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.

Stitchin' B's

We have spent the last 1 1/2 days assembling quilt racks

and hanging quilts for the Stitchin' B's quilt camp and show.



It is quite an operation involving lots of really nice folks.  I'm enjoying getting to know this group of talented quilters in the North Country.

Waterfalls Along the West Branch of the Ausable River

We had hoped to hike along the Ausable River while the water was really high, but it has not rained for 5 days!!!! so there was much less water than we expected.  But we still enjoyed the views.  We started at Wilmington Notch campground, hiking down the steep slope to the falls.


Then we walked upstream for a bit.


We then drove a little further along to the "flume" where we again walked along the river.




We watched trout jumping up this falls, though they didn't make it very far.


We turned around at the bottom of the flume.

Staining the Deck

I've created a new "Deck Staining" label so I can look back and see when we did it.  We looked at the weather forecast on Tuesday and discovered it was not supposed to rain for several days.  So instead of heading out on the water, we scraped, sanded, and put two coats on the deck and the back porch and stairs.  It should be good for at least a couple of years.

Orchids at the VIC

It actually wasn't raining today so we went to the Visitor's Interpretive Center (VIC) to see the orchids.  The Boreas trail leads to a boardwalk through the bog and lots of neat orchids.


Rose Pogonia


Calopogon, which is my favorite.


White Fringed Orchis


And of course there were lots of pitcher plants blooming.

Paddling the Flow

I paddled down to the end of the lake today to go to the post office.  Then I circumnavigated the lake looking for loons.  We do the annual loon survey on Saturday, so this was a preview.  Unfortunately, I only saw one loon.  It was a beautiful, calm day.

The Six Carries Paddle

I did the six carries paddle with the group today.  Since I didn't have anyone to help carry my boat, it was quite a slog that I don't think I'll do again.  The first carry is over 1/2 mile long and there are two others that are at least 1/4 mile.  Some of the "lakes" in between are so small it seems like mostly carries interspersed with short paddles.  I would have liked to pause for photos - the rose pagonia orchids are blooming - but since I am slow on the carries I pushed along on the paddling portions.  After the carries there are three larger lakes but wind can be a problem on them.  This time the winds were at our back so that was good.  We were afraid rain would force us to shorten the trip but the weather was surprisingly good.

Hiking Stone Valley

We had a wonderful hike in Stone Valley today.  The weather was perfect and the Raquette River was amazing.  We have had so much rain the river was really full.

Paddling the Saranac River - Sort of

Well, we were paddling, though in a tandem canoe not our own boats, and we were on the Saranac River starting from Pine Street in Saranac Lake and heading downstream, but it was part of the river clean-up organized by a couple of the local paddling outfitters.  We spent several hours on the river and cleaned up lots of stuff.  We thought we would be wading and using the canoe mostly as a garbage repository, but we have had so much rain the water was much too high for that.  So we paddled along the shore and picked up what we could, including two tires, one shoe, lots of bottles, and lots and lots of styrofoam.  Others picked up chairs, dock pieces, a mattress, etc.  The outfitters treated us to a barbecue afterwards.  It was a good day, in part because we actually didn't get rained on while we were on the river.

Paddling the North Branch of the Moose River

We had a wonderful paddle today.  The weather was perfect, not too hot or too windy, but windy enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay, most of the time.  We put in at the bridge off Rondaxe Road and paddled 12 miles down the river to Mountain Man in Old Forge.

The water was high and swift making it a very easy paddle.  We stopped for lunch where North Road crosses the river.  A couple miles further we did the 1/4 mile portage around Indian Rapids.  While waiting for the drivers to shuttle back to the beginning so we could start the paddle we found a number of cedar waxwings stripping berries off a bush.