Vermont Quilt Festival

Yesterday we loaded up the car and headed for New Jersey, taking a detour via the quilt festival in Essex Junction, VT.  After spending a couple of hours at the quilt show, we continued on to Albany, NY where we spent the night.  We got home this morning after an uneventful drive.  We will spend a few days in NJ then off to Ireland with the chorus on July 3rd.

Paddling the Raquette River

We had a very fast 7 mile paddle today.  We put in at Axton Landing where the high water was nearly up to the bottom of the sign for the turnoff to the landing.  We floated/paddled down to the Crusher in two hours with no place to stop along the way.  In some places we were able to cut off loops of the river by paddling through the trees.  Lunch was on the dock at the Crusher, that is for those of us willing to wade through knee-deep water to get to the dock which was flooded on the parking lot side.

Paddling the North Branch of the Saranac River

A group of us put in on Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road and paddled three miles up the North Branch of the Saranac River.  Because of the high water, we were able to pull over most of the beaver dams we encountered.  We finally stopped just 0.1 mile from where the road crosses the stream, due to a large beaver dam.  But three miles was still much farther than we had been able to paddle upstream before.  The swamp laurel was everywhere

and there are lots of bullhead-lily in bloom, the yellow water lily Nuphar variegatum.

I wasn't ready to get off the water yet when we got back to the cars so some of us paddled into the narrows going into Lake Kushaqua for a total paddle of nine miles.

Paddling to Weller Pond

Fourteen of us put in at South Creek and paddled through Middle Saranac Lake to Little Weller and Weller Ponds.  It was a gray, cool morning but the sun finally came out on the way back.  The iris and swamp laurel are blooming.

And so are the yellow water lilies that are prolific upstream from the dock.  The water level is so high the beaver dam is flooded.

Paddling the Fulton Chain of Lakes

Seven of us put in near the beach in Old Forge and paddled First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Lakes, turning around in Fifth and taking out at Arrowhead Park in Inlet where a car had been spotted to shuttle the drivers back to pick up the cars.  It was an 11 mile paddle on another beautiful day.

A Perfect Adirondack Day

We had a wonderful paddle today.  Even though it is Sunday, the crowds are still thin and there were no other boats for most of the trip.  The air was very still so we were worried about bugs, but we didn't encounter many.  And the still water was beautiful.

Since we were on our own, we decided to do a variation of the Floodwood/Rollins loop that we have done in the past that eliminates the carries, but adds a nice walk at the end.  We parked the car and launched our boats at the Rollins Pond ramp, paddled Rollins, Floodwood, down Fish Creek, and through Square Pond to an empty campsite, for a total of 7.8 miles.  We left the boats there and walked 1.4 miles back to the car then drove back to pick up the boats.  It feels good to get a nice leg stretch after being in the boat that long.

We saw quite a few loons

including one on a nest in Fish Creek.

I of course looked at all the plants around.   I just love sundews on mossy logs.

And this big jack-in-the-pulpit was growing along side the road as we walked to pick up the car.

Paddling the Flow

We spent a couple of hours this morning exploring the Flow.  We saw the resident bald eagle, which was perched in a tree on the big island most of the time we were out.  But I forgot my camera so no photo.  We saw one loon but hopefully there is a pair so we have another chick this year.  To complete the bird tally, we also saw ring-billed gulls, Canada geese, and red-winged blackbirds.  We went through the culvert and saw a doe and small fawn at the water's edge.  The iris are blooming.  And  since the winds were still, there were a fair number of black flies harassing us.

First Paddle of the Season

We drove to camp Sunday the 7th and had a couple days of rain, though we managed to walk the road during the brief dry spells.  The weather cleared today and we paddled Long Pond with friends.  We saw this large snapping turtle on Floodwood Road on our way to the put-in.

We had a very nice paddle with few bugs.  We saw several pairs of loons, or one pair multiple times.

The pitcher plant flowers were just coming out and were a beautiful dark red.