Up North: A City Doc's Cure for the 9 to 5: The Great North: A City Doc's Escape

Ok, so here I was, at the age of 44, with an established practice, a bit of spending money, and more time than I had in any recent year. A desire to get out of the suburbs where I live, and the city, where I work, led me to taking weekend trips northward. It started with the Hudson Valley and ended up with me spending increasing amounts of time in the Catskills where I fondly remember camping with my father many years back. I'm sure I'm not alone here, perhaps most people have "discovered" the open fields and rolling hills of upstate New York like I have.

My weekend forays were leading incrementally northward and became a part of my normal routine. We would enjoy long drives in the Hudson Valley. We felt refreshed being out of the congestion of the city and sprawling shoppings centers of the suburbs. The few thousand dollars I had to kick around wasn't a princely sum to be sure, but I would be damned if it was going back into stocks. My 401K had taken a hit like everyone else's. I thought more and more of buying small parcels of land, like an acre of two, with what extra income I was able to set aside. Income easily spent on the usual stuff that we can never remember at the end of the month. The goal was to accumulate one or two properties that me and the kids could camp on, either to have some fun and sit around a bonfire, ride ATV's, or just "commune with nature".

After a year passed I was far wiser and had a few grand more to spend. I'd learned that land in the Catskills is much higher in cost when it's within that 2-1/2 hour magical range from New York City. I also learned that land comes in a few varieties. The cheapest of the cheap is land surrounded by other people's land, and may have no right of way in other than on foot. That rules out building or driving your truck in. The cheaper land also often offers, "a gentle slope that affords the owner a view of the valley". The "gentle slopes" that I've been on are range from moderate to rocky cliffs with deep ravines. Good luck doing much here. The next grade in land is the more moderately priced property that has not been "perc tested", meaning no one ever requested a permit for septic. Perc and a septic can be in the tens of thousands. The top properties, exorbitantly priced, are gently sloped or flat, smaller, have road access, and have been subdivided and come with a permit for septic.

After a fruitless year of looking around, we were exploring increasingly north, where prices fell dramatically at the 3 1/2 hour drive mark. Problem is, this area is now north of the Catskills. It's more like farmland, less like woods. "Ok, this is not what I thought it would be", I remember thinking. After cooling my heels for a few months, I was looking at a map of the state and wondered if, instead of wending a path up through the Catskills and out the other side, I drove on the throughway in one straight shot northward. Maybe in the same amount of time, I'd end up much further than I thought. Turns out it's true. In fact, after a 3 1/2 hour drive north, I was north of Albany already. That's not Catskills. That's the Adrirondacks. The great "dacks", land of moose and bear and the largest national forest in our nation. I was intrigued.

At a thousand dollars an acre, I'd end up with triple the land I would in the Catskills. I'd also end up in the true north, where my imagination was filled with bear, moose, coyotes and deer. What a place to camp! The extra hours drive wouldn't kill me, right? I started surfing all the websites that featured land in the southern end of the Adirondacks and planned a road trip.

So off we went, with a page I had printed at home. On it, a brokers offering secluded properties just north of the Mohawk Valley. It was a lovely weekend and I had spent the first day driving through some towns and scouting the area trying to get a "feel" for various places I saw on the map. On Sunday without much time left, I was able to reach the broker who's 20 acre parcel had seemed nice. "Is the 20 acre piece available?", I asked. "Unfortunately it's been sold", he replied. My heart sank and I wondered if I'd ever find the right spot. "That piece had poor access to the river", he continued. "I have several smaller lots there but they are nicer", he added. I waffled on whether to even make the additional hour drive to the small town. Well, here I am already, so, let's do it.

Driving into the small town, I easily found the store I was supposed to meet the broker at. In fact, it was the only store. Simple. He was in a pickup truck, looked to be about 35 years old, and had jeans and hiking boots on. He drove in front, I followed. In on a dirt road, twists and bends, hills, rocks, mud puddles, we drove over 2 miles before coming to a clearing around 80 feet across. "Now this is remote", I thought. I liked it. Nice and quiet. Private. We set out on foot and walked through deep forest and came towards what appeared to be sunshine and a clearing ahead. I could hear water. IslandGirl gave a thumbs up kind of look and a smile that confirmed I wasn't the only one impressed.

As we broke through into the sunlight, the river caught me by surprise. It was brilliant. Around 90ft across and babbling over rocks with many still sections and some riffles, I said a mental, "wow". What an awesome piece of land. The broker asked me to keep up with him as we walked across to another lot, also on the river. The second lot was as nice as the first. My heart was racing. I guess you might call it love at first sight. When I looked around the forest, I saw more than trees. I saw my kids running around laughing, my father fly fishing for trout in the river, and my mother making camp and relaxing on the porch with a cup of tea.

I made an offer later that day and after a bit of back and forth, I closed a deal. I had bought both lots and was now owner of almost 15 acres. In the next month, after a potential buyer had backed out, I acquired another 2 lots as well, also along the creek. As I write this, I'm negotiating on a 5th lot, meeting again with a local cabin builder, constructing the mount for my wind turbine, pricing solar systems, and letting my imagination soar. What began as the first camping trip with my family ended up as plans for a cabin and the added land. A year ago, this entire chapter of my life had not yet been written or even conceived, now the story is a page turner! My father and I are heading up this weekend to clear some land for a cabin. Time with my father. Sharing the excitement of a new project with mom. Making a fire with CityGirl. You know, they say it's not the journey, it's the destination. For me, when I'm heading north, it's both. And that, my friends, is how this story starts, and how I came to call myself the AdironDoc.