Destination Anywhere & Everywhere

A Blog about travel & the crazy adventures of a wanderer

Archive for the category “Camping”

22 Jun 2012

Destination: Camping at Lewes Lake, Adirondack Mountains, NY

Thanks to the tourism commercials on TV I discovered the Adirondack Mountains; believe it or not after a year of living on the East Coast there are still so many places I don’t even know exist. A quick Google search confirmed that commercials weren’t lying; the Adirondacks really are beautiful. Surrounded by lush greenery and big blue lakes I couldn’t think of anywhere I would rather go camping. I’m not going to lie we were already heading up north to Cooperstown so driving another hour to go camping was pretty much a no brainer.

The original plan was to camp at Indian Lake Islands, where the only way to get to your private island is by canoe or boat, but by the time we got off work and made the drive up the marina was closed; so we settled at Lewes Lake.

That is one of the Islands you can go camping on!

Lewes Lake

It had been at least a year if not more since the last time we set up our tent so naturally we had a bit of a struggle. We couldn’t get the poles to match up, a very sad situation when a stranger walking by says she has the same tent and give us, avid campers, instructions on how to set it up. I’m not just using the term avid lightly, I mean I went on a two week long camping trip with no running showers or toilets (seriously our shower was a big bag that you lay in the sun to heat, and what looked like a potty training toilet was all we had).

Eventually our struggle with the tent ended, but the one with the bugs had just begun. Seriously two gnats flew into my eye, and they didn’t just graze my eyelashes, but full on got stuck where I had to use my fingers and squeeze it out. Disgusting.I.Know.

The first night ended pretty early, we were both exhausted from waking up for work so early; not only that, but the fire alarm starting going off in the hotel room at 3 AM which kept us awake for way longer than we should have been. It was good though because we planned on getting up early to canoe on Indian Lake.

Canoeing. Not what I anticipated.

I mean I knew it would be work; not a leisurely day relaxing on the lake, but what I wasn’t prepared for was Devin sitting backwards and us spending an hour zigzagging tired and exhausted on the lake. We were seriously ridiculous. Somehow we ended up facing one another in the canoe, which doesn’t make any sense because how can you paddle backwards. Well since we weren’t going anywhere I very carefully maneuvered myself to face the other direction. My legs were squeezed into a cubby hole meant to fit a backpack and after 15 minutes of banging my knees against the metal canoe I had enough and turned back around. Turning around had to be the worst, out in the middle of the lake this little metal canoe was rocking from side to side and all I could do was pray we didn’t flip over.

For whatever reason it never crossed our minds that maybe Devin should turnaround and face the other way, where there was plenty of room behind him (seriously he had his legs thrown over the metal bar that is supposed to support your back and thought nothing of it). Not only that but we thought he was the front and I was the back, we were completely wrong, I was in the front which explains why we were just zigzagging Devin wasn’t using his paddle to guide us.

Here is the evidence of Devin facing the wrong way.

We finally gave up and opted to rent a motor boat instead. And let me tell you that is totally the way to go. We were able to relax out on the lake and go from the very top down to the bottom with ease. It was the perfect day, the sun was shining brightly and the big fluffy white clouds gave us a bit shade just as we needed it. By the time we turned in the boat I already had a horrible raccoon tan line, burnt back, and sore ass (it was so choppy out on the lake and our little boat didn’t handle the wake with ease, I was bouncing all over the place).

We headed back to camp, took showers, started our fire and began making our delicious dinner- Mac and Cheese with Spaghetti Oh’s. (we were doing this trip cheaply). The bugs were again so bad that we ate dinner in the car to avoid them. We stayed up late burning off the 6 bundles of wood Devin bought, for the two night trip, eating marshmallows and telling stories. It was an awesome night!

We both had tons of fun and I for one can’t wait to go back to the Adirondacks and explore more of this huge state park. Indian Lake and Lewes Lake were a great introduction, but I think next time I am ready for some white water rafting!

That’s my story…

Peace & Love

Xoxo, andrea

My Advice:

  • Go camp on an island on Indian Lake. #18 looks nice and is secluded by itself, but even the ones with multiple campsites on it are so spread out you won’t even notice you have neighbors
  • Rent a motor boat from the marina. It’s about $75 for a full day $65 for a half day (forget about canoeing) – especially if you plan on camping, hauling all that gear would be a horrible idea
  • If you really, really want to canoe rent it from the campground, it will save you $10. But do be advised that it is non-refundable, so if you get out on the lake and hate it because you aren’t going anywhere you just wasted $20 bucks
  • Pack a cooler of beer and a picnic lunch. You can pull off the lake to eat on any of the islands, or just kill the motor and eat in the middle of everything
  • Don’t ever let me drive the boat- I almost stranded us out there. I was going full speed and was swaying back and forth on the lake, not on purpose, just my bad steering. When all of a sudden I was going to run into the shore. I quickly let go of the throttle and then the boat died. Devin had to try and restart it for several minutes. Just when we thought we would be back to paddling it thankfully started up. So if I’m on a boat with you and ask to drive…say NO!!

Who let me drive this thing?!

  • The showers are Lewes Lake are free! That’s right, no quarters needed!
  • There are no grocery stores anywhere remotely close, only gas station convenience stores, so make sure to bring all the fresh food you want because if you forget something there is no replacing it.
  • Buy your wood on your way up there; don’t buy it at a gas station outside the area like we did. People sell wood for as low as $4 for a huge bundle outside their houses.
  • Lastly, give yourself a few days to explore the area. There are so many hikes, lakes, and rivers to explore. Also if you can go in different seasons I would recommend it, Spring was lovely, but the Fall with the changing leaves would be amazing.

Posted in Camping, Hiking, Travel, Vacations, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
08 Jan 2011

Destination: Colorado (A Road Trip from California)

My Story:

 It all began one weekend in the summer of July 2007, it was a normal Friday just like any other and after a long daunting day at work what better to do than start a fourteen hour drive to Colorado… Well that’s exactly what Devin, my long time boyfriend, and I decided to do. Now I don’t know how many people are familiar with four o’clock traffic on a Friday afternoon heading from California to Vegas, but let me describe it in one word, horrendous. Yep that about sums it up- stop and go (mostly stop) for four hours straight on the most deserted two lane highway through the “who the hell chooses to live here” area in California. And so it began…

One of my dearest friends, Alissa, had moved to Colorado to live with her boyfriend at the time while he finished up school; she had been living there for about a year and was due to move back to California in a few weeks. The timing of it was quite odd, I mean I finally chose to visit and she was moving back in two weeks! But what better excuse to go out and explore. The decision to go was so spontaneous that Devin and I didn’t really have time to shop and pack for a road trip (you know, buy bags upon bags of salty snacks and sugary candy, or make the perfect road trip mix for my iPod); it was Thursday night, we were sitting in our one bedroom apartment in Long Beach and just decided “let’s go tomorrow after work”. We hurriedly packed a few clothes, blankets, and whatever snacks we had in our bare kitchen cabinets and called it good to go.

So there we were, stuck in traffic for three hours on the 15 headed North, and only an hour and a half away from home; not even a dent into the thousand plus miles we are about to be driving. In my head I was thinking “Should we turn back now, if this is what the drive is going to be like it’s not worth it… But on the other hand we have already invested three hours, what’s the point of turning back;”so we turned up the radio a little louder, ate a few more sour patch kids, and continued on. The longest part of the car ride was the ride to Vegas; after we passed the strip the freeway opened right up and we drove on through the night on the empty highway through the desert.

It was about 8 am when we finally arrived in Colorado, and we were exhausted. We didn’t stop and stay the night anywhere, we just switched off driving, each getting about two hours sleep until the one driving couldn’t bear to  keep their heavy eyelids open any longer. 

 Devin often has a hard time sleeping when I am driving, I guess after three accidents (that may be a bit modest) and numerous traffic tickets, I am not the world’s safest or greatest driver. At one point in the night he had finally closed his eyes to get some sleep after hours of me insisting that he do so; but at that point I could barely hold my eyes open, I mean I was trying so hard. I would close them for a few seconds and then be jolted awake by the sound of my tires rubbing the bumps of the center divider, so I pulled off to the shoulder and put the car in park while we both took a little nap. (by little I mean 30 minutes max). Needless to say it was a long night! 

After giving our hugs and kisses we took a quick nap, about two hours, and got up to go explore Colorado. We didn’t drive over 17 hours from California to sleep the day away, like Devin always says “you can sleep when your dead”! Our first stop was in the downtown area of Bolder Colorado. We walked around the shops and had lunch at a little restaurant. I can’t remember the name now, but the food was delicious seeing as all I had to eat the day before was candy, chips, and Sonic slushies. You could definitely tell that we weren’t in California anymore- there were several stores dedicated to selling crocs (the newest fad in the midwest) and we were probably the only people on the street not wearing them. But what we did next was the highlight of the trip. We went camping in the Rockies.

After buying beer- Coors of course,  (I mean can you really drink any other beer when going camping in the Rockies) a few hotdogs, and ingredients for  smores we drove up the mountain and found ourselves a camping spot. We stayed up listening to music and drinking beers in front of the campfire. The next morning we went on a day hike to a gorgeous lake with the mountains in the backdrop, and while I’m no professional the pictures I took could be turned into a postcard.

A scenic view from inside the park

Sunday afternoon we drove down the mountain back to their apartment, packed up our stuff, and got back on the road. It was still early so we got to see all of Colorado and Utah during the daylight, not like the darkness that we had seen when we were driving through at dark-thrity. I made us pull to the side of the road  and pose for pictures as we were “now leaving ” and “now entering ” every state along the way until we got to the Nevada/California state line. By that time it was about 10 pm and it was too dark/ I was too tired. (from Colorado to California you drive through Utah, Arizona, and Nevada)

The drive home was pretty good until we got to the horrid place I mentioned earlier; again we were on our way to Vegas, but this time it was from the opposite direction. There was an accident; a semi had rolled into the center ditch and basically shutdown the highway. It had already been such a long weekend with all the driving, but this just extended the yearning to get home, to stretch out on my own bed. We finally made it back around 1 in the morning. Exhausted, we jumped into bed to catch a few hours of sleep before we had to wake up again for work in the morning.

Till this day I love telling the story about the adventure Devin and I took to Colorado over the weekend. I love seeing the reaction on everyone’s face when I explain that we drove 17 hours one way on Friday and 17 back on Sunday. Most people cannot stand  driving to the next city over to run an errand let alone drive 1,000 miles to hang out. But that’s what Devin and I do, we don’t think twice about going on an adventure.  

That’s my story….

Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

My Advice:

  • If your road trip is scheduled to depart on a Friday, take off as early as possible (really no later than noon). This is especially true if you will be driving through a popular weekend spot like Vegas.
  • Have a gps, or internet capable phone handy at all times. It can direct you to an alternate route if you hit a road block, or lead you to an interesting spot to have lunch.
  • If you have more time during your road trip you can make a few stops along the way to Colorado. First, you can stop at Zion National Park in Utah which is off the I-15 North. There are a lot of hiking trails and scenic views (Look for my post about Zion for more details). If you have time for another stop you can go the Arches National Park in Utah, just 26 miles South of the I-70. (I have never been there, but hope to soon). And lastly pull off and spend the day in Grand Junction instead of just passing through. They have about 18 wineries with beautiful scenic views and a lot of outdoor activities including hiking, fishing and white water rafting. (http://www.visitgrandjunction.com)
  • When in Colorado try an Elk burger. (I was too wimpy to try it and have a pretty weak stomach for anything other than chicken or steak, but I have heard that it is actually quite good.) As they say, when in Rome do as the Romans do – to clarify not all people in Colorado eat Elk, but as you approach the mountainous areas, you will see Elk on every menu.
Posted in Camping, Hiking, Road Trip, Travel, Vacations, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

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