We have a friend with an ultralight. As a Christmas present for Kathryn I arranged for him to give her a ride in the ultralight. Last night she flew. Eric and I watched the preparations and take off and then took off for home. Part of the plan was to fly over our property and Kathryn got some nice pictures of our pasture and ponds.

Arriving from the East towards our barn and house.

Right overhead looking down at the house and barn. If you have superior eyesight you can see Eric, the blue dot next to barn waving…..

Looking down at the house and deck.

They were up in the air about 45 minutes and also captured a nice view of the sunset.

Kathryn said the take off made her a little nervous as the ultralight was swaying a bit. Once in the air she said it was great. Although they approach a landing at less than 30 mph and land within 15 feet she said the landing seems fast.

Friday I picked Skip up at 2pm and we drove to Piseco to put in on Fall Stream for an overnight camping trip. I had heard there were issues with leaving cars overnight at the put in and so left my car at Piseco Airport located about .5 from the put in. I know one person in Piseco, Tony Colby, and he drove by as I was walking back to the canoe. Tony was accompanied by his two schnazer dogs and our chat was brief.

We were on the water at 3:30 and at Fall Lake 30 minutes later. We had several rain showers as we paddled. I donned my rain coat for the 1st hard down pour, but embraced the cooling showers thereafter. There was only one hard rain that caused us to pull under a hemlock tree for a little protection.

Above Fall Lake we encountered a few beaver dams that required exiting the canoe and lifting over. The photo below looks SW and depicts the relationship of Piseco Lake in the background, the airport on the right with Fall Lake in the foreground and Fall Stream draining towards Piseco Lake.

We arrived at Vly Lake at 5pm and surveyed the two campsites along the north side of Vly Mtn. Both had a nice view of the lake, but were markedly different. The eastern most campsite had a fireplace and two areas cleared and leveled to accommodate solo tents. Unfortunately, i had brought my Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3 person trip on it’s maiden voyage and needed more space.

The western most campsite had been “improved”. It had a an old canvas chair, a gas barbeque grill sans the gas tank, two flag poles, a half buried 5 gallon bucket (clean and 1/3 full of water), and a lot of garbage.

The last residents had left a smoldering fire and left toilet flowers all over the woods. They had cut a large spruce tree off at 4′ that was apparently obscuring their view and dropped it into the lake. They dumped crackers on the ground, burned their cans in the fire and dumped beans on the ground. We ended up taking 2 grocery bags of trash out with us on Saturday.

All this aside, Vly Lake was beautiful. It was hot, hazy and still as the sun set and the bugs (mosquitos, deer flies and gnats) were swarming. Skip went swimming while I cooked dinner: corn bread using my Outback Oven and Spanish Rice with tomatos, onions, peppers and hamburger. Dinner was one of my better meals.

While Skip washed dishes I went swimming and washed off the sweat, sun screen and bug dope. Although it was a full moon and bright the overcast kept the moon from being seen by us. We turned in at 10pm.

Vly Lake offers some interesting side activities such as fishing, hunting, and trapping. Fish species present in the lake are Lake Trout, Landlocked Salmon, and Smallmouth Bass. You will need a trout spinning rod or a fly rod to catch trout. You can couple your rod with a lightweight reel and nylon monofilament line. One nice feature of the Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3is the amount of mesh on the tent. We slept with the sides open and had a nice cross breeze through the night despite recurring light rain sprinkles. During the night we heard a owl close overhead.

We awoke at 7. Within minutes after arising we could hear rain coming across the adjoining woods and across the lake. We packed the tent in a hurry and donned our rain coats. 10 minutes later the rain passed and we had coffee and breakfast.

At 8pm we paddled over to explore Mud Lake which was interesting, but didn’t offer any opportunities to exit a boat.

Our paddle out was uneventful. We arrived back in Piseco in time for me to walk into the airport along with the finishers of the Piseco Triathalon. Once loaded up Skip & I did a scouting trip on nearby Fawn Lake and returned home.

Sunday we went to BHA Hunter Show and Eric went in Lead line Equitation and Lead line Suitability versus his buddy Trevor, and two 2 year old girls: Trevor’s sister Maggie and Andrea’s Julia.

Rachael holds the horse and Eric keeps a hand on Maggie. Everyone was happy that Maggie stayed awake this time. In a show a month earlier Maggie fell asleep in the warm sunshine as she was being led into the class despite Rachael and Eric’s best attempts to keep her awake.

Below our neighbor Andrea holds 30 year old Katie, who holds two year old Julia. Julia was ready to rock & roll- she kept telling Andrea ‘RIDE’ while waiting for the class. The judge asked Julia what her number was (a three digit exhibitor number pinned to her back) and Julia patted the mare and said ‘KATIE’. In the Lead Line Suitability class (where the horse was judged), the 30 year old Katie took 1st place. Good for her.

Below Eric shows a smile (and missing teeth) during one of the laps around the ring on Onyx.

Eric got a 2nd prize in equitation – a red ribbon and a coloring/sticker book.

It starting raining as we finished our classes. We posed quickly for the picture below and then beat feet. They ended up canceling the rest of the Hunter Show.

We went camping last Friday-Saturday at Soft Maple and returned on Saturday evening. There are several attractions at Soft Maple. One is the large sand hill which the boys climb,

and then roll down.

Needless to say the end result is a lot of accumulated sand on the participants which then requires cleaning. There is a small beach and swim area that the boys enjoyed.

There are also several short hikes to nearby waterfalls which offered opportunities to climb around on the rocks (and throw sticks and rocks into the stream).

Later that night we cooked hot dogs and salmon patties over the fire. Here Eric and Trevor share a chair by the fire.

And later at night the boys roasted (burnt) marshmallows for a good sugar fix before bedtime.

Everything went well except that Trevor fell out of the camper during the night and Kathryn had a conniption. She went to check on the boys and he wasn’t in the bed. We did a search and found him sitting on the ground outside half asleep! He had squirmed between the bed and the canvas side of the pop-up and ended up on the ground. Funny now, but we were in full panic mode for a few minutes.

As we were packing up to leave on Saturday night Trevor reached into the fire place to pick up a stone and burned his thumb and fingers badly. He cried like a banshee until he fell asleep on the ride home. Like I said – it went well…..