We did 16 paddles this year, three of them on Piercefield Flow.
Today was the traditional Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day paddle and picnic at Hitchins Pond. We had at least 15 people with the usual assortment of boats, plus some people hiked in instead.
I liked this ground covering of moss and wintergreen where some of our boats were placed.
The weather turned out much better than expected. Which meant it was a beautiful paddle
and we stayed at the picnic longer than we had intended. We are driving back to New Jersey tomorrow and the idea was to just spend a short time at the picnic so we would have time to rest before packing the car. Note to self - do not try to drive back the day after the paddle and picnic. It is too much fun visiting with our friends, especially since it is the last time we will see them for a while, to try to cut it short. We should have kept to our original plan and driven back on Wednesday instead.
We wanted to paddle again this week but didn't want to drive anywhere. It has been a busy week, including a wonderful lunch with friends in Lake Placid yesterday. So we just put the boats in here and explored for a while. The temperature was about 70 degrees, which was marvelous, although the wind picked up in the afternoon. The leaves are gorgeous.
Another new paddle today. Black Pond is quite small - we paddled the circumference and went less than 3 miles. So we probably won't do that again. But the fall colors were great.
We drove home via Rt 86 toward Saranac Lake so we could view the colors along the way.
We drove to Saranac this afternoon to see a Hill and Hollow sponsored concert by the Alexander Quartet. It was marvelous. And so was the drive there. The sun was out and the colors on the hillsides were at their peak. Unfortunately, I did not get a photo.
