Ritzhikes

Where: Lake Lila, Adirondacks When: 7/26-7/28, 1997 With: Bill, Tom Bill just bought a canoe of his own and we were all in need of some Ritz Brother camping, so we started to make arrangements. We settled on a date and Bill came up with some ideas for destinations. I suggested we try communal dinners for a change. Tom agreed to come along. To get an early start, I packed up the car the night before with my gear and my kayak and left it out in the driveway. Saturday morning at 5:15, I slipped out the back door and headed to Delmar, arriving around 7:45. Bill drove up a few minutes later and we discussed food and destinations. For the food, we each described what we'd brought and found we had more than enough provisions for the weekend ahead. For a destination, we considered and rejected Bill's original proposal, a ten-mile upstream paddle on the Bog River and a campsite on Grass Pond. It sounded like an interesting trip, but a bit ambitious. We figured we'd be spending...

Where: Westfield River When: 7/12-7/13/97 With: Andy Andy's first camping trip! He'd been showing interest for some time but I'd never managed to get organized and go. We'd done a couple of successful overnights in the backyard, so I knew sleeping in a tent wouldn't be a problem. It was just a matter of finding the time to get away. Finally the opportunity presented itself. A good weather forecast and no conflicts with other activities, so off we went. We set off late in the day, around 3:30, and arrived at the parking area a little after 5:00. We packed up pretty quickly and headed down to the river. I was carrying my new Lowe Contour IV pack (its first trip too) containing the majority of the gear (sleeping bags, tent, food, clothes) and Andy had his Cookie Monster pack with his essentials (Mr. Clown, Teddy, books, crayons). We followed a pickup truck past the gate and found a sizable gathering of folks down in the Indian Hollow camping area. I briefly con...