Santanoni

Our next venture into the Adirondack wilderness began with a trip back to the St. Regis Canoe Area. When we last left it, thunderstorms had kept us from hiking St. Regis Mountain and we wanted to make up for that deficit. On the way we stopped at Howard Johnson's for "food bar" lunch and Donnelly's ice cream stand for dessert. The full bellies made for slow hiking but we waddled to the summit eventually for one of the finest views in the Adirondack Park. With many ponds and lakes dotting the landscape and Whiteface Mountain in the distance, we enjoyed the view for a solid hour. We even watched a regatta on Upper St. Regis Lake.

For the night, we went to Rollins Pond State Campground where we set up the tent and turned in before nine. We awoke the next day and paddled the shoreline of Rollins Pond which had a surprisingly undeveloped and interesting shoreline. We enjoyed the fact that the pond was only paddlers and lacked the "chop" that many larger lakes have.

After leaving Rollins Pond we went north to explore Follensby Clear Pond which was dotted with many islands. We paddled through the narrows and circled the only lean-to on the lake before heading back to the car. As we left campers were scrambling to get their boats on the lake to grab the remaining campsites.

We made our obligatory stop at Donnelly's for more ice cream, we went to Elizabethtown for a guitar lesson from Joan and then to Wadhams for the night (which meant pizza at the Dogwood Bakery).

The next day we awoke early and went to Newcomb where we met Tom and Kevin for a hike into Santanoni for the evening. We loaded our backpacks and put the kayaks on dollies and started a four mile drag into Newcomb Lake. When we arrived at the lake we took the first campsite available since our arms were about to fall off.

We had lunch on the porch of Santanoni, a great camp from the gilded age which is now state owned and open for visitors. Since we filled our boats with instruments on the way in we had a jam in the great room and then moved out to the porch.

In the evening we paddled the wild, remote and seemingly pristine Newcomb Lake which sees little boat traffic due to the required hiking distance. Except for a near-miss when Kevin was getting back into the kayak, it was a success and we celebrated with pesto for dinner and a roaring campfire!

Kevin hiked out early the next morning but we stayed and kayaked Lower Duck Hole which was on the other side of the bridge from Newcomb Lake. It was a wide river which eventually led to unnavigable rapids. We likened our paddle to a bushwhack since we were going through thick lilypads.

Newcomb Lake in the morning

Lower Duck Hole

After lunch and another jam in the great room of Santanoni, we headed back to the car with kayaks in tow. We went to Crown Point for the evening to prepare for our next adventure.

The next morning, we packed the Guideboat and headed to Putnam Pond with Jean. We rowed to the northern end of the pond and beached the boats for a hike into Little Rock Pond and Rock Pond. We had our lunch in the Rock Pond lean-to and enjoyed the short hike into the edge of Pharoah Lakes Wilderness Area.

We returned to the boats and rowed to the southern end of the lake where we found a trail head leading to Grizzle Ocean. We were intrigued by the name and beached the boats again for a short hike. By the time we arrived at the Grizzle Ocean pond and lean-to rain had started so we hid in the lean-to playing cards and music until it let up.

We hiked back and rowed to the boat launch for showers and we then returned to Crown Point with vanilla malts in hand. We sat by the campfire and discussed our great summer adventures!

Our next day was quiet with breakfast at the Bridge Restaurant and a trip to the Crown Point Forts. We went to Wadhams for our last Tuesday night pizza night of the summer and got to play some great music with friends! All in all it was a successful trip and we are eager to get back into the mountains as soon as possible!