So you saw some of our crew enjoying the lake swimming.  I went in but just for a quick dip.  But that was during the warm afternoon.

Twice in the evening we had a visitor show up.  Came without a boat.  Underwater.  No, not in a submarine.  He was a little skittish of us but was very interested in some small fish the kids were reeling in.

This guy was huge.  Just the shell was around 18″ long!  His head about the size of a baseball.  A little frightening.  Like i said he was a little afraid of us.  But i was quite afraid of him.  I’m sure his jaws would be able to chop anyone’s finger or toe off.

And the claws – WOW.   Like an inch long, full curl and razor sharp.

The way these turtles eat is they get hold of something, won’t let go and rip it with the claws until the piece in their mouth can be swallowed.  A real dinosaur.

He let us have the day shift at the water and we let him have the evening watch.

So here’s a shot as the sun was just coming up:

We had awesome weather on our trip.  Just perfect.

All sunny clear days, low humidity, not too hot or cold.  Goldilocks weather.

So here’s what u feed the hungry campers when morning comes:

Ya that’s quite a lot of bacon – 3 pounds for 6 adults and 4 kids.  Of course we had eggs too.  When men make up the menu, for male camping trips, we don’t spare the calories.  Playing in the wild takes energy.

Enough energy to make a new fireplace.  The site we stayed at, the fireplace was right at the waters edge.  Sounds good, but almost always the breeze comes in from the lake in the evening. So we were around the fire with a breeze blowing the smoke into our face the first night there.

There was enough rock in the first fireplace, plus more was got from the lake, that a new fireplace was made and the original was still able to be used if desired.

The pic above is the new fireplace.  We were able to sit on any side of the fireplace and move if necessary as the breeze shifted.  Note the large flat rocks around the top for putting things down on.  Great improvement.

Till next post  –

As promised, here are some more shots from the recent Adirondack float trip.

The lake thru the trees at our campsite.

Unobstructed view, and some other paddlers way out there.

We had great weather and the water was warm enough to enjoy.  Wave everyone!!

This poor guy.  He capsized upstream out of our view.  but not too far away, he had probably gone at least 3 miles from the put in and done fairly well.  The people at the house u see actually went into the creek and retrieved his boat.  A little crazy, a companion had the boat fetcher by the collar so he wouldn’t wash away.  anyway our intrepid paddler walks down to where his boat was and decides he’s going to go on from there. Brave lad!

Well he didn’t get too far.  maybe 10 feet and into it again.

But he was unharmed, except perhaps his pride.  There is nothing to be ashamed of.  Another boat of his friends got dunked way upstream from there and the fiberglass hull was split open.  I talked with a race organizer when helping load up the broken boat.  This was maybe 2 hours after the official start of the race, and he said there were 35 boats unaccounted for at that point.  No news today of anyone hurt so that’s what is really important.

These guys (and some gals) are all far braver than i am.  i only do flat water paddling.  btw the water temp was somewhere in the 30s.  Yikees!!

A few successful paddlers –

Here’s what i did for fun yesterday.  There is a local White Water Derby and i was lucky enough to have a ringside seat.  The water is around 3 feet higher than last year they say.

Stay tuned for pics of some paddlers!