May 27-31, 2010
Memorial Day Weekend
Hartwick Pines State Park

As much camping as we have done already this year (this marks our 8th trip out of the season) - I think this trip was our most anticipated. These were the first reservations we made for the 2010 camping season, we made them 6 months ago and have been looking forward to exploring this new campground ever since. We were definately not disappointed and will definately return. This was also are longest stretch of camping so far this season - as we are restricted to weekends with the kids being in school.

There are a lot of pictures here because we did a lot of different things and I couldn't decide what to leave out.

Our campsite on the outer loop, nice and private
with a wooded area behind us for the kids to play.

Getting ready to explore the bike trail just outside the park entrance.

At the entrance to the state park they have this great big "contraption" that they used to move logs back in the logging days.

We biked to Bright and Glory Lakes. They are actually quite small but full of fish. One thing we regret about our weekend is that we never made it back here with our fishing poles.
Allison was perfectly happy though - she found a yellow butterfly. She loves yellow butterflies -as yellow is her favorite color. We teased her throughout the weekend that her butterfly was following her, because it seemed that almost everywhere we went the entire weekend we saw at least one.

One of the lakes.

We spent an afternoon hiking the AuSable River Foot Trail. It was right around 3 miles long, which we knew would be pushing it for the kids - but they did really well. The trail had a pamphlet that gave you something to look for or watch for at each of the trail markers. We learned a lot of things about the history of the forest and various things we were seeing both on the trees and around them.

At the beginning of our hike, Gabrielle started collecting ferns.
However, she quickly learned that ferns lost their moisture very quickly and wilt badly in a very short period of time.

Sam decided to fill his bucket with water from the river.

Unbelievably, Sam hiked almost the entire 3 miles. He did very well, but last 1/4 mile or so he opted to get into the bike trailer to ride the rest of the way. He didn't last long, before he was sawing logs - and not the kind the loggers used to saw.

Friday night - the special even of the evening was a presentation about life as a logger.
This man was very good - he knew just how to keep the kids involved in what he was saying as he constantly was asking one of the kids in the audience their name and putting them in a situation that he was talking about. Gabrielle got used as an example of a cook in a logging camp. It was very worth our time, and we learned a lot about logging and increased our interest in visiting the logging museum later in the weekend.

Saturday morning, I got up to get dressed. When I came back to make my bed - this is what I found. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

Later Saturday morning, we went on the OLD GROWTH TRAIL tour.
This is a guided tour, approximately a mile in length and ending at the logging museum.
The guide was very interesting and pointed out many points of interest. As we walked the beginning portion of the trail, he kept pointing out trees which had been nests to the Pileated Woodpecker in previous seasons. They had not yet found an active next for this season. Little did he know, that later in the hike our group would not only see a Pileated Woodpecker, but see it fly over to it's nest. Imagine our excitement when we also got to see the baby woodpeckers little beeks pop out of the hole and the mom feed them.
(couldn't get a good shot of the babies though)

As we are walking through this highly wooded area, all of the sudden there is this great big rock. We learned that this is called an "erratic" and that it had been dropped here at some point by a glacier. Love how much our kids are learning without really realizing they are learning it.

A little further down the trail we saw a chapel -
it looks so peaceful and serene in this beautiful setting.

At the end of the trail we were able to explore the logging museum.
This is where the previous night talk really pulled together as the kids could see so many of the things he had talked about the night before. They even got to lay on beds like the loggers used to sleep in.

The kids loved the hands on part of the museum. They had a model logging camp all set up. They kids could load the trailers, the trains and every thing with a miniature version of everything.

After walking through many of the wooded areas - it really hit home to see this photo of what these forests looked like after the loggers had been through.

After exploring the logging museum - we also explored the indoor museum back at the visitor's center. Sam found the bear quite intriguing.

Saturday afternoon we drove about 20 minutes north to Otsego State Park.
This is a small lake and therefore, the water was quite warm for early in the season.
The kids loved being able to swim for a while. Sunday we drove down to North Higgins Lake so they could swim some more and we could take a look at the campground to see if we might want to go there sometime in the future.
(my personal opinion - I think we will stick with Hartwick Pines).

The kids loved the playground at the campground. They had a nice playground at the campground and another one at the day use area. Sam decided to learn how to do the fire pole this weekend. This boy is so strong - he went down the pole over and over again, but most of the time his legs weren't even toughing the pole. He was hanging from his arms and letting himself down completely in control.

Nicholas was really into catching caterpillars. There was lots of them at the playground and he just kept catching them. On the first night, he kept one and the next morning it had cacooned. This, of course, sparked Gabrielle's interest and she started catching caterpillars too.

On Sunday, when we headed down to North Higgins Lake for some swimming, our other goal was to explore the Civil Conservation Corp museum. Here, the kids learned how people came back in to help re-plant the forests that the loggers had destroyed. I think it was great to see the full circle of the industry and how we must take responsibility for our environment.

The first thing we saw when we arrived was a metal fire tower. The kids learning that people used to just stand up in these towers and look for any sign of a forest fire starting.

This building in the museum showed the kids step by step how pinecones were shaken and dried and the seeds retrieved so that they could start saplings which would later be replanted in the forests around us.

As many hikes as we have been on over the years, I don't recall ever hiking in such an awestriking environment. The canopy from the trees is so high here, that there is no undergrowth, no low lying growth. Note there are no little plants, flowers, or anything along the forest floor. The only thing you see is trunk upon trunk of some very massive trees.

This particular hiking trail happens to be called a Fit Trail. Every 1/8-1/4 of a mile there is a station where you can do some type of stretching, strength training or other type of exercise. The kids loved experimenting on the various activities.

Sunday night - they had another special presenatation.
This one was hands on - and all about the toys that the kids used to play with back in the logging days.

Sam is exploring Jacob's Ladder.
An interesting fact is that this was one of the few toys
that they were allowed to actually play with on Sunday.

Allison - plays with the ball and cup.

I don't remember the name of this one - but it involved a piece of wood on the end of a string and when you spin it really fast it makes a whirring noise. Just be careful that there is no one around you.

Gabrielle plays with the wooden acrobat.

This was the first trip of the season that we got some debris on the slide out and Paul couldn't get the picnic table close enough to clean it off.
Looks like Nicholas has a new job - and he is pretty proud of it too.
(Technically, Paul can walk on the roof of our trailer, but why add that much weight if you can just add 40-50 pounds).