Here I sit in Iowa, too busy to make my annual pilgrimage to Saranac Lake. I have vacationed in the Adirondacks almost every summer since 1931, and now I have to take solace in that thought of a recent letter writer, Gary Randorf: “I need to know they are there.”
There are so many treasured vistas embedded in my memory. But one I never saw. I’m asking you to make a trek there, and report on it.
About seventy years ago, Fred M. Rice told me of the lumbering-off of most of that corner of paradise. Few islands of virgin timber were left. One such was around Pine Pond and Owl Pond, somewhere between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.
I never looked for the area on the map, and perhaps those little wet spots had names known only to Fred Rice. He said due to inaccessibility or accident, a little virgin timber was left there.
As I have seen white pines grow to their limit, I wonder if there would be any noticeable difference between virgin timber and the new growth.
It seems you have hiked all over the Park, and maybe you’ve been to this mystery place. At my age, the odds are I’ll never make it.
Chuck Dunham, Deep River, Iowa
Editor’s note: We have been to Pine Pond a few times. It’s a little gem with a sandy beach, located just south of Oseetah Lake. Nancie Battaglia’s photograph is the next best thing to being there.
