Loons on the lake

Although James and I found much to do (and not do) at The Hedges, we did venture off property during our stay. We knew that we wanted to take a boat cruise on one of the lakes, having enjoyed a boat tour during our visit to Lake Placid. We drove down to Racquette Lake to look at the W.W. Durant, but quickly decided that was not the type of cruise that we had in mind. Too many people, we weren't interested in eating lunch on board so we would have been on the top deck with no shade, and did I mention there were too many people? As James said, we weren't interested in a Greyhound tour of the lake.

We drove back to the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake to look at what the Blue Mountain Lake Boat Livery offered and we found this beauty:

 

She is the Towahloondah, built in 1919 or 1920. We were ready to go out on the 11 am cruise, but we were the only customers and the captain said he didn't take her out for only two people. We had the choice of going on a pontoon boat or waiting for the 2 pm cruise, when he said he would take out the Towahloondah regardless of the number of passengers. Of course we opted to return at 2 pm!

When we returned, we found that we were still the only customers and the captain lived up to his earlier promise, so we had the entire boat and tour to ourselves. Our cruise started in Blue Mountain Lake and our captain told us history and stories of the area, and showed old photos of early development on the lake. While on the backside of one of the islands, he pointed out an osprey nest at the top of a tree; we could just barely make out the silhouette of a bird feeding its chicks.

We also came upon a family of loons, whom we had been hearing throughout our stay. We saw this adult and two chicks:

The other adult got agitated at our proximity and soon uttered the famous loon sound, which I find to be beautiful.

We passed under this beautiful bridge as we motored from Blue Mountain Lake into Eagle Lake:

 

On Eagle Lake, we saw another adult loon and a chick that was older than the two on Blue Mountain Lake, but I was unable to get a clear photo of them. After Eagle Lake came Utowana Lake, which is mainly undeveloped. The cruise lasted almost two hours and we so enjoyed the gorgeous scenery, hearing the captain's narration and being able to chat with him about any subject we liked. If you ever have the good fortune to visit Blue Mountain Lake, stop by the boat livery and take a tour.

We also did some hiking during our stay. We had the kitchen staff at The Hedges pack a picnic lunch for us and we hiked about 1.5 miles to the summit of Castle Rock, which provides stunning views of Blue Mountain Lake:

 

Sitting on the rock face at the top, we ate our lunch and almost participated in a medical emergency. It was windy and another hiker's paper napkin started to blow away. He lunged for it, and we thought he was going to roll right off the rock. There were about 6-8 people there at the time and we all said "Let it go!" Better to litter than become litter.

It is hard to see in this photo that I took from the swimming dock at The Hedges, but there is a rock face at the top of middle mountain and that is Castle Rock:

For some reason, standing on Castle Rock and looking down at the lake seemed much higher than seeing Castle Rock from the lake.