Fifth Avenue Forum

I am accompanying my daughter to a two-night Girl Scout family camp up at Camp Archibald, which is in the middle of nowhere up in the Endless Mountains northwest of Scranton, in August. Looking forward to it, will be so nice to do stuff like that again. I hope there are other dads there

Or maybe there won't be other dads there.....

lol

Stars were nice last night

Nice!

Yeah, a buddy of mine had a fire at his house yesterday and the sky was beautiful last night

A yuge brush fire is ravaging Ohiopyle right now

Awful. Has to be man made.

Yeah, probably an accident or something stupid. The hillside from my house is glowing and it's almost 1am. We need rain, badly

Now there is a fire near tidioute in the ANF?

That is awful news.

Went hiking at Laurel Summit State Park today. Beautiful place, perfect weather. The view from Wolf Rocks was impressive. The only downside was the woods were packed, I went to Laurel Summit hoping the leafers would be at Linn Run.

Have you tried laurel Ridge state park? I literally had no idea it existed until I drove 653 from rockwood to Connellsville home after a facebook marketplace rendezvous. What an incredible view on 653 right around Jim mountain quarry

No, sounds neat. I do use the 100yd range on the state game lands just south of there, though.

Opening day is coming up boys and girls. Hopefully the weather won't be the sh*t that it is now.

Hiked half the Rachel Carson Trail Saturday - 18 miles. Perfect day for it. 4528 ascending ft and 4376 descending ft. have made me feel like I'm 85. Worth it, though.

The wife and I got to do some sea kayaking this week. Her on her paddleboard and me on a too-small sit-on-top kayak borrowed from a friend. She's been leaning on me lately to get my own kayak so I don't have to borrow/rent anymore. Anyone have a local shop they like that has kayaks in stock to look at? My wife does all her stuff through Ian at surfsupadventures.com but that's not so helpful for me.

Looking online it seems like the kayaks I like are out of stock. Not sure if that's residual supply chain and demand issues from COVID or what.

Dunhams always has some lined up on the wall outside their doors. Not sure if you want to go big or just trying to get a beginner one. REI might be the other place to check out

This is one that checked a lot of boxes for me, but the 140 isn't really available anymore: https://www.wildernesssystems.com/us/kayaks/tarpon-140

Being as tall as I am I pretty much need a sit on top and the longer it is the better off I am, so 14ft is a nice length. Sit on top, comfortable seat, decent storage, and adjustable footpegs is my list of wants. And I like that particular model because although it's a wide SOT it's tapered at the end so it can handle a bit, it isn't just a barge.

Being a big guy is a double-edged sword in a lot of ways. I *need* a bigger kayak to support my height and weight, but I can also lift a 65lb kayak onto my car because I'm big.

I've tried all kinds of kayaks and my favorite is the 16ft+ sea kayaks with rudder systems that you sit in. But they're really only good for open water and they're bad in every other way. I'm happy to just rent one of those from time to time.

Maybe the next time I'm near Leechburg I'll stop in at The River's Edge Canoe & Kayak.

@dodint

Is this kayak large enough for you?

https://www.bedfordgazette.com/news/loc ... 0147d.html

Neat.

Also, no.

Still haven't found a new Tarpon 140. But I was poking around on FB and found this older model, which already has a rudder system installed. I think it's pretty nice for a first boat, even if it's used:

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva ... 40278.html



The only thing I don't like about it is the color. We paddle in high boat traffic areas sometimes and I don't like blue boats/pfds. I might buy a roll of reflective hi-vis and apply that to parts of it. My PFD is a red/orange color. My wife's SUP and PFD are blue, drives me nuts, particularly the PFD.

I am headed up to the Adirondacks next month with my FIL and BIL to a family friend's hunting lodge--my FIL goes every year but looking forward to making the trip.

I am headed up to the Adirondacks next month with my FIL and BIL to a family friend's hunting lodge--my FIL goes every year but looking forward to making the trip.

We went in 2018 on our way up to Quebec. Definitely want to go back, there are so many hiking opportunities and cool things to see. If you're near Lake Placid, definitely check out the old Olympic site. Really cool stuff.

Will you be hunting?