All systems go

Only two days left, I can't even believe it.  Deb is bringing me to the airport late Tuesday night; we decided that me sleeping a few hours at the terminal was better than both of us having to get up at 3am...  United flight 3796 arrives in BUF at 2:21pm -- what's the agenda for Wednesday after that?

I'm all packed!  Over-packed, actually; lots of just-in-case items here that may just get left at Joe's house.  Anything I'm forgetting, or should just leave behind?  Clothes:

• underwear (2)
• long underwear (probably unnecessary, looking at the forecast)
• socks (3)
• short sleeve tee (3)
• long sleeve tee
• overshirt
• convertible pants (2)
• swim shorts
• rain jacket & pants
• baseball cap, wide brim hat, warm hat & gloves
• water shoes
• hiking shoes
• fleece jacket

...and gear:

• sleeping bag
• small tripod camp chair (if space allows)
• binoculars
• headlamp & flashlight
• sunscreen, DEET, soap, hand sanitizer, toothbrush & paste
• daily contacts, glasses
• chamois towel
• folding knife
• small water bottle
• camelbak (maybe, depending on how you guys pack water in)
• GPS (for nerding out on the map after)

I've opted to just bring my iPhone, no extra camera -- but I'll probably still be taking an annoying amount of photos.  And hopefully not dropping it into the lake, since it is my work phone....

The Final Countdown

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go!  I can hardly believe that our Broventure is going to happen next week.  It's my last day of work, the deck materials have been ordered, and I can't wait to get out on the water.  DA DA DAAAA DA.....DA DA DAA, DA DA!

Happy Birthday, Joe!

About time you caught up.  Your cake was on sale:

Comin' down on a sunny day?

Early reports on the weather aren't looking too bad.  You guys may have more learned opinions on the topic, but I'm actually OK with the idea of a few spots of rain.  Spend enough time out here in the high desert, and you get an appreciation for some showers.  

Trip Planning

Joe and I timed some of the distances we paddled this past weekend. 

From the Webbs Ferry boat launch [ny/pa border] to Hooks Brook campground: 45 minutes

Hooks brook to Handsome Lake campground: 1 hour

We estimate an additional hour to Pine Grove campground and (at least) another hour from there to Morrison campground (our ambitious destination).  Weather permitting, I think this is very reasonable to complete in a day...as long as we break it up into smaller paddles over the whole day (4+ total hours in the boats).  We can certainly enter at Roper Hollow and/or change our "final destination" for day 1 as needed. 

Joe and I intend to drop my car off at the Morrison trail head with food and supplies on Wednesday AM, so we will have to make it there before our provisions run out (extra motivation). 

After several days in the woods/on the water, I anticipate our return trip may have to broken up over two days...we'll have to wait and see!  We can always pull the boats out at Kinzua beach if we run into problems or are lazy. We can hike out to my car and drive over to get Joe's truck. The beach also has showers!

I am really excited to explore the lower sections of the Reservoir, virgin territory!  Only two more weeks...I hope I get my pool deck built by then...ugh. 

Allegheny trip last couple of days

Here is a link to some pictures from our short allegheny trip.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/791b7538-9783-4c79-b610-25c21bd88827/5691caf0a3502e3d4b7832156dff2ec1

Lots of lessons learned and a few reminders that the weather decides our trip more than we do.  We did get to do what we wanted to do, so the trip was a great success, even in the cold and wet environment.  I got a new shirt out of it that had washed up on the shore, and it was even the right size!  One lesson I learned, the new cooler bags work awesome, well at least when it's in the 30's at night and 50's during the day.

The Most Important Thing

Here we are, only three weeks away...can't believe it.

So my question today is, how do you guys make coffee?