Camping Trip - Day Three

"Up and At 'Em". We jumped up at sunrise, downed some great coffee, and got to work, breaking down camp. Our goal was to be on the water by 9am. Over the fire the night before, I had made muffins in tiny cake pans, wrapped and tented in tin foil. They were "eh" but I think would work with some tweaking. They fit the bill for the boys as they scoooped them out with spoons and had fresh oranges. We loaded up and shoved off...on time! This was going to be a challenging day, as we wanted to get all the way to Follensby Pond which meant paddling all of Long , Slang, Turtle, and Hoel. There were some carries, some long, some short, in there, which would be the hardest part.


Long Pond was a beautiful paddle - it is long and narrow and really quiet. The carry to Slang was short and we managed quite well. We each made two trips with Joe and I handling kayak and canoe. Clarke did a great job kayaking through Long, Slang, and Turtle. Slang to Turtle was happily accessed by a stream and before we knew it we were at the end of Turtle looking hopefully for a waterway to Hoel. No such luck, as there was one under the train tracks which was way too shallow. It was a funny thing because the ponds were about 100 feet apart, but between them was a steep hill up to a train track and then a steep hill down. Annoying but quick and relatively painless. Oscar took over on the kayak through Hoel Pond, while Clarke took a break. Our thought was to have lunch at the boat launch at Hoel before we made our big carry to Follensby.
I won’t lie to you, things got a little rocky here. While we had lunch, Joe took the gigantico backpack and decided to scout out the carry. He came back gamely trying to keep us having fun with some "good news and bad news". The good news was that the trail was really lovely and the bad news was two-fold. The carry was longer than anticipated and we couldn't find the Follensby trail so we'd have to portage to Polliwog Pond and then do another very short portage to Follensby. The boy shrugged, picked up some stuff and were off down the trail. I, on the other hand, may have shown slightly more emotion....ahem. The carry was about a mile and all I could think of was carrying first a canoe, then a kayak, then our dry bags each a mile, after paddling all morning. Gulp. During our first trip across, Oscar cheerfully told me I shouldn't think of it as a carry but more like a little hike. Adorable and wise words. Joe shouldered the canoe solo for most of the trail, we managed the heaviest stuff, and for our last trip, I put Oscar's socks on my hands and we carried the kayak through. Joe was patient as I made many many rest stops. The boys were really amazing grabbing camping chairs, gear etc. While Joe and I made the last trip with the kayak, the boys swam at a beautiful beach at Polliwog. We then made the short Polliwog paddle, found the carry and before we knew it, we were in Follensby Pond, looking for our next camp site. Follensby was a beautiful pond with lots of islands and great, beachy camp sites. Our camp site was huge with pine trees everywhere and lots of clearing. We set up in the late afternoon and Joe had a great suggestion to canoe another 45 minutes to a real store, to buy treats, meat for dinner and some cold beer. With those incentives, we treked to Donaldsons in great spirits ( right under the Route 30 bridge before entering Fish Creek Pond-also called Square Pond) and then ended the day with a sunset swim back at our site in pristine, beautiful water. It was totally rejuvenating. For dinner, we cooked potatoes seeped in olive oil, fresh basil, lemon juice. I couldn't figure out the formula to cook them without burning on the fire and the results were not great. We also roasted corn on the cob over the fire, which was fabulous and we split steak and italian sausage on rolls. The boys fell asleep in about 30 seconds and Joe and I hung by the fire, listened to the loons, and watched another great moon.