Beautiful Weather

Today was actually a bit too hot - well over 80 degrees. But we certainly aren't complaining because we love the sun. It is actually supposed to be nice all week. All the water followed by the sunshine seems to accelerated everything. The black flies are bad. But the flowers are out. We counted about 10 lady-slipper orchids on the property today, and that was just around the house.I'm trying to stay away from the bugs today, so I didn't venture farther.

Happy Memorial Day

We celebrated the holiday (though all days feel like holidays to us) by paddling with the group on the Upper Osgood River, putting in on Church Pond off Route 86. The water was somewhat high but getting under the trees and bridge in the canal was not a problem. Some of us had lunch on a rise just to the right of the falls that mark the end of the navigable section.

After the paddle we went to Marilyn and Peter's for a nice picnic. It was a long but very enjoyable day.

Paddling to Weller Pond

What a beautiful day. We, and our neighbors J & C, put our boats in at the still very high South Creek and paddled across Middle Saranac Lake into Little Weller Pond and Weller Pond. We had lunch at one of the campsites on Tick Island and were surprised at how few bugs there were. We discovered a 1.5 mile trail (actually a canoe carry, but I think I would just hike it) at the very end of Weller Pond that goes to Saginaw Bay on Upper Saranac Lake. I definitely want to hike it at some point. It would be a nice interlude in the middle of the paddle.
Then this evening we all took our bikes to Fish Creek Campground and pedaled the 6-mile loop. Definitely an easy route.

To NJ and Back

We are back at camp after a quick trip to New Jersey. We drove down on the 17th so W could get a couple of doctor's appointments taken care of. We saw all the family yesterday and now are hopefully at camp for an extended stay. Weather is nice today but supposed to start raining again tomorrow. Sigh.

Paddling Stony Creek Ponds

We had another gorgeous day today - sunny with temps in the high 60's. So a group of us paddled and "paddlewacked" on Stony Creek ponds and way up Ampersand Brook. While the waters have receded a lot, any beaver dams on Ampersand Brook are still way under water, so the only obstacles were downed trees which we managed to get around/under until we got to a really big pile of logs at the furthest place upstream that any of the group had ever gotten to. Pretty cool.

Hike to Rocky Falls

Today we hiked to Rocky Falls with some of the Wayfarers.The trail starts near the parking lot at the end of Adirondack Loj Road. We were told that Mount Jo, whose trail starts from the same place, is a fairly short hike with great views. We'll have to remember that.

At Camp

We drove to camp yesterday and only met with one flooded road - Route 3 through Tupper Lake, which we knew was still flooded. But the waters are going down quickly; today the road was open for the first time since the flooding began. The water in the Flow is still very high. Here is a view of our flooded shoreline; with the water much lower than at its peak.I'm unhappy that all our gentians are gone, along with a lot of dirt. But we fared a lot better than many, so I can't complain. Today we met some of the gang for a paddle on Hoel Pond. We saw several loons and a pair of common mergansers, with the male in full breeding plumage.
On the way home we stopped at the "crusher" to check out the water level. In this photo the river is on the right and the parking lot is on the left.Hard to tell which is which. In this shot someone has painted a line on the rock showing the water level on 4/29/11.

We found some nice blooming dogtooth violets (Erythronium americanum) on the bank thereand then discovered them at camp as well.

Music Review

An excerpt from a review of our performance Saturday evening of Bach's B Minor Mass.
"...the choir itself was the real star of the evening. The group was extremely well prepared, exhibiting a clear confidence, agility and endurance. Singing Bach is no joke. The lines are difficult and test the mettle of the best choirs. Singing three hours of Bach is an ambitious undertaking."
Yeah, us.

Flooding at the Wild Center

This overlook is usually overlooking the water, by several feet. Photo courtesy of the Wild Center.