photo #4475957

What a weekend with Jayden and his friend from church, Nicky. Did my annual first of two summer whitewater rafting / camping weekends and frankly it was the best so far. Unfortunately I have to go far to find festive rapids as local adventures offer rather tame Class 1-2 rapids with a rare Class 3 rapid here and there. Last year we went to the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania and they were ok. Class 2 with some 3. Something to mention here: SAFETY! The Lehigh River adventure was through a company called Whitewater Challengers. There were safety guides the entire route and buoyancy vests were mandatory and enforced. The same company also runs two offices up north and I chose the Black River up by Dexter, NY, which empties into Lake Ontario on the eastern end. I had read the water is surprisingly warm for being so far north and the rapids are Class 3-4, which is pretty cool. Can get quite festive. So we left early Saturday morning for a 2pm run on the river. It’s almost a 4 hour ride and I wasn’t looking to be getting there exhausted from lack of sleep for the earlier runs!! Good idea as there were only two rafts for this “late in the day” run. Chose this weekend because it was one of the “dam opening” weekends which makes the rapids far more …festive… tsunami sort of festive!! On top of that, it was pouring rain all the way up from Sullivan County and continued to rain for a bit at the beginning of the river run, so water was thundering in from the street run off pipes on either side of the river as well as the natural inlets. This combination of the dam opening and the rain made for almost ALL Class 4 rapids on the route. It was truly something else. On our raft were us three, two young ladies from Pennsylvania, Robin and Lee, as well as the guide, Jacob. As the Black River can get, and did get, quite festive, everyone had to wear safety helmets along with the vests. It was easy to see why, once we flew over the first set of rapids!! The absolute and diligent attention to safety makes Whitewater Challengers the prime outfit to go with in this area. Let me tell you, the looks of joy on the boys’ faces always makes the work and expense that goes into my trips worth the effort. I can still remember the faces on the boys I took last year!!The Black River itself is a stunning image of stupendously beautiful nature! With its mighty walls of stone towering high on either side, it’s almost like one is meandering through the Grand Canyon, though not as high!! That coupled with the lush vegetation and towering trees growing everywhere including even out of cracks in those seemingly impenetrable walls of rock, made for a truly visually inspiring trip down the river. There’s also alot of history along the route and Jacob answered and explained every question which was asked. So once we were done with our most excellent, “epic” as per the boys, rafting adventure, it was time to drive to the campground I had pre-registered at by phone. UGH! When we got there it was wall to wall RVs!!! I always tent it as it’s far more fun for the kids and we were not going to set up camp surrounded by those monstrosities! I cancelled the registration and started calling around. It was either RVs, no answer or “we don’t take tents.” I was at the point of just trying to find a motel which was looking impossible since we were in the middle of nowhere! Luckily, the final place to call was a campground called “Up The Creek” Campground in Woodville, NY, and Bob, the proprietor answered the phone telling us tents were certainly welcome and they had an entire section for them far away from the RVs and next to a creek. So that’s where we went. Cheap too. $30 per night and the bathroom and showers were immaculately clean! And they sold firewood cheap as well! That was obviously a big plus. Getting there from the river was eerie as suddenly we were met by a wall of DENSE fog which we could barely see through much less drive through. The fog caused the air to become saturated and humid which of course attracted mosquitos. Had I thought of this in advance I would have sprayed the three of us with repellant while we were still in the truck. I did not and the second we opened the doors to get out, we were descended upon by a hoard of rabidly hungry teeny Spartan mosquitos! How did I know they were Spartans? As they divebombed every exposed area of skin, we could hear them squeak, “WE ARE SPARTANS!!” Besides, these were not normal mosquitos as they didn’t just leave bites, no, the little savages left huge welts on the three of us! Needless to say, I got the OFF on us as quickly as possible, but it was too late. They had already drained half our blood out and we were left feeling semi-shriveled!Where we were, we were surrounded by endless farms. Most appeared to be dairy farms and alot had yummy “Fresh Raw Milk” signs outside. Getting back to it, we should have realized there were no restaurants anywhere nearby. Not by a long shot 🤣🤣🤣. When I asked Bob for a decent restaurant, he looked at me and said, “you realize you’re in the middle of nowhere!!” But he did point us to a state beach on Lake Ontario which had a kitchen and small diner type eatery. Limited choices and typical burgers and pizza type fare. We headed there and stuffed ourselves as we were starving!After that we walked to the beach on Lake Ontario and touched the water just to be able to say we did. Then we headed back to camp. The boys spent the evening roasting marshmallows over the campfire, air drawing with fire (see pics) and chasing each other around with laser pistols (TOYS, FOR ANY RABID ANTI-GUN WHINERS) and me sitting by the fire sipping a brew. When they got tired of running around they came and sat with me and I shared stories of my global adventures from when I served in the US Navy.We bedded down at around midnight as we had to get up early for Mass next day being Sunday. I was laying by the entrance of the tent to protect the boys just in case and thank goodness I did that! They were sound asleep but I was still awake. I had left the panels over the screens in the tent open for the breeze and suddenly I hear something outside the tent walking near the entrance to the tent. I could see by the shadow on the side wall of the tent cast by the campfire that it appeared to be a small bear, and it was. We didn’t have any food or anything attractive to the beast in or near the tent but as a precaution and really not having any time to do anything else as it was almost at the entrance, I zipped up the panel to hide what/who was in the tent, hoping the bear would just walk on by. And he did. That was something else! Told the boys in the morning and they were annoyed that I didn’t wake them so they could share the experience 🤣🤣🤣. Anyway, next morning after washing up we ended up in Pierrepont Manor, NY, at a place called Robin’s Nest, for breakfast. It was nirvana! Typical hole in the wall rustic country mom and pop with its tiny dining area filled with regulars, and us! The food was outrageously yummy yet completely Americana. The boys ordered chocolate chip pancakes with bacon. These pancakes were an inch thick and at least ten inches in diameter. They were hearty! I had the eggs, bacon and home fries. Our server, Zoey, asked what bread I’d like and I started to say wheat when she interjected, would you like our homemade bread?” What else could I say but yes!! Good choice as it was superb and crisped just right.After breakfast we headed over to Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Henderson for Sunday Mass. After Mass said hi to the Pastor and met a fellow Knight of Columbus from that parish and then it was off to Syracuse to visit MOST, the Museum Of Science and Technology. The boys had a choice. Either a farm with a petting zoo type setup or the MOST. They unanimously chose MOST. Fascinating place and it’s all hands on and interactive. They had a blast in there.Then it was time to return home. We didn’t want to as there was so much to do up north, yet, alas, it was a requirement.And there it is.Link to whitewater video: https://vimeo.com/839837862