Andy and I made our annual trip to Indian Lake Islands in the Adirondacks. My parents watched the kids for two days and his parents had them for two days, so it was just us for the adventure.

We stopped at a cute cafe in town before heading to our campsite.

There are 51 campsites (only accessible by boat) on Indian Lake. They’re run and maintained by the DEC.

We piled all our equipment in the canoe and headed out. Andy got a small outboard motor for it a few years ago so we didn’t have to paddle as much on long trips. Except…this year…The water level of the lake was pretty low and we were trying to stay out of the middle of the lake (avoiding the larger boats) and the motor hit a rock. It made the worst “Cuh-chink” sound, I turned around and saw Andy grabbing the motor as it broke off its mount and started to fall into the lake. Ahhhhhhh! Luckily he saved it from falling in but as much as he tried he couldn’t get it to work again while we were in the water. So we paddled, the 2+ hours down the lake to our campsite. Call it a bonding experience…

At least it was pretty and a seriously beautiful day!

We finally arrived at our site and started unloading the canoe.

We set up the tent, our equipment, got a fire going for dinner and explored a little.

It was too late and we were too tired to do anything about the motor that night, so inspection waited until the following day. After taking the entire thing apart on the picnic table Andy realized that when it hit the rock it sucked in water which created a ton of pressure, blowing the head gasket. He was thankful it wasn’t something else and that it wasn’t permanently damaged. Anyone who knows Andy, pretty much knows he’s MacGyver…so after a few trial and errors he fixed the broken motor with electrical tape and tinfoil. Seriously. We apprehensively took it out on the water and were completely amazed that after a few stuttering pulls it actually started and worked!

The rest of the day Saturday we just lounged around at our site. Andy fished and I read some books. We sat on the beach and went swimming. We watched a variety of wildlife (toads, frogs, snakes, newts, a cute baby mouse, ducks and lots of deer tracks). No bears :) Ben was concerned that there might be bears and said we’d better take daddy’s hunting gun with us.

We made my favorite camping dinner (chopped veggies with sausage), had smores and enjoyed the campfire. The toads were SO loud down on the beach at night (Andy got a few go pro videos I’ll have to share later). He had to put earplugs in to sleep but I was fine.

Sunday morning we made breakfast (campfire bacon and eggs are awesome) and got things together for a day hike.

Since we didn’t quite trust the motor (and wanted to save all that it would give us for the trip home) we paddled a mile further down the lake to a picnic area and trail. Water levels were really low so we could walk along the stream bed and actually over a few waterfalls, they were so pretty.

(Don’t worry mom, there was a ton of support behind me, I’m not going to fall to my doom)

We had lunch on the trail, the only time I eat ramen noodles is while camping. Andy was even kind enough to pack some extra veggies to make it somewhat resemble a bowl of soup ;-)

So thankful we could head back to the DEC headquarters, with a working motor!

Overall we had a fantastic weekend! The weather was perfect, other than a surprise passing shower the first night (nothing like an “oh crap, quick find the rain cover for the tent”), it was beautiful. A fun, relaxing adventure with my best friend! Until next year :)

Check out our first year camping with friends and second year island camping. It’s neat how every year has been a little different and there’s still so much more to explore.