We had a great explore on the rail trail today. We walked 3.5 miles round trip, starting near Little Green Pond, west of Little Clear Pond, and walking to Hoel Pond and back. Most of the surface was fine for walking, but wouldn't be great for biking yet. A trail bike would work a lot better than my hybrid. There are soft spots and things like small pieces of railroad tie that would need to be avoided.
There were lots of Lycopodium in one section.
We paddled 11 miles on the very full Saranac River today. We put in at Pine Street in Saranac Lake and paddled to a take-out just before the permanent rapids off River Road outside of Bloomingdale. We were happy to see lots of cardinal flowers in bloom. While the final third of the paddle was very peaceful and nice, the beginning was very noisy, not only from traffic on the road but from a constant racket from the Trudeau Quarry on the hillside above the road. Not sure we will be paddling there again.
The rain finally stopped enough for us to do a paddle today. And the winds were light as well, a perfect time to paddle on Round Lake. It was quite cloudy when we started out, which was fine because the temperature was supposed to get into the 80's.
The water was so high many of the water lily pads were submerged, and the beach at the end of the lake was mostly under water.
Nine of us paddled the circumference of Blue Mountain Lake today, for a total of about 6.5 miles. There was no wind so the water was like glass. But I didn't take many photos because it was so hazy, apparently from the wildfires out west again. Then we had a nice lunch at the new dinner in Blue Mountain Lake.
