Expedition Date: September 9th-11th 2011
Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty, Elizabeth York, Saidet Saldutti
Distance: 10 miles on canoe and 6 miles hiking
Summits: 1
Elevation Gain and loss: 6,000 feet
Average Temperature: 60 degrees
Completion time: 72 hours
So it begins! Our first expedition to Lake George NY. We rented canoes and took off into the unknown. Our first order of business was to paddle over to the ranger station island sign in. We picked up a map to help us navigate to Mother Bunch Island, which we will call home for the next 3 days.
Ok, so as you can see this was a trip for the girlfriends, and if you didn't know Sai and Liz, they are both terrified of spiders. Take a look at this 7 inch monster dock spider that says hello at our first stop. I actually thought it was a crab when we first rolled up, but then I saw the hair and said sh*t that's a spider! The girls freaked!
We signed in at the Ranger island grabbed a map... we were on our way. The winds were calm and the sky was blue, it was gorgeous out here! Not knowing really how far or long it would take us to get to our island, we paddled on guessing which island was ours.
2 hours into our canoe, we came across Mother Bunch Island! It was beautiful! We had a private dock, rock beach, 2 tent platforms and 1 outhouse. The water was crystal clear and all I could think about, now that we found our island, was fishing. Fall comes early in the adirondacks, so the smallies should be biting!
Camp was nice and warm on the south end of the island, so that's where we cooked food and hung out most of the trip. The above picture shows our rocky beach were we swam and bathed.
The sunsets were unreal! It felt like we were the only 4 out on the lake. Once the sun fell behind those mountains though, it got dark quick.
Home, sweet home! Which we shared with a Northeastern flying squirrel. I didn't even know they existed in these parts of the world. I think his nest was under our tent platform. I only caught a quick glimpse of him, but we all heard his chatter through the night.
Fire wood was like non existent. We had to canoe to all the nearby islands and fill both canoes with whatever wood we could find. If you don't have fire, you pretty much go to bed as soon as the sun goes down... which isn't very fun. Dylan, our head chef, cooked dinner both nights.
....Getting back to fishing. Early the first morning, Liz and I caught a hand full of smallies each. It was fun to say the least. In the picture above Liz is holding up one she got on a wacky worm. Way to go Liz!
The picture below is the side of Black Mt. which we decided to summit last minute Saturday afternoon. What we didn't realize, was that the trail head was a 2.5 mile canoe from our island. The wind was blowing hard out of the north by the time we headed out for the trail head. This worked to our favor on the way there, but I soon started to worry about the way back... especially after a difficult and exhausting hike to the summit. Mind you, we were also cutting it close with day light.
Black Mt. trail head and boat dock area.
There was heady fungi every where. Must have been the season. The trail crossed a few streams. This spot was cool with a little bridge, so we decided to snap a quick group photo. I set my camera on a rock and switched the timer on not knowing Dyl's head would be blocked by a tree. Sorry Dyl!
We made the summit in just under 2 hours. This was good timing, which we knew we needed in order to find our way back to the island before dark. Unfortunately, you can't see our island from this below picture, but you can see the group of islands that were about a mile north of ours. Vermont is in the direction I'm pointing at the very Nothern tip of the lake. This was Elizabeth's first summit of any mountain yewww!
Finding our way back became easier then we ever expected. On our hike down Black Mt., we met a very nice couple who was worried about us getting back to camp before dark. They decided to give us a lift and toe our canoes, as you can see below. This saved us at least 2 hours of paddling against the wind back to our island. Thanks so much to Kevin, a local science teacher, and his wife for hooking us up!
What nice people live in the Adirondacks. Thanks again to Kevin and his wife. You guys saved us.
Nap time for everyone after a long day of fishing, canoeing, hiking/climbing and wood gathering. Some how Liz still looks like a rock star.
What a beautiful night! We had the fire going as the sun was setting and the colors in the sky were just exploding. Dylan was cooking up a storm for dinner and even made us a perfectly executed dehydrated cheesecake for dessert! Damn, that thing was good. You can see it below chilling in a bowl of cold lake water. It even had a graham cracker crust!
Things that entertain you in the woods! lol This stick had oils in it which made it the perfect torch as you can see. Dyl having a little to much fun with that one. It was cold the second night.. we all needed jackets to stay warm and it was only September.
Sunday morning came and we are all packed up and ready to say good by to our Island. We got an early start because the sky was gray and none of us knew if the weather would hold out. Bye bye Mother Bunch Island... see you next year!
The canoe back to the car took almost 2 hours with the wind at our back. We took it slow and soaked in every last minute of Lake George.
Once we reach the Marina, we packed the car - garbage and all - and took off for the nearest diner! What a great trip. 100% success rate! I would say smiles all around, but in this pic Dly looks a bit angry. lol Ease up my boy. Till our next adventure!
