a week in New York's Adirondack Park

We are back after spending a week at our favorite place to camp in New York's Adirondack Park. We were missing this area after skipping it last year because we used all of our vacation time on our big road trip. For this trip we stayed at Rollins Pond for 9 days and paddled our kayaks through several connected ponds right from our camp site. We had heavy rain for several days and nights that tested our ability to set awnings and tarps, but overall the weather was decent and we had a great time. While there we also climbed Mount Arab near the town of Tupper Lake, it's an easy climb to a fire tower with some amazing views for such a short hike. During this trip we also launched a new skin-on-frame style kayak that I've been building over the last few months.

12 volt system continued...

With the basic 12 volt system now working well I decided to go ahead and add a few more items tin order to take more advantage of of the expensive battery and power converter. I added a duplex cigarette lighter socket and a simple 120 volt inverter. With the addition of these two items we can now charge our various electronic gadgets and cameras as well as run a typical household fan when it hot. I had been shopping for a 12 volt fan and found that you could buy a low end inverter for less money and just use fans that we already had. The inverter can't handle large loads and can run the battery down pretty fast but it's already proven to be a really nice thing for only $25.- Also we are back from a trip camping without an electric hook-up and I am happy to report that the battery showed no sign of weakness at the end of the week.

Camping at Pymatuning at the Pennsylvania-Ohio border

We finally made it out camping this year. Just a quick weekend trip to the Pymatuning reservoir on the PA/OH border. We were going to a family reunion in a nearby town and stayed at a small state campground in Linesville, PA. Pymatuning it seems is mostly known for it's fish. Some folks catch fish there but most just feed them bread at the spillway which is a adjacent to a large state fish hatchery. If you are traveling through the area don't miss a stop at the spillway to see the place where the "ducks walk on the fish." The campground was not bad for a quick stop, but we found ourselves missing the woods. As for other trailers, not much to report back on. I did talk to one couple there who had a Shasta Compact back home that they were in the process of fixing up, and another guy who's parents have a Shasta that has been stored indoors for it's entire life and still has it's original tires.