There's Good Eats In Schroon This Marathon Weekend

And for that matter, the rest of the Fall as well.  Wanna know where that deliciousness is – including this mouthful of a sandwich to the right? Find out in our Food and Drink section.

ADK Marathon By The Numbers

Right about now, the mind of  Adirondack Marathon chief organizer Joel Friedman is filled with about a million things: and they all involve numbers.

Joel shared with us some of them on the eve of one of the biggest weekends in the Adirondacks, as thousands of runners and their friends and families will descend on our area over the next three days, for the 17th Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival.

Runners from at least 9 countries will be racing from : Australia, (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy!, Oy! Oy!), Brazil, Costa Rica, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Hong Kong and Finland.

There will be runners from at least 31 States represented.

There will be 7 runners from this year’s Boston Marathon, 

There will be more than 700 volunteers from near and far.

Add to that multiple local and state agencies keeping the runners safe. 

And  -- while the numbers are still being tallied with late entries --  around 1,500 runners will most likely participate in the various runs this weekend.

And that’s not counting the dozens of meetings Joel’s had with his various teams and committees and the thousands of calls and emails he’s had over the last 12 months preparing for this big weekend.

And there’s one number he’d like to increase: getting more folks out along the route to cheer on the runners.

“I really wanna work next year towards getting more of our young people involved,” Joel told Schroon Laker.

This year, as in previous years, preparations have gone smoothly. 

“We have a very well oiled machine and all of the team leaders and volunteers know the drill,” Joel said.

But as Joel learned this week, there are things that are often beyond his control. The medals for the runners arrived without ribbons attached. After they were returned, it took stops in California and Massachusetts before the problem was rectified and they arrived safely back here in Schroon.

Everything you wanna know about this weekend you can find here, on the Marathon’s freshly designed website. 

Are you running or volunteering this weekend? Tell us about it in comments.

Learning From the Master: Carl Heilman

Photo by Carl Heilman of a view of Schroon Lake, featured behind the bar of Sticks and Stones on Route 9.

We often get sensory overload, bought on by the stunning beauty that surounds us whenever we are in the ‘dacks, as we walk, drive, paddle, bike and hike through the wilderness of what’s inside the blue line.

Some of our fondest memories are made here in his awe inspiring region -- created millions of years ago -- and for the most part still untouched. While we have those images embedded in our mind’s eye, there a handful of photographers who can immortalize what we’ve seen by capturing it in a photograph.

Carl Heilman is maybe the most famous of photographers in the ‘dacks -- his work featured on the walls and businesses throughout our region.

And this weekend there’s a rare chance to learn from the master himself, in a photography workshop at Gore Mountain Saturday. (September 21. As of this writing there were still two open spots for his Photography Camp at Gore).

It runs from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm -- and features a workshop, gondola ride to Bear Mountain and working hands on in the field with Carl to capture the early beauty of Fall from other vantage pionts.

From Carl:

“I''m hoping for nice photography weather - which actually is pretty much whatever it will end up being! Anything except a real downpour will be great. It does look like some rain potential this coming Saturday and I may adjust the gondola ride accordingly - going up early in the day”

For more information click here or call (518) 494-3072. But Hurry!