St. Regis

After a stint at home during bad weather we headed back to Lake Placid for breakfast at Chair 6 and a visit to John Brown’s farm in North Elba. We took a tour of the house, led by a snarky woman with a Long Island accent. For us, it was a great connection to our previous road trips to Harper’s Ferry and other Civil War era sites. John Brown appeared to still be molderin’ in the grave…

With Jana, Tavis and Trevor we then visited Port Henry and spent a few days at the orchard in Crown Point. We took a few short paddles and enjoyed visits from Jeff and Deb as well as the rest of the Henry family!

We then departed for the St. Regis Canoe area with no real destination in mind. We knew the reputation of the area was as a paddler’s dream. On the way we found Donnelly’s Ice Cream – an ice cream joint that has been raved about by Lisa’s Aunt Susie! We immediately pulled in for some of the most delicious pistachio flavored soft-serve (creemees for VT folks) ice cream that we have ever had.

We continued to the canoe access on Upper St. Regis Lake and planned a night at one of the campsites in the wilderness area. We explored the lake and found the channel into Spitfire Lake as well. Most of the trip was spent marveling at the size and scope of the boathouses and camps located on both lakes. Spitfire Lake even had a three-story stone tower at one end, probably very useful if Vikings ever attacked…

Eventually we meandered to the Bog Pond canoe carry and we began the pond-hopping that would take the rest of the afternoon. We went from Bog Pond to Bear Pond, Little Long Pond, Green Pond and finally St. Regis Pond. Our kayak carts performed well on the longer carries (portages for you non-ADK folks) of the day.

We began looking for a suitable campsite on St. Regis Pond and found the perfect site on a bluff at the extreme western end of the lake. After a couple hours around the campfire, we went to bed hearing the call-and response of the loons and bullfrogs. Overnight, we kept hearing “tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-SPLASH” as beavers were felling trees into the lake.

In the morning we packed the kayaks and followed our carries in reverse order back to Upper St. Regis Lake just as the thunderclouds started booming. We made a trip back to Donnelly’s for more ice cream (black raspberry this time) and went to Paul Smith’s for a view of the campus.

Due to incoming storms over the next two days we headed to North Lake (which included dinner at the Buffalo Head) to have a roof over our heads and spent the next day paddling and visiting with family.