An Aborted Paddle - and Its Replacement

Today we were supposed to put our boats into Raquette Lake, paddle the Marion River, Utowana, Eagle and Blue Mountain lakes.  Then, after hanging out on the beach for a while, have dinner at Hemlock Hall.  That plan was changed the minute we saw the white caps on Blue Mountain Lake.  The temps in the low 40's didn't help.  So some folks went to the Adirondack Museum for a while.  But a group of us still wanted to paddle somewhere, so we put in off Route 28 and paddled up the South Inlet that flows into Raquette Lake.  We paddled up to the pretty rapids

and had lunch in a nice protected spot.  Then paddled back to the cars for a round trip distance of just over 4 miles.  It is a paddle I've wanted to do, but couldn't see driving all the way there for such a short one.  So this worked out nicely.  Then we hung out with friends in Indian Lake, finally ending up for dinner at Hemlock Hall.