For years we had stayed on Schroon Lake in New York. Each summer we stayed in a lodge overlooking the lake. Each year the boathouse was brought out on rails. And summer began. I would go out and put the buoy on the mooring. We would fuel up the boat. Water skiing, swimming and fishing. (Well, a lot of food as well.)But one summer my mom thought “let’s go camping”.

She began to search through the Adirondacks. There was no internet back then. So she went to the library and began sending out letters! Real letters with her mimeographed(She was a teacher.)request. One came back and she was intrigued. Unlike the others there was no mention of the bathroom facilities. (Spelled outhouse or “public bathrooms”.)Many of the responses include wording like “2 sites per facility” or some such wording. She made a call and found each site had its own outhouse. No sharing. You would be given a can of lime, rolls of toilet paper(Or as we called it at Keewaydin…bum wad. Paper towels were “giant” bum wad.)and a plastic trash bag.

Indian Lake…Here we come!

And so a few months later we were on our way to a place called Indian Lake in the Adirondacks. We left at 4AM. The boat had been packed with the two tents. (We had been practicing in our yard.)We got there around 9 that morning. My folks introduced themselves to the park ranger, Charlie. They paid and signed in. They moved the car with the boat down to the water. Backing it in, the “first” group went out. My brother, my dad and I headed out to Sandy Island. It took about a half hour. We found this beautiful sand beach and a great camp site. My dad brought the boat up on to the beach. We began unloading tents, coolers, duffels and sleeping bags. My father headed back to pick up my mom , sister and younger brother. My brother and I put down drop clothes, assembled the tents and put everything in side.

A little while later the boat returned and our family set out to make dinner for our first night of camping. It was great. We explored the island. It was great. And then the ranger showed up and said that a hurricane was headed our way. “Hurricane? Didn’t you know we are camping?” My parents decided to ride it out. For the next few days it rained, it blew. We had a ball! Except the waves were so high the water filled our boat. So we had to bail it out.

We caught fish, ate meals over the fire and got wet in our sleeping bags. You would have thought it would have dampened our enthusiasm. A few days later we got off the island and headed home. The ride home consisted of making lists of what we could do better. What could we prepare better with.

My family continued to camp over the years. We became better prepared. We worked as a team.

The best part? No more hurricanes.