Tourist - Rockport

 We got to Gloucester i’m parked the trailer on the back of Dave and Sharon’s lot. It was a tricky back in procedure but Scotty did great. We went to Lobsta Land for a late lunch. I had crabcake sliders and Scotty had a haddock sandwich. We each had a local wheat ale that I thought was just delicious. We then headed down to Rockport and walked around the city. It’s a touristy town but absolutely gorgeous. I especially enjoyed going into the art stores looking at the paintings, but surprisingly did not see too many of the light houses. To be expected, I took lots of pictures especially of Motif 1. Disguise looked threatening so we decided to head back to the trailer so we can close windows and we did get a little bit of rain. From there we headed to the grocery store and stocked up on what we thought we might need for two weeks on the island. Again back in the trailer it took quite some organizational skills to get everything into the tub‘s for our trip over in the water tomorrow. We weren’t plugged into electricity so we decided to walk down to the Cove and saw a beautiful sunset. It was great to see so many people out enjoying the sunset in a good way for us to end our day.

Even the flower boxes are more beautiful in the growing season here!

The Thacher Island transport boat.  We'll be on this tomorrow!

Not your typical 'picturesque' Rockport view!!

In the evening, we walked over to the small bay in Dave and Sharron's neighborhood!  Gorgeous!

Kayaking- Schodack Island State Park

 We were out of the campsite by 7:30 and arrived at Schodack Island State Park in time to go for a quick kayak trip. We kayaked Schodack Creek which runs parallel to the Hudson River.  There is a put-in within the park with a floating dock. It’s a walk through the woods and down about 12 stairs. The mosquitoes were bad here and we tried not to spend much time there. There was little flow on this creek and we soon realized that it was farther than we thought to kayak down to the Hudson River. It’s a wide creek lined with bamboo and cattails. The most exciting part of the paddle was seeing 2 Amtrak trains go by.

We’re at Site 8. The sites here are large and feel Private as there are lots of trees separating the sites. This park has about 7 miles of shoreline along the Hudson River and has been designated as a Bird Conservation Area, hone to eagles and other birds.

Kayaking- Juniata River

 After much research, we decided upon a route on the Juniata River from Millersville Community Pool at Mile 17 to Howes Township DNR Launch at Mile 9. It was a slight hill down into the river, quite easy and we were off. The river was very wide and stayed wide during the entire trip. There were houses along the river for most of the trip. We noticed that the houses with large green lawns seemed to attract the geese. The geese didn’t like sharing the river with us and when we got close, they flew away. I will totally come clean - I may have paddled close in order to take photos. Very much worth it (maybe not to the geese)! We saw a bald eagle at one point and also a ground hog. Just before the 5 mile point, we pulled over for lunch. There’s a metal, triangular bridge spanning the river and shortly before that, we saw a brick tunnel on river right with a flat shore for docking. I walked through the tunnel and saw a delapidated house on the other side of the tunnel. We passed a few spots in the river where there were rocks and shallow water, but all were very manageable. We passed a few people fishing and maybe 2 kayakers. Towards the end of the paddle, we heard lots of thunder and were expecting rain, but got caught in only a few drops. There’s a ramp at Mile 9. Scotty got on his bike and bicycled 5 miles back to the truck.

When we got back to the trailer, we changed and headed within Little Buffalo Stste Park to see the covered bridge and the mill. While Scotty rode his bike back home, I stayed to see the butterfly garden, when we were both back ‘home’, we had hamburgers with sautéed onions/mushrooms and a great beer - Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier.

Kayaking - Little Buffalo State Park

 We awoke to fog surrounding our small valley. I had to jump out of bed because I just knew that could find some magical pictures. The alpacas were grazing - it seems they are constantly eating, and they stood among a backdrop of fog.  It was fun to watch them because as soon as they heard a noise, their long necks shot up to see if they could be missing the food put out by Tom.  We got the trailer ready and drove to the end of the road, then walked up to the store. I bought a white winter headband with wool from Paloma, and tan  yarn from Elsa. I’ll make a hat to match Elsa’s crazy hairstyle. 

I know this guy had an itch to travel.  He wanted to come with us!

We headed north and arrived at Little Buffalo State Park early enough to take a 2.8 mile paddle around Lake Holman. It was a calm paddle, but enough to make us hungry for a dinner of bratwursts and salad.

This is a small park, but very pretty. We’re at site 38 which is on a slight slope. We got the trailer level and settled into our new home as we researched tomorrow’s paddle.

You have to get a 'boating license' to kayak in Pennsylvania.
They have a good presence online highlighting the Pennsylvania waterways
and I wonder if some of the proceeds from the licenses build ramps like this.  It's nice!