48 Hours Off the Grid

After doing the whole Valentine's Day thing, the Sailor and I got up bright and early on Saturday for an Adirondack adventure.

The Sailor surprised me with these beautiful flowers
 and Moonstruck chocolates-- my favorite!

Friends own a "hunting camp" near Tupper Lake in the heart of the Adirondack Park... The camp is accessed via a trail head in tiny Conifer, NY in St. Lawrence County to be exact. To put it in perspective, Conifer is a hamlet of Piercefield, a town of 305 people spread out in 12 communities. Talk about small! During the summer, tourists head there for fishing and boating, and in the winter, it's a snowmobiling and snowshoeing destination. 

And we certainly did do some snowshoeing! Our friends went into camp via snowmobile early in the day on Saturday, but we decided to hike in bushwhack through some pretty dense terrain. Not going to lie-- It was more than I bargained for when we started out. I didn't think we were ever going to make it there! On the positive side, I was able to stay warm the whole time. Once we were moving and my core heated up, I got in a great workout. The downside was trudging through knee high snow, getting stuck in a spruce trap (imagine stepping forward and sinking between fallen trees hidden under the snow), and  wandering for hours before we found the camp. A trip that should have taken about an hour and a half took us well more than twice as long.

Despite the camp not having water or electricity, we arrived to some other pretty welcoming amenities --  roaring fires, lots of laughs, homemade spaetzle and schnitzel and a few of these...

No hot toddies. We were resourceful. 

We recovered from our hike by cooking lots of delicious, hearty food (Hello, Texas French Toast!), hanging out by the campfire, playing card games, setting off some fireworks and taking short walks for pleasure.

We were having so much fun that our overnight trip turned into two nights...48-hours totally off the grid, which was fabulous!

I always end up feeling refreshed and restored after spending time in nature. I definitely experienced some anxiety upon returning to 'civilization' though. Being away all weekend means the errands and household chores are waiting!