Easy Short Adirondack Hikes: Getting close to nature at the Paul Smith's VIC (Saranac Lake)
By Diane Chase We meet at the Paul Smith’s Visitors Interpretive Center ( VIC) to be led on an adventure by naturalist Lydia Wright. My children are acting like they have never been outside. They stand stiffly near the gazebo at the head of the Barnum Brook Trail (.8 miles). I ask what is wrong. I reexamine my words, “We are going to look at nature. It will be fun.” Nothing unusual there, sometimes it takes a bit for them to warm up in a group setting and this activity is full. We are each handed a magnifying glass, which my daughter promptly turns into an accessory, my son a weapon. We are going to start looking at all the changes of autumn. Wright points to a line of trees in the distance and asks the group to identify them. I can only say in my defense that I do need new glasses. I didn’t know the Tamarack was one of the few conifers that lose their leaves in fall and with that said looks nothing like a Birch. Each does have those lovely golden leaves. “Needles,” my son whisper