I am sorry, this came out longer than I expected. A link to pictures should be at the end of the text if I can make it work.
Zach
I left at about 6:45 AM on Sunday the 17th with the canoe on a trailer behind the bicycle. The trip went smoothly until a dog came tearing out of a driveway on the Moose River Rd. (the one that goes from Port Leyden to McKeever). It was really moving but so was I and the bike and I got by the dog safely. The dog was hit by the right hand trailer wheel and for a moment I was afraid the trailer had flipped over, but it had not. The dog yelped and ran back up the driveway and I continued a short way up the hill since I could still roll. When I looked back I saw that the trailer was pulling sideways and when I stopped and looked underneath I saw that the aluminum tubing which comprised the tongue had been broken at a point just ahead of the wheels where there was a hole drilled through the tube to adjust the length. I was 58 miles from home and still 20 miles or so from Old Forge. I found a dead branch in the woods and used my pocket knife to trim it to fit inside the tubing but it snapped as soon as I tested it. I found a broken roadside tree that was still partly alive and did some beaver cutting with the knife since I didn’t have a saw. I made a piece about 8” long and trimmed it to fit , then wedged it into both halves of the broken tube and wrapped the whole thing with duct tape. I was doubtful but it was the best I could do at the time so I loaded up the canoe again and headed on my way. I had hoped a passing motorist might offer to help but the only one that stopped came while I was in the woods looking for a stick and when he saw me coming back he drove away. The stick alone held all the way to Old Forge where I went to the hardware store and bought a piece of aluminum angle to use as an external brace. The helpful man at the store cut the length of angle in half for me and came out to see the canoe and trailer as I was making the repair. I duct taped on the piece I needed and was back on my way. I got to 8th Lake around 7:30 and decided to head for the carry trail at the north end. I walked the bike down the trail to the lean to(which was full of stuff) and when I arrived at the lake I found a whole herd of people, college students at a guess, who were sitting silently contemplating or meditating or something. I retreated quietly and reconsidered my options. As I was unstrapping the canoe from the trailer I could hear the people start talking and moving around and once I got everything I needed in the canoe and carried it down to the lake I was able to launch without disturbing them too much. I paddled down the lake to the second lean to which was empty and set up my tent behind it since it seemed to have a number of mice living in it. Even though it was getting dark in the woods the lake still had enough light to easily see where I was going. This was the first time in Adirondack waters for my canoe.
I woke up on Monday the 18th to some clouds and a wet rain fly from some overnight showers. I headed back up the lake about 8 AM after doing a quick loop around the island and noting that the lean to is still there. Arriving at the carry trail I packed up the canoe and baggage on the bike and trailer and walked back up to the road. There was some much needed paving going on on 28 in the Raquette Lake area and there were a plethora of dump trucks going back and forth bringing in asphalt, I tried to keep right and not get in their way but there was over a mile of one lane travel and I am afraid I did hold people up for a couple of minutes as I tried and failed to keep up with the line of traffic. With the canoe in tow my acceleration and average speed are both reduced, not that they are all that high anyway on a bicycle. Once I got to Blue Mountain Lake the sun was out steadily and it was turning into a nice day. As I was heading down the road toward Lake Durant I hit a bump and heard a snap and looked around to see that the plastic ferrule that held the two halves of my flagpole together had snapped, so I used some more duct tape to fasten the two pieces side by side as best I could. I almost decided to skip my planned stop at Rock Lake when I was there were already 6 cars in the parking area, but I found a spot just up the road from the trailhead where I could get off the road into a clearing and hide the bike and trailer. I put a few necessities in the backpack, put the canoe on top and headed down the trail. I normally get off the trail when I see other people coming if it is too narrow to pass, since as a young man by myself I generally yield to almost everyone, but with the canoe on top I often didn’t see people till they were pretty close. When I explained to people that I would have gotten out of the way sooner but I couldn’t see too far they were all very nice about it. I went to one of the informal campsites on the south side of the lake to launch the canoe since I wasn’t sure about finding my way through the marsh. I made a clockwise circuit of the lake, first through the marsh and then up to the outlet where I landed and walked across a point of land to look for the waterfall I could hear. I found an embankment of large stones with two gaps through which the river flowed. I assume the rocks were left by a glacier but they almost looked like they might once have been part of something manmade. There was a little field with a lot of cardinal flowers in it and while I was taking a picture of a butterfly on one plant I heard a hummingbird come in on my right and was able to get a picture of it too before it flew away. I went back out to the lake and headed down to a large beach on the NE side where I had some lunch and enjoyed the sun before heading down to another smaller beach on the SE shore that I had visited on foot last year, right by the drainage from a large former beaver swamp (I think) that has a nice view of Blue Mountain across the lake. When I got back to where I had put in there was someone setting up a camp there but after a couple of tries I was able to find an unoccupied spot to land and reload the canoe on the backpack and eventually find my way back to the main trail. After a stop for a loaf of bread in Indian Lake village I headed south on 30 hoping to put in at some state land just south of Sabael, but when I got there I realized it was much steeper than I had expected so I reconsidered the map and my plan and decided to go down to where the lake again comes close to the road just above the campground. I found a place there where I could disappear off the road and waited till there were no cars present. I hid the bike and trailer deeper in the woods and moved the canoe and baggage across the road in two trips at times when there was no one there to see. I am overly cautious about this but I feel safer knowing that no one has seen me when I am hiding things. I got out on the lake about 6 PM and paddled up the western shore till I came to the beach where the trail from Watch Hill comes down to the lake. It was getting dim and the mosquitos were coming out by the time I arrived so I set up my tent quickly.
On Tuesday the 19th I got up at 6 and packed up quickly for an early start. There was thick fog and I could not see very far but I knew I could follow the shoreline easily enough. I went north till I came to the three waterfalls that drain into the lake by the Parson’s Point picnic area. They sounded strange in the fog and they were very pretty. After rounding the point I continued north till I came to the first inholdings and then clipped my compass onto my PFD and headed east across the lake into the fog looking for Green Island. I could begin to see it before I completely lost sight of the west shore, and I headed for the northern tip, then past it to Doherty Island and on north again up the east shore of the lake. The rocks of the islands and shoreline were especially interesting in this part of the lake and it was a lot of fun to see each new area I reached. I passed by the north end of Kirpen’s Island and went into Norman’s Cove where I landed at the beach and had the rest of my breakfast at the picnic area on the point while watching the fog lift. It was almost all gone as I paddled across the cove to look for the trail up Baldface Mountain. My NG map showed it coming in just about opposite the picnic area, but I could not find anything over there that looked like a trail so I kept on around the shore and finally found it on the east side. The white circle was faded but still visible and there was also a DEC sign that I had not expected from the descriptions I had read. I hid the canoe in the woods and headed up the trail, still not having seen anyone since the previous day. The cliffs above the path on the way up were impressive but I couldn’t find a way to get them in a photo. Up on top I called home to check in and let them know I had arrived at the lake safely. I could see Blue Mountain where there is a tower and the connection was not great but mostly seemed to work. I know it is a sin to use a phone in the backcountry, but at least there was no one else about as far as I could tell. I was visited by a red squirrel and an unidentified (by me) bird. It was one of the most enjoyable mountaintop visits I have had. After I had spent about an hour up there I saw a pontoon boat come into the cove below and then go out again, whereupon it met another motorboat and they both came back in. A couple of minutes later I noticed two canoes approaching the entrance to the cove and I decided that I would spend another 15 minutes and then get going before the summit became more crowded. I spoke briefly with some of the people in the three parties I met who were going up and they all seemed very friendly. I unhid my canoe and camping gear and headed out of the cove where I met a motorboat approaching which was kind enough to slow down and let me get out of the way before coming in. I went down the east side of Kirpen’s Island and explored the long skinny cove there, took a break on the small beach at the south end of the island and then came out into the main lake and headed south looking for the cute island with the cliff on one side that I had seen from the summit. It was just as nice up close as it had looked from a distance, with nice views from the cliff and even a comfortably shaped seat in the stone where I ate my lunch while looking down the lake at as yet unexplored areas. All the time I was at Indian Lake I saw many more things that I would have liked to check out than I had time for, so I definitely hope to return one day. After lunch I paddled down the east shore and was passing between Doherty Island and the mainland when I saw a cute little comma-shaped island with a nice little beach tucked into the cove. I had been stopping every half hour or so to get out of the canoe and move around because my legs would go to sleep if I sat in the canoe any longer, so this was a good chance to take a break and see the sights. It was a very nice island and another spot I would like to revisit in a more leisurely way. Time was passing by so I hurried off past Crotched Pond and Camp Islands and landed on an unnamed island below Moose Island that was not as pretty but still a place to land and stretch where I wouldn’t be bothering anyone. I liked the random large rocks sticking out of the water in this area but they gave it a rather strange look. I decided that since I was so close by I might as well explore John Mack Bay and I went around all of it except the skinny eastern arm. It was pretty and seemed to have a lot more sandy and less rocky shoreline than the parts of the lake I had been in. I saw a daysailer on the way into the bay and was surprised that anyone would be sailing on the lake given the unusual topography of the bottom but they were either very skilled and well informed or else lucky as they seemed to be getting around fine without running into anything. My plan was to go down the long southern arm to the mouth of the Jessup River and camp there outside the campground, so even though I was getting tired I headed around the point and got started. I don’t know if it was because I was too tired to enjoy it as much, but that arm of the lake felt interminably long to me. There were some pretty spots along it, though. About halfway down I noticed that even after I had been out of the canoe for a few minutes the feeling in the bottom of my left foot was not coming back, which seemed a bit worrisome, and also that my left knee felt like it wasn’t locking as it should. I did some more vigorous walking when I got to the Dug Mountain Falls picnic area but I still couldn’t get that leg back to normal, so at about 8 PM I headed for the trail up the side of the Jessup rock garden and set up my tent. I walked a ways up the river but didn’t see an end to the rock garden, and the current seemed stronger than I had expected. I went to sleep trying to decide what to do the following day.
When I got up on Wednesday my leg was better but still not all the way back to normal so I decided to go back to the picnic area for breakfast and then head back up the lake to the area where I had camped on the Monday night and spend a rest day there. I was expecting rain in the afternoon and the day was already overcast. I walked to the upper falls and looked at them and then got back in the canoe. For a while as I went north I was shadowing or being shadowed by a loon, which first called to me while I was sitting on a rock on the shore taking a break. We seemed to be heading in the same general direction and it didn’t seem bothered by my continuing to be nearby. I saw a sign for a picnic area on an island on the west shore of the southern arm that I had missed the night before and landed with some difficulty among the rocks. It was a nice spot, but the day was rather oppressive and I didn’t stay too long. I went up the eastern side of Long Island and looked at the mini-islands off the shore there and then headed north to my destination. I took some time to wander around in the woods and at length found a spot that was almost level and was big enough for my tent beside a huge hemlock. It was about the right distance from the beach to be legal without being too far away and I set up my tent around 11:30, expecting the rain to begin at any time. At about noon the sun came out and the clouds broke up beautifully, and I spent most of the afternoon on the beach till about 4 when I headed back up to the waterfalls of Beaver Brook next to Parson’s Point. I followed the trail up to the waterfalls and then followed the brook back down. There was a rock near the top that randomly made me think of a poem by Lewis Carroll titled The Three Badgers which involves “a mossy stone beside a dark and covered way”. It was also a nice spot to sit. I returned to my campsite about 6 and had a pleasantly restful evening. About 8 there was a brief sprinkle just as I was starting to think I should go into my tent away from the mosquitoes, and soon after the rain started in earnest.
On the morning of Thursday the 21st I woke up to the sound of rain, but when I got out of the tent and headed down to the beach I found that it had stopped raining there and all the water in the woods was just dripping off the trees. I took a last dip in the lake and left about 7. I headed back out the way I had come and saw a couple of kayaks near the Timberlock complex, but otherwise no one was about and the water was like glass. I found the spot where I had put in, after some initial doubts, and carried the canoe and then everything else up to the road. I found the bike and trailer in the woods and got everything put together and headed north. At the scenic overlook I met a couple of parties who were interested in the canoe and spent a while talking with them, and with some other folks at the store in Indian Lake where I bought some bagels. I made an impromptu stop at Sawyer Mountain on the way by and climbed it, there was no one else there at all so it was easy enough to hide my belongings. The view was very limited but scenic. My goal was to get back to 8th Lake and get into a lean to so I could dry my rain fly which was soaked. The inner screen part of the tent was fine, but I thought a chance to dry everything thoroughly would be nice. This time I hid the bike and trailer in the woods right by Route 28 and paddled across the lake to the island where I spread out and hung up everything inside the lean-to. The sun was shining a little bit by this time and I walked around the island to see the sights. In the grassy field on the south side I found a big cardboard box that someone had filled with trash and then not removed and it had disintegrated, and I was thinking about paddling over to the campground to ask for a trash bag when I found an empty one serendipitously lying in a path. I put all of the trash from the box into it and all of the other bits of trash I could find lying around and put it into the stern of the canoe as best I could, though it was a tall and awkward parcel. I was a little apprehensive about my reception as I paddled to the boat ramp, but a camper there told me which way to go and when I got to the gatehouse the DEC ranger/person there was very nice about it and when I explained what I had he said he would take care of it and took the bag away with him. We parted with mutual expressions of goodwill and I headed back up the lake as a thunderstorm was approaching. It was one of the closest ones I have experienced when camping, but I had luckily gotten into the lean-to before it arrived. I spent the evening mostly reading and watching the wind and rain, and after they stopped I went out for a last look around before turning in early. My book this year was Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. I have found that for me Dickens seems to be the ideal author to read when camping since many of his books are very long but the cheaper paperback editions are quite light, and his use of language is interesting enough to make me read somewhat slowly but there is enough going on to keep my attention for many hours at a time if necessary.
On Friday the 22nd I left the lean-to and paddled over to where I had left my stuff. As I came up the hill at about 8 I realized that there was a flagman standing in the road in front of me and that the paving operation was coming my way. I got everything put together and went into Inlet where I got some food and went to the park to fill my water bottles and look at the forecast. I caught a curb and flipped my canoe and trailer on their sides trying to get into the park while there was another vehicle partly blocking the entrance, but I was barely moving at the time and the only damage was a few scratches on the gunwale. The power was out so there was no forecast, and someone told me there had been a lightning strike in the campground the previous night. I went up to Eagle Bay and headed into the woods off the tobie trail looking for the open rock on the mountain there that I had failed to find last year. I failed again but as I was coming back to the road I saw an owl fly off ahead of me a short distance, so I followed it to see if I could get a picture. I took one picture and was lining up another one when I realized there were two owls in the tree, one above the other, both staring at me in a peevish sort of way. I took a couple of further pictures and then left as I didn’t like to bother them by trying to get closer. I came out to the road a bit east of where I had gone in and walked along in the woods parallel to it. On the way into Old Forge a friendly bicyclist told me about a shortcut on Hollywood Rd. which took me along the shore of the lake and had little traffic. I went into Thendara and found an isolated spot on state land where I could do my disappearing act again and put my canoe in on the North Branch of the Moose River. I went up the river under the bridges and somewhat past the carry around the rapids, perhaps another mile or so. It was quite scenic but the light was not very good for taking pictures so I didn’t take many. I would like to travel more of the river someday. I got back on the road and headed for the Nelson Lake trailhead where I hid everything again and put the canoe on top of the backpack. It was an easy walk down an old road to the put-in, which has about a 4 foot high vertical bank with a clay bottom. The water was only about 2 feet deep so I was able to load the canoe and get in without too much trouble. The river was much higher than last time I was here two years ago. In the main channel I ran onto a submerged rock and had to execute several vigorous backward jerks to get off of it again, but when I inspected the canoe later there was no visible damage. The channel into the outlet of Nelson Lake was easy to find as the river came to a nice T and I turned left. On entering the pickerelweed area I saw a large object on the south edge of the channel and canoed over to investigate. It turned out to be one of those vinyl float tubes that people use in pools and at the beach, turned upside down and with its handles caught in the weeds. The top was a bit dirty from being in the water but it was otherwise intact. I put it on the top of the cargo area in the canoe and headed toward the lake again. The channel was at least a foot deep throughout the area I traversed but it was entirely full of pickerelweed that had to be pushed through. I found that the canoe would push through with some extra effort to part the plants and as soon as the canoe had passed they popped right back into place again and appeared unaffected. Once I reached the lake I paddled up the west side and found a landing place next to a large rock. I got out and walked up the first path I saw and it led to the lean-to in fairly short order. The lean-to is very nice and new, though it has accumulated a lot of odd stuff already including a pair of large hand mirrors, some assorted canned goods and a tarp or two. Returning to the lakeshore I headed around the north end of the lake and found the campsite by the big rock ledge on the NE corner. It was a pretty spot except for the broken picnic table and the metal table-like thing that were sitting on the rocks. I set up my tent and then ate the first part of my supper on the rock before being forced to retreat by the no-see-ums.
In the morning on Saturday the 23rd I tried to eat breakfast outside but again had to return to the tent even though I wore my fleece jacket and wrapped my towel around my legs to try to keep the bugs away. I stayed in the tent till after 9 reading my book and vainly hoping that the clouds might break, and then came out and explored on foot on some of the surrounding herd paths before turning my attention to cleaning the float tube and the inside of my canoe with the sponge. I tried the tube out briefly and can say that it did indeed float but it was hard to propel in any particular direction. I even tried sitting on it and using my double canoe paddle, but found that unless I took tiny strokes at an extremely high cadence all I accomplished was spinning in place. I packed the canoe and paddled back down the east side of the lake while looking at the large rocks along the shoreline. About 5 minutes out it began to rain lightly and continued for the next couple of hours as I went back down the outlet and up the river to my landing place, carried the canoe back to the parking area, got everything set for the road and headed for McKeever. The bridge over the river was being worked on and was down to one lane but I didn’t have to wait long to cross and it was a short enough section that my low speed didn’t make people wait very long. In McKeever I turned onto the side road that leads into the Black River Wild Forest and took the right fork to head toward Bear Lake. I went about 1/4 mile in on the gravel road past the gate and then decided to start carrying the canoe from there since I was having trouble keeping the bike steady on the gravel with the extra weight of the canoe dragging behind. I carried the canoe the rest of the way to the trailhead and then over the ridge to Bear Lake, which I had visited on foot last year and was eager to canoe around. The water was a good bit higher this year than it was last year so the shoreline was a little less friendly to land on, but I enjoyed paddling around the lake. I could hear voices from the lean-to so I knew it was occupied, and I looked for a landing that would lead to a campsite as I went around the lake but I didn’t find anything. The outlet was particularly nice, I went down as far as the first beaver dam and decided not to cross it because the channel was much narrower below it. I saw a couple of plants that I am not accustomed to seeing, one that grew in the edge of the water but looked almost like some sort of perennial bulb foliage and flowers and one that had little spiky ball shaped flowers that was quite fun. I took pictures of both and they are in my album that is linked at the end of this report. If anyone reads this far and knows what these plants are I would like to find out. After going all the way around the lake I returned to the peninsula next to the inlet stream and had a late lunch and looked at the view for a while. About 3 the sun came out for 2 or 3 minutes and I basked briefly in its warmth, but then it went in again. About 4:30 the mosquitoes began to become thick and I still had not found a good campsite that was not right on the trail, so I decided to pack everything out again and look for a spot near the Moose River where it passed quite close to the gravel access road near the register so that I could get a faster start in the morning. On the way back out I saw a rock that was about the right height and set my camera on it so I could take a picture of my method of carrying my canoe, since how to carry canoes has been an ongoing topic of discussion on this forum. When I got back to where I had hidden my wheels I put the canoe back on the trailer and rode the bike back out past the register to where there was a driveway leading to the north. I hid my bike and the trailer with the canoe on it in the weeds behind the end of the pullout after checking that I was still on state land according to my map. Then I headed north about 1/4 mile through some blowdown and spruce plantations till I found a nice flat spot near the river but far enough back to be legal, and just upstream of the railroad bridge. The water seemed very high and strong and I did not venture far out in it. After a last camp supper and some cold and soapless ablutions I read for a while and then went to sleep. In the middle of the night something that I am guessing was a squirrel ran into the the side of the tent and thus into the side of me hard enough to wake me up a couple of times. I think I must have been lying across one of its main thoroughfares, from the rate it was traveling. I didn’t have the rain fly on as the weather was supposed to be clearing and before morning I could see stars when I looked up between the tree branches.
On the morning of Sunday the 24th I got up just before 6 and was packed and starting to walk out soon after 6:30. By 7 I had hit the pavement in McKeever and was ready to start speeding west on my way home. I passed the driveway from whence had come the dog on my way up without incident and by 9 I was taking a break and eating a secondary breakfast at a handy guardrail in Port Leyden by the bridge over the Black River. With the help of a nice north wind I was able to make the climb out of Constableville heading south toward West Leyden without having to stop, which was a good thing as I had been wondering how hard it would be to get going again if I did. There is a stretch there of over a mile of continuous moderately steep grade which is fun going down on my way in but the climb is the hardest stretch of my return journey. I stopped briefly in West Leyden and at Swancott Mill and made it home at 1:30 in the afternoon, a good bit earlier than I had expected. Overall on this trip I covered 281 miles by bicycle with daily average speeds ranging from just over 10 to just over 12 MPH. This is a bit slower than I would travel without the canoe and trailer but the benefit of having them with me far outweighs the cost of the extra time and effort. This was my sixth Adirondack trip and definitely the one I enjoyed the most even though the weather was sometimes less than ideal. I am looking at making another canoe before next year that will be slightly bigger than this one and may have improved handling and comfort for someone of my size. I think that some of my leg problems in this canoe stem from the fact the my feet are so far forward in it that the area where they sit is sort of V shaped which causes them to be pressed against one another, but this would not be a problem for a normal person in this hull.
http://ift.tt/1qMOWnV
Zach
I left at about 6:45 AM on Sunday the 17th with the canoe on a trailer behind the bicycle. The trip went smoothly until a dog came tearing out of a driveway on the Moose River Rd. (the one that goes from Port Leyden to McKeever). It was really moving but so was I and the bike and I got by the dog safely. The dog was hit by the right hand trailer wheel and for a moment I was afraid the trailer had flipped over, but it had not. The dog yelped and ran back up the driveway and I continued a short way up the hill since I could still roll. When I looked back I saw that the trailer was pulling sideways and when I stopped and looked underneath I saw that the aluminum tubing which comprised the tongue had been broken at a point just ahead of the wheels where there was a hole drilled through the tube to adjust the length. I was 58 miles from home and still 20 miles or so from Old Forge. I found a dead branch in the woods and used my pocket knife to trim it to fit inside the tubing but it snapped as soon as I tested it. I found a broken roadside tree that was still partly alive and did some beaver cutting with the knife since I didn’t have a saw. I made a piece about 8” long and trimmed it to fit , then wedged it into both halves of the broken tube and wrapped the whole thing with duct tape. I was doubtful but it was the best I could do at the time so I loaded up the canoe again and headed on my way. I had hoped a passing motorist might offer to help but the only one that stopped came while I was in the woods looking for a stick and when he saw me coming back he drove away. The stick alone held all the way to Old Forge where I went to the hardware store and bought a piece of aluminum angle to use as an external brace. The helpful man at the store cut the length of angle in half for me and came out to see the canoe and trailer as I was making the repair. I duct taped on the piece I needed and was back on my way. I got to 8th Lake around 7:30 and decided to head for the carry trail at the north end. I walked the bike down the trail to the lean to(which was full of stuff) and when I arrived at the lake I found a whole herd of people, college students at a guess, who were sitting silently contemplating or meditating or something. I retreated quietly and reconsidered my options. As I was unstrapping the canoe from the trailer I could hear the people start talking and moving around and once I got everything I needed in the canoe and carried it down to the lake I was able to launch without disturbing them too much. I paddled down the lake to the second lean to which was empty and set up my tent behind it since it seemed to have a number of mice living in it. Even though it was getting dark in the woods the lake still had enough light to easily see where I was going. This was the first time in Adirondack waters for my canoe.
I woke up on Monday the 18th to some clouds and a wet rain fly from some overnight showers. I headed back up the lake about 8 AM after doing a quick loop around the island and noting that the lean to is still there. Arriving at the carry trail I packed up the canoe and baggage on the bike and trailer and walked back up to the road. There was some much needed paving going on on 28 in the Raquette Lake area and there were a plethora of dump trucks going back and forth bringing in asphalt, I tried to keep right and not get in their way but there was over a mile of one lane travel and I am afraid I did hold people up for a couple of minutes as I tried and failed to keep up with the line of traffic. With the canoe in tow my acceleration and average speed are both reduced, not that they are all that high anyway on a bicycle. Once I got to Blue Mountain Lake the sun was out steadily and it was turning into a nice day. As I was heading down the road toward Lake Durant I hit a bump and heard a snap and looked around to see that the plastic ferrule that held the two halves of my flagpole together had snapped, so I used some more duct tape to fasten the two pieces side by side as best I could. I almost decided to skip my planned stop at Rock Lake when I was there were already 6 cars in the parking area, but I found a spot just up the road from the trailhead where I could get off the road into a clearing and hide the bike and trailer. I put a few necessities in the backpack, put the canoe on top and headed down the trail. I normally get off the trail when I see other people coming if it is too narrow to pass, since as a young man by myself I generally yield to almost everyone, but with the canoe on top I often didn’t see people till they were pretty close. When I explained to people that I would have gotten out of the way sooner but I couldn’t see too far they were all very nice about it. I went to one of the informal campsites on the south side of the lake to launch the canoe since I wasn’t sure about finding my way through the marsh. I made a clockwise circuit of the lake, first through the marsh and then up to the outlet where I landed and walked across a point of land to look for the waterfall I could hear. I found an embankment of large stones with two gaps through which the river flowed. I assume the rocks were left by a glacier but they almost looked like they might once have been part of something manmade. There was a little field with a lot of cardinal flowers in it and while I was taking a picture of a butterfly on one plant I heard a hummingbird come in on my right and was able to get a picture of it too before it flew away. I went back out to the lake and headed down to a large beach on the NE side where I had some lunch and enjoyed the sun before heading down to another smaller beach on the SE shore that I had visited on foot last year, right by the drainage from a large former beaver swamp (I think) that has a nice view of Blue Mountain across the lake. When I got back to where I had put in there was someone setting up a camp there but after a couple of tries I was able to find an unoccupied spot to land and reload the canoe on the backpack and eventually find my way back to the main trail. After a stop for a loaf of bread in Indian Lake village I headed south on 30 hoping to put in at some state land just south of Sabael, but when I got there I realized it was much steeper than I had expected so I reconsidered the map and my plan and decided to go down to where the lake again comes close to the road just above the campground. I found a place there where I could disappear off the road and waited till there were no cars present. I hid the bike and trailer deeper in the woods and moved the canoe and baggage across the road in two trips at times when there was no one there to see. I am overly cautious about this but I feel safer knowing that no one has seen me when I am hiding things. I got out on the lake about 6 PM and paddled up the western shore till I came to the beach where the trail from Watch Hill comes down to the lake. It was getting dim and the mosquitos were coming out by the time I arrived so I set up my tent quickly.
On Tuesday the 19th I got up at 6 and packed up quickly for an early start. There was thick fog and I could not see very far but I knew I could follow the shoreline easily enough. I went north till I came to the three waterfalls that drain into the lake by the Parson’s Point picnic area. They sounded strange in the fog and they were very pretty. After rounding the point I continued north till I came to the first inholdings and then clipped my compass onto my PFD and headed east across the lake into the fog looking for Green Island. I could begin to see it before I completely lost sight of the west shore, and I headed for the northern tip, then past it to Doherty Island and on north again up the east shore of the lake. The rocks of the islands and shoreline were especially interesting in this part of the lake and it was a lot of fun to see each new area I reached. I passed by the north end of Kirpen’s Island and went into Norman’s Cove where I landed at the beach and had the rest of my breakfast at the picnic area on the point while watching the fog lift. It was almost all gone as I paddled across the cove to look for the trail up Baldface Mountain. My NG map showed it coming in just about opposite the picnic area, but I could not find anything over there that looked like a trail so I kept on around the shore and finally found it on the east side. The white circle was faded but still visible and there was also a DEC sign that I had not expected from the descriptions I had read. I hid the canoe in the woods and headed up the trail, still not having seen anyone since the previous day. The cliffs above the path on the way up were impressive but I couldn’t find a way to get them in a photo. Up on top I called home to check in and let them know I had arrived at the lake safely. I could see Blue Mountain where there is a tower and the connection was not great but mostly seemed to work. I know it is a sin to use a phone in the backcountry, but at least there was no one else about as far as I could tell. I was visited by a red squirrel and an unidentified (by me) bird. It was one of the most enjoyable mountaintop visits I have had. After I had spent about an hour up there I saw a pontoon boat come into the cove below and then go out again, whereupon it met another motorboat and they both came back in. A couple of minutes later I noticed two canoes approaching the entrance to the cove and I decided that I would spend another 15 minutes and then get going before the summit became more crowded. I spoke briefly with some of the people in the three parties I met who were going up and they all seemed very friendly. I unhid my canoe and camping gear and headed out of the cove where I met a motorboat approaching which was kind enough to slow down and let me get out of the way before coming in. I went down the east side of Kirpen’s Island and explored the long skinny cove there, took a break on the small beach at the south end of the island and then came out into the main lake and headed south looking for the cute island with the cliff on one side that I had seen from the summit. It was just as nice up close as it had looked from a distance, with nice views from the cliff and even a comfortably shaped seat in the stone where I ate my lunch while looking down the lake at as yet unexplored areas. All the time I was at Indian Lake I saw many more things that I would have liked to check out than I had time for, so I definitely hope to return one day. After lunch I paddled down the east shore and was passing between Doherty Island and the mainland when I saw a cute little comma-shaped island with a nice little beach tucked into the cove. I had been stopping every half hour or so to get out of the canoe and move around because my legs would go to sleep if I sat in the canoe any longer, so this was a good chance to take a break and see the sights. It was a very nice island and another spot I would like to revisit in a more leisurely way. Time was passing by so I hurried off past Crotched Pond and Camp Islands and landed on an unnamed island below Moose Island that was not as pretty but still a place to land and stretch where I wouldn’t be bothering anyone. I liked the random large rocks sticking out of the water in this area but they gave it a rather strange look. I decided that since I was so close by I might as well explore John Mack Bay and I went around all of it except the skinny eastern arm. It was pretty and seemed to have a lot more sandy and less rocky shoreline than the parts of the lake I had been in. I saw a daysailer on the way into the bay and was surprised that anyone would be sailing on the lake given the unusual topography of the bottom but they were either very skilled and well informed or else lucky as they seemed to be getting around fine without running into anything. My plan was to go down the long southern arm to the mouth of the Jessup River and camp there outside the campground, so even though I was getting tired I headed around the point and got started. I don’t know if it was because I was too tired to enjoy it as much, but that arm of the lake felt interminably long to me. There were some pretty spots along it, though. About halfway down I noticed that even after I had been out of the canoe for a few minutes the feeling in the bottom of my left foot was not coming back, which seemed a bit worrisome, and also that my left knee felt like it wasn’t locking as it should. I did some more vigorous walking when I got to the Dug Mountain Falls picnic area but I still couldn’t get that leg back to normal, so at about 8 PM I headed for the trail up the side of the Jessup rock garden and set up my tent. I walked a ways up the river but didn’t see an end to the rock garden, and the current seemed stronger than I had expected. I went to sleep trying to decide what to do the following day.
When I got up on Wednesday my leg was better but still not all the way back to normal so I decided to go back to the picnic area for breakfast and then head back up the lake to the area where I had camped on the Monday night and spend a rest day there. I was expecting rain in the afternoon and the day was already overcast. I walked to the upper falls and looked at them and then got back in the canoe. For a while as I went north I was shadowing or being shadowed by a loon, which first called to me while I was sitting on a rock on the shore taking a break. We seemed to be heading in the same general direction and it didn’t seem bothered by my continuing to be nearby. I saw a sign for a picnic area on an island on the west shore of the southern arm that I had missed the night before and landed with some difficulty among the rocks. It was a nice spot, but the day was rather oppressive and I didn’t stay too long. I went up the eastern side of Long Island and looked at the mini-islands off the shore there and then headed north to my destination. I took some time to wander around in the woods and at length found a spot that was almost level and was big enough for my tent beside a huge hemlock. It was about the right distance from the beach to be legal without being too far away and I set up my tent around 11:30, expecting the rain to begin at any time. At about noon the sun came out and the clouds broke up beautifully, and I spent most of the afternoon on the beach till about 4 when I headed back up to the waterfalls of Beaver Brook next to Parson’s Point. I followed the trail up to the waterfalls and then followed the brook back down. There was a rock near the top that randomly made me think of a poem by Lewis Carroll titled The Three Badgers which involves “a mossy stone beside a dark and covered way”. It was also a nice spot to sit. I returned to my campsite about 6 and had a pleasantly restful evening. About 8 there was a brief sprinkle just as I was starting to think I should go into my tent away from the mosquitoes, and soon after the rain started in earnest.
On the morning of Thursday the 21st I woke up to the sound of rain, but when I got out of the tent and headed down to the beach I found that it had stopped raining there and all the water in the woods was just dripping off the trees. I took a last dip in the lake and left about 7. I headed back out the way I had come and saw a couple of kayaks near the Timberlock complex, but otherwise no one was about and the water was like glass. I found the spot where I had put in, after some initial doubts, and carried the canoe and then everything else up to the road. I found the bike and trailer in the woods and got everything put together and headed north. At the scenic overlook I met a couple of parties who were interested in the canoe and spent a while talking with them, and with some other folks at the store in Indian Lake where I bought some bagels. I made an impromptu stop at Sawyer Mountain on the way by and climbed it, there was no one else there at all so it was easy enough to hide my belongings. The view was very limited but scenic. My goal was to get back to 8th Lake and get into a lean to so I could dry my rain fly which was soaked. The inner screen part of the tent was fine, but I thought a chance to dry everything thoroughly would be nice. This time I hid the bike and trailer in the woods right by Route 28 and paddled across the lake to the island where I spread out and hung up everything inside the lean-to. The sun was shining a little bit by this time and I walked around the island to see the sights. In the grassy field on the south side I found a big cardboard box that someone had filled with trash and then not removed and it had disintegrated, and I was thinking about paddling over to the campground to ask for a trash bag when I found an empty one serendipitously lying in a path. I put all of the trash from the box into it and all of the other bits of trash I could find lying around and put it into the stern of the canoe as best I could, though it was a tall and awkward parcel. I was a little apprehensive about my reception as I paddled to the boat ramp, but a camper there told me which way to go and when I got to the gatehouse the DEC ranger/person there was very nice about it and when I explained what I had he said he would take care of it and took the bag away with him. We parted with mutual expressions of goodwill and I headed back up the lake as a thunderstorm was approaching. It was one of the closest ones I have experienced when camping, but I had luckily gotten into the lean-to before it arrived. I spent the evening mostly reading and watching the wind and rain, and after they stopped I went out for a last look around before turning in early. My book this year was Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. I have found that for me Dickens seems to be the ideal author to read when camping since many of his books are very long but the cheaper paperback editions are quite light, and his use of language is interesting enough to make me read somewhat slowly but there is enough going on to keep my attention for many hours at a time if necessary.
On Friday the 22nd I left the lean-to and paddled over to where I had left my stuff. As I came up the hill at about 8 I realized that there was a flagman standing in the road in front of me and that the paving operation was coming my way. I got everything put together and went into Inlet where I got some food and went to the park to fill my water bottles and look at the forecast. I caught a curb and flipped my canoe and trailer on their sides trying to get into the park while there was another vehicle partly blocking the entrance, but I was barely moving at the time and the only damage was a few scratches on the gunwale. The power was out so there was no forecast, and someone told me there had been a lightning strike in the campground the previous night. I went up to Eagle Bay and headed into the woods off the tobie trail looking for the open rock on the mountain there that I had failed to find last year. I failed again but as I was coming back to the road I saw an owl fly off ahead of me a short distance, so I followed it to see if I could get a picture. I took one picture and was lining up another one when I realized there were two owls in the tree, one above the other, both staring at me in a peevish sort of way. I took a couple of further pictures and then left as I didn’t like to bother them by trying to get closer. I came out to the road a bit east of where I had gone in and walked along in the woods parallel to it. On the way into Old Forge a friendly bicyclist told me about a shortcut on Hollywood Rd. which took me along the shore of the lake and had little traffic. I went into Thendara and found an isolated spot on state land where I could do my disappearing act again and put my canoe in on the North Branch of the Moose River. I went up the river under the bridges and somewhat past the carry around the rapids, perhaps another mile or so. It was quite scenic but the light was not very good for taking pictures so I didn’t take many. I would like to travel more of the river someday. I got back on the road and headed for the Nelson Lake trailhead where I hid everything again and put the canoe on top of the backpack. It was an easy walk down an old road to the put-in, which has about a 4 foot high vertical bank with a clay bottom. The water was only about 2 feet deep so I was able to load the canoe and get in without too much trouble. The river was much higher than last time I was here two years ago. In the main channel I ran onto a submerged rock and had to execute several vigorous backward jerks to get off of it again, but when I inspected the canoe later there was no visible damage. The channel into the outlet of Nelson Lake was easy to find as the river came to a nice T and I turned left. On entering the pickerelweed area I saw a large object on the south edge of the channel and canoed over to investigate. It turned out to be one of those vinyl float tubes that people use in pools and at the beach, turned upside down and with its handles caught in the weeds. The top was a bit dirty from being in the water but it was otherwise intact. I put it on the top of the cargo area in the canoe and headed toward the lake again. The channel was at least a foot deep throughout the area I traversed but it was entirely full of pickerelweed that had to be pushed through. I found that the canoe would push through with some extra effort to part the plants and as soon as the canoe had passed they popped right back into place again and appeared unaffected. Once I reached the lake I paddled up the west side and found a landing place next to a large rock. I got out and walked up the first path I saw and it led to the lean-to in fairly short order. The lean-to is very nice and new, though it has accumulated a lot of odd stuff already including a pair of large hand mirrors, some assorted canned goods and a tarp or two. Returning to the lakeshore I headed around the north end of the lake and found the campsite by the big rock ledge on the NE corner. It was a pretty spot except for the broken picnic table and the metal table-like thing that were sitting on the rocks. I set up my tent and then ate the first part of my supper on the rock before being forced to retreat by the no-see-ums.
In the morning on Saturday the 23rd I tried to eat breakfast outside but again had to return to the tent even though I wore my fleece jacket and wrapped my towel around my legs to try to keep the bugs away. I stayed in the tent till after 9 reading my book and vainly hoping that the clouds might break, and then came out and explored on foot on some of the surrounding herd paths before turning my attention to cleaning the float tube and the inside of my canoe with the sponge. I tried the tube out briefly and can say that it did indeed float but it was hard to propel in any particular direction. I even tried sitting on it and using my double canoe paddle, but found that unless I took tiny strokes at an extremely high cadence all I accomplished was spinning in place. I packed the canoe and paddled back down the east side of the lake while looking at the large rocks along the shoreline. About 5 minutes out it began to rain lightly and continued for the next couple of hours as I went back down the outlet and up the river to my landing place, carried the canoe back to the parking area, got everything set for the road and headed for McKeever. The bridge over the river was being worked on and was down to one lane but I didn’t have to wait long to cross and it was a short enough section that my low speed didn’t make people wait very long. In McKeever I turned onto the side road that leads into the Black River Wild Forest and took the right fork to head toward Bear Lake. I went about 1/4 mile in on the gravel road past the gate and then decided to start carrying the canoe from there since I was having trouble keeping the bike steady on the gravel with the extra weight of the canoe dragging behind. I carried the canoe the rest of the way to the trailhead and then over the ridge to Bear Lake, which I had visited on foot last year and was eager to canoe around. The water was a good bit higher this year than it was last year so the shoreline was a little less friendly to land on, but I enjoyed paddling around the lake. I could hear voices from the lean-to so I knew it was occupied, and I looked for a landing that would lead to a campsite as I went around the lake but I didn’t find anything. The outlet was particularly nice, I went down as far as the first beaver dam and decided not to cross it because the channel was much narrower below it. I saw a couple of plants that I am not accustomed to seeing, one that grew in the edge of the water but looked almost like some sort of perennial bulb foliage and flowers and one that had little spiky ball shaped flowers that was quite fun. I took pictures of both and they are in my album that is linked at the end of this report. If anyone reads this far and knows what these plants are I would like to find out. After going all the way around the lake I returned to the peninsula next to the inlet stream and had a late lunch and looked at the view for a while. About 3 the sun came out for 2 or 3 minutes and I basked briefly in its warmth, but then it went in again. About 4:30 the mosquitoes began to become thick and I still had not found a good campsite that was not right on the trail, so I decided to pack everything out again and look for a spot near the Moose River where it passed quite close to the gravel access road near the register so that I could get a faster start in the morning. On the way back out I saw a rock that was about the right height and set my camera on it so I could take a picture of my method of carrying my canoe, since how to carry canoes has been an ongoing topic of discussion on this forum. When I got back to where I had hidden my wheels I put the canoe back on the trailer and rode the bike back out past the register to where there was a driveway leading to the north. I hid my bike and the trailer with the canoe on it in the weeds behind the end of the pullout after checking that I was still on state land according to my map. Then I headed north about 1/4 mile through some blowdown and spruce plantations till I found a nice flat spot near the river but far enough back to be legal, and just upstream of the railroad bridge. The water seemed very high and strong and I did not venture far out in it. After a last camp supper and some cold and soapless ablutions I read for a while and then went to sleep. In the middle of the night something that I am guessing was a squirrel ran into the the side of the tent and thus into the side of me hard enough to wake me up a couple of times. I think I must have been lying across one of its main thoroughfares, from the rate it was traveling. I didn’t have the rain fly on as the weather was supposed to be clearing and before morning I could see stars when I looked up between the tree branches.
On the morning of Sunday the 24th I got up just before 6 and was packed and starting to walk out soon after 6:30. By 7 I had hit the pavement in McKeever and was ready to start speeding west on my way home. I passed the driveway from whence had come the dog on my way up without incident and by 9 I was taking a break and eating a secondary breakfast at a handy guardrail in Port Leyden by the bridge over the Black River. With the help of a nice north wind I was able to make the climb out of Constableville heading south toward West Leyden without having to stop, which was a good thing as I had been wondering how hard it would be to get going again if I did. There is a stretch there of over a mile of continuous moderately steep grade which is fun going down on my way in but the climb is the hardest stretch of my return journey. I stopped briefly in West Leyden and at Swancott Mill and made it home at 1:30 in the afternoon, a good bit earlier than I had expected. Overall on this trip I covered 281 miles by bicycle with daily average speeds ranging from just over 10 to just over 12 MPH. This is a bit slower than I would travel without the canoe and trailer but the benefit of having them with me far outweighs the cost of the extra time and effort. This was my sixth Adirondack trip and definitely the one I enjoyed the most even though the weather was sometimes less than ideal. I am looking at making another canoe before next year that will be slightly bigger than this one and may have improved handling and comfort for someone of my size. I think that some of my leg problems in this canoe stem from the fact the my feet are so far forward in it that the area where they sit is sort of V shaped which causes them to be pressed against one another, but this would not be a problem for a normal person in this hull.
http://ift.tt/1qMOWnV
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire