Lake Arnold

We hijacked the Killon family camping trip this year at Adirondack Loj and set up shelter under their screen tent after arriving at sunset on Friday night.

On Saturday morning, the children had discovered the walkie talkies and were quite taken by the "ghost pirate" that may have found his way onto the same station. Around the crack of eleven or so, we decided to take a group hike to Mount Jo. We started up the trail but after Mike sprained his ankle after tripping over a boulder, we helped him to the bottom of the trail instead of making the summit. We were still getting broadcasts to the "ghost pirate" from the kids on top of the mountain though...

In the evening, we had a huge dinner at Adirondack Loj and enjoyed the weather on the porch before making some campfires that evening and dozing off in a food-induced coma.

The next morning, Lisa and I packed our meager belongings and headed to the Van Hovenburg trail to hike to Lake Arnold. We stopped for a quick snack break at Marcy Dam before making the steady grade to the lake. It was a new trail for us and we enjoyed the views along the way as well as the quiet backwater. We decided not to try to summit any mountains due to the humid weather and possible thunderstorms but had a great trip back to North Elba where we visited John Brown's Farm before heading home.

Indian Pass

We have been traveling around the Adirondacks for roughly two weeks and this post is intended to catch up on our travels.

Our first venture into the blue line was during the Northeast's longest heatwave in recorded history. With the mercury rising above ninety for a full week and the humidity heading into the 80s and 90s as well it was time to head to camp. We spent four days in Atwell, mostly bobbing around in the lake and canoeing and sailing when we got a chance. It was a great way to cool off in the heat and we had some great times with family.

Once the heatwave snapped, we headed to the Orchard for a day of farm chores followed by an evening paddle on Lake Champlain to the bridge.

Then we headed to Newcomb where we quickly unpacked and headed to Henderson Lake for an evening paddle. We met an interesting couple from Moriah and chatted with them while admiring the view of Wallface and Indian Pass.

Our first hike was into OK Slip Falls, one of the tallest in the Adirondacks. The trail was an easy meander to the impressive view and much to our surprise (despite the dry weather) there was water running over the edge. We ate our lunch while admiring the view before making the trek out.

In the afternoon, we headed to Cedar River Flow. We were quite sure that the road was not correct as it seemed to be taking us up a mountain but we ended up in the right destination. We found a secluded area for camping and paddling that we will come back to explore. The northern section of the pond was navigable but we couldn't venture into the southern part of the pond due to the heavy winds. We will be back to finish our exploration of Cedar River Flow.

Without taking the boats off the car for the evening, we headed to South Pond the next morning. It had always been an option for a day trip but we had never been. We were pleasantly surprised to find an area with few motorboats (only camp owners) and many interesting islands to explore. We watched the skies for potential thunderstorms but explored the entire shoreline before heading back when it started to sprinkle.

Our final day in Newcomb was spent on a hike that we had been intending to do for years...Indian Pass from Upper Works. We had read horror stories about the muddy scrambles in this pass and in a wetter season we could easily see them being true. However this season has been so dry that we were able to hop over most of the mud and enjoy the house sized boulders when we entered the pass. There were many caves that demanded exploration and we enjoyed this hike unlike any other in the Adirondacks. We ate our lunch under Wallface Mountain while admiring the view of the Santinoni Range and Henderson Lake to our south. Despite the stories, we would be glad to do this one again!