Rain Rain Go Away

I thought I would never say it, but this past weekend I actually got sick of the rain. Maggie, Sam and I had plans to camp and hike at North-South Lake on the Catskills from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon. We picked up the rental car in Jersey around 2pm on Friday, just as it was starting to rain. The drive to the campsite, which should have taken about two hours, instead took about three because the road was literally missing about half a mile from the entrance to the campsite and we had to take a very long detour to get there. When we finally did arrive at North Lake Road, I was really creeped out when I saw multiple groups of people dressed in long white robes walking around. Cult activity? Perhaps, perhaps. We got to our beatiful campsite (there was a view of the lake!), set up the tent, made a fire and cooked ourselves some hotdogs, cheddar brats and marshmallows. Around 8pm, it started to rain very hard. It didn't stop raining all night. Sam and Maggie had a running joke that everytime I left to go to the bathroom it seemed to rain harder. Maybe Mother Nature hates me? By morning, our tent was soaked and our sleeping bags were very wet as well. After a few games of Yahtzee!, we headed in to the library in town so Sam, our resident meteorologist, could do a little forecasting for us. It looked like the rain was going to stay strong for quite a while longer. We had lunch at the oh-so-creepy Selen'a diner and decided to hike the shorter loop North of the lakes. The first mile or so wasn't too bad, but then it started to really pour. Everything was drenched. Every time we got to a look-out, all you could see was white mist. There were raging waterfalls in places that there usually isn't any water at all. The last sign we saw was covered half-way up the pole with water. We had to cross Mary's Glen in the last mile. What is normally a peaceful creek was now a frothy, dangerous river. We got across after some maneuvering and made it back to the campsite. Drenched, hungry and tired, we decided to get in the car and head home. Even though the weather was miserable, I have to say that the three of us had a great time while we were there. Hopefully we'll get to go camping again together in the near future.

When we got back, we all unpacked, showered (separately of course) and had a nice dinner. We were on our way to go visit our friends John and Lisa in their new apartment when Sam and I got stuck in the Tower I elevator for about 15 minutes. We chalked it all up to an unlucky weekend, which is strange when you think about how often Sam and I were shit on by birds in the last month (supposedly it's a sign of good fortune).

Lots of things coming up to look forward to: Brown Bear is coming to stay with me this weekend, the World Cup starts soon (I'm in a pool where I hope to beat all of my soccer snob friends) and the Belmont Stakes are this Saturday. Yippee!