Sharon, CT

Aunt and Uncle Jill and Derek bought a house in Sharon Connecticut and a bunch of us went for a weekend of fun and adventure.

Derek forging new paths in the old Toyota through the fields

a bunch of first generation Parrot AR drones

suiting up for a horrible journey through the swamp to the private lake.  Jill and Derek have no access or dock so we will be the first humans ever to traverse this godforsaken land.  Why are we doing this?  To kayak on the lake of course, and for the adventure and challenge of it.  I bought a 2 person inflatable kayak for $100 and was determined to use it.  No one else wanted to do this except Steven, we were both really really keen.

if it wasn't for Derek's huge stock of wetsuits protecting us from all kinds of thorns etc... I don't know if we would have continued on.

it was swampy smelly dense thorny and on top of all that we had gear with us including the kayak which is 32 pounds

It was the worst thing i've done in like 20+ years.  It was getting dark so we decided to turn back because we had no gps device to tell us how close we were.  We were close and could have made it but would have to tromp through quick mud swamp in the dark possibly.  We would go again the next day.

tired after a few hours of sheer exhaustion and throwing our bodies at the dense swamp, but our spirits were not dampened, we were determined to make it!  They keep their pool at 90 degrees so it was pretty sweet

The Intex K2 Explorer.  After having inflated it 3 times now I see that you really can have it inflated and in the water in 5 minutes if you're so determined.  After 1 use I give it 9 out of 10 stars.  the seating could be more comfortable but what do you want from an inflatable kayak for $100

I was the only one up early enough for the morning fog

Derek has six 80cc dirt bikes, 3 of them operational when we were there.  They go up to 40 mph

Diner looked cute but had a horrible loco moco there.

Steven Hedley just waitin' to buy a machete at the Tractor Supply store for $9.99.  

bought grillin' stuff for dinner at this farm

must be sweet to be able to sleep on yourself

enough playing around.  It's time for the young explorer's club to go at it again.  This time armed with a machete, walkie talkies with extended cable talking piece clip things that cops use (Derek has 60 walkies).  Leather work gloves, and the kayak bungied to a backpack now instead of the included carrying bag awkwardly and painfully cutting into your arms.  Also wore a bigger wet suit because the one i wore the day before was too small and made every muscle in my body fight against itself and the wetsuit rendering me atrophied everywhere in 10 minutes.  We were also armed with experience and knowledge and the mental picture of what lied ahead.  We brought 2 boards with us to throw down and help us traverse the swamp.

a shot of potato vodka before we go, also i had a gopro strapped to my chest and a 10L dry bag with beers and a camera in it.

eventually down to one board, then 0

we came across a round black disc and it wasn't a wheel, freaked out that i was a landmine

came across a hole on a tiny little bog island big enough to stand on and I saw the glint of 2 eyes staring back at me and was freaked out by it and still am.  What kind of creature lives on a little tuft of land in a swamp?!!!!

there was no shore or beach or anything as bob predicted and I also was afraid of.  But I also figured it was be something like this and we would be able to kind of inflate the raft on top of reeds and plant matter which is what I had to do whilst balancing on a fallen log in the water.

it worked and we were in the kayak and shimmied our way out into the water

a last look at the horror behind us

around the lake is infested with this invasive species of aquatic plant but once you get to the middle it's clear

We made it!  the house from the lake.  Since there is no public dock or access to the lake we were faced with going back through the swamp or jumping out on someone's property and hope to not get arrested.  Derek directed us to a house that might be unoccupied and it seemed to be and we were back on land.

bob came with the car to pick us up and we let him take the stuff home but we walked back because we wanted to claim 100% of the glory and not let people think bob deserved any

Steven's favorite part of the gopro footage is when I said "Bob, you shouldn't have come"

My favorite part was where I said to Bob "your hair looks horrible, it looks like you're wearing a toupee" and steven broke out laughing and bob said even when i come to help you out you still find a way to insult me.

Bob's favorite part is when he's driving a way I go "F*** Youuuu".

we made bob ride motorcycles and he said it was terrifying.

we heard stories of the Drew's adventures which make the one we did today look like a walk in the park.

the unglamorous side of being an awesome adventuring badass

we finally had the idea of doing time trials (3 laps solo) and Steven beat me by 5 seconds.  We only had time to do one cuz it was time to leave and we were also both scared of destroying our fragile bodies because we all fell off the bikes doing night laps injuring ourselves.

their property is Connecticut on one side and New York on the other.

where the 4 photos were taken in the swamp there is how close we made it the first day cuz I turned on the gps on my camera in the hopes it would tell us later on the map where we had made it too.  So close.

Also people were saying we should get to the lake via the indian lake creek on the right but we scouted it and it looked like a dry summer and just mud and it's 3 times the distance.  I think if we had done what everyone else was saying we would have surely perished.

all in all we travelled approximately .17 miles through the swamp which sounds very unimpressive and lame.  But we are heroes.  This shall forever go down as the Sharon Heroes Journey in the great hall of stories.