We woke up early so that we could legitimize ourselves with our landlord (they didn't care) and we rented a rowboat. I've paddled in canoes before, but i've never done a rowboat, where you have to sit backwards (which i resigned myself to after attempting for a few minutes to row with my arms behind my back). The water was on the rough side, and i got a bunch of blisters on my hands from the oars. The entire process of getting out of the dock and away from shore was just so pathetic. I'm pretty sure the guy who worked at the cottages and helped us push the boat out was secretly snickering at our ineptitude. I don't blame him.
Eventually, though, we made it across the lake and into Norman's Cove. Our plan was to climb Baldface Mountain, so we dragged our boat up onto the beach and headed for the trail. Priscilla found a nice sized walking stick. (for hitting things!)
Unfortunately, last night we had been fooling with our camera, trying to figure out what the various settings would do (the instruction book still sitting on the kitchen table at home, waiting to be packed), and we (what do you mean "we", White Man?) (OK, i) accidentally left it on the "artificial light" setting. We wouldn't discover our error until mid-day tomorrow, so all the pictures we took look a little blue and hazy. In fact, it was a beautiful sunny day.
Some pictures while on the trail Each one of these shots had some sort of special significance when we chose to take them, but i suspect that to anyone looking it's just a bunch of trees. In a bunch of them, you can make out through the blue haze the stone wall of the mountain we were winding around.
And now...The Larch.
The trail itself
Good shots These are actually pictures we took when we came back to Baldface on friday, after we'd figured out the lighting error. This is what the forest actually looked like.
More accurate, but much less like Dagobah. Or Endor, if you ask rod. I say the "real" pictures are more like Endor. But we both agree the blue pictures are very King Arthurish/medieval. (geeks *roll eyes*)
Priscilla was fascinated with this big dead pine tree that had fallen over and had its needles turn black. It did look pretty cool.
It looked awesome. Everything did. You just can't tell from the pictures. Told you you should have come.
Priscilla explores a potential shortcut. A large tree had fallen and was leaning against the side of the mountain. We could have walked up the tree and scaled the face instead of winding around. In these pictures, priscilla was thousands of feet about the ground and could very easily have fallen to her death. She's just that brave.