Francis Lake, part one

Here's Brody, checking out the scenery on Francis Lake over Memorial Day weekend.  Although northern New York state had some very warm weather in March, it turned cooler and rainy through April.  May was better, with a few nice weekends but we had family obligations that made kayaking impossible for us until the holiday weekend.

This is my second set of posts about Francis Lake.  It is usually our first trip each kayaking season.  We sometimes paddle here twice in a season.  It's a beautiful lake, with only a few camps on it. And with a limit of  10 hp motors, it is a very quiet lake.  There are also a few shallow areas to explore, along with an esker, so there is a variety of plants, trees and wildlife.

The town nearest Francis Lake is Lowville.  State Route 12 runs through this town but you may find Stillwater Reservoir before you find Route 12 on a map.  If you do, look south and west and you may find Francis Lake.  (It'll look tiny compared to Stillwater Reservoir which is about 9 miles long.)

**NOTE:  In my last post, I promised you something awesome about our trip on Francis Lake, so keep on reading!!

This is my husband, Dick, just after we got on the lake.  As you can see, the lake is edged with evergreens.

 I didn't photograph the put-in this time, but if you check out my Francis Lake posts from 2010, you'll see the dock and a sandy area.  It is an easy entry from the side of the dock on the shore or you can use the dock as I do.

Brody is checking out a fellow boater who had been fishing on the lake.  We don't do much fishing, but we've heard from several people that the pickerel are plentiful.
 

Well, I DO have a photo of the dock.  Dick took this one of me and Brody with the dock in the background on the left.

Just starting out from the put-in, this perspective makes the lake appear very small.  But to the right of the private dock on the right, there is a lobe of the lake, and to the left beyond the darker trees in the front is another huge area with some shallows as well as some beaver lodges.  Not to mention that those trees in the middle are further away than they appear.

Here's Brody with his "Doggles" on.  They have UV protection which we thought would be a good idea with our trips on the water and his big bug eyes.  No, he does not keep them on constantly, but he'll wear them for stretches of time, mostly when he wants to look around.  He seems to know that they reduce the glare on the water.  When he's trying to nap inside the kayak, he usually paws at them until I remove them.  Then he relaxes and takes a snooze.  Just like our own eye glasses, they're not too comfortable when sleeping!

This island and rock are near the lobe of the lake on the western side. (right from the put-in.)  In this area we've seen a loon fishing and also a loon sitting on its nest.  But on this trip we did not see the loons in this area.

Brody's watching a bird that flew overhead in this shot.  We think it was a tree swallow, but we didn't get a good look at it.  Brody had the best perspective, and he wasn't inclined to name the bird!  We really do think he understands how the goggles help him see in the bright sunlight.  Many photos from last year's kayaking trips show him squinting in the sun.  He had goggles then but we didn't always remember to put them on him.   He looks pretty cute in them, doesn't he ?

This is a pretty view of the lake from inside the lobe on the western side.  I love the rocky islands full of trees.  It's typical of many lake islands  in the Adirondacks.  Francis Lake is on the western side of the Adirondack Park, near Beaver Lake and the Beaver River.  I can see by this photo that I need to pay more attention to the tilt of my kayak with Brody in it.  All of these horizontal shots are dipping slightly to the right!

After exploring this area, we paddled back out onto the main part of the lake and heard the haunting cry of a loon.  We looked around and found him/her sitting low in the water.  Another loon called back.  We're guessing one was on the nest.  The loon dove, gave its wings a ruffled wash, then dove some more.  True to what we know of these birds, it eventually took a long dive and surfaced behind us.  The loon was too far away to get any good photos.  If you're interested, though, I have posted photos of the common loon in the past.  Look at South Pond and/or Nicks Lake.

OK... here is the "exciting sighting" on Francis Lake!  Look closely in the middle of the photo near the edge of the water... I know... it's hard to see exactly what it is.  But I have better photos to show you!  This is just the "teaser."  Any guesses before I go on?

Here he/she is, flying away in the left-middle of the photo.  Yes, it's a bird. I know it's not a great photo, but what kind?

I know, I know, I'm not giving you a lot to go on, especially with the bright sunshine.  Does the photo below help at all?  It's far away, but very distinctive.  You should all have a very good guess by this time....

Yes, it's a bald eagle!  We were so excited to see this beautiful bird!  Where we live in northern New York, we see bald eagles along the Black River, especially in winter when the trees are bare and the river is open.  I know there are more of these majestic birds around than there used to be, but it's so wonderful to see them.  And this is only the second time we've seen a bald eagle while kayaking.  We were paddling on the Raquette River near Tupper Lake 3 or 4 years ago and saw one high in a tree, perched on a dead limb.  It was too far away to photograph, but we are sure it was an eagle, based on his white head and tail.  There really is no mistaking a mature bald eagle!

Here is another photo, the best of the bunch I took that day:

The best part about seeing this eagle, besides being able to get a few decent photographs of him/her is that this was not the only bald eagle we saw!  There were 4!  That's right, FOUR bald eagles on the edge of the water that day!  Three of them flew off as soon as we entered this part of the lake which is very shallow in one section (where they were) and is cut-off from most of the main lake by an esker.  The three eagles who flew away were all mature bald eagles.  They flew off into the woods as we approached.  By the way, we actually HEARD the eagles before we saw them.  They don't sound like hawks, their call is different than what you might expect.  We weren't sure what bird made that sound until we saw them, but we knew we should recognize it!

It's hard to see in the photo, but the bald eagle who stuck around, willing to be photographed, and putting up with our very excited whispers, has a blue band on his leg.  Whether he was rehabilitated or came from a nest that had been observed and was tagged before he left the nest, I don't know.  But we believe he was less skittish with us and our kayaks because he has had some contact with humans in the past, as the band proves.  The eagle didn't stay for hours, just a couple of minutes.  When I pushed my luck and tried to get just a tiny bit closer (we were still at least 50 yards away from him-- I have a 30X zoom on my digital camera) he decided he had been accommodating enough for one day and flew off in the same direction as his companions.

Wow!  It was quite an experience to come upon four bald eagles on the lake.  We've speculated about why they were all gathered there and the obvious answer is fish.  The water is so shallow that we could barely paddle and got hung up a few times in this area after the eagle left and we were turning around.  So, maybe the fish are easy pickings in that spot.  Pickerel are pretty large, so maybe they were sharing one and it slipped back into the water.  (We paddled near the spot to look for any remains of what they may have been eating.)  We don't really know.  But we sure do appreciate the rare opportunity we were given.  Hands down the best wildlife sighting in our short years of kayaking!

I found one more decent photo.  Here he/she is looking almost directly at us.

I have more to tell you about Francis Lake, so join me for part two.  It won't be quite as exciting as part one, but I promise to describe the rest of our paddle and post some more photos too.

Please use the "reactions" below to give me feedback on this post, or feel free to leave a comment or question.  Thanks for reading, and happy kayaking!

Introducing... Brody!

I promise I'll get to our first kayaking trip of the season very soon.  We went to one of our favorite places, Francis Lake and I have some cool news about that trip.  BUT, first, I want to introduce you to our kayaking companion, Brody.  Here he is on his first kayaking adventure, ever.  This was May 2011 on Francis Lake.  He is about 4 months old in the photo and has strips in his ears to hold them up since they were peeling backward and needed some help to stand up.  Brody is sporting his Ezydog life jacket.  I recommend this brand.  They are very well made. 

Brody is a Boston Terrier, for those of you who weren't sure.  Bostons are not very good swimmers.  In fact, as much as he likes to play in water and run in the rain, he does not like to swim.  This is just one good reason for the life jacket.  The other reason is that even a good swimmer gets tired.  So we think all dogs should wear a life jacket, just like their human best friends!

Here is Brody, May 2012, on the same lake, Francis, for our first paddle of the season.

Hmmm... I guess it's hard to tell from these 2 photos, but he's quite a bit bigger this year than last.  In fact, we had to get him a new life jacket.  He can still fit underneath when he wants to take a snooze, but there's a lot less room now!  Last year, he could do just about anything while in the kayak and it didn't effect the balance, but this year, the kayak leans if he's not in the middle.  It's not enough to cause a problem with paddling, but I do notice it!  Anyway, Brody loves kayaking.  He is a great buddy, along for the ride, and we really enjoy having him with us.

I'll leave you with one last photo of Brody for the time being.  But expect to see him regularly!

 

Payne Lake, part two

Well, I was going to start out my back to blogging by introducing our kayaking buddy, Brody.  But that will have to wait since I stopped blogging in the middle of Payne Lake's description and photos. So, I'll finish up with that before moving on to trips that we've taken so far this kayaking season, 2012.

This is the northern area of Payne Lake.  Isn't it pretty?

And this is a shot looking back toward the south of the lake and the cliffs we just passed (photos in part one.)

At the northern end, it gets very dense with water plants in the summer.  The guys decided to see just how far they could go downstream in the outlet.  Look real close in the middle of the photo to see them paddling amid the water lilies.

Karen and I ventured in after them and stopped to admire these tiny water lilies.  I don't know their name, but this is one of the few lakes I've seen these tiny ones.  The flowers were about the size of a nickel.

Our adventure into the outlet ended with the guys being unable to pole or poke their way through any more of the plants. The water was getting rather shallow so we backed up and got out onto the lake again.  We stopped to admire the rocky cliffs and banks of the eastern shore.  That gave Karen and Gary the opportunity to apply more sunscreen.

We found a small cave on this side of the lake (right side from the boat launch site-- east side of the lake.)

We couldn't see through this side, but there is a bigger opening on the south side.  Here is Dick paddling into the cave.

And me, backed into the cave for a photo-op.

Here's one more photo of the opposite side of the lake, as we were almost back to the boat launch.  This is the southwestern area of the lake.

This is Gary, in the trees.  There may have been a stream entering here over the rocks, or maybe it was a tiny cave... I'm having trouble remembering just what he was checking out in there!

This is the southern most part of the lake as we head back to the boat launch.

And another view of the cliffs once we were back to the boat launch.

And once ashore, Gary and Karen posed for a photo to document our great trip on Payne Lake!

Please go back and read Payne Lake, part one so this post makes more sense.  This isn't as informative as part one, but hopefully you'll get an idea of how pretty this lake is by the photos.

Thanks for reading!

Back to Blogging

Hi everyone,

If you've given up on me, I hope my return will encourage you to follow me once again.  I have been dealing with a medical issue since the end of February of 2011.  I got a (non-life threatening) diagnosis near the end of summer 2011 and began life-long medication which takes many months before seeing any sign of improvement.  It is working, little by little, and although I am not back to my former health, I can at least do something that I love, if in shorter doses-- quiet water kayaking.

The 2011 kayaking season was next to nil for me, but we did manage a few short trips and even 1 new location.  We went to a few of our short paddle favorites in 2011, such as Francis Lake and South Inlet.  The new place we paddled in September of 2011 was Nine Mile Swamp.  It was a beautiful paddle, despite it being a popular place.  We also got a puppy (had already planned on him before I got sick) in the spring and he is now our constant kayaking companion.  I'll introduce him later, just don't expect  a water dog.  This guy is happy plopped down inside the kayak, not swimming around it!

We got a late start on the paddling season, but have managed a short trip on Francis Lake as well as one to South Inlet (of Raquette Lake.)  Those will be first up in my coming blogs.

No photos with this post, but I am hoping to stay in good enough health and with enough energy to get back to blogging.  I enjoy sharing our kayaking experiences and photos with you and look forward to your comments in the future.

Payne Lake, part one

Hello and happy almost spring!  Here in northern NY, we still have more than 2 feet of snow on the ground, but the ice on the rivers is breaking up, the melted snow rings around the tree trunks are getting larger, and the chickadees are singing their warm weather song on mild mornings... so, I think we might actually get some temperatures above the 30's eventually!

In the meantime, I'll write about another flat water paddling location we visited.  Payne Lake is in the northwest area of New York, not far from the St. Lawrence River, and near the town of Oxbow, NY.  The lake has a couple of great features including a sandy, gradual put-in, marshy areas on both ends, cliffs on one side and rocks with a tiny cave on the other.

NOTE:  There is at least one other lake named "Payne Lake" in NY state.  It is in Lewis County, 10 miles east of Lowville.  This blog concerns the lake in Jefferson County.

This lake has a DEC maintained boat launch area with a parking lot and a place for fisherman to cast from the shore.  Unfortunately, no outhouse.   Here is the put-in:

Here is a view of some of the cliffs from the put-in:

We paddled here in the summer with friends of ours, Karen and Gary, and had a great day!  We began our trip by paddling left-- south-- from the put-in and paddled in a clockwise direction around the lake.  Gary is on the left, Karen on the right in the photo below:

Our first wildlife encounter was with a Great blue heron in the marshy area on the southern end of the lake.  He's in the middle of this photo, flying away.  He was intent on fishing and wasn't very bothered by us as we paddled by, but as I floated to take his photo, he got nervous and took off.

This end of the lake is fairly shallow with lots of plant life, particularly water lily pads.  Actually, the depth of water in this lake only goes up to 15 feet, so it's pretty shallow compared to many lakes in the Adirondacks.  (This lake is NOT in the Adirondacks, where we do most of our paddling.)  In the photo below, everyone's ahead of me as we near the bottom/southern tip of the lake.  My husband is in the red kayak.

Even though I tipped the camera on this one, I really love the colors, so I'm including it:

Here is one of the beautiful and sweet smelling water lilies we paddled by in the southern area of the lake:

As we turned and began paddling north along the west side of the lake, the cliffs loomed large and imposing-- drawing our eyes up as we kayaked along:

I am looking for a photo that gives you a better idea of the height of these cliffs, but I haven't come across one that really illustrates it the way I'd like.  I may find one later....  But anyway, they are high.   Ahh... here we go.  This photo will give you a bit of an idea:

From the perspective of the water, the cliffs seemed at times to be leaning over us as we paddled beside them.

During this part of the trip, we spotted a loon out in the middle of the lake.  Even with my lens zoomed, my photos were too far away, but we always enjoy seeing the common loon on our paddles.  They're beautiful, both in looks and in voice, and their diving skills are amazing!

One of my favorite shots of the day is of the cliffs and the sky:

And here are two others that I like as well:

We were nearing the end of the cliff area when I took this photo.  It's a bit dark, but I like the composition, and I love the sky.

Here is another photo of Karen and Gary enjoying the beauty of Payne Lake.  I am forever taking photos of everyone's backs... one of these days I'm going to have to lead the way so that I can turn around and snap some pictures of people's faces!

This is my husband in a little opening in the cliffs.  This is not the tiny cave I mentioned earlier.  It is on the east side of the lake and we'll get to it later.

We have almost reach the northwestern corner of the lake, as shown in this photo featuring Gary and my husband, Dick.

And here is Karen (yes, from the back, again) with her floppy hat that matches her kayak.  Isn't she pretty in blue?

The weather was absolutely perfect the day we paddled Payne Lake.  It was warm and sunny and there was not much of a breeze.  We did not have bugs to contend with, and for some reason, there were hardly any boats on the lake.  Motor boats are allowed up to 10 hp, but we didn't encounter any during our time on the water.  I imagine this lake can get busy at times, but it was quite serene while we were there soaking up the peace and beauty around us.

I'll be back soon with part two of Payne Lake.  And maybe by then, those of us in northern NY will be able to start thinking about readying our kayaks and canoes for another wonderful season!

I'll leave you with one more photo of Payne Lake to tide you over until part two:

Please feel free to use the comment buttons to express your opinion if you don't feel like leaving a comment.
Thanks!