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After a night at home to unpack and repack, we left for Lake George with kayaks car-topped. We would be spending the next four days camping on an island in the narrows of the lake. The timing of this trip to this particular lake was selected purposefully right before the vacation season would begin in earnest. Once the season begins Lake George becomes almost inaccessible to paddlers due to the heavy boat traffic. However, our camping trip fell on the last week that New York schools will be in session for the summer and this was not a coincidence. We were excited to spend a week on the lake that Thomas Jefferson described as "the most beautiful water I ever saw."

With kayaks laden with gear, we launched from Bolton landing - a location in the middle of the lake. We headed north and coming around the tip of Green Island, the areas that we would spend the next week exploring started to open up to us. Northwest Bay was directly north and the imposing Tongue Mountain range came down to the water with a series of islands to the east. Juanita island was our goal and despite the fact that it had five campsites, it turned out to be our private island for the week!

On Monday we settled in with a dinner of pork tenderloin while enjoying the scenery to our north with Black Mountain's fire tower in the distance. With full stomachs, we went to sleep ready to explore in the morning.

Tuesday's weather included a stiff south wind which was creating whitecaps on the broad lake. We decided not to venture too far since there were possible thunderstorms in the forecast. Heading southwest and donning our spray skirts, we didn't hesitate to ride the waves. I enjoyed crashing over the rollers at full speed and watching the bow of my boat dip into the lake. We made another circle around Green Island and made it back to Juanita island in time for blue skies - the storms never came!

Our longest paddle of the trip would take place on Wednesday when we decided to paddle roughly sixteen miles to the tip of Sabbath Day Point and back. We dashed around islands, exploring some of the bays on each shoreline (including watching loons in Paradise Bay). When we arrived in Huelett's Landing we purchased the first ice cream that we could find! After crossing the lake to touch Sabbath Day Point, we headed south toward Deer Leap for a picnic and swim. The imposing cliffs and rubble below reminded us of some of the great canyons that we found out west. Returning back to our island home, we feasted on salmon and couscous with vegetables.

The next day, we explored south from our island at a more leisurely pace. We found a mixture of state and private land as we headed along the eastern shoreline. After arriving at Watch Point, we made a bee-line across the lake toward the aptly-named Dome Island. From it's southern tip, we watched two of the lake's passenger ships (the Saint-Sacrement and the Mohican) heading south on both sides. After a stop in Bolton Landing for a water refill and a quick drift at Montcalm Point we went back for our final night on Juanita island.

On our last morning on Lake George we found two Adirondack guideboats leaving the lake as well. The motorboat traffic had been building and it was time for the paddlers and rowers to seek more remote waters. Our future explorations of the "Queen of American Lakes" would have to wait until the tourist season would be over.

Sagamore

For our first venture into the Adirondacks, we wanted to be high class!  Even though we don't have any Vanderbilt blood in our veins, we got to spend the weekend at Sagamore, their former great camp turned non-profit. Located four and a half miles from Raquette Lake village, we chauffeured ourselves along the meandering road. Of course - we were there for their half-price "community weekend;" the black flies were still out!

Upon arrival, we went straight for the boat house and signed out canoes to get onto Sagamore Lake. After we returned my parents (Linda and Steve), sister/brother-in-law (Amy and Mike) with nephew Ben arrived just in time for dinner. Since Tom and Jean rode with us, that gave us a nine person crew with whom to experience the great camp.

After a camp orientation, we went for another paddle just before sunset. Lisa and I made a plan to get up and paddle the shoreline of the lake in the morning. After a night in "Wigwam," a building that we soon learned was used for drinking, gambling and debauchery by the young Vanderbilt men, we awoke just after sunrise. Tom joined us in an aluminum canoe with the bow comically sticking clear out of the water and we made it back in time for 8:00 breakfast.

After breakfast, we explored some of the buildings and attended a slideshow on the history of great camps in the Adirondacks. We then left the camp and headed to Raquette Lake village for a tour on the W. W. Durant - a paddle wheeler (named for the designer of Sagamore) that makes daily tours as well as lunch and dinner cruises on the lake. We saw many of the other great and not-so-great camps around the lake which were owned by Carnegies, Colliers, and Durant himself. The captain was a local who had built the boat and ran the company with his family - he seemed intimately knowledgeable about each structure on the lake.

The blue line below indicates our path on the cruise:

 Returning to Sagamore, we ate our lunches and went on a tour of the many buildings that comprise the Great Camp. This included the worker's complex which employed 40-50 people that would keep Sagamore running seamlessly. The architecture and attention to detail created a rustic impression while allowing for modern conveniences that many city dwellers didn't even enjoy at the time.

One of the worker's buildings:  ......sheesh!

A quick nap and a row on the lake led into meatloaf for dinner. We ate our fill and meandered around the camp and back to "Wigwam" to wait until the bugs went away for the evening. Just outside, we had a campfire at the lean-to with s'mores. We brought out the guitar and fiddle and there was singing around the campfire accompanied with dancing from Lisa's new friend Neveah. We stayed in the lean-to as clouds came and dropped steady rain for a few hours.

The next morning we begrudgingly packed our things and went for a hike around the Lake Trail. It was beautiful weather but the head nets were still necessary due to the black flies. Since it had rained, we took the "high-road" to the bridge and turned around rather than hiking around the entire lake.

We left Sagamore and began a food-filled ride home which included ice-cream at Hoss's in Long Lake and michigans at Gene's in Port Henry (a birthday tradition for Tom). Between food stops we sandwiched in a short hike into Challis Pond in North Hudson in a meager attempt to burn a few calories. It was there that I found this guy posing for a picture:

It's home to pack and off to Lake George tomorrow. Although it might take some adjustment to primitive camping on an island after the high class living at Sagamore...

Mount Philo

It seemed to make sense that if we were going to spend the summer in the Adirondacks, that we should climb the tallest mountain in our hometown to scope them out. That's exactly what we did on the night of June 11th. It also turned out to be an excellent opportunity to try backpacking with our new gear. If we forgot anything, home was just two miles away! Lisa, Tom and I got packed up and Jean brought us to the parking lot at the bottom of Mount Philo. She decided to head up the trail to the road with us and then head home.

Arriving at the summit (after an exhilarating 20 minute hike), we checked in to our lean-to. Sleeping in a lean-to also seemed like an appropriate way to test our Adirondack mettle. However, we did set up our tents inside so that we wouldn't be a mosquito feast all night long.

We stayed on the top, enjoying the vista of Lake Champlain, the Adirondack Mountains and the Champlain Valley while we ate our chicken salad sandwiches for dinner. Tom and I had to fight over the last sandwich and it ended up tearing roughly in halves after a brawl. After heading back to our campsite, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores! I ate three and hit the sleeping bag in a sugar-crash stupor.

After a calm and temperate sleeping night, we awoke to oatmeal and the job of repacking our backpacks. Our gear fit well and we headed back down the trail to meet Amy and Ben - our ride home!

Here we go!

Well, we're at it again...

 This summer will be spent within and around the 'Blue Line' of the Adirondack park. Even though we will only be a few hours from home at the most, we will pretend that we are farther away so we are in a 'road trip' mentality. That means adventures every day and looking at the map to pick our next destination!

 We are excited to use our new kayaks on the beautiful lakes and rivers; we have brand new hiking boots and backpacks for exploring the peaks and backwoods. We even have a couple of new instruments to play around the campfire!

  Summer 2012 and a fantastic road trip begins next weekend!