4 Camping Paintings!

Our annual volunteer appreciation trip was this weekend!

I was one of the organizers, so I went up on Thursday and came back today, Sunday.

It was a good stretch of time to be away. I had a great time but was ready to be home, and I missed my cats.

My hammock was amazingly comfy!

All paintings are 6x8 oil, and my brushes are dead!

My Belly River box also needs some maintenance.

It is such a good old friend, going strong now for 16 1/2 years!

A few assorted pics...

My hammock is so incredibly comfortable!

I dont know why hammock interior pics always come out red. 
My hammock is green, I guess the camera can't handle the bouncing light or something.

Summer Camp & Paint!

Whoa, I went away again this weekend... this summer has been a LOT of small trips, and I have... THREE more coming up.... including next weekend for whitewater rafting!

It's fun but also a bit overwhelming, I'm not used to going away so much!

Aimee, Anthia and I went up to Harriman for a chill relaxing camping weekend.

I brought my hammock.

Our campsite was...flooded with children.

Many small children.

So many of them.

They were cute, and it's really good for them to be out in the woods, but they were... so noisy the way kids are, CONSTANTLY.

Everywhere I went... those same children showed up. Every-fucking-where.

Like they had velcro-radar or something.

If I went to the bathroom.... they were there.

If I went to the campsite... they were there.

If I went to the dock.... they were there too.

If I went to the pavilion... you get the idea.

We could NOT get a break from those kids.

There was no such thing as "quiet" all weekend.

They didn't do anything wrong (except the one who watched Anthia in her tent while she was changing) and they are good kids but they were just so constantly LOUD.  

It really grated on my nerves and now that I'm home I'm feeling the need to pull back and get some quiet.

Painting 1, 6x8 oil

(Yes the children ended up in the pavilion where I was painting.)

Painting 2, 

I had to escape down the camp road. No children there. It was blessedly quiet.

Anthia did see a bear over there, but I decided to not worry about it. I did not see the bear but maybe he saw me and just left me alone....

6x8 oil

The quiet did me a lot of good and what I needed....a break.

We went swimming (the children were there) and while drying off, I did another painting.

6x8 oil

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Fun assorted camping pics!

We always eat really well when camping.

Boofers!

This weekend was our whitewater kayaking trip on the Lehigh River, hosted by KCCNY, the Kayak & Canoe Club of NY.

Oh my gosh.

It was SO fun!

On Saturday we had theory and drills for river safety- defensive swimming, wet exits, boat-dancing to practice hip snaps, crossing eddies, ferrying, learning about reading the river. 

It RAINED ALL DAY.

Seriously, it was so, so cold. Aside from the cold rain, the day was awesome.

We had a good campfire back at camp with everyone.

Camp pics & boat fitting:

My tent.... i did miss my hammock but the tent was fine.

My tent was mostly water-proof, except around one edge.

We all thought the dry spot underneath was funny.

Aimee did bring her hammock.

On Sunday we did a for-reals river trip. It was all Class 1, with 1 bit of Class 2 rapids at the end... they call it "graduation rapids". In the morning before lunch we practiced ferrying, high bracing, and low bracing. 

We learned the pry stroke, which is used to move sideways. 

I have a particular bad habit to use a reverse stroke to turn sharply, which isn't good because you do lose all your speed momentum.

That's not good on the river!
So I need to really get in the mindset of doing a forward sweep instead- which of course is more difficult. I can do a good sweep stroke, but I need to practice. It's like we learned this whole vocabulary of strokes and maneuvers- but practice is what brings the fluency and proper use. 

But I'm a rank beginner, so it's ok.

However- I BOOFED A ROCK!

I was SO EXCITED about this!

And Jason- one of the instructors- said my eddy crossing was "sick"... I know it was good, but also I think I had some beginners' luck!

We divided into 2 teams after lunch.

At lunch there were meat sticks for the meat-inclined people- and there was much talk about the love of meat sticks from the people who... love them.

One of our instructors is named John.

And I guess earlier there was a joke where someone said "Do you need a hand, John?" but it was..... mis-heard, to much laughter.

And that's how we got to be Team Meat Stick and Team Hand John.

Despite being veg, I was proud to be on Team Meat Stick!

Team Meat Stick:

Team Hand John:

The class picture:

Whitewater kayaking is very, very different than the sea kayaking I am used to.

Some of the skills are transferrable though, and I was glad to have previous kayaking experience... otherwise I think I would have been overwhelmed.

There were people in the class who were brand new to kayaking, and they did well, which was impressive. It's not easy and there is a very high level of physical stamina.

This is something I definitely want to do again. 

It really was awesome.

Ponkapoag!

This weekend Aimee and I went to MA to do a 2-day map/compass hiking navigation class.

We took Amtrak to Boston and rented a car.

From there we drove to our tent site at AMC Ponkapoag.

We were right on the water, which was very pretty.

We brought tents instead of hammocks this time.

A few things about Ponkapoag:

1. You have to snail-mail a check plus paper registration form to book the site.

(I did this back in April)

2. There is no potable water.

3. The Spang tent site where we camped is next to a hiking trail and everyone will just hike right through your tent site, even though they aren't supposed to. And they will stay in your tent site to look at the water- even while you are cooking your dinner and brushing your teeth....

4. The airplanes overhead going to and from Logan are INSANELY LOUD AND NONSTOP until very late at night.

5. We were not allowed to have a campfire because of the wind and also a drought.

6. The pond is absolutely amazing.

7. After a sweaty grubby day in the woods, swimming in the pond left me feeling surprisingly clean and refreshed, almost as good as an actual shower!

8. A Squirrel Friend joined us for most of our meals.

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I did 2 paintings of Ponkapoag Pond, both 6x8 oil;

My Belly River Box, sitting on the fire pit........

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Because of a lot of wind plus a drought, we were not allowed to bring a campfire.

This brought a whole new meaning to I'M SO GLAD I BROUGHT MY JET BOIL!!!

Seriously it saved me.

So... three nights of camping and we cooked all of it on our camp stoves.

Aimee had hers too.

I did what I always do best, I still drank a lot of tea.

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We both brought tents instead of hammocks.

Here is the night view through the top of my tent:

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We did a wonderful compass/map navigation class.

Some of it was review, a lot of it was new for me.

I LOVED it.

When we went bushwacking and finding bearings, we ended up at the EXACT point on the map we were supposed to be!

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Ponkapoag Pond really is beautiful and I took a lot of pictures....