We began our journey by planning out what we would like to eat and then going shopping. Afterwards, we packed everything up and headed for the Adirondack Mountains. Our "Base Camp" for the first few days would be Wilmington Notch State Park just down the road from Whiteface Mountain Ski Center. After a good nights sleep, we ate a hearty breakfast and headed to Pitchoff Mountain for some rock climbing. Everyone did GREAT climbing the almost vertical rock face, including the overhang. Finally, when everyone was tired, we moved on to swimming and sand castle building in Lake Clear in the village of Lake Placid. Afterwards, we did some more exploring along the Ausable River which ran through a deep gorge with a great waterfall just behind the campsite. That night we had a good dinner and a campfire and went to bed. The next day was a long, long, very long hike to the top of Algonquin Peak (elevation 5114 ft), the 2nd highest mountain in New York State. Some of us thought that we would never get there. When we finally reached the top, we were rewarded with spectacular views in all directions and a chance to sit down and enjoy something to eat. After spending some time at the top and catching our second wind, we headed back down. After another good dinner and campfire, we went to bed thinking about the canoe trip that began in the morning. The next day was beautiful and we packed up camp and drove to the Oswegatchie River canoe access point for our paddle up the river towards the Five Ponds Wilderness Area. After paddling up the twisting channel of the Oswegatchie River for quite a ways, we found a perfect campsite for our base. It had a good waterfront, an area for cooking and eating, a separate area for tents and a big rock for sitting down and watching the sun set over the river plain. We were sitting around eating dinner at dusk when suddenly we were surrounded by a hoard of hungry mosquitoes that forced us to retire to our tents early for some indoor stuff. (Harry has since then purchased a large netting enclosure that will attach to the 10 ft. x 10 ft. tarp to keep the bugs out.) The next day we paddled deeper into the wilderness, found a swimming spot with a lean-to and just explored. That night we cooked and ate on the big rock by the water and watched the sun set. Then we retired to the tents before the mosquitoes could eat us. There seemed to be a lot of noise and wrestling coming from the boys tent while the girls seemed much quieter and more controlled. Finally it was quiet and everyone slept till morning when we ate, packed up and paddled back to the van for the ride home.