St. Regis

With a decent stretch of weather forecasted we decided to strap our boats on the car and head to St. Regis Canoe Area to explore some of the backcountry ponds that we had yet to see. Lisa, Tom and I met Jeff and Lisa Cornell at the foot of Little Clear Pond and shoved off, intending to camp on St. Regis Pond for two nights.

The first carry, despite being fairly short was brutal. We had not yet figured out proper weight distribution and we made it to the river landing huffing and rubbing our shoulders and wrists. Launching boats went smoothly except for one member of our party who took the first swim of the trip unexpectedly...

We found a campsite on the southeastern corner of the lake with a great view of St. Regis Mountain and we set up camp quickly before spending the rest of the afternoon exploring the shoreline of St. Regis Pond. We particuarly enjoyed the views from a small hidden bay on the eastern edge of the pond.

The next day we ate big breakfasts and got ready to explore some of the furthest reaches of the canoe area. We carried from St. Regis Pond to Ochre Pond then to Fish Pond, Little Long Pond and Lydia Pond. On the return trip we paddled Little Long Pond, Little Fish Pond, Fish Pond, Mud Pond, Ochre Pond and followed the west branch of the St. Regis River rather than carrying back to St. Regis Pond. We were tired! But enjoyed the increasing solitude that came with each portage.

On the final day, we made a much more successful carry with our gear back to Little Clear Pond and capped off the adventure with a trip to Donnelly's Ice Cream stand where we went through the line three two times! It was a fantastic trip.

County Line Flow

With Hornbeck Boats car-topped, we headed to County Line flow to paddle one of the most innocuous sounding locales in the Adirondack Park. The access was easy and despite having to pull-off one leech, it was an easy access.

The flow offered a great view of Kempshall Mountain and despite being surrounded by private land to the north and route 28N not far to the south, had a feeling of solitude. We followed the shoreline, electing not to try to take our boats over the dam. Turning to the west, we found the inlet to the flow and followed Fishing Brook north as far as we could. The windy brook was lovely and although we found ourselves getting around two beaver dams, the third forced us to turn around.

This was a perfect spot for a morning paddle - plenty of solitude due to a boring sounding name. We like it that way.

Moriah Hiking Challenge

After seeing that the town of Moriah was offering a hiking challenge awarded by a patch, we decided that it would be a perfect outing for our nephew. We reattached the backseat to our car and strapped a booster seat on before hitting the road. We made the orchard our base camp to complete the challenge in three days.

On the first afternoon, we headed first to Big Hollow/Coot Hill where we parked at the cemetery (the home of Leafy Winters) and headed up the short trail. We spent quite a while shouting into the hollow to listen to our echo and enjoyed the view of the lake. Ben particularly enjoyed looking at the orchard through his binoculars.

In the evening, we went to Belfry Mountain to climb the fire-tower. Despite the fact that it is possibly the shortest hike in the world, it does have a great view from the top. Ben and I looked for but did not find arrowheads on the descent.

We celebrated our two hikes with milkshakes from Gene's Michigan Stand. The first day.

On our second day we headed to our longest hike of the challenge: Crowfoot Pond. Since this was a 5.5 mile hike, it took a bit of prodding to keep the five-year-old moving. We regaled him with stories of the "Mad Monk of Crowfoot Pond" and he spent the rest of the walk looking and listening for signs of the old hermit. If you are ever back there and see bark missing from trees or hear a "rick-tick-tick-tick-tick" sound, those are sure-fire signs that the Mad Monk is near!

We whiled away the afternoon at Lincoln Pond, playing at the beach.

We celebrated our hike with milkshakes from Gene's Michigan Stand. The second day.

On the third day we finished the challenge by hiking Cheney Mountain. This was a bit steeper than any of the other hikes and Ben did great. We may have been listening for sounds of the ghost of John Cheney as we hiked... We enjoyed the views from the top - especially of Mount Junk as Ben named it (the tailings pile).

Ben beamed with pride when we got back to the Moriah Chamber of Commerce to get our patches. He even got a squirt gun for being cute...makes me wish that I was still cute. Oh well.

We celebrated our hike with milkshakes from Gene's Michigan Stand. The third day.

Schroon Lake

For our most recent trek into the Adirondacks we invited ourselves on the annual Killon canoe trip which was taking place at Schroon Lake. We tagged along and happily set up camp just before the sky opened up to a deluge of rain! Regardless of the weather, we managed to cook a campground feast over green wood and huddled under tarps to scarf it down!

The next morning with much improved weather, we paddled to the south and then across to the village of Adirondac for their famous spicy baked beans. On the return trip, the wind had kicked up and we required spray skirts in the whitecaps. We spent the rest of the night playing tunes around the campfire.

With children awaking early on the third day, we scooped them up and paddled to a nearby beach where they decided to swim with their clothes on. We played sharks and minnows before returning to pack up. It was a great trip despite some wet weather.

Long Lake

With a slight window of halfway decent weather for a day, we packed up the car and headed for Long Lake. We headed south, watching sea planes take-off and land among the busy area around the bridge. Ben couldn't resist the beach and convinced Tom to paddle there so that he could swim. Lisa and I continued south to the end of the lake, enjoying the relative calm to the busy launch.

After meeting back up on the return trip, we headed to Hoss's for some ice cream before returning to the cabin in Newcomb.

With questionable weather the next day, we snuck in a walk to the Sananoni farm complex between thunderstorms. We ate our lunch in the creamery before our walk out and a stop for ice cream and donuts at Scoops and Kelly's Farm Stand respectively. 

Saint Sacrament

In June, we have become accustomed to exploring Lake George. It has the advantage of being one of the few places in the Adirondacks without black flies and it doesn't get unbearably busy until New York schools are on summer recess. Our first venture on the lake was by kayak, from Huletts Landing on the eastern shore. We snagged a campsite with an amazing northern view (and lot's of firewood) on Saint Sacrament Island. Looking north, we could see Deer Leap, Anthony's Nose and the picturesque church on Harbor Islands.

We didn't stay long after setting up our tents and eating the obligatory Lake George breakfast before getting back in the boats to explore our island group. We meandered around the nooks and coves, making mental notes of the best looking campsites before returning to our campsite for the afternoon. In the evening, we paddled to "turtle cove" on the northernmost of the Harbor Islands where we saw a few turtles and a deer.

The next morning we packed our gear and paddled on the western shore of the lake to Halfway Island before crossing the lake and slowly heading back to Huletts Landing. It was a wonderful preview of the camping season to come!

A week later, we found ourselves at the southern tip of Lake George for the 200th anniversary of the Lake George Steamboat Company. We boarded the Mohican with the Gribnau and Roche clans for the Paradise Bay cruise. Even though the clouds never lifted, we had a great tour with nice views of the narrows. We particularly enjoyed watching the ship make its U-turn in Paradise Bay.

The following week, we took our niece and nephew to Roger's Rock for an afternoon of paddling. We headed north from the campground into Heart Bay, telling the story of Roger's Rangers along the way. On the way back we were entertained by pretending to crash into shore while the kids frantically told us to turn. It was a great way to end our early season on Lake George. We will see it again after Labor Day.

Pharoah Lake

On a particularly warm February day we (Lisa, Tom and yours truly) packed the car and headed to the trail head on the northern tip of Brant Lake. Thinking that we would finally beat Jeff and Lisa we pulled in ten minutes early to see them completely geared up and conversing with the forest ranger. Better luck next time...

With skis strapped on, we set off on the trail which wound through tall softwoods and over bogs (on skinny bridges) before following the outlet of Pharoah Lake. The snow was a bit sticky and we occasionally had a tough time getting a glide, especially where the sun had been shining. We made it to the lake as the forest ranger was getting ready to leave after his lean-to inspection.

We followed his tracks on the lake to a great view of Treadway Mountain from the number two lean-to. There we ate our sandwiches and compared our ski experiences of the day while drinking in the sunshine.

Following our tracks on the return trip made for an easy ski since we lost a few hundred feet in elevation. The snow seemed less sticky somehow and we managed not to fall off the skinny bridges. This was a very enjoyable ski that we will gladly do again. We were lucky to follow it with a trip to North Creek for dinner followed by an amazing concert by Charles Cornell and the Square One Project at the Tannery Pond Community Center.

Mackenzie Pond

With minimal snow in the valley and an intense desire to ski, we headed to Saranac Lake to try some new trails. My parents decided to join us and luckily seemed to trust our trip planning skills...

Our first destination was the famed "Jackrabbit Trail," a cross country ski trail that connects Saranac Lake to Keene. We strapped on our skis and headed east from the route 33 trailhead. After a few bruises and bumps on the hills, we got the hang of it and enjoyed when the trail widened after a mile or so.

Our destination was Mackenzie Pond and the scenery did not disappoint. With gently falling snowflakes we admired the mountains and ridges surrounding the pond while we snacked. In the winter, breaks don't last long though and we needed to get moving before our teeth began to chatter. The trail back to the car was smooth as we now knew where all the moguls, rocks and steep sections were.

We then headed to Saranac Lake, where the first weekend of the Winter Carnival was taking place. We met the Henrys and Vincents and were happy that our nephew Ben was willing to give us a personalized tour of the Ice Palace. The theme this year was "Adirondack Wildlife," and we even enjoyed the ice lean-to facing the lake. It would be nice to have in the summer for some air-conditioning on those hot nights...

In the afternoon, we wanted to get on the skis one more time before heading home. We went to the John Brown Farm in North Elba and although we had to look closely, we found a ski loop. The fluffy snow was denser now and the trail took us through some nice woods as the sun started to set. It was the perfect bookend to a fine ski day.

As we begrudgingly drove back to the Champlain Valley, noticing the disappearance of snow our stomachs started to grumble. To amend the situation, we capped off the day with a fine meal at George's Italian-American Eatery in Port Henry. Yum.

Whiteface Landing

With just a dusting of snow in the Champlain Valley for weeks, we had been pining for a day on our skis. Lisa checked the North Country Public Radio's ski conditions webpage and with the Lake Placid region listed as "outstanding," we threw the skis in the car and headed to the Connery Pond road.

The day could only be described as perfect. The powdery snow make the skiing absolutely sublime as we meandered through the woods. We stopped briefly to admire Connery Pond from the boat access while making mental notes for a future return with paddle boats when the pond would be a bit more liquid.

Our destination was Whiteface Landing at the belly of Barrel Bay on Lake Placid. We took a brief snapshot of the lake but then ate our lunch in a grove of trees to keep our fingers warm. In winter trips, the breaks are brief and we were soon back on the trail, gliding most of the way. We backtracked except for where we skied across Connery Pond.

With puffy snowflakes falling gently from the sky, we savored our last mile of the trail. We will be keeping this one high on the list for all seasons!

Lake Andrew Tract

On the last day of 2016, we packed the car and headed to the Newcomb cabin in search of snow on which to ski. We were happy to see that as we climbed in elevation from Port Henry to North Hudson and later to Newcomb we went from seeing a dusting on the ground to over a foot of snow. Upon arrival, we shoveled paths and got the wood stove cranking for our New Years Eve in the wilderness. We would be hard pressed to find an experience further from attending the Times Square celebration in New York City!

In the afternoon we headed to the Newcomb ski loop, which we assumed to be a pleasant trail for skiing since it was labeled as a ski trail. What we found was a mile of flat terrain followed by cliffs, river crossings, boulders and borderline impassable "trail." We scrambled up and down the rough terrain, taking off skis to walk in places while breaking trail. We made it back around sunset, exhausted and ready for supper.

We whiled away the evening eating chili cooked over the wood stove and playing Settlers of Catan by firelight. We didn't make it to midnight...not even close.

The next day we parted with Tom who elected to snowshoe around the Hudson River area behind the cabin while we skied the Lake Andrew Tract. We parked at the Bradley Pond trailhead and found that the trail had been tracked by skiers already. This made for a pleasant surprise and an opposite experience of the previous day. The wide road into the hunting camps made for easy skiing. We found ourselves looking directly up at the slides on Santanoni Mountain. It was a breathtaking view and we enjoyed the light snow falling as we admired it.

Our ski out was quick since most of the four miles was downhill! It was a perfect way to ring in the New Year with plenty of sleep and lots of fresh air.