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On Friday night we took Erin & Andy fishing at the pond.  Eric caught 3 large mouth bass, Erin caught 3 large mouth bass and a 20 inch catfish and Andy got skunked.  Andy had a large fish on, but his line broke and he lost his whopper.

After fishing we were joined by Skip, Bonnie & Cindy for a cookout in the woods.   Below Bonnie loads up the wagon with soaking sweet corn.  Erin, Eric and Andy wonder how much water will slop out and Cindy brings more stuff.

We grilled hamburgers, salmonburgers, hot dogs and corn. Skip, Andy and Eric await the final grilling.

We sat around the fire and had a nice chat.  Ron & Jody joined us around 9:30pm.  Afterwards, Skip shot off bottle rockets for our grand finale.

Saturday morning Skip & I went in the Woodsman’s Field Days Canoe Race 3.2 miles upstream on the Black River Feeder Canal.

We were beaten in the C2 class by Paul Olney and his daughter Joanne and
Joe Siegel / Mark Olney.  Paul Olney set the ADK 90 Miler record in 2004 when Skip & I paddled the race.

Saturday night Kathryn and I went to Matthew Tryon’s wedding.  It was a nice ceremony.  Matt was joined by several members of his Civil War renactment troop, that added to the atmosphere.

Sunday Eric & I went in the BHA Hunter Show leadline classes.  Eric got a 2nd in the Equitation Class, out of 6 participants!  I credit Eric’s good posture, my draped lead line which enabled Eric to ’steer’ and the mare Onyx with all contributing to Eric’s win.  In the Leadline Suitability class, I believe the horse is judged as being ’suitable’.  Eric got 4th as the class order was nearly reversed as I believe the judge was just trying to even things out.  All the horses in the suitability class were quiet and well behaved.  Eric got a red ribbon and sticker book in the 1st class and a carrot and chocolate bar in the 2nd class.  Below Onyx enjoys her carrot, models the ribbons, and Eric is a happy boy.

I’ve gone winter camping with Jason several times, including our memorable dog sledding trip.  Jay was interested in canoe camping and last year when I met his fiancee, Beth, we talked about scheduling a canoe camping trip.  We scheduled 9-10 August for our trip and then anxiously watched the weather forecast fluctuate all over the place.  I was near to canceling the trip on Wednesday as the prediction for rain exceeded 70%.  I wasn’t looking forward to sitting under a rain tarp with a 5 year old for the weekend.

We called to confirm on Thursday night and the forecast had dropped to probable rain Friday night, but clearing to 20% rain during Saturday with rain likely coming in on Sunday afternoon.  We agreed to go ahead, meet early at Hoss’s General Store in Long Lake and try to get on the water at Little Tupper Lake early before winds became a problem on the shallow lake.

We had planned for company for dinner on Friday night and so began our packing early in the week.  Friday afternoon we loaded canoes and packed the car so Saturday morning we only had to add our sandwiches and food packs.  Kathryn & I arose at 5am and got Eric up a little before 6am and were on the road soon after.  We met Jason and Beth at 8:30 as planned.

We counted 28 cars in the parking lot at Little Tupper Lake and decided to return to the nearby empty Round Lake parking lot.

We dropped our canoes in the Little Tupper outlet which drains into Round Lake.  It was a pretty little stream lined with white lily pads.

Below Kathryn, Eric and Jim cruise down the outlet stream.

We found Round Lake devoid of other paddlers as we explored the eastern shore examining the potential campsites.  Several of the campsites are located at old hunting camps built by the Whitney’s.   Most sites are located back from the shore line and have P3 toilets.  We ended up staying at site #4 which was on a prominent point with several large white pine trees and copious blue berry bushes.  The only drawback to the site was lack of level tent sites.  We managed with our two tents, but more or larger tents would be a problem.

Eric, Kathryn and I went swimming while Jason and Beth basked in the sun.  Below the swimmers threaten a passing canoe.

We found a large rock that let us play King on the Mountain before we cooled enough to call an end to the swimming.

After our swim we took short nap and then a walk to scout the nearby campsites.  Beth demonstrates our voting technique:  Everyone that wants to take a hike put their hands on their hips!

As we prepared for the hike Jason noticed an interesting bug on his leg.

After our hike gathered firewood and baked biscuits using our Outback Oven.  We had afternoon tea and biscuits so we could delay dinner until later in the evening.

After our snack we swapped canoes and explored more of the lake so that Jason and Beth could test out the Wenonah Minnesota II. It was a beautiful evening for a paddle.

For dinner we had a vegetable tortellini salad and turkey chops grilled over the fire with marshmallows and s’mores for dessert.

We tried to stay up and look for meteorites, but Kathryn, Eric and I crashed about 10pm.  Beth and Jay stayed up until midnight buring wood, watching the fire and looking for meteorites.  They saw a total of 14 during their watch.

We slept great and heard loons through out the night.  In the morning we added fresh picked blueberries to our three berry muffin mix and then began our leisurely packing up to head out Sunday morning.

It was sprinkling lightly as we paddled out.  As we were loading up Ranger Coons stopped by to talk.  We told him where we stayed and talked a little bit about Round Lake.  He characterized Round Lake as without the winds of Little Tupper Lake and without the portage of Lake Lila.  I asked him about the illegal introduction of   largemouth bass into Little Tupper Lake.  He said they have spread through out the watershed and it doesn’t bode well for native trout.  I asked him about the navigability of Shingle Shanty Brook.  Ranger Coons referenced recent advice by Kenneth Hamm NYSDEC, Office of General Counsel  in the June issue of the NYS DEC Conservationist Magazine. He jokingly asked if we wanted to provide a test case.  We also talked about the portage trail connecting Round Lake to Low Lake/Hitchins Pond.  Another trip……

We stopped at Hoss’s for a milk shake on our way home and thought we had parted ways, however, we later saw Jason checking out canoes in Blue Mtn Lake.

When Adam and Matt were small (pre-teen) I took them on a couple of camping trips:

• Once on Barton Hill in back of my parent’s house where they brough everything- pillows, dinosaur books, flashlights with dead batteries and two cook kits, “because I didn’t have to wash one”.  Needless to say Kathryn and I remember carrying our stuff and a fair amount of their’s as well.
• Once in back of their parent’s house where I famously forgot the matches for the fire to toast the marshmallows.

After a successful trip to 13th Lake it was decided to take Eric and Nathan - the next generation - camping again.  We chose Spy Lake as our destination, canoing in on Sunday afternoon and  coming out on Monday. Mark, Nathan and Matt occupied one canoe and Eric paddled bow in our canoe.  For his 1st ‘extended’ paddle Eric did quite well.  Upon arrival we set up tents and the boys enjoyed a snack ’sitting’ in their chairs.

During the afternoon Matt, Nathan, Eric and I took a short hike exploring a near by stream.  Nathan packed his snack bag.

Uncle Mark took a nap.

On our return to camp the boys decided to put the snack bag to good use.

In the evening we had Mac & Cheese and hot dogs or Brats. Below Mark & Matt check on the food preparation.

While the cooking was going on Nathan & Eric worked on sawing serious wood for the fire.

Nathan and Eric eat their Mac & Cheese while the Brats are being roasted by Matt & Mark.

After dinner we enjoyed a game of war.  Below Eric stacks his deck while keeping one eye on his chocolate cookie lest Dad grab it!

Afterwards we enjoyed a spendid sunset.

Matt proved he could not only throw a bear rope over a tree, he also has an artisy side.

About 9pm the mosquitos came out in full force and we retired to our tents.  After a brief story everyone was snoozing.  During the night we got a brief shower which had Mark, Matt and I scrambling to zipper up rain flies - there was a two minute stretch where the sound of nylon zippers dominated. sleeping bag, tent, rain fly, tent, and back to sleeping bag).

Everyone slept late the next morning.  Mark made breakfast burritos and the boys had hot chocolate and oatmeal.  It was a nice trip and Eric & Nathan make great camping companions.

Last fall we cleared a small area in the far corner of our 40 acre woodlot where we had a fire pit and a few cookouts.  Demonstrating the extreme creatively that we use in naming locations it became christened “Cookout Corner” (other examples: Edge Trail, Trillium Trail, Buck Rake Pass, White Birch Field, Hanging Bucket, North Trail, etc, etc, you get the point).

Recently I tore up concrete slab from our walk way that goes no where and transported them to Cookout Corner to make a safer fire pit.  Tuesday night Eric, Kathryn and I used local transportation and took our dinner for an inaugural meal.

Our new fire pit is huge and much safer.  Below Trey checks for food scraps.

We have a home made table that I plan to move over to the area and we need to work on some semi-permanent seating.  If I get creative I will try to craft something ‘Adirondack-ish’using the chainsaw and logs.

Friday I picked Skip up at 2pm and we drove to Piseco to put in on Fall Stream for an overnight camping trip.  I had heard there were issues with leaving cars overnight at the put in and so left my car at Piseco Airport located about .5 from the put in.  I know one person in Piseco, Tony Colby, and he drove by as I was walking back to the canoe.  Tony was accompanied by his two schnazer dogs and our chat was brief.

We were on the water at 3:30 and at Fall Lake 30 minutes later.  We had several rain showers as we paddled.  I donned my rain coat for the 1st hard down pour, but embraced the cooling showers thereafter. There was only one hard rain that caused us to pull under a hemlock tree for a little protection.

Above Fall Lake we encountered a few beaver dams that required exiting the canoe and lifting over. The photo below looks SW and depicts the relationship of Piseco Lake in the background, the airport on the right with Fall Lake in the foreground and Fall Stream draining towards Piseco Lake.

We arrived at Vly Lake at 5pm and surveyed the two campsites along the north side of Vly Mtn.  Both had a nice view of the lake, but were markedly different.  The eastern most campsite had a fireplace and two areas cleared and leveled to accommodate solo tents. Unfortunately, i had brought my Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3 person trip on it’s maiden voyage and needed more space.

The western most campsite had been “improved”.  It had a  an old canvas chair, a gas barbeque grill sans the gas tank, two flag poles, a half buried 5 gallon bucket (clean and 1/3 full of water), and a lot of garbage.

The last residents had left a smoldering fire and left toilet flowers all over the woods.    They had cut a large spruce tree off at 4′ that was apparently obscuring their view and dropped it into the lake.  They dumped crackers on the ground, burned their cans in the fire and dumped beans on the ground.  We ended up taking 2 grocery bags of trash out with us on Saturday.

All this aside, Vly Lake was beautiful.  It was hot, hazy and still as the sun set and the bugs (mosquitos, deer flies and gnats) were swarming.  Skip went swimming while I cooked dinner: corn bread using my Outback Oven and Spanish Rice with tomatos, onions, peppers and  hamburger.  Dinner was one of my better meals.

While Skip washed dishes I went swimming and washed off the sweat, sun screen and bug dope.  Although it was a full moon and bright the overcast kept the moon from being seen by us.  We turned in at 10pm.

One nice feature of the Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3is the amount of mesh on the tent.  We slept with the sides open and had a nice cross breeze through the night despite recurring light rain sprinkles.  During the night we heard a owl close overhead.

We awoke at 7.  Within minutes after arising we could hear rain coming across the adjoining woods and across the lake.  We packed the tent in a hurry and donned our rain coats.  10 minutes later the rain passed and we had coffee and breakfast.

At 8pm we paddled over to explore Mud Lake which was interesting, but didn’t offer any opportunities to exit a boat.

Our paddle out was uneventful.  We arrived back in Piseco in time for me to walk into the airport along with the finishers of the Piseco Triathalon.  Once loaded up Skip & I did a scouting trip on nearby Fawn Lake and returned home.