Israeli Hitchhiker on the way to the Sacandaga

A few years back, Lynn (another one of ARO's Hudson River Guides) and I were on our way out to the Lake Luzerne to help on the Sacandaga River. The Sacandaga River is a family oriented trip of class II rafting and tubing. The tubing can actually be pretty adventurous and it is well worth a trip down the river. ARO takes a big trip of kids from some camp every week and we were on our way out to help out with that. On the way, just outside of Blue Mountain Lake, we saw a young man hitchhiking. I'm a pretty nice guy so I stopped to pick him up. Our boss was not very happy about that later because of the added liability, but I couldn't help it. Every time I see a hitchhiker I just imagine myself and the times I've been lucky enough to grab quick rides.

Anyway, it turned out this young guy was from Israel (I'm pretty sure his name was Adam). Adam was a former soldier in the Israeli army and soon to be engaged. He was a real friendly guy and he told us of his travels up to that point around the world and around the states. And he told us of his plans to travel around India with his soon to be fiance. He told us how he was on his way to Vermont- so it was perfect that we picked him up, Luzerne being on his way and all.

We had to stop in North River at our Hudson River base to load the trailer up with boats and load the van up with paddles, life jackets and other gear. Adam helped us load the boats and the gear and we were glad to have him there, because it made the work significantly easier. After we were loaded we were on our way to Lake Luzerne.

We got to Luzerne and I introduced Adam to everybody there. They all dug him and he told some more of his adventures and his plans. I offered him a free trip on the river as my guest and of course he agreed. He said it was the first time he had done anything like that and that he had a great time. He said he would remember it as one of the radder things he would do in the states.

At the end of the day before we took off back home and he headed down the road towards VT, we snapped a quick photo and he actually emailed it to me months later when he was back home. Here's that picture. I'm second from the right in the black life jacket and Adam is next to me in the jeans and that's Lynn to the left of him.

We had a great day with our hitchhiking friend Adam and it just goes to show you all the rad people you can meet when working in a real cool environment, at a real cool job doing what you love.