Day 1: Mom Takes a Picture
- May 16, 2017
- 2 min read
Calvin put his hands on my shoulders from the backseat of the car to steady my nerves. He knew I was nervous. Who wouldn’t be? We had been planning this trip for about a year or so. Would we make it to the end? Would we still like each other at the end? That part I was less worried about. Calvin and I make a great team. There were no guarantees that we would make it to the end though. We could damage the boat or one of us could get injured. The last thing I wanted was for the trip to end prematurely. I had rearranged my whole life/year around it. No, we would make it to the end, one way or another.
We left from Clermont, NY early that morning to make it to Old Forge, NY. We arrived later than we had expected to, but it didn’t really matter. Today was about shaking the bugs out anyway. Calvin’s mom took a picture of us (you have to) and we signed the NFCT book. Then we were off.
Once my paddle touched the water, I felt my nerves ease. “Chip” glided smoothly through the water as always. It was like any other day of paddling, except it was the first day of a long adventure. We moved through the Fulton Chain of lakes quickly. There were more private homes around us on the lakes than I expected. Once we saw an open public campsite, we stopped to take a break.
The first two portages of the trip were a cake walk. With Calvin’s barrel system on wheels for me, I just wheeled along! It was amazing! Most portages we’ve done in the Adirondacks before were multiple miles of carrying. I was praying that my wheels would hold up for the rest of the trip. Calvin wheeled the boat along too on our cart.
Even with our late start, we surpassed Seventh Lake and made it to Eighth Lake for the night to camp at the start of our next portage. That night, Calvin thanked me for being on this trip with him. He didn’t need to thank me. I wanted to be there. But, it is true that not everyone would have the desire to do a trip like this. And that’s what he meant. We’re both glad to have found someone to adventure with.
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