Monday, May 18, 2009

Two Seasons…

In upstate New York it seems as if we only have two seasons; Snow flies and black flies. We spend six months a year raking leaves, winterizing, shoveling snow, hunkering down by the heater and spring cleaning. All of this in anticipation of the next six months when we get visitation with our spring and summer toys.

Last weekend we got our camping gear out and headed up to Fish Creek Ponds upstate by Wawbeek and Saranac Lakes. The forecast was “iffy” at best but we took a shot and got some fun in before the monsoons hit Saturday afternoon.
FishCreek09 051 FishCreek09 048

The black flies were out in force taking enough of my blood to send me a father’s day card. We had to use bug spray (only thing that works is Deet) and put head nets on in the daytime until the noseeums left in the evening. Fortunately the mosquitoes weren’t out yet and we had a great dinner in the screened canopy we brought for the camp kitchen and picnic table. The night ended with a late campfire and the loons singing out on the ponds.

After a quiet night we got up and made a great camp breakfast and got around to some paddling in the ‘yaks and canoe. We  were supposed to hang out until Sunday but when the 40+ mph winds and rain kicked up, we picked up and did a tactical retreat. My oldest son stayed until late Sunday night and sent pictures by phone of three inches of rain flooding the campsite.

So much for the camping warm-up for Memorial Day. Be sure to get your reservations for NYS DEC Campgrounds in fast, this year the campground is the place to be. The grounds are inexpensive to stay at around 20.00 a night along with beautiful scenery, great boat launches and pristine sandy beaches.  NYS DEC and Parks and Recreation has done a great job of keeping them in shape.

The good news is that we survived and all the new camping gear worked great (even my new camp stove drip coffee maker). Yea, I know, really roughing it…

TKodiak

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great report, Kodiak! We'll be first time Fish Creek campers this summer and really enjoy all the great posts by folks such as you. Keeps our excitement going as we look forward to enjoying the beauty of NYS Parks! Sorry you got rained out this past weekend - you don't want to hear that here in the Finger Lakes it was just beautiful & we were wishing we were at Fish Creek! Went to Fair Haven State Park instead - another beautiful camping area, this one overlooking Lake Ontario.

TKodiak said...

Thank you very much for the kudos. I hope you folks get out camping often and have great weather. If you have any pictures of Fair Haven I'd love to put them up on the slide show and let everyone drool.
TK