The Indian and I both had off a few days from school for the holiday and we donned the drysuits on and found open water. We usually do a yearly winter campout or an April/May paddle so with the warm weather and ice out in may sections we planned both! Parked at Axton Landing and paddled downriver a short distance to a beautiful site over looking the river (#14). Both canoes were packed heavy with canvas tent, wood burning stove, cots, biobricks, oven, food, story book and the other usual "necessary fun items". Day temps were upper 30's low 40's but windy. Night temps mid 20's and windy. Early sleep Friday night after starting our drive around 1:00 am. Stars were out big time Saturday night. We paddled up to site 17 on Saturday and checked out the different sites. Tried out Boatman53's stick stove and put a coleman oven on top to heat up, Shepard's pie, Eggplant Parm, plus some egg Quiche all thanks to my wife. We saw a bald eagle that must have been watching us wondering what we were doing. Indian heard the coyote's but of course I missed that (yep did talk about the hearing aid remarks from other thread, I'm looking into them soon) and I saw what might have been a small beaver, our otter, or something else swimming. My feet did get cold the first night thus my avatar name continues to be "coldfeet". Indian and I have been hiking/paddling for the past 15 years and every time has been a great memory and I thank him for all of those memories. We hope to keep it going for the next 15 and more years. Here are a few pics. Plus I contacted the author Elisha Cooper after reading his wonderful short story that I found in my class library. Neat story that many of us could understand here in the NY Hudson River area and further north. The illustration are beautiful. I will read it to my class and show them some of my tripping pics. They really are intrigued when I show them the "thundertbox, privy" pics.
Bes to all.
Bes to all.
