Of everything that we did while at Camp Orenda in the Adirondacks, hiking was the only thing that we would have done by ourselves anyway. The difference is that we would have not known where to hike without the expertise of our local guide David. (Sure, we could have bought a guide book, but most don’t include the “secret” local favorites. We went hiking twice. One day, we went to a lovely waterfall.
The next day, we climbed down into a steep cavern. At first sight, I thought that the guys wouldn’t climb down. After we saw our guide (David) hike down first, it did not seem as intimidating. I was so proud that Reggie, Michael and Sean went outside of their comfort zones and did something new. It really was a fun, family lesson in teamwork and cheering each other on. By the end, you would have thought that we had climbed Mount Everest or something with all of the smiles and cheers….primarily mine. 🙂
The “working together” theme continued when we went canoeing. Reggie and I had to learn to row in sync. Michael and Sean also chipped in. Michael rowed and Sean kept us entertained with his gazillion and one questions. Good times!
I had gone canoeing and fishing before, but it was “my guys” first time experiencing these things. That made it extra special…especially with the fishing. We paid an outside guide to take us on a catch and release bass catching trip. Fishing is so uncertain and you never know if you are going to catch anything so I was praying that Reggie would catch something! He did…he caught the first fish of the evening. I caught a couple of fish too. The one that I was most excited about was the yellow fish, because it matched my yellow windbreaker. (I know. I know.) Once we switched the process to the left-handed side, I was pleasantly surprised at Michael’s fishing technique. He is really good at casting the line in bait fishing…much better than I am! He had a really big fish on his line. The fish outsmarted us as we tried to reel it in though…it swam into the seaweed and shimmied itself off the hook. Oh, well…
Have you ever been hiking in the woods, canoeing or fishing? If so, what was your favorite part? My favorite of the three was hiking. I just liked strolling at a leisurely pace surrounded by all of the trees…and this tree frog!
