call Split Rock is just a small protrusion from Split Rock Mountain that is in the Split Rock Mountain Wild Forest, which is part of the larger Adirondack Park. All of this [...]
Stites McDaniel is the director of Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center and his experience in the outdoors prompted him to enter the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing contest. One of the contest’s finalists, McDaniel’s entry “Looking Home” compels an almost nostalgic tinge to our peaceful pastoral Essex landscape. Here is an except from his essay: “While North Bouquet has a gradual [...]
Every week since January 2011, Westport ninth-grader Peter Hartwell and mentor David Thomas Train have been exploring the Champlain Area Trails and observing every nook and cranny for evidence of wildlife and their actions. Those explorations eventually prompted them to enter the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing Contest, and their entry won them the first [...]
Do you recognize our fair hamlet on Lake Champlain? I shot this slightly fuzzy shot today from the Essex-Charlotte ferry while crossing the lake on an atypically balmy November day. It’s a little hard to believe that snow and ice and bone chilling winds are around the corner! Of course, Essex is charmed in all [...]
What a spooktacular start to Halloween Monday! We think of goblins and ghouls and the Great Pumpkin on All Hallow’s Eve, but early this morning the pre-sunrise lighting over Lake Champlain was simply spooky. And stunning! Shoot me your favorite Essex Halloween shot for my creepy collage, coming soon…
