Day 200

Daily stats
Start: 6:30 AM - Little Falls, NY
Finish: 5:00 PM - Utica, NY (Lock 20)
Time: 10:30 (2:30 spent in town w/ Otto and Larry)
Daily dist: 24 miles
Total dist: 3700+
Companions: Otto
Weather: Mostly cloudy, high of 80, west wind 7-10 mph
Notes: Very nice camping at lock 20

As I was working my way north along the Atlantic Intracoastal from April through late May, one of the biggest challenges I faced at the end of many days was finding a suitable camp site at which to spend the night. With a fair dose of creativity I did manage to come up with fairly decent places to camp most nights. Sometimes, however, things didn't go so well and I got downright desperate to find a place to land for the night. Regardless of how desperate I may have been, a camp spot had to meet two simple criteria:

1) It had to be far enough above the water so that a large wake at high tide wouldn’t flood it out.

2) It had to be at least as big as my tent.

Those seem like simple enough stipulations but many times I had to stretch one or both of those rules in order to call a spot of land campable.

The Ikkuma tied (and locked) to the dock for the night

Ever since I began my run north on the Hudson River last week and now my travel west on the Erie canal, the bar by which I judge camp sites has been raised considerably. Now instead of viewing a 20’x30’ sand spit barely above high tide as home for the night, I have lock masters apologizing for not having hot water in the showers while I set my tent up on a lush grassy lawn. Last night promised rain so instead of paddling a few miles further Otto and I opted to camp under a picnic shelter. Tonight, rain is again predicted so I’m set up under a large park pavilion complete with a freshwater fountain a few yards away and an electrical outlet within reach of my computer’s cord. Those tiny sand spits seem like they’re a million miles away.

My tent on the stage of a large picnic pavilion out of the impending weather.

Before arriving at this great camp spot I had a great day of paddling that started with Otto just outside of Little Falls below Lock 18. It had rained all last night and the ground was soggy wet and squished water as we carried our dry gear from the gazebo under which we camped to our boats waiting at the boat ramp a few yards away. After launching (earlier than Otto would have preferred) we made our way west toward an eventual rendezvous with Otto’s day Larry Herrmann at the Ilion Marina eight miles away.

End of the line for Otto. The Ilion Marina

In lock 18 I found a bullfrog treading water in a notch in the lock wall. I scooped the tired critter up and placed him on the deck of my boat which is exactly where he stayed and watched me as I paddled. It was almost an hour later when the frog was either rested or figured he’d had enough of tolerating my boring stories and jumped back in the water. One can only imagine how much Otto may have wished he could do the same.

This frog rode with me for almost an hour.

Like clockwork Larry was just arriving in town to pick Otto up as we pulled up at the boat ramp in Ilion NY. While Otto emptied his boat, I shuffled gear around in mine to make room for the goodies that had been sent with Larry and Otto from my friend Alicia in San Diego. Once I knew I could get everything in the boat without standing on the hatch covers, I joined Larry and Otto for a ride into town. There we found the post office where I mailed some gear back to Wisconsin and stopped a the Mohawk Diner in the adjacent town for lunch.

With a warm full belly and an overstuffed kayak, I said good by and headed west.

Larry and Otto saying good by