Note: This is the blog for Wednesday, August 3.
Had a pretty good night’s sleep and woke after 10a — something I never got away with when I was a kid up at Indian Lake. Ate some of the crumble cake we bought in Vermont the day before for breakfast then grabbed Addison for a walk up Jerry’s Rock.
Jerry’s Rock is a ledge to the north of the road entering camp that looks over the farm from which Camp Sabael’s fifty acres was bought back in the late 1800s. It is a very brief climb entered via the adjacent camp through some woods, emerging onto the ridge. The trail isn’t nearly as clear as it used to be and we strayed a few times but it’s pretty darn hard to get lost on such a short walk.
Trail up to Jerry's Rock
The ridge is rocky with gray lichen and wild blueberry bushes scattered about. When we were kids my brother and I would dream of harvesting the lichen (we didn’t, though, calm down Al Gore!) and using it to construct our train set’s woods. The view was once quite good — affording views of the farm’s house, a pond (appropriately enough called “Jerry’s Pond”) and the mountains beyond — is not what it once was. Not that that is a bad thing, as it means that the woods have matured and obscured much of it, but it does explain the trail not being used as much as it once was. Regardless, Addison and I really enjoyed wandering along the ridge, taking care to step on rock and less on the plants, so as to preserve it for future visitors. Everything seemed a bit dry and Addison decided to give this really neat pine sapling a bit of water from his water bottle. We also saw quite a bit of deer poop and other evidence of wildlife — including lots of biting insects, grrrr.
View from Jerry's Rock
Old barn near entrance to Camp Sabael
We walked back to camp and swung by the flagpole cliff, running into some of the Gotts. They nicely invited us to row out to Baldface for a lunch-time climb but we politely declined. Addison was itching to swim before lunch and I knew that Genetta wasn’t feeling so great so couldn’t go with us. Plus I was feeling a bit under the weather with my chest cold / coughing thang.
View from Flagpole Point
Shortly after Addison and I went for our first swim in the lake since arriving. The “diving board” wasn’t set up so Addison and I tried to drag it into position. It was a bit too heavy for him, and far too heavy for me alone, so I decided to try just jumping off the ledge that the diving board normally inhabited. The water is quite deep at this point as the rocks go vertical into the lake about 10′ before evening out. I touched bottom, only barely, so decided it was safe for Addison and I. In addition to diving we swam down to the “cove”, an area where the rocks form a horseshoe shape and the sandy floor is only about four or five feet deep. We relaxed and played with the waves left by the infrequent passing motorboat. Addison was at first freaked out about the “nibblers” — the tiny (1″ to about 3″) rock bass that have been nipping at swimmers’ toes for decades — but soon grew accustomed to them.
We returned to camp for lunch on the deck with Michelle and Genetta. We had fruit (blueberries, mainly), cookies (Chips Ahoy!), and some chips, along with water to drink. Nothing elaborate, as we were doing our best to not have to deal with cooking, refrigeration, or dishes.
One of the fireplace mantles at Gray Rock
Right after lunch Addison, Michelle, and I went back down to the lake to swim. Michelle found the lake a bit cold at first (and it is, but it doesn’t take long to get used to) and Addison was amazed at how sharp the cut-off between pretty warm water about a foot or so down and cold water further down was. It being a deep glacial lake it definitely never warms up very far from the surface. Michelle retold several stories she had read the night before to Addison while we relaxed and enjoyed the telling. Addison, in a moment of … heck, I don’t know what … decided to toss his goggles into the water and swim to them — before he had tested if they actually floated. They disappeared. Luckily, however, he did find them very slowly sinking a few minutes later. Whew!
After swimming we got ready to go out for dinner. We tried Marty’s Chili Nights, a “Mexican” restaurant in town. It wasn’t that great. The server was very nice, though, and in retrospect I don’t know why I expected anything from the place. To say that there are precious few of Hispanic origin in upstate New York is an understatement. I don’t think the proprietors had the frame of reference, experience, or whatever required to make tasty Mexican food. And it wasn’t cheap. Oh well, partly our bad, I suppose.
We chased the taste out of our mouths by going to Ice Cream Garden a short walk away. It wasn’t bad at all. I had “The Adirondack” — maple sugar, cream, maple syrup on top of a choice of ice cream — in this case coffee with fudge. I know, sounds disgusting, but I liked it. Genetta had an enormous banana split (and ate about 25%), Addison a coffee milkshake (that’s mah boy!), and Michelle a chocolate sundae.
Drove around looking for the dump as we’d need it when we leave the cabin for good. The area we were driving through was swampy and it was dusk so I hoped beyond hope that we’d see moose. No such luck. Returned to the cabin, Genetta turning in for the night (still not feeling great), while Addison and I played one of his DS games and Michelle read.