The Last of the Vacation Pics

Here's the last of our pictures from our camping vacation.
You should be able to click on each pic to enlarge it.

Claire had fun on the playground at Lake Abenakee. She loves rock walls and rope climbing.

One afternoon we decided to try to find a loon preserve that one of Dave's co-workers told us about. This shot is just a bit north of the village of Speculator which is the closest town south of the campground. Well, we walked/hiked. And some more. And some more. And we never did come to the loon preserve. We never came to any water! At the end of this "road" (actually it is a snowmobile trail), Dave found spent shells. Yeah. Like the kind from guns. OK....we hightailed it outta there. Dave, being my hubby and knowing my desire for a "green-er earth" decided to pick up as many shells as he could carry to recycle them. I just wanted to get out of where people do their target practice! I'm tellin' ya: it's always an adventure with us.

Dave had to help Claire get up and over the rocks to cross Griffen Brook. The ADK book said there would be a bridge. There was no bridge. And, there were no markers. Now it becomes a challenge. Did we have the compass? of course not. (sigh). The good news? Now the girls are super excited to "blaze" a trail AND the whole thing was only 2.2 miles. That's nothing for us. We did have so much fun our last morning of camping.

Courtney took it upon her self to be our trail blazer. We hopped across a bubbling brook (Griffen Brook) only to discover that the trail disappeared! There were some signs that the trail went up and to the right. I don't recommend doing Watch Hill as a hike unless you have some experience with reading natural signs in the woods of where people have trod before you. This was a place where someone could get lost easily.

Dave snapped this of "his girls" on our way down the mountain. It was a perfect morning for a hike. There was a hint of autumn in the air, gorgeous blue sky and a warm sun.

I took this shot from the summit of Watch Hill (the locals don't consider this a mountain...we didn't really either...it was not super tall but it was steep!) This is a shot looking down a drop-off. Kinda scary. We had to stay way back on this rocky ledge. This is why you teach your children to obey you.

Claire was all smiles when we reached the summit. She does like hiking. She just won't admit it!

We finished a little snack and Dave dug out the binoculars so we could all take a turn with them. Here we are sitting facing west and looking at Snowy Mountain summit which is considered to be the Mount Marcy of the Southern Adirondacks. We haven't climbed it. Yet. We probably would have if I hadn't burned my foot. Claire actually saw the firetower on the summit of Snowy, with her naked eye. Dave and I had trouble seeing it even with the binocs! She has amazing eyesight! Courtney of course looks totally bored here but she did have fun helping us find the "trail" up here.

I took this shot of the "trail" as we headed back down the mountain. This was our first time ever hiking where we followed a trail that was not marked with blazes (trailmarkers). Also, once we crossed over the brook, on the way up, the trail kind of disappeared. It was alot easier going down than going up for everyone but me. I prefer climbing up. It was a challenging hike, although short (only took us about 35 min up and about 20 going down for a total of 2.2 miles round trip) and I recommend it for the views at the summit but....it takes some effort to figure out where to tread.

This little tributary linked Lewey Lake to the stream that ran alongside one area of the campground. It also links Lewey Lake to Indian Lake which is on the east side of Route 30. Dave and I kayaked this together on our 3rd day and we were privelaged to meet a blue heron up close! Unfortunately I don't paddle with the camera so..... Courtney and I took a turn paddling this and we made it around the bend before needing to head back because there were some men fishing and we didn't want to disturb them. We then kayaked out on to the lake and around an island that is in the middle of Lewey Lake. Then it was time to give Claire a turn with Mom. Claire and I had a blast. She is such a chatterbox while she paddles. She was thrilled that there was a mama duck paddling between her kayak and mine. There were also some baby ducks we got to meet and several gorgeous dragonflies landed on each of our kayaks!

One last walk down the main road through the Central Adirondacks (Route 30 north). This was our last evening (about 6 pm) at the Lewey Lake State Campground. Here the girls are walking back to our area of the campground from the beach area. We spent our last afternoon on the beach from about 1 pm-6 pm. Dave and Courtney just wanted to rest and read in the shade while Claire and I did quite a bit of kayaking. Claire and I also did some swimming together and then I rested and read while she built yet another sandcastle. It was a perfect ending to an almost perfect vacation! (minus the storm and burned foot!). Next year: more of the same minus the camper!

Well, that's it. If you have looked at all these pics, well, bless your soul!
I plan on creating a scrapbook of our last vacation with our camper.

For now...around our house....we have one more kayaking trip as a family (Labor Day) to a state park just about 45 minutes east of our home. And then we will be back to our normal school year routine.

Thanks for joining me. For the rest of the pics, just scroll down!