Forked Lake, Adirondacks

Hannah and I went on a 4-day camping trip to enjoy the summertime and to celebrate the completion of my board exam. We've been wanting to go to the Adirondacks since we moved here, and someone recommended Forked Lake (said "fork-ed," similar to "crooked"). The drive was about 5 hours, and it was well worth it. Hannah had selected a secluded campsite; the only way to get there was by canoe.

Here we are loading the canoe. We had some rain, but we never got soaked through; our stuff stayed dry for the most part.

Hannah and I both improved our rowing/paddling skills. Our first trip to the campsite took about 45 minutes, but by the last day, we did it in 25 minutes.

Here's a view of our campsite.

In this close-up you can see our bear box and the "facilities."

Before we had the canoe unloaded, Hannah had her new hamock up and running. She was really excited about it. We both enjoyed reading and relaxing in the hamock.

This is one of the hikes we went on; these are called "Buttermilk Falls."

I had a lot of chopping to get out of my system after being stuck in class all year.

We hiked the tallest peak in the region, "Blue Mountain." It was a steep hike, with lots of slick rock like this.

At the peak, they had this tower so you could get above the trees and take in the view.

Here is one of the many lakes you can see from the top of the tower.
Here we are in the tower.

As I mentioned before, our campsite was very secluded. One day I decided to take a bath in the lake. Hannah stood on our dock to hold my towel and soap. After about 2 minutes of being in the water, I felt a sharp bite in an unmentionable spot and jumped out of the water. We're pretty sure it was the small fish that hung out around the dock. We saw them come up when we rinsed our dishes--they were there for the food. At one point they also nibbled my toes and my fingers. We were really surprized at how tame they were. I hit a few with a stick, but I wasn't able to catch them with my hands. They were some mean fish!

Lastly, this is one of Hannah's magic tricks. It may look like she doesn't have any legs, but actually she's just snuggled into a tiny ball. Thanks Hannah for planning such a fun trip!