Walking the Rail Trail

We have been walking a lot recently.  We walk our road when we don't have time to go elsewhere.  One time this week we walked on the Deer Pond Loop trail for 2 miles round trip.  There were LOTS of mosquitos and deer flies but insect repellant and the deer fly patches on our hats controlled them enough.  And since we are at an intersection with the rail trail when we get veggies Saturday mornings, we have been walking there sometimes.  This morning we headed from Route 86 toward Lake Placid.

There were lots of wildflowers along the trail, including lots and lots of milkweed coming into bloom.

And we saw the largest aspens I've ever seen in the park.  They were at least 12 inches in diameter.

Paddling the North Branch of the Saranac River

We decided the North Branch of the Saranac River would be a quiet place to paddle on a holiday.  We were correct, except that a large group of people with several cars and tents completely took over the campsite below the bridge, blocking our normal put-in.  So we were forced to put in below the steep sandy slope upstream, but we managed.  There were lots of blooming swamp laurel around.

Unlike last year, there was a lot of recent beaver activity.  We managed to get around or over all the new small dams, but later in the season it could get quite tricky.  We didn't get as far as we did last year, stopping at one of the larger dams instead of trying to go farther.  We managed to pull out on a sand bar near the dock to stretch our legs.  Here is the view from there, showing how shallow the water was by this point.

We paddled a little over 4 miles round trip.