Paddling to Weller Pond

I had a nice 8 1/4 mile round trip paddle with the group today.  We put in at South Creek and paddled into a very calm Middle Saranac Lake.

Then on into Little Weller and then Weller Pond.  We stopped at the campsite on Tick Island for lunch, where I found this neat mushroom.

This chipmunk is obviously used to being fed and explored around us as we ate.

We discovered the "sunny" sky wasn't very sunny, even though there were no clouds.  Apparently smoke from the wild fires out west has made it to the upper atmosphere on the East coast.  I guess this is the end of crisp blue fall skies for this year.

A Stroll up the Driveway

It is a crisp fall day, perfect for a walk up the driveway to see what is there.  This plant's common name is Doll's Eyes for obvious reasons; also White Baneberry.  The Latin name is Actaea pachypoda in the Ranunculaceae.

The sun lit up some Beech Drops (Epifagus virginiana, in the Orobanchaecae) which are all around now.  They are parasitic on the roots of beech trees.

I love our moss and lichen covered rocks.

Paddling the Raquette River

We had a nice 7 1/4 mile round trip paddle on the river today.  We put in at the Crusher and headed upstream toward the outflow from Follensby Pond.  We figured paddling up to the dam at Follensby and then turning around would be a good length for a paddle.  We waited to go until this afternoon because it was still only 50 degrees and cloudy in late morning.  The sun finally came out and while the breeze was still cool, it was a beautiful paddling day.

We were in for a surprise when we got to the junction toward Follensby Pond.  The beavers had been busy and while we might have been able to scramble over the dam, getting back into the boats in the deep water on the other side would have been difficult.  So we decided to turn around.

Paddling Lake Flower to Kiwassa Lake

I paddled about 10 miles round trip with the group today.  It was 80 degrees so I was hot and tired by the end, but it was great to be out on the water and to be with friends.  We put in at the boat launch on Lake Flower in Saranac Lake and paddled into Kiwassa.  We stopped at the campsite on a point sticking out into the lake.  We tried the site on the island first, but it was too hard to land.  The site we did stop at had a very good spot to get out onto shallow rocks.