After our arrival in Newcomb, we car-topped Hornbeck Boats and began down the long muffler crunching path that leads to the Essex Chain of Lakes. We carried to the shore of Deer Pond and then carried to Third Lake. We were taken with the landscape surrounding the largest lake of the chain and admired the backcountry setting as we explored the northern arm of the lake. We then followed the chain in numerical order, finally turning around at tiny seventh. The Essex Chain seems lightly used based on some of the weedy channels that we "paddle whacked" through.
On our second day we used our kayaks and met the Atwell Paddlers at Big Moose Lake. We had not paddled on this lake since 2012 but were still enamored with the northeastern arm of the lake where we had our lunch. We also explored east bay and ducked into north bay before heading out, we were on a schedule since we had to make it back to Newcomb for their weekly bands on the beach.
In the evening we met Amy, Ben and Maya at the beach and enjoyed some classic rock sounds before going to Scoops to gorge ourselves on banana splits! Get 'em while they're cold!
Our third installment in our paddling trip turned out to be the biggest surprise of all. We had driven by Tupper Lake for years, but the northern section of the lake from the road never looked like an interesting paddle. Despite this, we decided to give the southern section a try. It was a beautiful area of the lake with interesting islands, bays and mountains surrounding the landscape. It was quite unlike the northern part and rivaled the Saranac Lakes. We paddled into Black Bay for lunch at the lean-to and headed south to see the falls from the Bog River before heading out. We will be back to this spot for sure!
