In 2025 we continued to do a bunch of weekend trips using the Avion, primarily in the Finger Lakes region of New York and also in Massachusetts. Again this year we made use of Harvest Hosts, and we had our first Cracker Barrel overnight which worked well for us due to location.
We also did an extended trip to Vermont and New York's Adirondacks. While in Vermont we attended a family wedding and were able to camp right on the venue's wooded property for several nights. We then took the Avion on the Ferry across Lake Champlain to New York and spent time camping in a few different locations in the Adirondack Park. On this trip we took our pair of "nesting" pack canoes with us. I built these canoes specifically to fit inside the Avion so we can take boats with the truck camper without putting them on the roof. These boats are to a design by Brian Schultz from Cape Falcon Kayak who developed a variable system for building skin-on-frame construction canoes where you can vary the boats dimensions and shape to suit your needs. These small 12' pack canoes are super lightweight, weighing only 18lbs each, and one nests inside the other so they only take up the space of one boat when traveling. One of the places that we paddled was at the Great Camp Santanoni where we hired a horse drawn shuttle service from Newcomb Farms to haul our boats out the lake at the camp as the only other option was to carry them 9 miles round-trip. While we only spent one day on this excursion it was a great experience, if you are interested in doing this take a tent and spend a night or two at one of the campsites on the lake.
We also attended 3 vintage camper rallies this year, one in Little Valley NY, one in East Aurora NY, and one near Geneva NY. We've been attending rallies like this with our Shasta and Avion for 20 years and really enjoy spending time with old and new friends in the vintage camper community.
