Camping Trip - Day Four

Our last day. We all agreed we wanted more days but sadly reality called. We had a leisurely morning. Joe made bacon (bought at Donaldson's the night before), pancakes and we broke down the camp. We didn't hit the water until 11am and still had a fairly aggressive paddling day ahead BUT WITH NO CARRIES! Our plan was to make it through Follensby and have lunch at Donaldsons. Then head through Fish Creek Pond (also called Square Pond), take the Fish Creek through to Little Square Pond, continue on the creek and land in Floodwood Pond. Our car was parked about a mile from there, at the Long Pond parking lot. We didn't take lots of pictures, as our arms were pretty much paddling all day!

It was a windy day, so Clarke needed a break from the kayak after Follensby. I took over and had a great time. The weather was just beautiful. In fact, it was beautiful and perfect all three days, which is an Adirondack miracle. We had sandwiches at Donaldsons and finished our journey through the creeks. Once we got back into Floodwood, it felt like an old friend. No navigation or maps required. It's amazing how a pond that looks just like the other ponds, can feel so familiar and unique. The boys and Joe took a swim to cool off while I hiked the mile to our car. We ended the trip with Donnelly's ice cream and dinner at Casa Del Sol.
The trip was tremendous. Between the loons and the moon and the chance to relax with my favorite people in the world, it was really quite perfect. For those whole like the outdoors, canoe camping is the way to go, as you can be a bit more luxurious in your packing because you don't have to haul everything on your back (except for the carries of course) The entire St. Regis/Floodwood canoe area is the best of unspoiled, spectacular beauty. In most of the ponds, there are no motor boats allowed, no development or private houses, and very few people. Because this draws a certain type of enthusiast, the camp sites are left super clean, and well stocked with firewood. "if you carry it in, carry it out". There are no reservations, you just paddle up and see if there is a tent set up. The sites typically have a fire circle, a clearing for tent and/or eating, some have picnic tables, and some have been accessorized with hooks and nylon lines etc. We did hang our food high in th trees away from our site, and some use bear cannisters, as there is plentiful wildlife throughout. We saw three blue herons, dozens of loons, ducks, chipmunks, fish, but thankfully no bears. There is no accessibility to any of this land unless you paddle in. Can't wait for next year. Joe and I have our eye on a lighter, bigger canoe!
Now, we start organizing for our return to Manhattan. GULP.

Camping Trip - Day Three

"Up and At 'Em". We jumped up at sunrise, downed some great coffee, and got to work, breaking down camp. Our goal was to be on the water by 9am. Over the fire the night before, I had made muffins in tiny cake pans, wrapped and tented in tin foil. They were "eh" but I think would work with some tweaking. They fit the bill for the boys as they scoooped them out with spoons and had fresh oranges. We loaded up and shoved off...on time! This was going to be a challenging day, as we wanted to get all the way to Follensby Pond which meant paddling all of Long , Slang, Turtle, and Hoel. There were some carries, some long, some short, in there, which would be the hardest part.


Long Pond was a beautiful paddle - it is long and narrow and really quiet. The carry to Slang was short and we managed quite well. We each made two trips with Joe and I handling kayak and canoe. Clarke did a great job kayaking through Long, Slang, and Turtle. Slang to Turtle was happily accessed by a stream and before we knew it we were at the end of Turtle looking hopefully for a waterway to Hoel. No such luck, as there was one under the train tracks which was way too shallow. It was a funny thing because the ponds were about 100 feet apart, but between them was a steep hill up to a train track and then a steep hill down. Annoying but quick and relatively painless. Oscar took over on the kayak through Hoel Pond, while Clarke took a break. Our thought was to have lunch at the boat launch at Hoel before we made our big carry to Follensby.
I won’t lie to you, things got a little rocky here. While we had lunch, Joe took the gigantico backpack and decided to scout out the carry. He came back gamely trying to keep us having fun with some "good news and bad news". The good news was that the trail was really lovely and the bad news was two-fold. The carry was longer than anticipated and we couldn't find the Follensby trail so we'd have to portage to Polliwog Pond and then do another very short portage to Follensby. The boy shrugged, picked up some stuff and were off down the trail. I, on the other hand, may have shown slightly more emotion....ahem. The carry was about a mile and all I could think of was carrying first a canoe, then a kayak, then our dry bags each a mile, after paddling all morning. Gulp. During our first trip across, Oscar cheerfully told me I shouldn't think of it as a carry but more like a little hike. Adorable and wise words. Joe shouldered the canoe solo for most of the trail, we managed the heaviest stuff, and for our last trip, I put Oscar's socks on my hands and we carried the kayak through. Joe was patient as I made many many rest stops. The boys were really amazing grabbing camping chairs, gear etc. While Joe and I made the last trip with the kayak, the boys swam at a beautiful beach at Polliwog. We then made the short Polliwog paddle, found the carry and before we knew it, we were in Follensby Pond, looking for our next camp site. Follensby was a beautiful pond with lots of islands and great, beachy camp sites. Our camp site was huge with pine trees everywhere and lots of clearing. We set up in the late afternoon and Joe had a great suggestion to canoe another 45 minutes to a real store, to buy treats, meat for dinner and some cold beer. With those incentives, we treked to Donaldsons in great spirits ( right under the Route 30 bridge before entering Fish Creek Pond-also called Square Pond) and then ended the day with a sunset swim back at our site in pristine, beautiful water. It was totally rejuvenating. For dinner, we cooked potatoes seeped in olive oil, fresh basil, lemon juice. I couldn't figure out the formula to cook them without burning on the fire and the results were not great. We also roasted corn on the cob over the fire, which was fabulous and we split steak and italian sausage on rolls. The boys fell asleep in about 30 seconds and Joe and I hung by the fire, listened to the loons, and watched another great moon.

Camping Trip - Day Two

One of the best things about setting up camp at nightfall is waking up and discovering the site in the morning. No matter how exhausted I am, I always wake up around sunrise because I am so excited to see what is around me. When we fell asleep Sunday night, the caucophony of animal sounds was almost comical. The loons taking off from the water sounded like hordes of splashing teenagers, the loon calls went on for hours, and there were lots of unidentified howls and chirps and rustles. When I woke up, it was almost silent, except for the bird calls, and the mist was still on the pond.

Today was just about relaxing at camp with no plans so I took a quick early morning trip around in the kayak (ironically, I stumbled upon a waterfall. I swear it wasn't planned). After a breakfast of oatmeal and stewed apples with cinnamon, lemon juice and sugar ( a winner), the boys and I headed out for a bit more exploring while Joe had some down time. We headed into the swamps and found a small pond called Pink. We deemed it not up to snuff and headed back. We then had our lunch (cured meats, french bread, cheese, peanut butter, chocolate etc.) and the afternoon was for swimming, napping, reading. Heaven. A tribute to Oscar's conversational prowess is that Joe found him happily chatting with me in the tent, while I was dead asleep.
The chipmunks became our nemeses and they literally stole a serrated knife from the site. It was quite a scene seeing Joe chase down the cute furry creature with a huge knife in his mouth. Oscar was aiding the effort and threatened "i'll make a sandwich outta you, chipmunk". I'll call the therapist when we return. For dinner, we had spanish rice with grilled quesadillas and homemade salsa ( a winner). The boys had their special root beer treat and marshmallows, and Joe and I had a great pinot noir and some dark chocolate. At nightfall, we were treated to an amazing site, a beautiful full moon. I mean, we couldn't have planned it better! I wasted hordes of digital camera space trying to capture the beauty but Joe wisely suggested it was of no use. I'd have to try to remember. It was huge and literally lit up our camp site with no artifical light needed. We all went to bed early, as the next day was going to be our big paddle day.

Camping Trip - Day One

Sunday afternoon, the plan was a quick dinner in Saranac Lake, get to Long Pond launch in the early evening and canoe to a camp site before nightfall. Of course, we were running a bit later than planned and when we put in, the sun was already lower then the trees. We knew the camp sites we were aiming for and then passed one, two, three sites that were full, the sun was officially set, and we were just starting to stress it, when bingo, we found a great site. Joe lit the propane lantern, we quickly set up, and then relaxed for a bit before heading to our tent ( you'll notice the singular here. We opted for one large tent for the family.)

Per Joe's planning, here is the route we are going to tackle. It centers around the Saint Regis Canoe area. Joe has pretty much canoed every pond around here and it seemed every camp site we passed he had camped at one time or another so we were in good hands.

A Frenzy of Activity

I will post some pics and updates from our weekend with Joe's dad later but we are in the midst of chaos over here getting ready to shove off on our 3 day canoe trip tonight. I am heading to trusty Price Chopper to try to find last minute camp friendly food for our finicky Oscar. He doesn't suffer casseroles, soups, noodly or rice concoctions or cheese...and he doesn't like peanut butter, which pretty much rules out the entire genre of camp food. We've decided the cooler can't fit which rules out proteins or anything needing refrigeration. Meanwhile, Clarke is asking if we can figure out how to make red Thai curry noodles, so this is like some kind of Top Chef Challenge.

Joe is heading into his Eagle Scout treasure trove finding useful camp tools and trinkets and Clarke was thrilled to see Joe's actual Boy Scout issued swiss army knife with "Joey" written in nail polish. The boys are making the claim that if Joe and I get red wine (which is not exactly canoe friendly), they get root beer. hmmmm. Deal with the devil.

Island adventures

So what to do with an 18 month old in the wilderness. We had a lovely day yesterday with the Mitchell family. The goal was to take a brief 15 minute paddle so Eleanor could handle and then find a base camp spot on an island for the day so our Eleanor could have a place to romp and rest while we got some canoeing in. The plan worked like a charm. We had snacks and lunch at base camp, and the big boys swam and explored and canoed around the lakes.

Tough Mountain Chics

So Sunday morning, we sent the men folk off for golf at Saranac Inn and Ann and I decided to go canoeing...with Harlan. Do I even need to continue? We started out great, Harlan was a bit nervous. The echo quality is so good that he was convinced he was surrounded by a pack of coonhounds who kept repeating what he barked. About midway, something made him very jumpy and next thing we knew we were all in the water and the canoe was completely capsized. Harlan was a little shocked and swam back to the capsized boat to get back in but Ann coaxed him to shore (luckily we were not in the middle of the pond at the time). I then gathered our paddles and dry bag in the water, we regrouped at shore, and emptied the canoe. Needless to say, the ride back was a little less leisurely and Ann held tight to Harlan. It was 5 minutes of chaos, and a day of giggling at our adventure.

Canoe Trip

We are starting the planning for our 3 day canoe trip next week in the St. Regis Canoe Area, a chain of pristine lakes with no development or motor boats and very few people. Here is our packing spreadsheet work in progress. I am noodling with the menu so we won't be carrying everything listed there. We have amazing memories from our trip a few years back where we had a site on our own island in the middle of a lake with our own beach. Under our tents were a foot deep bed of soft pine needles which both smelled terrific and provided a most comfortable mattress. Canoe camping is my preferred vehicle as you can be way off the beaten path but don't have to carry everything in. We also love the small creeks and inlets between the lakes where you can almost imagine you are touring the Amazon circa 1910.

The deed is done

1 canoe, 1 kayak, 4 life jackets, 3 canoe paddles, 1 kayak paddle, 2 dry bags, 1 canoe car carrier = $10 million dollars ( it sure felt like it). Being able to hit the waters on a whim = priceless. We got our new boats this afternoon and immediately took them for a spin on Lower Saranac. The day was beautiful and we brought sandwiches from Lakeside Deli (102 River St, Saranac Lake) for dinner. The boys loved being solo in the kayak - quite a feeling of independence. A lovely afternoon and evening which capped off with......rhymes with Zonnelly's. Now back home and making a fire, as it is a typical, cool mountain night.

Canoe O Rama

Team Williams is in the market for canoes so we have been hanging out around St. Regis Canoe Outfitters, trying to convince them to sell us a few of their used ones before the end of the year. There is one which we think they will do and we decided we should absolutely take it for a test drive today. A Bell Northstar I think is the name. We put in at Floodwood Pond and went through this great little creek called Fish Creek to Little Square Pond. We then docked on a sandy beach and the boys floated around the pond for a bit. We could have continued to Whey, Rollins and looped back to Floodwood if we had wanted an overnight or even a whole day but we backtracked as this was just a 4 hour jaunt. It was spectacular. We saw a river otter, blue herron, and a mother duck and her ducklings were right next to our canoe. Clarke was a stellar front paddler for most of the trip and Oscar tried his hand for the first time. Warm weather, sun, and light breeze made for a lovely first canoe day of the year. At the end, some nice man showed me the technique for a shoulder carry, as Clarke's muscles were not up to the task of carrying back to St. Regis. These Kevlar canoes are so much lighter even a chic can do a shoulder carry. And....um....we stopped at Donnelly's on the way home....again. We arrived home to find out we are the proud owners of a new submergable well pump. I have goosebumps.