Sunday morning we sat down and planned a menu for the first half of the week, went shopping and then packed everything into the trailer and took off for the Adirondacks and Wilmington Notch State Park. After stops for lunch and sight seeing, we arrived at camp, set up the tents and the kitchen shelter and cooked dinner. Then it was free time and a campfire before bed..
Monday morning we cooked up a hearty breakfast and drove over to Pitchoff Mountain. There wasn't any one climbing on the rock wall so we hiked in and set up the safety lines. Then the fun began, climbing the 80 ft. rock wall. I was a little different than the artificial walls at the rock gym. There were some pretty simple routes as well as some more challenging ones like the crack and the overhang. We climbed for about 4 hours and everyone did very well, even the beginners. All the routes were challenged and even the overhang was achieved. Then we packed up the ropes and went down to Cascade Lake to have lunch. Everybody wanted to swim so we went to the beach on the Ausable river and swam and played on the playground for a while.
We had some time so we made a trip into town to check out the stores before dinner and bed.
Tuesday morning we woke to rain, so we took our time with breakfast and talked over the plans for the day. It was decided to not hike way up into the high peaks but to do a smaller peak with good views.
The rain stopped and after signing in, we headed onto the trail to Rooster Comb Mountain. Along the way, some of the hikers started a role playing game and it helped to pass the time as we climbed higher into the mountains. Some really big, root covered rocks made a good place to stop and play for a bit. Finally we broke out of the trees onto an open rock ledge and the top of the mountain with good views and some shear drop offs to the trees below. After cautioning everyone to be careful, we explored the area and had our trail lunch before heading back down.
That night we cooked up a big pot of pasta and baked some garlic bread in the reflector oven.
Wednesday, we packed up camp and headed for Cranberry Lake for the canoeing part of our trip. We stopped in town to dry off some items that had gotten wet during the previous day rains and to buy food for the canoe trip. Loading all the gear into the canoes was interesting but we finally pushed off and paddled south towards Joe Indian Island. It was a beautiful day and we took or time. Arriving at the island we began looking for an empty campsite. Everyone we looked at had tents set up. We paddled around the back of the island and raced to get the last site before another group could get there before us. It was a smaller site but worked well for our group. The campfire circle was out on a point and gave nice views to the east and west. We awoke the next morning, cooked breakfast and headed west towards the small village of Wanakena for the "promised" ice cream. It was a long paddle and the wind was in our faces but we stopped for a snack and a swim on a small island along the way. Arriving in town, we had our ice cream and headed back. The wind was now at our backs so we set up a sail and sailed a lot of the way back to our camp.
Friday morning we packed up, said goodbye to the island and sailed / paddled back to the van for our ride home.
It was a good week with great campers, some incredible conversations, good food, and a lot of fun.