Where four days and three nights equal one wonderfully long vacation…
Saturday morning we packed the car, put the canoe on top and headed to Lake George in the southern part of New York’s Adirondack Park.
Four hours later… Wow!
Our bloody good campsite
Waltonian Island is about a mile north of Hague—it’s one of the islands just to the north of the arrow on this crappy Google Maps image—and was an easy boat ride from the public dock in Hague. There were about 40 of us in all for the four days and three nights that we were there, but the island wasn’t cramped at all. You could be with people if you wanted to or avoid them altogether if you liked. Most of the crew headed up to high land in the center of the island as there were many small children that we didn’t want having easy access to the water. Others—including Kathy and me—camped closer to the water. Our hosts were gracious enough to allow us to have a beautiful site on the northern side of the island that had a perfect view of the lake right from our tent window. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for better.
The inimitable Michael Rutkoske
The days consisted of Mike (one of our hosts) jetting all the kids around the island either on water skis or a two-man tube. (Sunday he spent more than nine hours on the lake and when it was all said and done he looked as happy as the kids did.) If they weren’t behind the motorboat people were swimming, canoeing, kayaking, or jumping off the rock ledges behind our campsite and into Lake George. Adventure and excitement for all!
A young Rutkoske cliff jumping
A young Battersby paddling his heart out
We had rain almost every night while we were there, which could have been a real pain except for the fact that our tent was on a platform. On Monday night we also had a crazy thunderstorm that blew over pretty quickly but that we continued to watch for about 45 minutes as it made its way into Vermont. Joanna caught a great deal of it on video on her digital camera, so I hope to have it posted here soon.
Overall it was a wonderful couple of days.
Good friends, great activities, and an excellent part of the world.