Take the Long Lake way home

Sunday I was able to be out in Hamilton County, another one of my favorite places around New York State. Long Lake was frozen and our cross country skis were handy. The store clerk in Hoss' (great old Adirondack department store) recommended the boat launch just off Route 30 as a place to park and launch ourselves...

So we did. Lovely. Cold. Wind.

Skiing on water!

The village of Long Lake has 832 permanent residents. The lake itself, long and thin, is fourteen miles long. I canoed the length back in 1981 and remember eating freshwater mussels we found in the lake. Guess I have to go back this summer.

El Camino

Wondering where the title of the blog comes from?

I have a special affinity for Spanish language poets. Machado was an Nobel prize winning poet in Spain during the 20th century. He walked. He dreamt. He wrote about it… Perhaps the most quoted of his work is two verses from "Proverbios y cantares XXIX" in Campos de Castilla.

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Machado


http://www.coppercanyonpress.org/catalog/index.cfm?action=displayBook&Book_ID=1199

Walker, your footsteps
are the road, and nothing more.
Walker, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
Walking you make the road,
and turning to look behind
you see the path you never
again will step upon.
Walker, there is no road,
only foam trails on the sea.

By Antonio Machado, “Proverbs and Songs #29"
Translated by Willis Barnstone

I find it good advice for the present time!
Until the next walk.