As a camper/hiker who frequently takes backcountry trips alone, I have been reluctant the past 18 years as an ADK member to participate in any group weekends or events. Don’t get me wrong; I like coordinating our chapter’s day outings to my favorite places and also enjoy being a participant on other day hikes. But…please read on for the enlightenment part!

I thought driving, a place to sleep and food were best decided by me, for me, until last weekend at the Fall Outing hosted by the Hurricane Chapter near Wilmington. I took a giant leap outside my comfort zone and not only carpooled but arranged (through the organized registration process) to be part of the weekend hikes and gatherings around food.

At age 54 I had my first experience of a "girl trip". I carpooled, stayed in a log cabin and shared some vino and good stories with 5 other women. Boy, was I surprised to find out what I knew already deep inside our members, no matter where they are in the state are fun and they like to share.

If you are on the verge of attending the Potluck dinner coming up, a hike you see in the newsletter or a weekend event - don't wait. Take the leap I did and make some new friends and gain some new skills.

We were blessed with two of three beautiful days. Baxter Mountain (my Fri. afternoon hike of choice) was a challenge that I thankfully was physically prepared for, and offered me my first taste of mountain hiking with spectacular views. Made me so glad to be alive! Really awesome!

That evening we congregated for pizza, and an excellent selection of desserts and beverages, co-hosted by the Hurricane and North Woods Chapters of ADK.

We were welcomed to our KOA hosting facility by owner, Richard Nagamines with an Aloha! He and his wife Sylvia are from Hawaii and carry the greetings of the islands back to their campground. Richard said "We are spreading the aloha spirit in the Adirondacks." The facilities were clean and comfortable, as if we were the first to use them, and the activities well organized. I found the hike ratings to be harder than I expected but this is the mountains, no place for a whimp!

Afterwards Mike Prescott presented an enlightening slide show of "Paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail" enjoyed by many.

My Sat. hike was a REAL treat as I SCALED the "Kilburn Slide," to some 3867 feet! Led by experienced and enthusiastic hikers Dean and Marilyn Baker, I learned of the slide’s history, found gorgeous pieces of Labordorite, and garnets, and saw the most breath taking views! The weather was magnificent all day and evening!

I learned a new word for poop is "scat" and saw a sun dog (a rainbow around the sun caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere) at 2:30pm from the height of our climb, eluding to our fate as the end of nice weather within 24 hours. My fellow hikers, most 46ers, were tolerant of my inexperience but cut me no slack and required me to dig deep for the necessary courage and endurance. I can not stress how important it is to live up to the level of activity that you subscribed for. If not sure of your abilities, bid down to a less demanding hike so the rest of the hikers are not put in jeopardy of not complet ing their hike as planned. Equipment, like hiking boots, are a MUST for success. Sat. evening, a buffet with the most outstanding array of homemade desserts, was followed by a talented musician's foot stomping entertainment. I went away beaming from the day's activities.

Sunday presented itself as a foggy drizzly day, perfect for a bog hike. Our leader, Ruth Kuhfahl, shared with us information that I had never even thought to ask! I sampled wild cranberries, learned about so many mushrooms that I must now seek a written guide, and was awed at the boardwalk covering the bog and its craftsmanship and, like all my previous experiences, I thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of so many wonderful ADK hikers.

The Niagara Frontier Chapter was well represented with 23 participants (that’s 20% of the total). The Wilmington KOA turned out to be an excellent location for it with a variety of accommodations from tent or trailer sites to cabins and deluxe Kottages. The main hall served as the meet- ing place, program theater and dining hall. Most importantly, it was convenient to the large variety of hikes, pad- dles and the bike ride that were offered. Over the weekend 31 hikes from easy to strenuous were offered. There also were seven paddles and one bike ride. I had thought that doing a couple of bike rides a week on the flat roads of Ontario’s Niagara Region, Niagara County and northern Erie County had me in good condition. Not! Even though the downhill runs were exciting, they did not make up for the exhausting crawls up-hill. The vies of the area on the route were spectacular..The best part, though; was the company of the local riders. Bert and Heike run the Willkomen Haus B & B in Wilmington. We had our lunches at the beautiful home of Joe and Linda where Joe has his painting studio and Christina invited all to come to her Mountain Retreat for a pre-dinner cocktail party that evening. NFCers Susan and Tom accompanied me on this excursion. Christina and her Mom spend their summers at their beautiful chalet with a panoramic view of the High Peaks including Whiteface Mountain.

We had a weekend of beautiful paddling, hiking and all sorts of activities.

The kabins at the KOA in Wilmington were worth the drive... I don't have a lot of cabin camping experience but this place thought of everything! We had a porch with a swing. Komfy seats and tables built into the walls of the fairly spacious cabin with electric outlets everywhere... the bathrooms with showers were just a few steps away along with a sink for washing dishes AND a stove/range top for cooking!! Joan declare this was Glamping... it was really a nice site to stay at!!

We started Friday with a short 2 + hour paddle. The Ausable river ran right along side the camp ground and we put in at Lake Everest which took us to spots where we could view 4 major mountains and lots of colorful trees... reminding us of Jim saying that fall is summer with color. It was beautiful, calm and peaceful place to paddle. The groups were kept to about a dozen paddlers so we got to chat with everyone. We saw some ospreys having a con- versation about what to do about their living quarters that had been blown away by the hurricane winds, along with a blue heron standing in water up to his bottom having his dinner. I've never seen one in water that deep and he allowed me to get pretty close and smiled for a photo, between bites. Our guides, Jeri and her dog were excellent at sharing information about the area and in leading us over 2 large beaver dams... a first for me along with many other 'firsts' on this trip.

I joined ADKers from all over NY, CT, NJ and other sur- rounding states for dinner and happened on the opportuni- ty to sit with the evening's speaker, which turned out to be fun, entertaining and educational! The presentation was on Paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail which we happened to have planned as our activity for the next day. Well... not the whole trail... he only spoke about the NY portion and we only paddled a 6/7 mile piece of that (both ways)... but it happened to be his favorite part; not having done the rest, I will say it was my favorite part too! At the end of his presentation he thanked all those that had helped him and who should appear on the screen but 'our' Turtle Rich (Lockwood)!! (Turtle...you obviously know that Mike Prescot t did the entertaining that evening)...it was a great talk and how fun to realize it had one of those Buffalo connections!!

The next day we met up at the lodge and after filling up on donuts and coffee headed to the Axton landing area... what a gorgeous drive through leaf changing trees and slopes and hills...we navigated the waters of the Racquette River to what may have been the most beautiful spot in the Adirondacks... we hiked up a hill and enjoyed a riparian luncheon from a large rock overlooking a waterfall that could be heard from the sandy beach where we parked our boats, but best seen from our lunch spot. This was so beautiful and what a great way to experience it!

Along with the traditional enjoyments of nature we also watched a small, wet, furry, mammal swim across the river, do that swimmers turn around lap back across the river as he finished his Michael Phelps-esk swim practice for the day. we also enjoyed a friendly game of 'name that animal' that never really came to a conclusion but it didn't really matter what he was...as long as we saw him and enjoyed his presence on the water with us.

Joan and I ended up leading everyone on this paddle and were quickly named the navigational twins which ended with our getting hats labeling us as 'guide service' specialists...apparently the ones NOT to follow as we seemed to choose the wrong route each time there was an option...we eventually solved this by each going a different direction so we were at least 50% correct!

The day ended with dinner at the lodge with the other ADKers, a message from Neil Woodworth, ADK’s Executive Director and a guitar player for some of the group...back at our campsite we enjoyed each others company along with a few bottles of wine Sunday was drizzly when we woke up which made it a tad easier to leave this beautiful place since we didn't have time to join in the paddles for the day. we walked (I say Hiked because Joan put on hiking boots) through the woods at our kampground and followed the flow of the Ausable river over the Flume waterfalls. The campground had so much to offer and this series of waterfalls just topped it off for the end of a perfect camping trip. I would highly recommend the White Face KOA to anyone heading to the ADKs...it was close to many great places to paddle/hike and bike and had everything you want in a camp ground...some kottages had full amenities and some had 'outside' ones but all were clean and kompfy/kozy!!

I highly recommend this type of ADK outing for anyone who wasn't sure how it would be... it was a lot of fun, we met some wonderful people and got to see the area from a locals perspectives, which is always the best way to site see!!

There was healthy advance interest in this trip, but the weather effects from Hurricane Ike dampened it. Three of us rode from the LaSalle Waterfront Park, next to the Robert Moses Expressway to the Rainbow Bridge. Hikers know this path as the first section of the Conservation Trail. We could hardly see Grand Island and Canada because of the fog and mist on the river. There was no delay at the Bridge and instead of immediately going to Niagara Glen, we turned south and rode past Horseshoe Falls to Dufferin Islands Park. It was very serene on the paths in the park and seeing all the waterfowl on the ponds. On a hot summer day this park is crowded with picnickers grilling food, but not this day. Riding back next to the falls, with the overcast skies we couldn’t tell for sure that the wetness of roads was just from the falls’ mist. The round trip bike ride turned out to be 26 miles of mostly level roads. We went by the beautiful gardens of the Niagara Horticultural School and the Whirlpool Golf Course. We were supposed to meet three hikers at the Glen. They weren’t there, but we arrived after the designated meeting time. We descended the steel staircase and hiked through the maze of trails to the river’s edge. Lunch-time on a boulder next to the raging rapids gave us a chance to wave to the JetBoat riders and to marvel at the power of the river here. Going back up, we ran into Betsy, Dan and Roy, whom we had missed at the top. The trail we chose to return, turned out to be treacherous with the rain and we had to get back to a marked trail. With slips of footing, we suffered some bruises and muddy clothes, but we got some good exercise. After riding our bikes back to the bridge and back to the parking lot on the Riverview Bike Trail, there was a note from Maureen, whom had missed us at the start and did the whole trip by herself. Cell phones would have been helpful in making connections. This trip can be done with a much shorter bike ride by parking at St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston and riding across the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

Unlike the cold and rainy day when this ride was canceled in May, this day’s weather was beautifully sunny and all ten of us were delighted. Our ride started at the end of the bike path near the North Grand Island Bridge and continued west past the churning waters of the Niagara rapids. The sunshine made the white water even more dramatic. When we reached the falls we stopped briefly to enjoy its beauty. Our ride continued along the rim of the Niagara Gorge and we were pleasantly helped along by the wind at our back. During our break at Devil’s Hole, one of our group met a couple friends who were also biking. We enthusiastically told them about the many outing opportunities the ADK has to offer and they accompanied us for part of our return ride. We stopped for our lunch break in a shaded picnic area in the Whirlpool Park. The remainder of our ride was equally pleasant and included a loop of Goat Island and an ice cream stop.