lifer brick

Doubletop this morning

Doubletop Mountain this morning: 2 degrees Farenheit and a fresh several inches of snow.

tobaggan run

Here's a photo sent to me by Ken Nathanson. I'm guessing that it was taken in the early 70s. What is now the tube run - the grooved hill running down from the cabin 21-25 area (between 25 and 24 on the south side of the area) - used to be our tobaggan run. And, oh boy, when the snow was hard and slick a tobaggan, especially one loaded with people, could really move fast and, often, a little unpredictably. Down at the bottom of the run, just off to the left, was a shed we took to calling "the tobaggan shed" (although in the summer it was for years called "the Nature shed").

Leading the way here was Tom Ricciardi, patriarch of a sturdy family of Mountainside NJ-based Frost Valley friends. Tom was a member of FV's trustees. His son Pat was a longtime camper and then staffer. The Ricciardis, during the winter, come up to FV nearly every weekend as part of a snowmobile club, and they often otherwise spent a fun weekend in the Castle. Tom ran a construction firm and I believe provided the construction materials for building Turrell Lodge, Hird Lodge and the little (now-gone) house that came to be called "Ricciardi Cabin." And I believe Tom and his friends and family themselves built Ricciardi Cabin along with Carl Hess in - I think - 1969.

Bud Cox, Doug Kerr

trip list, early 80s

Here is a "trip list" for an Adirondack canoe trip from the early 1980s. You'll notice that toilet paper is a starred item. Okay, fine - obvious and still a starred object for today's trips! Look closely and see if you can discern items that are typically outmoded or different today.