Tabletop

On our most recent trek into the wilderness we got up at the crack of dawn and headed for the Charlotte-Essex ferry for their first crossing of the day. Our destination would be Tabletop Mountain, our first "trailless" high peak. We rolled into the parking lot at Adirondack Loj around 7:45 and were on the trail by 8:00.

We mostly followed the Mount Marcy trail for the first two hours and were relieved when we finally turned off. There were a group of boy scouts playing leap frog and sitting in the middle of the trail each time that we passed them. Slow and steady...

The herd path to Tabletop was surprisingly well worn but not difficult to climb. We arrived at the summit and realized that we may have gotten up a bit earlier than necessary since it was only 11:00. Since we had so much time, we stayed on the summit over an hour waiting for the clouds to blow off of Marcy.

We hiked out and headed to the Orchard for the evening to pack boats for our next adventure.

The next day, Tom joined us with three Hornbeck boats car-topped for a trip to the Essex Chain Lakes - a recent New York State land acquisition that has just been opened to the public. We followed the rough dirt road while scoffing at the "curve" warnings and deciding that they should warn of the straightaways instead!

The day was cool and slightly overcast as we carried into Deer Pond and then into Third Lake. We followed the shoreline with another short carry into First Lake and back. After a picnic on a peninsula, we followed the shoreline to Fifth Lake and back to the carries. We especially enjoyed the wild rasberries growing along the trail!

We hope to return to camp at a later date, but for now we headed back to the Orchard for a weekend of smoked salmon, smoked brisket, beanhole beans and pizzas in the brick oven! And of course, music!

Indian Lake

After our epic hiking trip, we took the ferry home ready to swap gear for our next adventure. We were already packed with gear in dry bags and simply needed to make the switch. However, the car started to moan and a shoddy power steering pump would have us scratching our heads.

It took a bit of improvising, but we weren't going to give up on our camping trip with the Killons on Indian Lake. We squeezed the kayaks into the back of Tom's van and followed with gear in our Prius. It put us behind by one day, but certainly didn't dampen our spirits.

We packed the boats early on Saturday morning and shoved off toward Long Island. We thought we spied the familiar blue kayaks from a distance and started to play bugle calls to signal our arrival. However, after hearing someone shout "is the cavalry coming?" and seeing an unfamiliar schnauzer yipping from the shore...we paddled along until we saw the site.

After unpacking and consuming our morning s'mores (which we have nicknamed s'mornings...), we paddled around the southern part of Indian Lake. Sometimes floating, sometimes racing it was a lackadaisical afternoon. We explored John Mack Bay and parts of the Jessup River widening before turning back to our campsite for an amazing potluck feast. It was some of the best campsite eating of which we have ever partaken. Bill took first prize with his apple pie over the campfire.

We played tunes around the campfire well into evening and had a grand time. We were sad to shove off the next morning. Thanks for the great time Bill and Jill!

Great Range

After reserving a lean-to at the Johns Brook Lodge, Lisa and I packed into the wilderness intending to explore some of the more inaccessible peaks of the Great Range. With a good mid-week stretch of sunny weather, it seemed like an opportune time to get into the woods. We left Keene Valley with backpacks and trekking poles and followed the trail to the Adirondack Mountain Club property, finding our lean-to on the opposite side of Johns Brook.

We set up camp as the previous occupants were packing up while comparing kayaks and repacked our gear for a day hike. With lightened loads, but still plenty of trail mix, we headed up the pass towards Saddleback. The trail was very easy for quite a while and then rose suddenly when we found a gigantic pile of dirt and trees with a set of stairs rising on the side of what must be one of the newer "Irene" slides.

After a few scrambles over boulders, we arrived at the summit where we found a large group of teenagers from camp Pok-O-MacCready. When we posed for our "Adironstance" picture, Lisa then got the whole group to do the same pose.

Since we only had to make it back to Johns Brook Lodge, we stayed on the summit and enjoyed the view for about an hour before heading back to our lean-to. After one game of pinochle, it was off to bed.

It was chilly the next morning, and we were eying each other to see who would get out of their sleeping bag first. We eventually rose, retrieved our bear canisters and ate breakfast before heading on the trail toward Basin Mountain. This turned out to be a much tougher hike than the previous day - there was quite a bit more elevation gain and loss and much more vertical boulder scrambling. We slowly scrambled to the peak and enjoyed views of the surrounding mountains despite some clouds and spitting rain.

On the way out, we decided to skip the Shorey Shortcut Trail and make a loop instead. We found the going much easier and arrived at the intersection to Haystack. We soon found ourselves with a panoramic view of the high peaks climbing over Little Haystack. The climbing was much easier than before and soon we were eating a snack while admiring Marcy and Skylight on one side with the rest of the Great Range on the other. It is truly one of the gems of the High Peaks Wilderness.

With five miles to hike out, we started descending...then ascending...then descending...then ascending again, before finally descending the trail to Johns Brook Lodge. When we finally arrived as the sun was setting we stopped in the lodge for a pair of victory lemonades before climbing into our sleeping bags for the night.

The next morning, we bid farewell to the lean-to and packed out to the Garden with sore bodies, wondering why we keep doing this. Of course, that is until we see our pictures...

Little Tupper Lake

In the pantheon of perfect paddling lakes in the Adirondacks, Little Tupper Lake sits near the top of the list. We were lucky to have spent three perfect mid-summer days kayaking and camping on this beautiful waterway.

After an obligatory stop at Hoss's (which we realized is sixty percent "S") for ice cream, we drove to the Whitney Headquarters and packed our holds before setting out in search on a campsite. As it was a Thursday evening on the edge of a perfect summer weekend we were expecting sites to be occupied. On our initial paddle, we found the opposite to be true. With the exception of a few select spots, we had our pick of campsites and chose a site with a rocky promontory - possibly the greatest defensive position on the lake.

However, we were preparing for exploration not warfare so we went to bed early finding low hanging fog when we woke up. After omelets for breakfast, we embarked in our kayaks following the shoreline heading north towards Round Lake. When we arrived we found even more solitude on a seemingly pristine Adirondack lake. Where Little Tupper Lake did have two camps, Round Lake had a completely natural shoreline. We meandered around the coves with a stop for rice-free stir-fry on a small beach. Yeah - I was the one that left the rice in the car...

Astonished that we could have such a pristine and accessible lake to ourselves, we finally found a group paddling in while we were on our way back to our campsite. It was a perfect summer day and we enjoyed the sunset on our rocky point with a game of cribbage. Still no sign of imminent attack so we went to bed just after dark.

The next day we headed south, following the shoreline. We found the ranger on the lake and grilled her on all the questions that had been running through our minds about the area. She suggested a series of carries through ponds and into Lake Lila, perhaps as far north as Cranberry Lake. That adventure would have to wait for another day.

We found the outlet to Rock Pond and donned our bug nets to thwart the incoming deer flies - finally that attack we had been waiting for... It was a smooth paddle with one short carry. When we arrived, we found yet another area devoid of humans. Where were all the other paddlers?

After a snack on the island, we explored the shoreline and tested the quality of our hat strings in the stiff wind. We donned our bug nets a second time as we entered the river section back to our campsite at Little Tupper Lake. We cleaned up as best we could before heading back into civilization and took one last look from our promontory and shoved off towards the village of Long Lake for dinner at the diner and more ice cream at Hoss's.

Piseco

Our week of adventure in the Adirondacks began with two days of spotty thunderstorms at North Lake. We found time between jam sessions and games of pinochle to paddle the length of the lake and walk the logging roads that surround it. It was a great chance to catch up with family and when the weatherman predicted a nice day, we decided to head to Old Forge for some water adventures.

We drove by Enchanted Forest on our way to the Carter Street Bridge - a "put-in" on the North Branch of the Moose River. After spotting a car in Thendara, most of the family embarked in their kayaks. Lisa and I, despite having our kayaks with us, opted to share an inter-tube with two canoe paddles! We dragged another tube behind us with our spare air. We hitched to the back of a kayak and flailed our way down the serpentine river. Once we got sick of the whiplash, we cut the cord and embarked on our slow but steady paddle down the river.

After lunch, we started to get a feel for steering the tube without always ending up in trees. We made it to Thendara a little later than the rest of the crew though! After a slight debacle with car keys, we ended up packing the cars at sunset and grabbing dinner at the steakhouse while we listened to the booms of fourth of July fireworks through the window panes.

The next day, Lisa and I car-topped the kayaks and headed to Piseco Lake - a place that we had driven by for years, but never stopped. It was the Saturday of a holiday weekend and the campgrounds were bursting at the seams; our hopes of camping there were quickly dashed. Instead we paid the day-use fee and got on the lake from Poplar Point heading south to Irondequoit Bay. The wind was powerful and in our faces as we paddled.

After following the shoreline, we found the gem of Piseco Lake by following the outlet. We slid through some light rapids and came out in "Big Bay." This spot, only accessible to adventuresome paddles (you have to be willing to go over the rapids) was a picturesque expanse of water surrounded by mountains. Since it was sandwiched between Route 8 and Route 10, it showed yet again that you don't have to go far to find solitude in the Adirondacks.

We paddled back uphill, Lisa much more gracefully than I and headed out, intending to find a place to camp for the night. Following route 8, we stopped in Speculator to the final strain of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Apparently, they have their parade on the fifth of July with no warning signs whatsoever... We watched for a while before sneaking through a parking lot and changing course. Suddenly we were heading north on route 30.

Lucky for us, we found a campsite at Lewey Lake. Some campers had left early, so we had a place to stay!

In the morning, we scarfed our breakfast and got on Lewey Lake, heading southwest until a huge gust of wind forced us to turn around. We followed the outlet until we hit a cement dam and decided to head back to the launch, saving Indian Lake for another day.

We were itching for a hike in the afternoon and remembered our friend Bill, who always spoke about Chimney Mountain on the eastern side of Indian Lake. We followed the back roads and made the short but steep hike to the rock formations on the mountain's peak. Some over-confident climbers with improper equipment made us nervous at the summit, but we enjoyed the view to the west - especially Snowy and Blue Mountains.

After a picnic on the shores of Adirondack Lake, we headed to Wadhams for a relaxing night with Kevin, Elizabeth and baby Sam. There are storms in the forecast for the next few days so we will be heading back into the 'dacks on Wednesday.

Pharaoh Lake

Some treks into the woods leave you reveling in the majestic scenery and glory of nature surrounding you. Others leave you miserable, itchy and ready to swear off camping forever. Few bounce back and forth between the two ends of the camping spectrum as our most recent trip into Pharaoh Lake

We arrived at the Beaver Pond Road access point to the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness on Monday. Armed with backpacks and Hornbeck boats, we were drooling to get into the pristine, glistening backcountry of the Adirondacks. We set off, doe-eyed into the wilderness and were soon smacked upside the head with the reality of the conditions of the northern forest in June. With boats not quite fitting over our packs and no time to stop and fix them due to the insatiable swarms of mosquitoes, we had a four hour slog over the 3.7 mile path to Pharoah Lake.

When we arrived I threw my boat into the water and disembarked, growling that I had just put my foot in the lake in a last ditch effort to get away from the bugs while I still had SOME blood left in my veins. Once on the water, the swarming ceased completely and we were rewarded with a pristine shoreline and clear lake with mountains rising on all sides. All of the sudden, the heart-racing tempo of the hike stopped and we were able to breathe and enjoy our surroundings.

I spotted a rocky promontory in the distance, which would be our home for the next few days. We would technically be camping at Lean-to five, but all of our time would be on the breezy point. It offered a beautiful panoramic view with imposing Pharaoh Mountain to the northwest. We had climbed the mountain two summers prior and had spied the lake for paddling then.

Exhausted, we ate our dinner and hid beneath netting while we slept to a constant hum of bugs. When we awoke, the humming had stopped and we could freely walk around our site without being molested by the bugs. We paddled the shoreline of Pharaoh Lake, eying beaver dams, distant cliffs, calling loons, and glacial erratics that seemed intentionally placed. After our lackadaisical paddle, we decided to follow a trail to Whortleberry Pond, just .3 miles from the shore. 

The trail that we found quickly turned into a bushwhack. Since we were carrying boats, I nicknamed our new sport “paddlewhacking.” After fighting through balsam boughs, tree limbs and mosquitoes we arrived on the shore of a pristine Adirondack pond. We slowly admired the scenery while following the dog-legged shoreline. A suspicious loon eyed our boats from a safe distance.

We spent the evening on our rocky promontory playing pinochle and eating while watching some darker clouds roll in. After the nightmarish hike on the way in, we were mentally preparing for the worst on the way out.

In the morning, we awoke at sunrise and started packing our gear amid the bugs; they were back and FIERCE. We shoved off and enjoyed our first mile of paddle sans-pests, knowing that the deluge would be on its way when we landed. When the boats hit the shore, we donned our bug nets and put [dirty] socks over our hands so that no skin would be exposed to the bloodsucking parasites! Determined and with lighter packs, we made the four mile trek in just over an hour with swarms of insects on our tails. We tied boats on the car as quickly as possible and talked about the schizophrenic experience that we all had. We had each experienced Adirondack solitude and beauty and we had each suffered through miserable conditions but never had we experienced the two with almost no delineation. 

Goodnow

It becomes difficult to explore the Adirondacks in late fall, when hunting season is underway. We wanted to find a hike that would break up our drive to North Lake for the weekend and were pleased to find Goodnow Mountain in Newcomb. Since the area is owned by Syracuse University, it turns out that it is technically a college campus and therefore guns are not allowed.

The trail was a gentle incline and very well taken care of. It seemed that there was a boardwalk each time that our feet had a chance of getting wet! It only took about an hour before we reached the tallest fire tower that we have seen.

We climbed to the top to enjoy the panoramic view, but didn't stay long due to a constant chilly wind. Clouds were moving around us, casting interesting shadows but we were happy to have a mostly unobscured view.

The return trip was just as pleasant and we celebrated our hike with malts at Stewart's in Long Lake. We continued down the road for a relaxing weekend at North Lake where we visited family, paddled and ate! It was a great weekend topped off with a bit of apple picking before we returned home.