We made Valentine's Day a genuine holiday. After 75 minutes of hiking with Sophie, executed with the plan to wear her out, Ken and I left for Speculator. The drive through the Siamese Ponds Wilderness was beautiful. For most of the trip, the road hugs the Sacandaga River. I couldn't believe the number of trailheads marked along Route 8, including one for Eleventh Mountain. Naturally, I itched to climb it immediately, that majestic mountain that looms large over our neighborhood. The map indicates that it is more than 3200 feet, which makes it almost as tall as Gore, but it doesn't look it.

In Speculator, we had fun browsing through Charliejohns store, a store that sells groceries, hardware items, some camping gear and equipment, and an extraordinary selection of Adirondack titles. I spent most of my time browsing through the books and ended up buying Discover the South Central Adirondacks by Barbara McMartin and Bill Ingersoll, which describes trails in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness north to Gore Mountain, Indian Lake, and the Garnet Hills in North River. I also purchased North Country Wildflowers, a gorgeous, complete guide to wildflowers of the Northeastern U.S. and southern Canada.

Oops--time to get ready to go to work. I'll finish this post this evening.