Sawteeth

After perusing the trail map, scanning for a day-hike in the high peaks region, we decided to scale Sawteeth. The morning was deceptively chilly as it often is in late August so we dressed in layers. The thermometer in the car read forty-five degrees when we left it at 7:45.

We walked down the road towards Lower Ausable Lake where we saw a few hikers along the way and the green school bus that continually patrols the road. By the time we arrived at the trail head, we had already stuffed our coats into the backpacks.

Our plan was to hike up and back on the same trail, but we came to a sign which indicated that the "scenic" trail to Sawteeth was to the left. It wasn't the trail that we planned on, but how could we pass up a scenic route on such a gorgeous day?

After skirting the western side of Lower Ausable Lake, we started to climb and it wasn't long before we lost another layer. By midmorning, the weather had morphed from autumn back into summer. We enjoyed the vistas of Giant, Colvin and eventually Dial when we gained enough elevation.

The topography of Sawteeth is true to it's name and there were many false summits along the way. Once we arrived on the true summit, we found ourselves eating lunch with a larger group of hikers that had been warned that the scenic route was dangerous. We found it to be one of the more gradual and less eroded trails in the high peaks!

We snapped pictures and began to descend on the more direct trail, which happened to be the same descent that we took off Gothics a year prior. At Rainbow Falls, we finished the last of our food (Stewart's donuts!!!) and started the long march along the road with the green bus passing us each half hour...

It was a fantastic hike and despite the length, one of the more "healthy" trails that we had encountered in the region! We toasted our success with vanilla malts and met the family at Crown Point where we were happy to find homemade, hot pizza. Thanks Mike!

Our hike is in yellow on the map below:

Hornbeck

As one of our "last-hurrahs" of summer, we car-topped our hornbeck boats and drove into the wilderness. On the way, we couldn't help but stop at the Port Henry Diner for lunch before driving to Tahawus, where we had just gotten off the trail two days prior.

Henderson Lake

We packed gear into backpacks and threw boats over our shoulders for the short carry into the Henderson Lake dam. As we were paddling out we noticed a horde of kayakers heading for the launch, it looks like we would have the lake to ourselves. We also noted a fawn standing in the water at the edge of a cliff...odd.

While searching for the lean-to at the northern end of the lake, we admired Wallface Mountain with its imposing cliffs in the distance. Once we found the site, we slopped through the muck to get out of the boats and set up camp. We didn't stay long since we didn't have any food, we needed to paddle back to the car to get some grub.

On the way back, we noticed the fawn's head just sticking out of the water now. He was stuck and it appeared that he had given up, not seeing a way out of his situation. Tom approached slowly and eased him away from the cliff with his paddle, the fawn went back to his precarious spot but it appeared that he could swim. On the second attempt to get him away from the cliff, we chased him with the boats and when he was at the launch, Lisa hopped out of the boat and chased him into the woods!

At the car we cooked up some chili and packed the rest of our gear for the night. We paddled back to the lean-to, had a camp fire and fell asleep as soon as it was dark.

The next morning, we awoke to fog on the lake and chilly temperatures. It was tough to pull ourselves out of warm sleeping bags but nature called (in more ways than one). The lake was mirroring the surrounding mountains and we could see young loons getting a flying lesson in the distance. We packed and explored the southern arms of the lake before packing out.

Mirror on Henderson Lake

Wallface Mountain

Mountain Man, On his Way!

On our way out, we stopped to admire the impressive blast furnace that sits next to the road near Upper Works. The mining operation was massive and only ran for two years before being destroyed by flood. The furnace has not been fired since 1857 but still stands as an impressive reminder of the Adirondack's industrial past.

Our next stop was in the village of Long Lake, where we finally completed the ice-cream trifecta. This is a self-invented event which consisted of a stop at Hoss's for cones, Custard's Last Stand for a banana split (which we split), and malts at Stewart's. It was delicious and sickening at the same time!

Nelson Lake

After fighting our way through construction, we eventually arrived in Old Forge where we reserved a campsite at Nick's Lake State Campground. We would save a paddle on Nick's Lake for our next visit though, we were toting fifteen pound boats and wanted to explore the backwater!

We packed a picnic and headed for the South Branch of the Moose River where we would launch. We followed the current and took a sharp left into a weedy mire. After "paddle-whacking" as we named it, we arrived at Nelson Lake. It was a beautifully secluded lake with no development but it was close enough to civilization that you could hear the occasional truck rumbling along on the highway.

Eying a shelving rock on the northern end of the lake, we cooked up some pasta with salmon and vegetables while enjoying the orange pale of the sun dipping near the horizon. Of course, that reminded us that we needed to navigate back through the weeds before dark and we packed our boats to get back to our campground at dusk.

The next morning, we took showers and headed for the Thendara train station where we met Steve, Linda, Elaine and the other Steve. As we boarded, we each grabbed window seats and soon enjoyed the gentle sway of the locomotive. We found ourselves wandering back towards the cattle car for some open air and great views.

After a delicious brunch in Big Moose, we boarded again and headed back to Thendara. Tom and I spent much of the trip playing some dixieland classics in the cattle car with melodica and pocket trumpet. Before we deboarded, I noticed a poster in the back of the train with a familiar looking picture. As I looked closer, I saw that the credits were given to my blog! I guess that someone is reading it...or at least taking pictures from it...

Cheney Pond

We bid adieu to the rest of the family and Lisa, Tom and I headed north. Naturally, we grabbed more ice cream at Hoss's and with the map on the picnic table, we planned our next venture with the Hornbeck Boats. We headed to Cheney Pond, which despite a trail marking on the map turned out that we could drive to the launch.

We paddled around the shoreline with a suspicious loon eying us as we chatted. We lounged at the far end of the pond, where we found a lean-to and a long sand beach! It was a great place to while away the afternoon while Lisa cleaned the mud off of our boats.

When we finally forced ourselves off of the beach, we followed the outlet as far as we could before turning back to the launch. It was a gorgeous pond which seems little visited. We may be back soon with camping gear.

For this particular afternoon, we were heading to Gene's Michigan Stand in Port Henry for dinner where we reminisced on the amazing three days that we had exploring new parts of the Adirondack Park. The light pack boats seem to have opened a new world of waterways just off the beaten path to us and we have just scratched the surface.

Colden

After hiking Marcy and Algonquin last summer, there was one slide-covered mountain in the middle that we admired from both peaks. Mount Colden lies in the center of the high peaks wilderness and is clearly visible from Adirondack Loj to the north and the Newcomb park to the southwest. We decided to approach the mountain from the south and drove to Tahawus, a former mining town and a current ghost town, where we left our car at the Upper Works trail head.

Packed to the brim, we hiked the five miles into Flowed Lands, munching on blackberries along the way. We were happy to lose the packs while we set up camp near the trail intersection. Once we were set for the night, we packed supper and headed north along the flowed lands and eventually to the eastern shore of Lake Colden.

Once we saw the caretaker's cabin, we knew that we had arrived at our destination for the evening. A year earlier, we had hiked to the same spot from the Loj and by picnicking on the same dock, we had connected our trail through Avalanche Pass! After dinner, we hiked back to our campsite and went to bed early.

It was a foggy and chilly morning, we didn't move quickly but eventually sauntered out of our sleeping bags. I wrestled our bear canister out of the crook of a tree and we packed our day packs for the ascent. We started along the same trail that we had taken the previous night but took a right across the dam at the south end of Lake Colden. Slopping through the mud, we came to the Mount Colden trail which we hoped would be less muddy.

It wasn't. We continued to trudge through the muck until we arrived at a rock wall. We scrambled over it, and the trail continued as steep, bare rock for the next mile. It was a slow climb as we were constantly checking our footing with baby steps. Eventually, the pitch of the trail began to flatten and we were treated with a panoramic view of the high peaks. From the summit of Colden, we could easily see each one of the high peaks that we had climbed thus far!

After a tuna sandwich, we descended slowly over the steep, wet rocks. It was slow going but not as bad as we had anticipated on the climb. We slopped through the muck and made it back to Flowed Lands where we took down our tent and packed our overnight packs for the trek out.

On the way to Upper Works, I spotted a monument next to the river. It turned out to be the spot where David Henderson accidentally shot himself in 1845, the incident that led to the namesake of Calamity Pond, Mountain and Brook. We snapped a picture and trudged to our car, footsore and ready for malts!

The following satellite image shows our Mt. Colden hike in red which connects to our Marcy hike in blue. The other hikes shown are a hike up Algonquin and Wright in green and our hike up Phelps in orange.

Stillwater

One of the places that has been on our list for many years was Stillwater Reservoir. We finally made the trip and are able to check it off....sort of.

With kayaks car-topped, we made the drive down Route 28, through multiple construction zones before turning towards Big Moose Lake in Eagle Bay. Tom followed us and gave us a friendly wave at each construction site. The pavement disappeared just after Big Moose and we followed the dirt road (which was beautifully maintained) until we found the boat launch at Stillwater Reservoir.

Linda (my mom) was waiting patiently as we arrived late, hungry and in need to pack our kayaks for camping. She had arrived from North Lake to join us for the first day of our journey. After scarfing down some sandwiches, we headed south into the large bay with a pirate flag proudly flying from the stern of Lisa's kayak.

The wind was steadily blowing from the northwest and at our first break, we noticed that the pirate flag had blown off! We scurried back towards the launch, retracing each paddle dip but the Jolly Roger had gone to Davy Jones' locker.

We meandered along the shoreline, exploring bays and admiring the large boulders that seemed to form much of the shoreline of this part of the lake. The return to the boat launch required some muscles since the wind had picked up considerably. STILL-water? Sheesh...

With hearts pumping, we arrived back at the launch and helped Linda car-top her kayak when I noticed an ice-cream sign on the marina wall. It was locked, but we wandered over to the only other commercial building in sight: The Stillwater Inn. It was obviously the only game in town since it took us forty-five minutes to get four ice cream cones. It was delicious though!

We bid farewell to Linda and launched our kayaks to push eastward on the lake. We had picked a campsite midway down the lake and wanted to watch the sunset. The wind was now at our backs and we made it with plenty of time to set up tents, start a campfire, and eat dinner before we ran out of light.

The next day we passed around pop-tarts for breakfast (Tom broke a decades long streak of not eating a pop-tart) and packed our camping gear into our holds. With the beautiful beach and pleasant weather, we were not in a hurry to leave. We shoved off around ten o'clock and started to paddle eastward with a great part of the lake yet to explore.

Following the shoreline, we found the inlet to a secluded bay known as Loon Lake. We floated in the quiet backwater, eying the lone campsite as a possibility for our next visit.

Continuing eastward, we navigated through islands and found the train tracks that cut across the eastern bay of Stillwater but we couldn't find a way through. We were not too disappointed since we found another beautiful beach with a lone pine for shade. I dragged a log for a seat so that we could have a quintessential Adirondack experience.

After lunch, we continued down the Beaver River towards Nehasane Lake. The wind was beginning to pick-up again and we had the full length of the lake to paddle so we turned around and muscled-up for the long paddle ahead.

Lucky for us, Stillwater Reservoir is chock-full of beautiful sand beaches and we took snack and water breaks on many of them on the way back. We spent time climbing on the imposing driftwood stumps and logs that littered the beaches throughout the lake.

After packing the cars, we headed for McKeever, where we set up on a free primitive campsite in the dark. Lisa and I slept in our tent while Tom opted for his van. Other than waking up to the sound of deer hooves in the leaves, we slept very well and managed to stay dry despite a chance of rain in the forecast.

The next morning, we brought our boats to Wolf Lake Landing on Woodhull Lake where we carried our boats to the launch under cloudy skies. We paddled to the lean-to (a double-wide!) where we cooked some oatmeal with apples. Any day that you eat breakfast in a lean-to is a good one, right?

We got back into our boats and shoved off. We explored the shoreline, most of which is owned by the Adirondack League Club, an organization that takes private land ownership quite seriously. We didn't dare to step out of the boats. The next bathroom break would have to wait until we landed...

As we were admiring the earthen dam responsible for the lake's existence it began to sprinkle. We donned our raincoats and put on our spray skirts in case of heavier rain. It began to pour and the deluge of rain wouldn't let up for hours... We continued to explore the shoreline to the very end of the lake. When we finally arrived back at the lean-to for a much needed bathroom break, we were soaked to the core. We didn't even bother taking off our shoes or rolling up our pants to step into the lake...it just didn't matter.

We didn't feel uncomfortable until we had to carry the kayaks back to the cars. We each had a set of dry clothes packed and got to change before heading to Old Forge. We grabbed some food at Walt's Diner before parting ways with Tom. He was heading to Vermont whereas we were heading to North Lake.

We spent the next few days relaxing and visiting with family while our clothes dried on the line. Saturday was the annual Atwell Fish and Game Club Picnic where we ate, played music, ate and ate.

Although we spent a few days exploring new areas, we will have to return to each. Stillwater Reservoir still has two large areas of the lake that we didn't have time to explore. And of course we would like to see Woodhull lake without a downpour.