Lake Placid in the summertime: "What a Funny Town"

as I was riding down Main St. in Lake Placid on my first full official day of summer vacation, after a really sweet mountain bike ride on my way to get a pastry from the bakery (not a bad life right?) I looked around and thought, what a funny place this is? People seem to come to Lake Placid from 100's of miles away just to exercise. It's 9:00 in the morning and I've just passed at least 30 joggers, equally as many cyclists, and Looking out on mirror lake there are tons of people swimming laps. This must be the outdoor fitness capital of the world.

It's nice to see all of that going on around town. Being surrounded by all the Ironman energy you can't help but stay motivated. It always seems that just before I leave on a trip I look around and really appreciate where I live. Yesterday was no different. I'm headed to California tommorrow to go kayaking. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing or where I'll be, but I'm pretty sure it's going to involve a lot of hiking with heavy boats, and hard whitewater.

I will return with lots of photos of smooth granite, and a new appreciation for home.

Quebec Never Dissapoints...

And it certainly didn't this weekend when kayakers from the Northeast's 3 major mountain regions met up to run the fantastic whitewater that the Nielsen River has to offer.

Boyce Greer and Greg Hanlon represented the White Mountains

Ed Clarke, Johnny Adler, and Trip Kinney represented the Greens

Bill Frazer and myself represented the Adirondacks

There was also Jeff, he's from Montreal ...or was it Seattle, he's a great guy but doesn't really fit in to my whole kayakers from 3 mountain ranges coming together on one river thing.



















The bugs were bad, the whitewater was great, and the crew was perfect. After finding a totally marginal campsite late on Friday night. We did a complete lap, followed by a half lap on Saturday, then woke up early and cracked off another complete lap on Sunday. Everything went perfect, aside from one unfortunate run through a slot by one person late in the day on Saturday (this person shall remain nameless). The scenery was great, on the river and at the take-out of our second lap on Saturday (well, for a kayaking trip anyway).





















As usual the photos are bad, but what else would you expect.





















I'm pretty sure there's a kayaker in there somewhere



















You really had to be in the mood to run this one. Most of us ran it on Saturday, but on Sunday with a little less water it seemed somewhat less enticing.

































oh yeah...I was there too.

The Intermediate Days of Spring

There is no more snow, and the rain doesn't seem to be coming. It doesn't matter because there are lots of other things to do.
Over the last few weeks I have gotten to do some different things, and visited some places that I've never been before. As a result this is what my paddling has consisted of:















Margaret and I got a chance to get up to the coast of Maine after her brother's graduation from UNH. We brought some lobsters home with us, and cooked them up. They were tasty.


















This past weekend we rallied a crew together for the Tour De Franzia. We rode our bikes around town and drank boxed wine. It was an exciting evening. It was such a success, the "tour committee" may be planning another one for sometime in July.





























































Hank was really upset that he could not particiapte. He had injured injured himself only two days prior to the event in a freak fetch accident... Maybe next time Hank















As Spring slowly turns into summer the rivers of Quebec begin to call our names. I'm heading up there this evening with an all-star cast from all over the New England States. I'm sure we'll do something worth blogging about.