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!

Burgess Island

For the first time, we made a second trip to Lake George before the summer deluge began. We went with Tom and Amy, as well as Ben and Maya (!) for their first island camping adventure. After loafing (packing the boats) at the Washington County Beach for a few hours, we eventually unpacked on Burgess Island to set up camp. The kids seemed to have skinned knees and splinters immediately...

We spent the days swimming and paddling. The kids really enjoyed the stiff north wind that afforded them the opportunity to crash around in the water. They also discovered two pirate coves on the island which were fortunately unoccupied.

The only unexpected swim of the trip was when Lisa dropped the walkie talkie off the dock into about six feet of water.  Luckily, Lake George is beautifully clear and she was able to retrieve it with a refreshing dip, a kayak paddle and some fancy footwork.  After a day of drying out the walkie talkie is back online.

On the final morning of the trip, we paddled to "turtle cove," our nickname for a small bay in the Harbor Islands. We were glad to see four big turtles sunning themselves that morning. We paddled around to see the Franciscan Chapel before packing out.

It was a great bonus trip, but now we won't be on Lake George until after Labor Day weekend...

Lake George

With three nice days forecasted before the release of students from the New York school system, we headed for our annual island camping trip on Lake George. We launched at the Northwest Bay Brook access loaded with gear and paddled down the bay with the wind at our backs. Being a Sunday afternoon, there was some boat traffic but not nearly the deluge that would take over the lake in another week...

After turning around Montcalm Point (or Not Calm Point as Lisa calls it) we headed into a stiff wind for the last mile to Juanita Island. We somehow managed to set up our tents without them blowing away and waited to register our campsite for the next day so that we could rest our weary arms. We enjoyed the scenery and enjoyed a campfire that night while the sun set.

The wind continued through the night and started to abate a bit the next morning. We scarfed down a delicious Lake George breakfast before getting ready to paddle for the day. There were still some whitecaps but we managed to register our site on Glen Island where the ranger informed us that we were not alone on Juanita Island, there were nesting eagles above us. We had already noticed the signs, and had been looking for them already.

We paddled north to Paradise Bay where we saw dozens of turtles as well as a fierce looking set of ducks. We snacked a bit while enjoying the protected bay before heading south into Rock Bay for lunch. We continued to follow the shoreline south, exploring all the nooks and crannies until we ended up at the same latitude as our campsite. On our return to the island, the eagles put on a great show for us, popping out of the nest. The mature eagles were there too. Lisa snapped enough pictures that the camera seems to now be broken...good work.

We made some stew over the fire and watched the Mohican cruise by before heading to bed for a much less breezy night than the previous one.

We bid adieu to the beautiful scenery the next morning as we packed our gear into our kayak holds and paddled back into Northwest Bay. We let the now shifted wind blow us back to our destination while enjoying the views and wildlife along the way. It was another successful trip to Lake George...now everyone else can use it for the summer.

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.