A Jambo Posting:

Long Lake, NY—The Full Packers 5th Annual Retreat was recently held at the beautiful Lake Eaton Campground in the Central Adirondacks. Although the attendance was not as was hoped, two of the members, albeit Charter members, continued the time honored tradition with members of the Ladies Auxiliary and assorted friends and admirers. Rocketman enjoyed a championship week as he reclaimed the “one on one” basketball trophy as well as the one mile loop-a-thon. Jambo and Earth Mother came in second respectively, in these events, but the basketball win will be forever accompanied by an asterisk(*) in the record book. In fact, the Jam/EarMo team outpointed the Roc/Juicyfruit team, but why quibble? None the less, Roc was presented with a well deserved trophy---a bottle of outdated Saranac Pumpkin Ale. Jambo continued his research in improving the efficiency of the Perception 14.5 kayak in preparation for the rigorous upcoming expedition later this fall. Several experiments were conducted with a golf umbrella purchased for $5.00 at Mr. 2nd. The persistent stong southwesterly wind provided the optimal environment for such investigations. Going across the wind, Jam was able to traverse the lake from his campsite all the way over to Roc’s without a single stroke and only minimal steering. Going with the wind at his back, Jam made even faster passage, but lost maneuverability and control almost to the point of capsizing. Observations and Conclusions: 1. use a transparent umbrella to better see where you’re going, 2. downwind travel requires use of a rudder to avoid capsizing.
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Bears made their presence known this year. Having never seen a bear in the wild before, Roc has already seen three this yesr alone! Bears visited both Roc’s and Jam’s campsites this year, although Roc actually baited his bear with some strategically place raisins. I guess you can afford to do that if you’re carrying pepper spray. Jam’s site was ransacked without invitation, but after being humiliated by the Katahdin Moose Incident of 2003, he dashed from his tent in the depths of darkness and chased the mother bear and her 3 cubs away, armed with only a flashlight. A 10 mile boat expedition was also made to the northern end of Long Lake in the shadow of the majestic Seward Range which will be scaled soon. It is almost cosmic that the second half of this years journey will be a kayak trip on Lake Lila, named after Seward’s wife. Who knew?! Finally, Bill the Park Ranger at Lake Eaton has graciously offered to store the FP kayaks in his garage as the FP’s climb Seward, thus absolving us of any concern about the security of our vessels while on the mountain. The next assembly of the FPs will be the pre-mission meeting, 9/16 at Earth Mothers Road Kill Café in Outer Fabius. Please do not wear any flammable clothing as the sparks are really going to fly!