Blue Mountain Part 1

I was thrilled to arrive at Syracuse Airport, but less than thrilled that the airline had lost my duffle bag. I went through the arrangements to get it back and when I found out that it was insured for $400, I was hoping I could just get the money. All of the clothes I had worn that summer were hopelessly worn out and therefore worthless.

The Syracuse Greyhound Bus Station

All the way back to Cayuga, which was about 35 miles west of Syracuse, by Greyhound bus I was thinking of just exactly how much time there was in a day, since I was accustomed to working an 80 hour week. Now I had all of that time just for myself.

I was rooming in a suite for four with three friends I had made last year. Our dorm was the top floor of a ten story new buildings called the twin towers. The view was really wonderful: hills, fields, cows, apple trees, and a little bit of small town Cayuga. I had to borrow underwear from one of my roomies who was my size 4 until the airline found my bag that had mistakenly gone to Salt Lake City, Utah. I offered to retrieve it myself, but the airline person laughed it off and the duffel was returned to me at my dorm the next day. It was so good to be home.

I had signed up for a weekend trip to the SUNY Cayuga’s Pine Tree Lake Research Facility in the Adirondacks before the semester began. We took a chartered bus there one Friday and checked into dorms. The dorms were long narrow two story log cabin type buildings with double occupancy rooms. That evening we all met at the Pine Boughs, a three story post and beam wooden structure first built in 1887, to discuss the itinerary. The next day there would be a canoe trip to Blue Mountain, which we would then climb and then canoe back. That evening, we would take a cedar sauna and a dip in the lake. Great plan!

The lodge we met at.