Kayaking Summary

We're only going to be here 2 more weeks and we want to get in as many paddles as possible. Here is a summary of the paddles we've done this year and the list from last year to help in our planning.

2008
Stony Creek
Hoel, Turtle, Slang Ponds
Long Pond
Floodwood-Rollins Loop
Middle Saranac Lake to Weller Pond
Raquette River - Moody boat launch to home
Middle Branch of St Regis River
Round Lake
Upper Osgood River
Oswegatchie River
Floodwood to Follensby Clear
Raquette River crusher to Lake Simon

2007
Stony Creek
Upper Osgood River
Lower Osgood River
Bog River to Hitchens Pond
Little Tupper Lake
Deer River Flow
Raquette River - Carry Falls Res. to Jamestown Falls
Marion River from Raquette Lake
Lower Saranac Lake from Ampersand Bay
Middle to Lower Saranac Lake - one way
Raquette River upstream from crusher and back
Lower Tupper Lake
Round Lake
Lower Saranac Lake
Floodwood-Rollins loop

And here are some we haven't done yet:
Second Pond to Lake Flower - did this a while back and want to do it again
Henderson Lake
Lake Lila
Saranac River
Rock Island Bay on Tupper Lake to Bridge Brook Pond
Lower Long Lake
East Branch St Regis River

Kayaking the Floodwood-Rollins Loop

Today we took advantage of having two cars (W came back late Friday evening and the Lake Clear car rental place is closed on the weekend so he kept the rental car until this evening) and did a one-way kayak trip. We always make sure we do the Rollins-Floodwood loop at least once a season and W hadn't done it yet this year. I'm not sure we ever did it this way before. We started at the boat launch on Rollins Pond and ended on Follensby Clear.

It was an 8 mile trip through some of our favorite waters with no portages. The only downside was the three trips we had to make into the Fish Creek/Rollins campsite in order to shuffle cars. Since it is a holiday weekend, there were lots of folks in the campground so it was a slow drive. But the weather was perfect and the colors are still pretty.

Kayaking Lower Saranac Lake

I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and kayaked on Lower Saranac Lake today. It has been sunny and in the 70's. It sure doesn't feel like October.

I paddled around the islands in the middle portion of the lake, climbed around on Bluff Island, and took lots of pictures.

Kayaking Round Lake

I enjoyed yesterday's paddle so much and winds were forecast to be light today, so I headed for Round Lake. I soon discovered that I was more tired than I realized and the winds picked up, so I just made it about half way down the lake before turning around. But it was an enjoyable paddle and I still managed to cover nearly 6 miles. Plus, I got some good photos.

Kayaking the Floodwood-Rollins Loop

Today I went on an ADK paddle that was postponed from Thursday due to rain. Al and Jini, were the leaders and the only other participants. W is away for the week.

We put in on Floodwood Pond, went down the stream past Little Square Pond, into Copperas Pond, portaged into Whey Pond, portaged again into Rollins Pond, paddled the length of Rollins, and then had to get out and pull the boats through the stream back into Floodwood due to low water.

I tried using our wheels on the portage from Copperas into Whey and they were a complete failure. At the first root I hit, the wheels just slid back and off the end of the boat. My single kayak does not have a section with parallel sides like our double on which to attach the wheels. I let a salesman talk me out of the type of wheels I need, which just slip over the end of the boat and attach into the cockpit area to prevent the wheels from sliding off. I'll definitely get some of those before coming back next year.

Kayaking Lower Tupper Lake

We had a great adventure today, with a bit more exercise than we had bargained for. The wind was supposed to pick up later in the day, but we decided to explore the southern part of Tupper Lake anyway. We did a 7.5 mile loop as shown on the map, starting from the parking area at Rock Island Bay.We found a great beach, marked by the red circle on the south side of Rock Island Bay. It looks as though there is a trail from Route 30 that might allow one to walk to it. We'll check it out one of these days.

We ogled all the neat great camps on the lake. We were surprised that every one of them has the same Adirondack camp color scheme - dark brown siding and green roof. Just like our color scheme, which we chose after seeing yet another great camp on Tupper Lake that our builder took us to.

We were surprised at how little water was coming over Bog River falls. We landed near the bottom of the falls and walked under the road on the rocks, most of which are normally under water.

As we headed north up the western shore, the wind began to pick up. By the time we decided to head back to the car, it was really blowing. So we had a hard paddle through the whitecaps, wearing our kayak skirts to keep most of the water out of the boat. We got soaking wet but the temperature was in the 80's so we didn't mind and it was great exercise.

Kayaking the Raquette River

W is just getting over a cold, so we wanted a short, gentle paddle today. We decided to paddle the Raquette River, beginning at the boat ramp on Rte 3/30 and going upstream for about an hour, and then back down. We paddled about 7 miles total, and that was plenty.
We discovered that our theory on why the leaves are changing so fast was correct - it is definitely because it is so dry. One reason we chose that portion of the Raquette River is that it is lined with swamp maples, which we expected to be bright red. Instead, they haven't even started changing color yet. They are right on the banks of the river, so they are still getting plenty of water.

Kayaking from Middle to Lower Saranac

Today we had a nice one-way paddle from Middle to Lower Saranac with Nancy and Larry. We put in at South Creek where the water was very low, paddled through Middle Saranac Lake, down the river and through the locks into Lower Saranac and out through First and Second Ponds. We stopped and walked around on Bluff Island which is always fun.

Kayaking Lower Saranac Lake

Today the weather was very calm so we did a relaxing 6 mile paddle of the eastern end of Lower Saranac Lake. We put in at Ampersand Bay and paddled up Fish Creek until we got to the road at which point it becomes a rocky, shallow, stream. Then we paddled back down the stream and stopped at campsite 34 (marked in red on the map) for a relaxing lunch sitting on a big rock at the water's edge.

Kayaking the Raquette River

We have grand plans to eventually kayak all navigable portions of the 170 mile Raquette River that starts in Blue Mountain Lake and ends in the St. Lawrence. Yesterday's paddle got us a bit closer to our goal.

The colors on the following maps are:
Red - parts we have already paddled
Blue - parts yet to paddle
Unmarked sections are not navigable, at least not by our definition.

The following map shows Blue Mountain Lake on the lower right, Raquette Lake on the left and Forked Lake at the top. Sometime soon we'll paddle through Blue Mountain, Eagle, and Utowana Lakes, thus finishing the first section.
The river goes over Buttermilk Falls as it leaves Forked Lake and then enters the aptly named Long Lake. We'll have to camp overnight in order to do this portion.
After the river leaves Long Lake it goes over Raquette Falls and then meanders all the way to Tupper Lake.
We have paddled from Raquette Falls to Tupper Lake and also from Raquette Pond (the north end of Tupper Lake) to Piercefield Dam.Earlier this week we paddled from Carry Falls Reservoir to Jamestown Falls. There are many falls and rapids between Piercefield Dam and Jamestown Falls so it is not clear how much of that portion we will be able to paddle, if any.
Some other time I'll describe the rest of the river on its way to the St. Lawrence.

Kayaking the Marion River

Today we paddled 15 miles from the campground on Raquette Lake around Long Point and up the Marion River and back again. The Marion River is actually part of the Raquette River, which doesn't take on that name until it leaves Raquette Lake.

This is the size of the river near the upstream end.
We saw this neat church on Long Point. It is reachable only by boat.

And we saw this strange shrub I had never seen before. It is called the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis in the Rubiaceae).

We saw the usual great blue herons and think we saw an immature or female eagle as well. We also saw mallards and a merganser.

More on Kayaking the Raquette River

More sights from our paddle today.

We investigated a side stream and found a very impressive, two-tiered beaver dam.

Saw a lot of female mallards resting on a rock. Saw beautiful cardinal flowers.And also saw our usual great blue herons and a bald eagle.

Kayaking the Raquette River

We had a great explore today. I took so many neat pictures that I'll make two blog entries.

We put the kayak in at the campground on Carry Falls Reservoir (red circle on the map), intending to paddle just to the rapids on the incoming Raquette River and then go back towards the body of the reservoir for more exploring.

But we found that initial set of rapids was passable (with a bit of trepidation on my part) so we kept on going all the way to Jamestown Falls. We landed at the spot we'd driven to before (red x on the map) and picked up the trail to the falls and beyond. The trail was wet and rough going a few places but well worth it.

We saw the falls - a big rapid really

And the view downstream from the falls

And artsy lines of foam on the water. W says this picture looks like one S would have taken .

More falls upstream of the main ones

And beautiful flat water at the end of the trail.

Kayaking Deer River Flow

Today we kayaked Deer River Flow and up to Horseshoe Pond with a group from ADK. If you head north on Route 30, it is the last significant body of water before you hit the blue line. We put in on Cold Brook Road right off Route 30 and paddled a total of about 9.5 miles. There were beautiful, huge, white water lilies at the entry point. We paddled up to the dam and there were new posted signs all around so we could not land there. But the view back from the dam was very picturesque. I'll have to always take the camera from now on. We lunched at a state forest preserve campsite at the entrance to the creek up to Horseshoe Pond.We saw what was probably a muskrat swimming in the water, several great blue herons, and a huge bald eagle that was sitting in a large white pine next to the water.

Kayaking Little Tupper Lake

Today we had a great paddle on Little Tupper Lake with Nancy and Larry. We paddled nearly 13 miles around the lake, including down the creek to Rock Pond until we ran into massive beaver dams.The weather was very calm so it was a great day for it.

We saw an osprey, lots of mergansers (one group contained 10 adults and 17 babies), several pairs of loons (one with a baby), and a bald eagle being chased repeatedly by gulls.

Kayak Trip to Hitchins Pond

Another great kayak trip today, plus a hike. We put in above Low's Lower Dam and went about 3 miles up the Bog River to Hitchin's Pond. We then climbed a little over a mile up the ridge for a great view of the route we had just taken.

Plants of the Lower Osgood River

Here are some of the plants we saw on the lower Osgood River.

Purple Fringed Orchis (Habenaria fimbriata) in the Orchidaceae

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) in the Caprifoliaceae

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in the Asclepiadaceae

We also saw

Marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris) in the Rosaceae

Tall meadow rue (Thalictrum polygamum) in the Ranunculaceae

Yellow loosetrife (Lysimachia terrestris) in the Primulaceae

Kayak Trip on Osgood River II

Today we had a wonderful paddle up the Osgood River from Meacham Lake. This is the other end of the Osgood River from the one we paddled last week. The Osgood originates in Osgood Pond and ends at Meacham Lake with some unnavigable sections in-between. Our trip started on the arm of Meacham Lake pictured here.

We saw several great blue herons, including this one that landed in a tree near our route.

As you can tell from the map, the river twists and turns but the flow was strong enough it was not difficult to tell which way to head. We paddled to Baker Pond and then turned around, meaning a total round trip distance of about 10.5 miles. Someday we'll start out earlier and go farther, provided we don't run into too many beaver dams. On the portion we traveled we only came across one small dam that we were able to skooch (a technical kayaking term) over.

The vegetation is very different from that upstream. Here the river runs between steep eskers on either side that are topped with huge white pine trees. The river is lined with alders and other interesting vegetation - see the next post.

Kayak Trip on Floodwood Pond

Given the prediction for rain, we chose a route through Floodwood Pond and the creek into Little Square Pond, figuring we could find shelter on shore if the rains caught up with us. We did have a shower and pulled up under a large hemlock in the creek for part of the time. But given the temperature in the mid-80's the rain felt good. By the time we got to Little Square there was lots of thunder in the area so we headed back to the car. Still, it was nice to get out since the weather had kept us indoors for so many days.

Plants of the Osgood River and Church Pond

Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) in the Ericaceae

Labrador Tea (Ledum groenlandicum) in the Ericaceae

Blue Flag (Iris) in the Iridaceae

Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea) in the Sarraceniaceae

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) in the Droseraceae

Rose Pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides) in the Orchidaceae