Tough week in the Adirondacks

Two swimmers drown in the Ausable last Friday:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/drowned-victim-found-adirondacks-article-1.1848975

Man killed in an Indian Lake church:

http://poststar.com/news/local/man-dies-after-storming-into-church/article_36e17172-ffdd-11e3-8c5c-001a4bcf887a.html

Wow!'

father  Phil Allen  was our former pastor at St Mary's Cathedral .

Father Phil is a great guy , a real outdoorsman, a skier , hiker , a 46er i think etc and one of the kindest and gentle guys you can imagine . This is what happens when the mentally ill , often off their meds are turned out into the street on their own by NY state . these tragedies play out with increasing frequency ... Scary . The trend away from institutionalization has contributed to this problem .

Also, a woman drowned in the Kayderosserass Creek in Ballston Spa a couple weeks ago, and another drowning in West Canada Creek.

High water is scary, especially if you don't know what you're doing. Wear your PFDs always, and stay away from rivers at flood stage!

This fire also killed two young boys

http://m.pressrepublican.com/pr/db_262955/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=81xC4TWO

That church scene sounds traumatic.

I saw a big black bear lying dead on 87 last weekend.

Plus this....

http://poststar.com/news/local/police-recover-missing-fisherman/article_4cb87042-03c3-11e4-8116-001a4bcf887a.html

Just a side note.....Lake George is a big lake. It's waves in the southern basin can easily obscure canoes and kayaks from a motorized boat's view. It's water is somewhat chilly which could affect weaker people adversely or everybody adversely if stuck in it for any length of time. Big water demands caution. If one is stuck in the water on LG without a PFD, odds are you're not going to be able to swim to shore unless it's already close.

PFDs. In boating safety courses they instruct people that the most important thing about PFDs is that they fit proper. Too small and they won't keep you afloat. Wet skin and wave action can easily make a too large PFD slip off any person especially kids. Waves, wind and current can easily separate a parent from a child or a swimmer from a PFD/ float VERY, VERY quickly. Same with a swimmer and the boat or shore.  

A PSA....

We didn't boat last weekend, After talking to a friend who lives lakeside on Lake George, I'm glad we didn't. According to them there were strong waves/whitecaps on LG last weekend. This explains the tragic accident posted above.

At my house near West Mtn, it was breezy even gusty at times but seemed like a day one could boat. I'm sheltered by trees and the mtn. Lake George is not. I've seen LG with whitecaps. It's no picnic. It cause easily/quickly cause death. Don't be stupid. Days at the lake are great and sometimes few and far between but LG is big water and demands respect.

So, if you're ever thinking about going to LG and are not sure of the wave level, at the bottom of this post is one way to check it out. Keep in mind conditions vary by location or by the hour. I've seen people out in the average 20 ft-ish V hull in big waves and it is perilous, they were not having a good time. Small boats can't go very fast at all on big waves so they proceed at 10 mph or so taking forever to make it back to the launch/dock. All the while, crapping their pants.

When the waves start to swell, make everybody don lifejackets. It's real easy to get tossed out under those conditions. You may get knock unconscious exiting the boat, it's common. Once in the water it easily can take a good while to turn around and relocate/find you or the kids due to currents and the swell of the waves who's troughs hide swimmers amazingly well. A mere few minutes and an unconscious person is dead.

Be careful/never anchoring off the stern. Waves will pull the line very tight making it impossible to release it. Big waves then rapidly swamp the boat and quickly sink it. This is probably what happen in the tragic post above, though it was a downrigger that got snagged, not an anchor, the end result was the same.

ALWAYS have a good size knife aboard to cut lines in emergency situations. ALWAYS !

Marine radios are MUCH better than cell phones as they alert many boats, some of whom may be near you and be able to get to you/save you faster.

Southern end looking north....

http://www.lakegeorgesteamboat.com/about/webcam/

Bolton area looking east......

http://webcam.thealgonquin.com:8080/view/index.shtml

Other LG web cams exist.

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/25703/20140810/buffalo-man-drowns-on-raquette-river

A man drowned in Buttermilk Falls over the weekend. It's not a big waterfall by any means and people go swimming in it all the time. When I was there a couple weeks ago the water level was pretty low...those rocks towards the top of the falls can be slippery when they're exposed.