A dream home, that isn't ours.

Today our family was invited to a sort of house warming/Fall/Halloween party at a friend's new home on the shores of Lake Nockamixon.  When I looked up the address I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't realize just how good.

The long winding driveway is a sure giveaway to the treasure at the end of the road.  A new house with the important things, a lot of windows showing off the amazing views of their lake frontage.  They own roughly 11 acres of mostly open property with the new home perfectly positioned to view the wonderful lake.  They had a fire going, tons of food, views galore, sports on three televisions and my complete admiration.

I felt drawn to the water like I normally am, it's amazing how it feels with just the addition of water to a property can do for that property.

My wife and I had paddled past this property before, a friend of mine almost bought it, and thought how nice it'd be if we could have this kind of property to enjoy.  It's so beautiful and relaxing.  Although it wasn't as quiet as it is at our house, funny how that works.

Of course the kids were all over the place, checking out every inch of the property and the house, they rode on the hayride three times and played on the bounce house forever.

When it came time to leave it was like pulling teeth, the two little ones weren't ready to go just yet, but after serious negotiations.  After the yelling and screaming match was over, we made it down the road with apologies in tow.  I'll never understand why it's so hard for them to leave a place without the yelling and screaming, I know there's are other kids that put their parents through this kind of trouble but I wish, for once, my children were not one of them.

My new goals are going to be to get this house up to date, finished and enjoy it for a while.  In the meanwhile I'm going to plan my pursuit of my happy place, on the water, in the woods.

Our Daughter's First Backpacking Trip

becomes a
Well the "Nothing Before Ten" gang was at it again with our latest adventure in the wonderful woods of Pennsylvania Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.  This is the first real adventure with my new Wrangler and it was a fun first trip out.  We left a little later Saturday morning due to a gathering with friend's at a local park, which was nice, as usual trying to fit everything in the weekend as possible.  We headed up to the Loyalsock Trail and specifically, Sone's Pond.

Our son has been backpacking with us before, my wife and I took him when he was one to the Pinchot Trail.  It was hotter than hot and probably not the best hike to take with a little one in tow.  But it worked out and he was happy for the most part.  For some reason a trip with our daughter took more time to schedule, she's an October baby and it never felt like the right time to haul her out without the weather and schedules getting in the way.  Well my wife decided that we've been waiting long enough and scheduled it so that it'd be on the calendar and we'd have little choice to change it.

So the weekend was upon us, the weather perfect and we threw as little as we could into our packs and got on the road after the park.  It was a beautiful drive with the Freedom panels off of the Jeep and blue skies above.  The kids we're happily chatting away, which eventually lead to napping and reminding me about how long a road trip to where we were going really felt.  It was a lot longer than I remembered.

We turned off the pavement and headed down the forest road towards the Sone's Pond parking area.  Stephanie was more than happy that her side of the Jeep wasn't on the edge where the drop off was, down into the ravine.  Few things compare with driving through the woods with the top off and the trees going past overhead.  The feeling is freedom in a sense, you're almost part of nature when you can look up, as opposed to just side to side and front to back.  We didn't see any neat bird life this trip, but the trees were enough.

We arrived at our location, let the dogs out of their confines from the Jeep and let the kids explore.  Which brings up an interesting point.  I love the kids exploring, it's one of the things I want most for my kids.  I want them to get out, get dirty, explore the grasses and the woods, look under the rocks and swim in the lakes.  However this also brings me great frustration and concern.  I find myself NOT being happy that they're exploring, cause it's careless, sometimes dangerous and often I feel as though they're destroying more as opposed to exploring.  Stephanie reminds me often, to just let them be... something which is almost impossible for me to comprehend.  However, I'll keep trying to get them out and maybe, with time, I'll be more comfortable with their level of exploring and they'll come around as well to where they're exploring more with the intent of learning, as opposed to rock throwing, etc.

While they played and had a snack, I divided and conquered the gear mess in the back of the Jeep and got us ready for our short walk.  Steven and the dogs lead the way, which we thought was the way, which turned out to be the way after a few doubtful map checks.  Steven happily pointed out the path off the forest road was "here", and down we went.  It was only about a mile, maybe less, but the smell of the pines and the feeling of being unplugged and in the woods was quickly taking over and IT FELT GOOD.

Now came the most stressful moments of camping for me, the setup.  I find myself trying to keep an eye out for ever moment of the kids ways and try, TRY , to keep calm while they go through bring nice to each other, minding their own business and fighting like siblings.  I try to get the kids involved in setting up the tent, I try.  They want to, all for about 30 seconds, then it
becomes a fight as to who's doing what and then standing on the tent, to the point of almost damaging our only shelter.  When it comes time to cache firewood, no one is around... it seems routine every time firewood needs to be collected, my kids vanish.

My wife was soaking up the pond and the sun's rays coming off of it, the kids were doing their best to make me concerned in my mind as to what they're doing, how they're going to break something and that they've secretly plotted against me to make this as stressful as possible.  I made the mistake of setting up my beloved hammock and they climb in, both promise me that they'll behave, which they don't.  Being fearful that it'll be destroyed, I threw them out and put it away.  Which only turned them more on me, mutiny was right around the corner.

With things in place and sun heading towards the horizon, Rowdy found his spot in the pine needles and we got a small campfire going.  We had a small dinner, Lucy huddled as close to the fire as possible while I'm concerned about the fire getting into the nearly tinder dry leaves all around. 

While you'd think the kids would be worn out some, from the walk and the exploring, you'd be wrong... well or Amanda anyway.  You know it's bad when Steven says, "Amanda it's time to go to sleep, I'm trying to sleep."  We all curled into our sleeping bags, had to hold Amanda down while the last of her energy burned out with the remaining embers of the campfire and with the stars above and the cool night setting in, we were off to sleep.

We awoke to more sunshine and plenty of warmth.  We got up, packed up and headed towards the Loyalsock trailhead and the waterfalls at the trailhead parking lot.  A very nice, and steep, hike down the trail with the rushing creek to our side, we came to the top of the falls and the creepy tunnel the water ran through.  We had a wonderful snack and did some fun exploring and took plenty of photos, headed back up to the trail, marched our way through the muck and the mire of the railroad grade trail for about a mile and then made our way back to the trailhead up a very steep trail back to the Jeep.  Stephanie and I took turns carrying Amanda because her legs were "too tired".  Steven marched his way along, sometimes running, sometimes complaining, but moving in the right direction.

We headed on our way home, only to stop and do a  brief detour at another dirt road that had a large sign outside saying 60 acre lake for sale.  We went down the trail with no big tada at the end, there was another huge sign which we called without an answer.  Left a message without ever hearing back from them.

Off to dinner we went at one of our favorites, PJ Whelahan's.

With a tired crew we headed home. The kids and Stephanie were asleep fast enough.  It was a fun little experience, but as usual, there's things I should learn from for the future trips.

Getting out while the getting is good...

This week my wife and I planned a night to get out and go for a bike ride before the winter sets in, but when?  The time never seems right and there's always soooo much to do to just get going on the bike ride.  First I have to get all the bikes out, fill the tires (they always seem to be eternally empty), get out the bike trailer which is falling apart at the seems, literally, and either needs to be replaced or rebuilt Tim the Tool Man style.

So we decided Friday, today, would be the day that we'll get the go.  And everything seemed to be working in our favor.  My mother was going to keep the kids and go to a farm to pick out some pumpkins and then we were going to go on our own, only two bikes!  It turned out to be not meant to be as my mom's car battery bit it, surprisingly started right up when she was ready to leave the kids with us and return to her sanctuary of her own home.  So I thought the plan was on hold, I made it home and then I find my wife in "Sporty Barbie" mode, workout attire from head to toe and ready to go.  This kicked my desire to bike into overdrive and we scurried to get everything together and off before we lost the light of the ever fading fall evening.

To the lake we go, as my son complains that he doesn't want to go to this park, because it's stupid and boring.  When asked where he wanted to go, he retorted that he wanted to go to the park with the parking lot that had the tall grass and the small fence, "don't you remember Dad?"  Indeed I did, especially since we were on our way there as it was.  As I pulled into the parking lot, he said, "yeah... here", like he pointed me in the right direction.  He can have this victory if it makes him feel better.

The last of the days light

We unpacked and mounted our bikes, ready for the ride.  But how far?  The sun was getting close to setting off in the horizon and we had to be out by dusk.  We made our way down the leaf riddled path, winding through the woods as the sun shimmered off the lake nearby.  The smell?  Amazing.  The best part of Fall is in the air and there's a surprisingly large amount of leaves already on the ground.  As we crunched down the path, the kids complaints left and the wonder of nature set in.  They noticed the leaves, the trees and the few deer we passed on the way.

We turned the corner, crossed the bridge as the sun was telling us that we weren't going to make it around the lake and we headed a little further down the path, right at where the big hill reminded us even more persistent to turn around and enjoy what we can with our remaining light.

We stopped at the bridge to see if we could see any turtles, but they were all home eating their dinner (begs to ask, where do turtles go at night?)  The kids noticed several birds bathing themselves and we ran down the bridge walls a few times.

As the light left, we hopped back on our bikes and headed for the Jeep.  Stephanie and Steven got a head start on Amanda and I, but we caught up very fast and the sound of Steven laughing and watching him try to pedal harder to keep the lead was worth it.

We did two miles in total when it was all said and done before the day was done.  Steven asked, "what are we going to do/go next?"  I swear, he's more me every moment than I can handle.  One of these days I have to teach him to enjoy the moment in front of you and not worry about where we're going to next.  Something I need to learn myself.

Getting the itch.......in a good way.

It's Fall and the best time of year, around here anyway, to do any kind of backpacking and camping.  Sure it's a touch cold on some nights, more importantly the mornings, but it's worth it.  The lack of crowds and bugs, it makes it more doable.

However, since I only have one trip set to happen for sure (annual brothers camping trip), there aren't more in the immediate future.  So I have to look forward.  My son wants to go to Maine again to see the place with the trampoline in the water, I don't blame him because it was a neat place to see, but there are so many other places, how do you repeat once place in lieu of trying another place that might be even more amazing?  That's a question my wife and I have time to decide about.

That thought brings up the thought of all the other places we'll never get to see or explore.  That is depressing!  I sit in this chair at my desk, trying to figure out a way to get to these new places but unless the lotto comes through, there's no way for me to get to do that without disowning my family and being poor.  Not something I want to do.  I guess the only solution is to do as much as you can, whenever you can and for as long as you can.  You can only do what you can do, right?

Sometimes I'm fine with that thinking and other times I hate the very thought of it.

In the next few years I hope to put several miles on my tired of sitting at my desk sore legs.  I love being in the woods.  I love being up on an exposed rock top, wind blowing by my ears, the sun sneaking through the cold and the wind.  It's an extraordinary feeling, once I miss almost every day.

So with the new job comes a new search for where the next year will take our family on the road, although local places are great, they're just that, local and mostly easy to access.  We can do them any time.

Here's to planning your adventures.

A Walk thru Ivyland and a Walk Thru Time

Ivyland (Borough) is a small town in Bucks County, PA.  The Borough itself is a historical place, with many of the homes over 100 years old and in very nice condition.  There are tree lined streets with sidewalks flat with the street and no curbs.  The speed limit is 25 everywhere, but there's barely any traffic.  Most homes have slate roofs and some form of barn that is as old as the homes, complete with sliding doors and just the appropriate amount of wear and tear patina they deserve.  The train runs through the edge of town, right where it goes from being a quaint little borough to a modern industrial park, complete with offices, traffic, noise and full parking lots.

As I am almost halfway through my last week of work at my current employer I went for a nice walk through the borough.  The leaves crinkling underfoot, the smell of many variety of old trees and old houses wafting through the air set the scene.  You'd never know you were a quarter mile from a very busy state road and three-quarters of a mile to a major, four lane, state road.  It's very quiet, weirdly quiet.

I have walked through this little place many times in the past almost nine years, and it always feels the same.  It feels like I have walked through a timewarp, I'm in a town that as a child I never stepped foot in but the feel and the air make me feel like I'm walking back in time, through a memory.  For my childhood neighborhood had trees nearby with the same smells and leaves as this town.  There were only new homes in my neighborhood, with the exception of a few, and those houses smelled just like this whole borough.  The smell of the leaves I think is the part that directly drives me back to my elementary school days, the smell of fall always drives me back to that time period.  I almost feel like no one is there, anywhere.  It's as if nothing else existed outside of this small town and my walk through it.

I'd walk home from school a lot then, it feels a lot like my walks though Ivyland, which I think is why I feel so close to the place.  It's so hard to explain the feeling, it feels like my childhood home but I know it isn't.  Between the silence and the ever so random falling leaves, it feels like time has almost stopped.  It always makes me think of so many things, life, where I am in it, adventure, home, family, holidays, being a kid, playing in a local park, being able to walk to a local store or your friends house without an ounce of concern about how far you were going because they were within four blocks.  It makes me think of snow storms that would bury these homes and being inside them, warmed by a fire, the smell of an old home, looking out weathered windows.  I feel holiday dinners, with all the tradition and fanfare, but none of the department store bullshit.  Just family, food and a warm comfortable home filled with love.

I think it's the changing of the seasons that does this to me, it's just just where I am, it's the season in general.  It's the bringing the end of a year, the end of a fruitful season filled with outside fun and sunshine.  It's time to stock up the firewood, get out the blankets, build a fire and sit with loved ones in front of it while it crackles through the cold night.

I am very much looking forward to the cold nights ahead, nights spend cozy on the couch or bundled up outside watching the stars on a cold, crisp and quiet night.

Family Road Trip to Maine to New York to PA... Cabin to Tenting...

Chillin' at LL Bean

We normally do not do a week straight vacation, mostly because we like to take a lot of longer weekend trips and space out our vacation time.  But this year, we started out that way, only doing four days in New York's Adirondack's then it turned into my wife wanting to go to Maine again and we filled out the first part of the week enjoying some unplugged time in Maine.  Going through Canada was just an interesting experience in itself.

We left for Maine Sunday night, arriving at the LL Bean mother ship around 10:00 am.  We got out stretched, returned my wife's boots and checked out some things.  Many people aren't LL Bean fans, but I do love some of their stuff and that there's just so much outdoors stuff to be seen.  We spent some time there, my wife picked out new boots (they didn't have them in stock) and had a so-so Lobsta roll and made our way to our destination, a remote Sporting Camp near Jackman, ME, known as Bulldog Camps.

Weather for the trip up was perfect, blue skies and nice temps.  Traffic was light and we made pretty good time getting there.  There's something about driving down roads where there's almost no buildings and when you see a for sale sign, that call out 70 acres, it makes me feel good.

We arrived down a long forest road, first impression was the view was outstanding.  A large. beautiful lake and mountains were laid out before us.  Quiet as can be.  Weather wasn't staying super nice but it was certainly plenty nice.  My son couldn't wait to get into the cabin, he asked us almost immediately, "where's the TV?"  I took him on the front porch, nature splayed out before him for miles, and I said, "here is your TV".  Tacky, maybe, but he got the point.  Never asked once.  We spent out time there paddling the lake for hours, checking out the remote cabin, the massive rock slides, the crystal clear lake and searching for Moose and Loon.  We swam, enjoyed delicious dinners and happily stayed unplugged occupying ourselves with time spent together.  There were times when we'd irritate each other, but they were over quickly.  The kids explored, we included, a hike to hidden falls over a magically bridge was taken.  My son and daughter practiced fishing with their first fishing rods.  He was getting very good and very proud of himself.  My 2-year old daughter did very well also, but will be better next year.  This is the first time we ever took the dogs, mostly because they weren't allowed and it's hard to travel with them and the kids.  They had a blast and were very good.  They're both great camp dogs and my kids bonded more with them more than they ever have.

Our First Humble Abode

The "Remote" Camp...

View From the Dock

The dog is excited...

 As you can see, Maine is amazing.  There were only three Loon's that blessed us with their calls in the evenings but it was still nice.  Some camps I've been to the Loon's keep you awake at night, but it's a nice kind of awake.

Off to Canada, car problems, and eventually New York.

First time for Wife and Kids

America is Popular

Her sleeping routine

 

 

 

 

Me being the Semi Kayak hauling System

After driving with car problems, through Canada (beautiful BTW), we made it to Forked Lake in New York's Adirondack's.  It's a beautiful place, if you get the chance, go.  It's a boat-in/hike-in place, with most sites only boat in access. It's beautiful wilderness and people love and respect the area.  The site we reserved, was a mess, no water access and I'm sure the bugs were going to be horrible because of the marsh/bog like area in front of the site.  I paddled back, asked the caretaker for another site with a beachy area, for the kids, and he obliged with a nice site across from our reserved site.  Had a nice dock and small beach access.

When nature calls...

Room with a view...

More to come...

In the rain at the lake

We're on the edge of Memorial Day weekend.  A weekend dedicated to remember all those brave men and women who fought and sometimes gave it all so that we would have our freedom that most cherish so dearly.

For most of the day all I could think about was getting out of work and getting home to see my family.  I had enough and was ready for some time outdoors with them.  Mother Nature has been a fickle lady this year, a rough winter for those who don't like the cold and snow and a very wet Spring with several major rain events.  But with the sun shining, even so briefly, we headed to the lake.  We grabbed some dinner from the best place around and headed off.  As the clouds moved in, we got to what normally is an insanely busy part of the lake.  But I guess the cool temps and the threatening rain scared all but several brave souls away from the lake.  We were one of three cars in the parking lot, a young family was trying to get out on the lake for a quick kayak ride before the weather kicked in.  I warned them about the impending monsoon coming but they rushed off and got a few moments in on the water.  While we ate in the comfort of the truck, he packed up the kayak and wished he listened to me, his words, not mine.

We noticed what might have been a brief window of clear weather on the radar and we were off to the next place.  We got out and had twenty minutes of cool, but dry time playing by the lake.  There were only three other cars in that lot, a couple of people trying to get their boats in before the storm and a few casting from the shore.  It's not the far off destination I dream about often, but it's all I need for a short, quick fix.  Watching my kids enjoy the simple pleasure of getting their feet wet, throwing sticks to our eager dogs and eventually tossing small pebbles into the water was all I needed for my day to end on a great note.  The only thing better was them asking to go to another lake... I only wish I could oblidge.

Like the saying goes, all good things come to an end, the rain kicked in, we packed up and headed off.