Paddling the Cedar River

It was a beautiful day for a paddle.  Here are some of the group looking for the elusive entrance to the river.

Since we had a late start, we stopped at a campsite for lunch instead of going all the way to the lean-to.  It was a beautiful woodsy spot.

There were lots of these fruits among the plants along the sides of the river.  It is presumably a species of Sparganium, a branched bur-reed.

My right hip was quite sore by the time we left the lunch spot and W was very tired, so we turned around there instead of going all the way to the lean-to.  This is probably my last long paddle - 8 miles - of the season.  I can go about an hour, or about 3 miles, before I have to stop to rest.

Photos Around Camp

I finally got around to taking some photos in our woods.  These are some of my favorites.

Slime mold?

A carpet of moss

Neat small moss and ferns

Epipactis Helleborine orchid

Lycopodium

Lichen and moss

Jack-in-the-pulpit fruit

Wild Basil or Satureja vulgaris in the Mint Family, or Lamiaceae, grows along our driveway.

Strange Adirondack Weather

There were a couple of hot spells here before we arrived and the plants seem to have responded.  This is a fuzzy photo of a very early lady slipper orchid in our woods.  The fuzziness is because it is extremely windy.  We are not used to their blooming before the first weekend of June.

Another Wildflower from the Driveway

This one is Shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica in the Pyrolaceae.) 

Paddling Long Pond

The two of us had a great paddle today.   We put into Long Pond off Floodwood Road, using wheels on my boat for the first time.  They worked very well on the 1/3 mile carry to the lake, shown to the left on the map.

We paddled into Pink Pond, shown on the left on the map.

 

We tried to get into Little Pink but it was blocked by a beaver dam.  We were able to get up the stream at the top of the map before being stopped by downed trees.  By the time we got back to the main part of the lake the winds had picked up so we headed back to the carry.  The squiggles at the bottom right show us stopping at campsite 14 and scrambling along the shore to get a look at the rapids on the small brook there.

Here is a sample of the wildflowers in bloom: swamp laurel lined the shores in many places (Kalmia angustifolia in the Ericaceae), the first rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides in the Orchidaceae) we have seen, iris a bit past their prime (Iris versicolor in the Iridaceae), and a marvelous nurse log covered with sundews (Drosera rotundifolia in the Droseraceae).

Hiking at Massawepie

We had a marvelous 2.4 mile hike on the trail at Massawepie today.  They close to the public on June 15 so we were glad we made it.  It is a beautiful walk through the woods and around the lake.

And there are still wildflowers to be identified.  This time I took a sample of the white-flowered shrub that was also blooming along the Upper Osgood and was able to identify it as labrador tea (Ledum Groenlandicaum in the Ericaceae).  I also saw common wood sorrel (Oxalis montana in the Oxalidaceae)

and twinflower (Linnaea borealis in the Caprifoliaceae).

Paddling Rainbow Lake

We had our traditional Memorial Day paddle and picnic today with a great group of friends.  The paddle was on Rainbow Lake, which is good to do early in the season before all the motor boats arrive.  We put in off Clark Wardner Road at the west end of the lake.  There is a small parking lot on the left not too far up the road from Jones Pond Road.  And there is a trail right across from it that goes to the lake.  But there is a shorter trail back down the road closer to Jones Pond Road and that is where we put in.  That narrow section of the lake is full of floating bogs with neat vegetation.  There was lots of bog rosemary blooming (Andromeda glaucophylla in the Ericaceae), but I had a hard time getting a decent photo since the wind kept blowing my boat around.

We paddled up the flow then stopped for lunch at the campsite just as we were heading back into the lake. I did my usual wandering around in the woods and found lots of lady slipper orchids, including one where a bee was about to enter the flower.

This is the view from the lunch spot.

Then on to the take-out on Kushaqua Mud Pond Road where we had spotted the cars.  We paddled a total of seven miles.

Lady Slipper Orchid Hike

A bunch of us went to the Hayes Brook Trail this morning to see the lady slipper orchids (Cypripedium Acaule in the Orchidaceae).  We had to go a week earlier than we have done in the past because the blooms were earlier.  And of course I could not resist taking photos.  This bunch has 14 blooms.

 

And this one also has a seed pod from last year.

 

There were also bunchberry flowers (Cornus canadensis in the Cornaceae).

And More Wildflowers

You might note a theme of my postings this spring.  I'm trying to get back to learning and recording local wildflowers.  I'm posting a better photo of the Clintonia on the driveway.  Then there are forget-me-nots (Myosotis scorpioides in the Boraginaceae) that I'm seeing on our property for the first time, lots of Maianthemum canadense (Liliaceae) blooming, and the bloom of dolls-eyes (or White Baneberry, Actaea pachypoda in the Ranunculaceae) that I always notice once they are fruiting.

More Adirondack Wildflowers

Many wildflowers are early this year.  The lady slippers are so early, the group walk to see them at Hayes Brook has been moved up by a week.  There are many just opening in our woods.  And right now everything is covered with pollen, presumably from the hemlocks.  We also have Clinton borealis (Liliaceae) which I hadn't seen on the property before.  This one is at the head of the driveway.  There is lots of Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis in the Araliaceae) and the ones by the lake are already blooming.  And the starflowers have started to bloom (Trientalis borealis in the Primulaceae).

Paddling the Rollins/Floodwood Loop

We did a variation on an old favorite today.  We paddled with friends so were able to do a two-ended paddle, putting in on Rollins Pond and taking out at the end of Fish Creek where we had spotted a car.  Before starting out I got a good photo of Viburnum alnifolium in the Caprifoliaceae, also known as Hobblebush.

I also took this photo that must be a Vaccinium of some sort, or at least in the Ericaceae.  These plants line the stream in spots.

Paddling Cedar River

Paddling the Cedar River is always an adventure.  Twelve of us put in above Wakely Dam and paddled a couple miles down the flow.  Then the fun begins.  It is always a challenge to find the correct passage through the labyrinth of streams into the main body of the river.  This is a screen shot from my GPS.  It makes it look as though we are paddling through a nice open lake when instead it is a tangle of plants and beaver dams.  The arm off to the left shows the first place we tried to get through without success.  Then we retraced our steps and tried again.  After struggling over a large beaver dam, we found ourselves in the nice, winding river.

The first place we could have taken out for lunch was occupied, so we paddled on to the lean-to.  The squiggles at the bottom of the map indicate my walking around the area on shore where I found lots of trout lilies in bloom.

I always feel Placid Boatworks should use our group in their advertisements.

The clouds came in in the afternoon as we paddled back down the river.

Then back over the beaver dam.  The entire paddle was about 10 miles.

Red Elderberry

I found a new plant along our driveway, a Red Elderberry (Sambucus pubens in the Caprifoliaceae).  The plant looks like a Common Elderberry, except the flower and fruit clusters are elongated instead of flat-topped.