An Aborted Paddle - and Its Replacement

Today we were supposed to put our boats into Raquette Lake, paddle the Marion River, Utowana, Eagle and Blue Mountain lakes.  Then, after hanging out on the beach for a while, have dinner at Hemlock Hall.  That plan was changed the minute we saw the white caps on Blue Mountain Lake.  The temps in the low 40's didn't help.  So some folks went to the Adirondack Museum for a while.  But a group of us still wanted to paddle somewhere, so we put in off Route 28 and paddled up the South Inlet that flows into Raquette Lake.  We paddled up to the pretty rapids

and had lunch in a nice protected spot.  Then paddled back to the cars for a round trip distance of just over 4 miles.  It is a paddle I've wanted to do, but couldn't see driving all the way there for such a short one.  So this worked out nicely.  Then we hung out with friends in Indian Lake, finally ending up for dinner at Hemlock Hall.

More House Progress

We stopped by the lot again and saw that we now have a back wall to the great room.  Just look at the space for all those windows.

We also now have trusses to hold up the roof.

Cape May Birthday Celebration

We just returned from a great several days in Cape May Point, NJ.  We rented a very nice 4-bedroom house at 317 Knox Avenue (hereby recording the address for future use) and most of the family gathered to celebrate several birthdays.  We rented bikes and enjoyed riding to the hawk watch and Sunset Beach.  We saw lots of birds, paddled in rental kayaks, searched for "cape may diamonds", played "Oh, Hell" and generally had a good time.

We Have a House - Sort Of

We have most of the first floor.

Here is the master bedroom.

And here is the great room - mysteriously missing its back wall.  This view shows the nice deep lot we have.

This shows the second floor - in the pile by the curb.  The sections stacked on the trailer in the background are a house that belongs several lots down.  I wonder how many of these trailers come in in a day.

Quilted Pillow

Paddling the Jessup River

Today's paddle was on the Jessup River south of Indian Lake.  We put in at the bridge and headed downstream where we had to go over several large beaver dams.

We went as far as we could, only about a mile, until there were too many rocks in the way and then had lunch at the carry.  Then we headed back upstream and went on past the bridge, expecting even more beaver dams.  But there were fewer than the other direction so we had a nice paddle until finally stopping at a dam.  The whole paddle was just 5.4 miles, but we were tired from all the dragging over dams.  Next time, we should head upstream from the start.

Paddling Massawepie Lake

We finally got on Massawepie today.  It is closed all summer because of the scout camp.  And once September rolls around, we usually have lots of other paddles we want to do.  But it is close-by and we didn't want a long drive today.  So we had a nice 5.5 mile paddle around the perimeter.  The weather was gorgeous, though fairly windy out on the main part of the lake.  But there were some sheltered areas.

There were several frogs where I took my boat out and one stuck around to get his picture taken.

Cute Bear

That I sewed, that is, not one outside this time.  A friend pointed me to this neat pattern that is available for free download.  It is the most complex paper piecing I've done and it makes a great pillow.

Paddling Lake Kushaqua

Ten of us paddled Lake Kushaqua today.   It was fairly windy but much of the lake was protected from the wind by the surrounding hills.  We paddled the circumference of the lake, for a total of just 5 miles, but it was good to get out on the water.

Fantastic NASA Photo

Wired Magazine has "10 Years of Mesmerizing Photos From NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope" online.  This is my favorite.

Paddling Raquette Flow

We had a great Labor Day.  We invited our paddling friends over to paddle the Flow and then join us for food, most of which we brought in from a new restaurant in town.  The weather was not predicted to be good, but 10 of us braved the weather report and had a very nice paddle.  We even were able to eat out on the deck before the rains finally came later in the evening.  We managed to fit 21 people into the house and a dozen cars in the driveway.  Everyone said they had a good time.