Write-up: Mary Pat Connors
Leader: Mary Pat Connors
Co-Leader: Kathy Countryman

THE PRE-TRIP
The hike that was scheduled was Indian Lake to John Mack Trail. Since neither of us had paddled Indian Lake before, my trusty co-leader and I dutifully set out to check out this kayak.
Navigating this huge body of water was not as easy as it looked on the map. Neither of us felt the map accurately depicted the locations of the the bays and islands. We happily explored, doing much more kayaking than we had expected. We finally found the correct bay, island and trail. This trail was not difficult, but took us 2 hours through beautiful but bug-ridden forest. There was a beached rowboat available for exploring the pond, but nowhere to sit and enjoy the view. If we had, we probably would have been eaten alive. Not the gem of an Adirondack pond I was hoping to find.
The day’s efforts were rewarded with the sighting of a bald eagle, mother and baby ducklings, and loons.
The entire trek however, was VERY long, and we decided to first cancel the hike portion, then in the interest of time and energy, change the destination to Lewey Lake.

LEWEY LAKE
After a Keystone Cop scenario involving leaders going the wrong way and a flailing boat, 12 of us took to the waters on a warm, beautiful day. There is an easy put-in at the Lewey Lake Camprgound. The circuit around the lake and side-trip down the Miami River seemed to be just the perfect length. We decided not to attempt going over the first beaver dam on the river, rationalizing that there would just be more ahead.

We had our lunch in our boats and then went on to finish our loop.The trip left us time to enjoy the beach and swimming.

We topped the day with liquid refreshments at the Oxbow.