Bear

Woke this morning to this view of a comfy bear sitting on the deck helping itself to the last of the bird food.

Paddling the Lower Osgood

A group of us had a great paddle on the Lower Osgood River today.  I had never done it as a one-way paddle before.  We put in right off Rt 30 - drive past the Hayes Brook trailheads then look for a mailbox on the left.  The put-in is just opposite on the right side of the road.  We had no obstacles to go over/around and the water was high with a nice current.  We paddled about 7 miles.  Lunch was on the beach at Meacham Lake where we saw a huge bald eagle perched in a tree near the shore.

Paddling Round Pond

I led a paddle around Round Pond today.  It was cut a bit short by a threatened thunderstorm.  It never hit there but went north and really pounded Tupper Lake and our camp.  After the paddle friends came by to visit with W since he is not paddling yet. 

Funky Caterpillar

Found this fellow on my clothesline.  It apparently is a tussock moth.  The moth is quite drab.  I wonder why nature makes the caterpillars so fancy.  I guess because it can.

At Camp

We drove to camp yesterday.  Today we walked at the VIC.  I was hoping the orchids would still be in bloom, but we didn't see many.  There was one Calopogon blooming and several of these White Fringed Orchis.  But it was a nice walk through the bog.

Where are we?

Haven't posted for a while, so thought I would catch up.  We drove to NJ on July 13th so W would be ready for his surgery on the 16th.  Have been laying low so he can recover.  He is doing extremely well and we will head back up to camp next week.
I did get out yesterday for an expedition to the Burlington County Historical Society.  W has lots of Quaker ancestors who were part of that community in the 1670's.  The woman who works in the library there is a gold mine.  She knew of every family I mentioned and pulled out resources for most of them.  Can't wait to get it all in my database.

Stephen Knapp's Light Paintings

We dropped off A&J at the rest stop on the northway then went into Glens Falls.  We ate a nice lunch at Davidson's Brothers then went to the Hyde Collection.  We saw some neat Tiffany lamps and windows and some awesome light paintings by Stephen Knapp.  This is one of several on his website.

Heron Rookery

Today we finally remembered to take binoculars and camera to view the herons nesting south of Sabattis Circle on Route 30.  These photos are the best I could do from a distance.

A&J Visit

We've been busily painting the deck and back porch, then Friday A&J came for a visit.  We've been mostly hanging around camp but today we hiked to Jamestown Falls for a picnic.  The beaver dam was still in place allowing us to ford the stream by walking across it.  We walked to the end of the trail where I took this photo.

Paddling Floodwood-Rollins Loop, Again

The temps in NJ were so high that we drove back to camp yesterday, a day earlier than planned.  That meant we could join the gang on today's paddle.  The bridge on Floodwood Rd is open, so we put in there and did the usual loop.  There were not many other people around, which was a surprise.  The temperature was in the mid-70's, a big improvement over the NJ temps.