I went back to Saratoga Lake to get as much time on the water as possible. It's close. It's relatively calm. There's a stream running north from it that I hadn't explored.

I paddled for almost five hours this time, and I traveled over seventeen miles.

I parked at the state-run boat launch at the top of the lake for eight dollars.

Heading North first, I ran into more other people on kayaks than I could count. This was reassuring, as it meant I was in the right place. Many of them seemed to be teaching others how to kayak. This was unsettling, as I've had basically no training. But that's part of the fun.

I went until I hit a dam. Third one in two days.

I turned around and headed back to the lake. Did I mention this was the majority of my trip? I was exhausted. Wanting to be certain that I traveled a good distance, I headed down into the lake until boats speeding around got to me and finally headed back.

One puzzling place I ran across had a big sign, "The Pharos." At first I thought it was their family name and that they missed a big decorating opportunity. I didn't see any pyramids or sphinxes. It seems like a responsibility if your name is one letter off of something like that. But apparently "Pharos" refers to some light houses in some context that I don't understand. That must be why there is a lighthouse on the sign.

Another interesting place was a beat up old building on the remains of what was once a bridge. I thought it was abandoned, but someone posed for me on it.

This place apparently would have let me launch for five dollars. On my way back a handful of people were launching canoes and kayaks from a rather steep embankment just on the other side of the bridge.

Duck dock.

It was apparently a good day to sail.

A former restaurant. I wonder if I could put my boat in there and park in their parking lot. I bet the other side of that sign says, "no trespassing."

This is where I thought I was going to launch. According to Google Maps, it's Kaydeross Park, but I believe it is now recreational facilities owned by the housing development nearby. I drove up to it, but it had signs and a gate preventing my exploration.

My speed this trip was lower than I'd like. I think I was mainly still tired from yesterday. It was pretty windy but it wasn't terrible to paddle against it. I think what really stopped me was that it was starting to get colder, I needed some real food, and my hands were getting pretty blistered.

Fun!

I wrote a script to calculate the total distance and time from every .csv file in http://www.unprompted.com/share/kayak/. The data from those files includes all of my time on the water plus sometimes part of me walking from my car to the water as I'm preparing to launch and packing up.

I know people who like to compare the entertainment value of things to seeing a movie in a theater, where a movie costs over $10 for about two hours of entertainment.

Without giving exact numbers, I'm nowhere near that efficient (and that's not even very efficient), but I am way closer than I expected to be, even only a partial summer into this.

I like to measure how far I walk/run/bike/drive/kayak in terms of travelling to the moon. The moon, on average, is about 238,857 miles away. If I kayaked toward the moon, the same amount each summer as I've done this summer, it would take me 3794 summers to arrive at the moon.

I got it in my head that I wanted a map with all of the places I've gone kayaking. I wanted not just a Google Maps map but a physical map on my wall where I could mark off places and see the big picture in person.

I got a cork board and the biggest state map I could easily find. Upon closer inspection, the map I got was not at all what I wanted, and I couldn't find any better.

I know the USGS makes lots of map data available, but after playing with their web site for some time, I just couldn't figure out how to get what I wanted, and they kept wanting me to put things in shopping carts to download them. Bleh.

I ended up using Google Maps. I remember reading that Google gets their topographical data from USGS anyway, so I didn't feel bad about stealing it. Here's how it went.

I went to Google Maps, zoomed into the rough area I was interested in at the zoom level I thought I wanted, and opened resource tracking in Google Chrome to get the URL for one of the map tiles. The parameters in it were obvious enough.

I wrote this code:

from urllib2 import urlopen
import os
from PIL import Image
from StringIO import StringIO

def get_tile(x, y, zoom=12):
        path = os.path.join('tiles', '%d,%d,%d.jpg' % (x, y, zoom))
        if os.path.exists(path):
                tile = open(path).read()
        else:
                url = 'http://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=t@125,r@132&hl=en&x=%d&y=%d&z=%d&s=Ga' % (x, y, zoom)
                print 'Fetching', url
                tile = urlopen(url).read()
                open(path, 'wb').write(tile)
        return Image.open(StringIO(tile))

tl = (1203, 1500)
br = (1218, 1510)

tile_width = 256
tile_height = 256

tiles_wide = br[0] - tl[0] + 1
tiles_high = br[1] - tl[1] + 1

width = tile_width * tiles_wide
height = tile_height * tiles_high

mosaic = Image.new('RGBA', (width, height))

for x in range(tl[0], br[0] + 1):
        for y in range(tl[1], br[1] + 1):
                tile = get_tile(x, y)
                mosaic.paste(tile, ((x - tl[0]) * tile_width, (y - tl[1]) * tile_height))

mosaic.save('mosaic.jpg')

I fetched a block of tiles, being sure to cache them on disk so I wasn't hammering Google every time I reran my script.

With my starting tile set, it was a quick matter of trial and error to get the exact area I wanted.

It didn't take much code with  PIL to combine the tiles into one big JPEG.

Next I needed to print the big image on a bunch of sheets of paper as big as I could for my cork board. I used  PosteRazor to accomplish this without much hassle, though there are a handful of other similar tools available.

I did some arts and crafts, cutting out the prints and taping them together.

Then I started throwing in some pins, using big red pins to mark my launch points and small black pins to mark roughly the maximum distances I went from the launch points.

The end result:

Not too shabby. Needs more pins in it!

I was in a bit of a hurry, but I wanted to go somewhere different, so I drove an hour and a half away to Harriman Reservoir in Vermont.

I paddled past the  glory hole and dam, keeping a safe distance, of course. (picture taken by a different Cory, not me)

I also spotted a rope suitable for swinging into the water at a great height, made somewhat more dangerous by rocks below. No one went anywhere near it when I was there.

Overall, this was surprisingly like Somerset Reservoir. That was a pleasant surprise. For some reason, I thought it was much more developed. Better than the one I saw at Somerset, I saw TWO bald eagles this time, soaring overhead for almost a minute. But no otters.

GPS data later. It was mighty windy, and the wind somehow always seemed like it was against me. I didn't travel the full length of the reservoir, but about half and back was still tiring. There appear to be nice parking areas on either end. This would be a great place to park cars at either end, paddle one way, and get a ride back.

Update: Here's a map and data.

• KML
• GPX
• CSV

I left  My Tracks recording GPS data for the drive home, so the map this time is slightly less awesome. I hand-edited the data and gave it back to Google Maps, but it insists on breaking it up into multiple pages of directions, and the last bit of the trip is missing from the embedded map.

• GPX
• KML
• CSV

This was where we launched (photo taken after we were done). I met Anton in a small parking lot nearby, and the first thing I heard was, "that water is VERY green!" The water was very green.

This little man-made area was very neat. Everything except the water seemed to be basically in good condition with a video game style "nature overtaking man-made structure" aesthetic to it. I'm sure it was intentional. I later learned that it was  Clute's Drydock, formerly used to repair and construct barges.

So we took to the water thick with duckweed, and I arbitrarily chose a direction. This is what happened:

We ended up turning around, and the water cleared up a bit. Enough to paddle. We made it to the Mohawk River but not before "paddling" through another area of seaweed.

The Mohawk River was busy with people pulling people on tubes with boats, fishing, swimming, and doing whatever else it is that people do on boats that aren't paddled by hand.

Here's roughly how the bit of our trip on the Mohawk River went.

• "Which way should we go?" "Against the wind."
• Anton inspects an old twisted up aluminum rowboat.
• "Oh, that's an island? We have to go around it!"
• We go under the I-87 bridge.
• "I think the wind changed direction. And the current is strong in the wrong direction."
• We explore a marina.
• We turn around and head upstream.
• We pass a nice area to stop and take a break but opt to move on since there are a bunch of people around.
• We pass some ducks sleeping on a rock.
• Anton disturbs all of the ducks.
• We paddle for a while until we find another place to take a break.
• A boat with a Canadian flag zooms by, making waves that get me wet and throw my kayak into some rocks as I'm trying to dry it out.
• We head back to "Duck Rock."
• Ukulele.
• We head back and head home.

"Duck Rock":

Saratoga Lake is technically the first place I ever kayaked though only briefly in a recreational kayak. At over twelve miles around the perimeter, I knew it would be some great exercise and leave me exhausted.

I started from Saratoga Lake Marine Park, which is a state park, which means it cost me $8 to park there. It was mostly empty on a Friday.

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The most peculiar part of my trip was a giant orange boat with a conveyor belt which constantly carried seaweed up into a big storage container.

I didn't get a good picture of it from the front for predictable reasons, but I did find  an article that explains what was going on. It turns out they have to mow the seaweed.

It was a beautiful day. There was only a gentle breeze, and save for ripples from boats zooming up and down the lake at high speeds, the water was quite calm. There were bunches of people fishing and houseboats packed with people and some swimmers. This is what goes on most of the time when I am at work?

Lake Lonely was rendered poorly named by  the Canadian tools programmer / ukuleleist following me around in a canoe.

We launched from a boat launch at the intersection of Crescent Avenue and Poe Road, each paying $5 for access and being warned that they close at 5:30pm. Anton considered enough to ask what happens if we don't make it back in time, and the attendant / owner was basically speechless, much to my amusement, before he finally came up with something about towing vehicles.

We took a spin around the lake, admiring some of the gigantic houses as well as the deteriorating shacks along the eastern side. Exploring some of the streams on the northern side, we found ourselves in the middle of the nearby golf course, each bringing back some souvenir balls retrieved from the shallow water. Having exhausted that direction, we turned around and head down the stream toward Lake Saratoga, reaching the fork before we had to turn around.

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This was by far my most epic kayak adventure. First off, I couldn't decide where to go. I've found plenty of sites of people listing places around here, and I've had some success looking at maps for nice-sized lakes and then reading up on how to get to the water, but I couldn't get everything to align for this trip. And the weather reports were generally nice but predicted some rain and wind.

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• CSV

This was a two hour drive to an undeveloped lake in Vermont. The driving was about an hour not on highways but on 40-55mph roads, half an hour through villages, and then half an hour on a dirt road that I wanted to be rallying on the entire time.

The "caravan menace" was in full swing:

All I can say is that this place was beautiful.

I mean, really beautiful. The only signs of civilization I saw the entire time were the cleared ski slopes of Mt. Snow off in the distance, which guided me back to my starting point, a dam by the boat launch, and just a few other people in small fishing boats, canoes, and kayaks.

I saw wildlife!

	The first thing that really floored me was a bald eagle which flew almost directly overhead. I wasn't expecting that. So much so that I didn't get my camera out in time. But I got a nice view of it from underneath.
	My second real surprise was a group of otters, popping their heads out of the water in full Whack-a-mole fashion. They were probably about ten feet away when I first noticed them. Did I accidentally invade where they were swimming? They certainly weren't scared off by me. They continued alternately poking their heads out of the water and swimming under for quite some time as I tried to maneuver to give them some room and get my camera ready, but I failed to get any shots of them. Those guys were my favorites.
	After I thought everything was all done and I was headed home, a relatively small black bear crossed the dirt road in front of me.

In the end, the weather worked out perfectly. It was about overcast about 50% of the time and sunny the rest. The wind was gently against me half the time and then helped carry me back to where I started. I had some trouble getting water out of my kayak as I turned around at the far end, but I managed. I need to read up on how to do this right in the future.

As excellent as this trip was, I'll probably tone things down in the future. I wasn't ready for the workout I got, not that it was bad to get it. The rest of the kayakers all stayed in the southern half of the lake from what I saw. I saw some rowboats paddling around near the far end, but I suspect they got out there with motors. Though maybe I'll see a loon next time?

My  roof rack arrived today. Anton  bought a canoe yesterday, but he hadn't had a change to try it yet. After work, I assembled my roof rack on my car, and we set off to do some paddling in the hour or so before it got dark.

This time it was Round Lake. It is pretty aptly named. It was about a twenty minute drive away. And then we had to park alongside the 55mph route 9 to access the water. I didn't realize until we were leaving that I parked under a "no parking" sign. I'm not sure if it was for the road I was on or the area down below. The sheriff behind us as we arrived didn't seem to mind. Neither did the other people parked near us.

•  Google Map
• GPX
• KML
• CSV

For the first time for me, the weather was beautiful. There was an occasional cool breeze, but nothing strong. The lake was flat except for some ripples as boats zipped around. There were a handful of people fishing and some other people out in kayaks and canoes, but it is a bigger lake than I expected, and I hardly ever actually saw any of them. There is a neat little airstrip adjacent to the lake, and a few small planes took off and landed while we were there, for our amusement.

Arriving:

Anton picking his nose as we set off. He's really getting in there:

I don't think that's how you're supposed to use a canoe:

This is a pretty OK place to spend an evening!:

Then it got dark and we went home. Then I copied the pictures and GPS data off of my phone and wrote this.

This Friday came around, and I was thoroughly excited about going out kayaking again. I am determined to go out at least once a week, and I figured that since I am taking Fridays off, this should be no problem. Checking the weather, thunderstorms were predicted basically all weekend, with only showers on Friday morning.

Figuring that was my only chance, I strapped the kayak on my roof in my garage while it rained outside and then took off.

This weekend's venue was picked by a Mr. Plummer at work, as I randomly asked him where I should go, and his familiarity with nearby parks for the sake of hiking allowed to pick a place arbitrarily that suited my needs. Also  http://www.albany.com/parks/ helped. In the future I think I will cross off parks listed there with a "boat launch" one by one.

I am worrying more and more about the effects of a boat on my car roof. I think I will invest in a roof rack soon.

There were some fun winding roads on the way to Thompson's Lake. It was just beyond Thacher Park, which is another great place to spend some time. It rained most of the way there but started to clear as I approached the lake.

Then it started raining again.

I paid a $7 vehicle use fee, as this was a state park. The place looked fairly nice. It was primarily a campground. I carried my kayak past a playground, small beach, and a swimming area to get to the lake, and each were populated with children and families at various times.

•  Google Map
• KML
• GPX
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I went around the outside of the lake, which took a little less than half an hour. I was wet at this time, but it was probably more from me splashing myself than the rain, which persisted. I made a few zig-zags of the lake to fill out almost an hour of time. Then it started to get a little windy, which was only a problem as it made me start to get cold.

I strapped the kayak back on to my car and headed home in a full downpour.

There were problems with this:

• Strapping a boat to my roof in the rain when I am starting to get cold is not fun. I am definitely willing to overlook a little bit of work for the parts of this that are fun, but I think that is too much.
• The kayak acts like a rain barrel. I was pleased it hardly filled with any water when I was on the lake, but when I took it off after I got home, it was substantially heavier.
• The straps around the kayak wicked water into my car. I was rained on the whole trip, and I worry for my car's interior.
• Some people were waving at me from inside a lodge nearby. I had half a mind to go in to dry off, but I wanted to get home badly at this point.

For some reason, until recently, I had never gone kayaking. My family owned a canoe. I've rowed row boats. I've paddled paddle boats. I had never kayaked.

Some weeks back, I was with a group of friends at  Saratoga Lake, and four of us hopped in kayaks and paddled around for a bit. It was fun, and it made me say I would get a kayak.

After looking around a bit, I had a lengthy and informative conversation with someone at  Eastern Mountain Sports, who basically steered me to the  Pungo 120 but emphasized that they were having an event on Saturday where people could try all of their models for free. Despite wanting to buy one then and there, I held off, went down on Saturday (today), and tried a few boats. It was fun. The staff were great (though one dropped and lost his radio in the water, hehe).

Then came the first problem. I went straight back to EMS, but most of their kayak enthusiasts were busy at the water. I knew exactly what I wanted, but of the few staff members there, one was clearly brand new, and the others were clearly overwhelmed by everyone else. It took some time finding the right things. I got the boat, a paddle, and a life jacket that were on sale as a bundle. There was confusion about this, which items were actually part of the special, where they were, .... But eventually I got everything I needed, one of the staff members helped me strap the thing I bought to my roof, and I was off.

Where to? I searched around (the Internet) a bit for a lake nearby with public access to the water. I picked The Great Sacandaga Lake, arbitrarily. It was about an hour away. I wasn't really sure where I was going to launch, but I drove around a bit and finally found a public boat launch. There was apparently a beach area where I would be charged $15 for parking, as a non-resident, but I couldn't launch there. I ended up carrying the boat to a boat launch where there was a formidable line of people putting motor boats on the water. I snuck in between two of them, and I was off!

That's what my route looked like. There was a strong wind. I was tired before I started. I had also paddled for a while in the morning, testing boats, and I'm not in any kind of shape. I headed into the wind and stopped now and then to adjust the numerous adjustable bits of my seat and paddle. I was hoping to find a quiet moment to bust out a ukulele and sit back and snack and whatnot, but the water was really choppy, both from the wind and from boats zipping back and forth near me, and waves overtook me every few minutes, despite my best efforts to avoid them.

Here's some data from my phone, which was sitting in one of the kayak's compartments, gathering GPS data. It and my other cargo stayed dry, but I was soaked by the time I was done.

•  Google Map
• KML
• GPX
• CSV

I paddled into the wind until I was tired. At about that point the clouds started to look intimidating, so I turned around. The wind basically carried me straight back, and I mostly just steered.

That's what the kayak looks like on my car, all ready to go home. I found a metal loop under the rear bumper, which is just perfect for hooking a strap into, and a big threaded hole in front which worked fine, too. For some reason it was much more stable on the way home than the way there, which was a relief. Shortly after I had pulled away from the store, one of the straps started buzzing. I found that giving each bit a half-twist, though less aerodynamic, helped silence that.

Conclusion: All in all, I had a lot of fun. The weather, despite the wind, was beautiful at the lake, while it was incredibly hot and humid back home. The water was a really nice warm temperature. Such a big lake was probably the last place I should have gone, but there is no shortage of other places for me to explore around here.