Paddling the North Branch of the Saranac River

Five of us had a great paddle today.  We put in from the Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road in Onchiota and headed up the North Branch of the Saranac River.  It keeps raining so the water was quite high.  We just had to get out twice to pull over beaver dams.  We were able to "skooch" across the others.  We got further upstream than we ever have before.  We were very surprised to find this new dock, which was a great place to stop for lunch on the way back downstream.

We walked up the path behind it and found this sign.


It says to drop off your canoe here, then move your car to the North Branch parking area.  We didn't see such a place, until we explored in the car after the paddle.  The marked parking lot is on Kushaqua-Mud Pond Road north of the put-in, and 0.8 mile from the dock!  There was plenty of room to park cars right by the sign.  Somehow, I doubt that people really move their cars.  It also doesn't seem worth it to put a boat in at this dock.  We only paddled about 3 miles upstream from our cars, so it doesn't seem necessary to shorten the paddle further.