Like many of you, I have been doing this Adirondack thing for a long time now (I am 48) I plan my trips carefully. I go solo if nobody is in, and it seams the older I get the harder it is to get people do do these trips. (I get it, it's getting more difficult as we age)
So I set off for the five hour drive last Thursday. I arrived at the pond - more of a lake but labeld a pond - at 2PM and loaded my 12' Radison Canoe with the next two days of my life in a large dry sack. Aside from the pack, I loaded up two fishing poles, two paddles, and one small cooler. My trolling motor and deep cycle battery rounded it out. I figure the total weight in the Canoe to be about 350lbs total. Deep cyccle batteries weigh a ton! The battery sits in the nose of my Radison (I extended/modified the cables to get it there) along with the small cooler. The dry sack sits in the middle and I am in the rear. The weight is evenly distributed and the canoe carries it easily.
I noticed the wind was picking up as I sat down and set sail, but didnt think much of it as I know this pond/lake very well and the wind has NEVER raised an issue. The forcasted wind for that day was 12-15mph, I can live with that. But I always factor in the shape of the body of water, the direction the wind is coming from, and the basic fact that the northern ADK's have weather that can not be accurately predicted by Weather.com. The site I was aiming for was less than a mile from the truck and I knew EXACTLY where it was and EXACTLY how to get to it.
To shorten this story a little, I was lucky to reach the site and had to cut the Radison through 8" whitecaps the final 200 yards. It was brutal, Hard straight line wind. I had to go across the caps, not into them. The canoe got rocking badly and the trolling motor was useless. I shut it off and dug deep with a single paddle to get to the shore/site. It was a nervous and difficult 200 yards but I made it. Set up camp and had to use every shock cord and bungie I had just to keep the tent staked down.... The wind never let up. I never got out to fish. I was trapped. It blew harder as the night wore on. It rained on and off the hole time. My cell phone (fully charged and kept off) was only good for a text, not enough service to make a call or look at the web/radar/weather. ( I have the DEC and ADK rangers in my contacts just in case) If I had to leave for any reason it would have been on foot, somehow tracing the shoreline. THAT would have taken a while!
I stuck it out and noticed at 4am the lake started to queit, the whitecaps died down and the lake became manageable. I packed up camp (1 hour time), loaded everything back up, stuck a headlamp on a did a 5AM escape. I was taking NO chances on being there the following day with a repeat of the windy conditions. 40 minutes later I coasted into the shoreline where I parked and breathed a sigh of relief!! I fooled around all day Friday and fished a few places on foot and did unpoad on one smaller brookie pond for a few hours.
I dont think I was ever in any real danger but these trips are usually seamless compared to this one. My biggest fear was flippng the Canoe. If that happened maybe this story would be different. The weight of my gear and the way the weight was distributed kept the boat planted. I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear a life preserver but I still wonder......Anyways, all of the gear is put away for next season and I will learn from this one!
So I set off for the five hour drive last Thursday. I arrived at the pond - more of a lake but labeld a pond - at 2PM and loaded my 12' Radison Canoe with the next two days of my life in a large dry sack. Aside from the pack, I loaded up two fishing poles, two paddles, and one small cooler. My trolling motor and deep cycle battery rounded it out. I figure the total weight in the Canoe to be about 350lbs total. Deep cyccle batteries weigh a ton! The battery sits in the nose of my Radison (I extended/modified the cables to get it there) along with the small cooler. The dry sack sits in the middle and I am in the rear. The weight is evenly distributed and the canoe carries it easily.
I noticed the wind was picking up as I sat down and set sail, but didnt think much of it as I know this pond/lake very well and the wind has NEVER raised an issue. The forcasted wind for that day was 12-15mph, I can live with that. But I always factor in the shape of the body of water, the direction the wind is coming from, and the basic fact that the northern ADK's have weather that can not be accurately predicted by Weather.com. The site I was aiming for was less than a mile from the truck and I knew EXACTLY where it was and EXACTLY how to get to it.
To shorten this story a little, I was lucky to reach the site and had to cut the Radison through 8" whitecaps the final 200 yards. It was brutal, Hard straight line wind. I had to go across the caps, not into them. The canoe got rocking badly and the trolling motor was useless. I shut it off and dug deep with a single paddle to get to the shore/site. It was a nervous and difficult 200 yards but I made it. Set up camp and had to use every shock cord and bungie I had just to keep the tent staked down.... The wind never let up. I never got out to fish. I was trapped. It blew harder as the night wore on. It rained on and off the hole time. My cell phone (fully charged and kept off) was only good for a text, not enough service to make a call or look at the web/radar/weather. ( I have the DEC and ADK rangers in my contacts just in case) If I had to leave for any reason it would have been on foot, somehow tracing the shoreline. THAT would have taken a while!
I stuck it out and noticed at 4am the lake started to queit, the whitecaps died down and the lake became manageable. I packed up camp (1 hour time), loaded everything back up, stuck a headlamp on a did a 5AM escape. I was taking NO chances on being there the following day with a repeat of the windy conditions. 40 minutes later I coasted into the shoreline where I parked and breathed a sigh of relief!! I fooled around all day Friday and fished a few places on foot and did unpoad on one smaller brookie pond for a few hours.
I dont think I was ever in any real danger but these trips are usually seamless compared to this one. My biggest fear was flippng the Canoe. If that happened maybe this story would be different. The weight of my gear and the way the weight was distributed kept the boat planted. I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear a life preserver but I still wonder......Anyways, all of the gear is put away for next season and I will learn from this one!
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