Lewey Lake camping weekend was a bit chilly. Several campers and kayakers came up on Thursday and had to resort to stocking caps by Friday morning to warm up. Friday several more showed up and the Friday paddle turned out to be quite an adventure. Five people took on the Jessup River to Indian Lake to complete 10 miles. Eric led the way for Alice, Yang, Kathy and Amy. The first almost mile was a lovely winding river to practice edging around the curves. Then we came to the rapids and had to follow the non-existent portage through the woods, over the downed trees until we were convinced that "1/4" mile was more like 1 mile. We put back in only to determine we would have to float our kayaks through the rest of the "Rock Garden." By the end of that, my Kayak app declared 2 miles completed. Hmmmm. The Vision 130 Kayak was newly dubbed "The Princess Craft" as she had to be helped over so many obstacles and accidentally left a bit of her DNA on a few rocks. We finally got to Indian Lake and paddled into the sunset to meet a couple others at the shore who were watching out for us. Jim, Sue, Tish, Gene and Kim chose to paddle Lewey Lake which surprisingly was rougher whitecap-wise than Indian Lake. Eight people went to dinner at the Speculator Inn and enjoyed good food and great company. The evening fire was at Jim and Mickeys with complementary homemade Red Kayak wine tasting.
Saturday started as a very dreary, overcast, drizzly day so after a great breakfast at Jim and Mickeys the group decided to drive into Indian Lake to shop the Antique show and lovely tourist shops. A couple of people got antsy to go paddle so after a lovely lunch at the Indian Lake Restaurant Kathy, Deb, Alice, Yang and Amy went around Lewey Lake and explored one of the tributaries on the far end to see a very large beaver dam. They completed about 4.75 miles total before coming in to cook dinner and enjoy the wonderful fare at our Community Dinner buffet.
Sunday morning was beautiful! Yang, Amy, and Alice arose at 6:30 to paddle Lewey one more time before breakfast and breaking camp. During this paddle Amy made friends with the Lake Beaver, well, maybe not friends, more like mutual observers. Same with the Eagle and Heron. Plenty of Loons and ducks as well. After breaking camp the troops went to Speculator to paddle from the park. Half the paddlers went to do the smaller Kunjamuk while Amy, Kim, Kathy, and Yang paddled out along Lake Pleasant to the Sacandaga River at the far end and back to complete 7 miles. They observed the Osprey and some very adorable, curious ducks on the river.
Sue, Dan, Deb, Eric, Kim, Nancy and Dave enjoyed one last warm fire Sunday evening before putting on their night caps for another 40-degree night. They packed up Monday morning in sunshine.
Another great weekend camping with awesome friends and campmates. Paddle on my friends!
Report by Amy
Images by Amy, Eric, Kim
Campers: Dave L, Eric, Deb, Kim, Kathy, Amy, Yang, Alice, Nancy, Sue and Dan, Jim and Mickey, Tish and Gene.
