As Wendy explained, during one of our excursions to Lake George Regional Park, in my excitement to release a fish I had managed to nab, I dropped my Droid-X phone in the lake. We have managed to get our other devices connected to the available wireless service and we are ready to share what we have been up to over the last couple of days . . .
Sugarloaf Ski Lift Ride
We took a morning to travel up to Sugarloaf to travel on the Super Quad chair lift up the side of the mountain. The view was breath taking, and we had every intention to hike once we got to the tope of the ride. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side, and we received a warning from the lift operators that if it should start pouring, or thunder and lightining should start, they would shut down the lift.
If we were still on the mountain, then they would send a truck to get us down. Sure enough, once at the top, the rains started. So we got a few photos in, and then decided not to tempt fate, and made our way down the mountain.
Trying to Find Shiloh Pond
On our way home from the mountain, and after a brief lunch stop, we thought about visiting a local stocked pond for some more fishing. We started down this off-road track, that eventually turned into a logging road and opened into a logging area (though still no pond). Bear in mind that our perceptions of the locals had recently been influenced by our experiences with the “Jello wrestlers” at our camp ground. So, trecking down this very rural and abandonded trail to get to a pond with who knows what type of people at the end was making us very wary indeed. After turning up in this logging area, with another 0.5 miles showing on the GPS, we decided that we were not brave enough for this endeavor, so turned around.
Canoeing Against the Weather
At the campground they offer kayaks and canoes for rent, so being the outdoors types that our family have magically turned into, we elect to try our hands at navigating two canoes. The canoe teams end up with Wendy and Jordan in one craft, while Tyler and myself occupy the other. The weather started awesome, with bright sunshine and blue skies as we paddled our way up the west side of the lake. The lake covers approximately 335 acres. As we made our way we tried our hands at fishing from the canoes, with very little success. The first comic relief of this activity came when Tyler and myself attempted to disembark from the canoe at our first paddling stop off. Tyler successfully disembarked, while i decided that this was a great opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to Tyler, showing how you should not get out. I lost my balance and ended up tipping the canoe over, and I along with a number of our belongings finished in the lake 
Later on, we stopped at another stop off point, as we started down the east side of the lake. After deciding that the weather was taking a turn for the worst, we tried boarding our vessel. This time Tyler decided to join me in my dunking, as I managed to tip the boat over a 2nd time, causing my crew mate and our belongings to end up in the drink
At this point we started hearing regular thunder rumbles, and we were still quite a way from the landing dock where we had entered the lake. I have to say how proud I was of the boys, as they kept calm as we started racing against the oncoming lightning, to get 2/3rds of the way back before grounding the canoes on a secluded beach we had found a couple of days ago. We abandonded the canoes and made haste to our truck to wait out the thunder and lightning storm. Afterwards, we went back for the canoes, and after a brief swim and some more fishing, we made our ways to the loading dock. All this rowing served as great preparation for our main activity for the next day.
White Water Rafting Down the Kennebec
Today we made an early start up to the town of Fork Maine, to meet the people at Professional River Runners. We were going on a 2.5 hour white water rafting trip. There ended up being 3 families split over 2 rafts. Since Tyler was too young to meet the 10 year old age requirement that would have allowed us to do the highest rated portion of the gorge, we joined our raft an hour down the river. Equipped with our paddles, life jackets and helmets for the youngsters, we waited patiently at the side of the river, while loads of rafts from other companies flowed by. Eventually our raft turned up and we were able to board. Unlike the canoe, this vessel was very sturdy, so I did not end up tipping the raft as I boarded.
We had been through the various training sessions where we learned that you must always be responsible for the end of your oar. You must not panic if you should end up in the water, and everyone is responsible for helping an overboard crew member. The small number of mild rapids that we did go through were awesome. The water was cold and very refreshing, when waves came over the side of the raft. Our guide led us to a stop off point where we found a waterfall swimming hole that both boys leaped into, multiple times. We tried ramming and splashing the other raft, and even saw Tyler try and leap onto the other raft, in an effort to dump the guide from the other raft into the water. It failed horribly, with him being dangled by his foot above the water, but he did manage to escape the other boat and leap over to our raft, almost Both boys jumped into the river and discovered how cold the water really was, but they had a great time. For me, the scenery as we traveled down the river was beautiful, and I managed to spot a number of good fishing spots that would have been fun to visit, if we had been alone.
Our tour operators finished the day with a BBQ lunch where we got to use some very cool metal camp cups (I need to get some of these). All in all, the boys were emphatic that they would like to return next year, when Tyler was at the minimum age for the higher rated rapids, so we could experience the entire expedition from the start.
That is about it for now. You are all caught up with the things that I can remember. We will try and provide more frequent updates at the end of each day.
Posted via email from The Washington’s Roving Adventures
