Write-up: Meg Higgerson
Weekend Coordinators: Meg and Bill Higgerson

Rain, Rain, go away!!
We dodged raindrops and downpours until we determined we should postpone the kayak until 11 am. As the sky cleared, we moved kayaks to decrease the number of vehicles in each put-in. We had 2 kayak adventures on Saturday. Both adventures were new to the Tramps and new to NYS as this waterway was opened to the public in 2016.

COUNTY LINE FLOW: Six of us unloaded our kayaks and started to put in when again there was a downpour! We retreated to the woods to wait it out and finally started to board the boats. OOPS! Grace took an unintended swim!! Now we were finally on a paddle on this little lake with the loons calling to us. Lunch in the lily pads felt like we were on a green tablecloth or in a Monet painting. Soon we paddled up the inlet of Fishing Brook meandering around beaver houses and dams until we reached a dam that was a real obstacle. A fast paddle back and we heard the Fishing Brook group behind us.

FISHING BROOK: This group of 10 more adventurous paddlers waited out the downpour under a leaky bridge before heading up the Fishing Brook. They encountered numerous beaver dams and obstacles. With many in and outs and a slide down a mud chute, they finally reached the waterfall for lunch. The paddle back was speedy as the current was fast and COLD. Madonna was the person in this group to take a “swim” resulting in her being extremely cold and perhaps hypothermic! The group continued past their put-in and into County Line Flow, then paddled back to their vehicles.

THE HIKERS: The Deckers (leader and co-leader) had a group of 8 who met at the Adirondack Ecological Center. This being Newcomb’s world famous Summerfest Weekend, they soon learned that there was a tour of the facilities of the School of Environmental Science & Forestry
(ESF). They enjoyed visits to the Huntington Camp & Arbutus Lodge as well as learning of many of the research projects on ADK flora and fauna being carried on the 15,000 acre grounds. Did you know they found jelly fish in the ADKs?? By the way, this ten-mile “hike” involved transportation in the ESF van!!

COOK OUT at the HIGGERSONS: We had 24 people enjoy a delicious “Smorgasbord” of contributed dishes at the camp.

SUNDAY, JULY 16TH. THE TUPPER LAKE TRIAD
Nineteen Tramps started the Tupper Lake Triad. All participants were given the “application” for a patch which they could receive after climbing all 3 mountains ( total of 1830 elevation & 6 miles) On this warm and muggy day, we started at Coney which is 1.1 mile to the top. After enjoying the beautiful views, we returned to the cars where 15 if us continued on to Goodman Mountain. Again, beautiful views as we ate our lunch and then back to the cars. At this point, many decided to head home or to go back to their camp. Now 5 of us continued on to Mt Arab which has a fire tower.
On to the Raquette Lake Brewery to celebrate our 3 new Tupper Lake Triad members:
Pete Geiskopf, Tom Smith and Tom O’Hara.

One of the “courses” served up by Meg and Bill Higgerson on Newcomb weekend was reported by Margaret Decker:
Our group went to the interpretive Center at Newcomb Saturday July 15th. We had an opportunity to tour Huntington Lodge (small great camp) and nature walk.  it is part of SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry at the Newcomb campus.  We had a 10-mile guided tour to learn about 85 years of forest management. and heard about history of research on Huntington Wildlife Forest, very interesting.
Thank you Meg for a great weekend!