Long Pond and Round Pond 2012, part one

Hello everyone and happy summer!  We've been on vacation (at home, but busy with family from out of state visiting.)  I hope all of you are having a great time and are getting in lots of paddling.  We were busy building a deck so haven't gotten in as much paddling as we would have liked so far this year, but we've had some very nice trips so far.

Long Pond and Round Pond are another of our "go-to" places, so you may have read an earlier blog about these two pretty ponds.  But if you're a paddler, you know that each time you visit a favorite place, the experience is different.

We paddled here near the end of June on a Saturday morning.  There was no FFA camp activity and no one with camps was out and about during our paddle.  (FFA owns some shoreline and has many camp sessions throughout the summer and on weekends.)  We did chat with a couple in a canoe who had been camping on the esker between the 2 ponds.  They were the only people around that morning.

Long and Round Ponds are near Croghan, NY.  Route 812 is the main road through Croghan if you're looking on a map.  Belfort is another small village closer to the ponds.  The public access point is down a dirt road (Prentiss Road) that is usually well-maintained in the summer.    Long Pond has the FFA camp on one end and a couple of camps along its shores.  Round Pond has no camps on it and is therefore much more peaceful if you're paddling on a summer weekend.  Here is a look at Long Pond from near that access point:

Brody looks a little sleepy as we start out, but he was ready for a new kayaking adventure!

The morning was beautiful, as you can see.  There were some bugs out but with bug spray for us and Skin-So-Soft for Brody, we were all set.

The sun was in and out of the clouds that day, so Brody sometimes had his goggles on and sometimes didn't.
I think he's looking at his "daddy" in this photo.

This is the esker between the two ponds where the canoers were camping.  We've stopped here a few times to walk across the esker and look at Round Pond.  We didn't do that on this trip because of the campers there, but it's a pretty little walk, just up the slight hill and down the other side to the water.

Along the esker there are many different plants.  This flowering one is some type of mountain laurel, I think.  It's so pretty.  As are the many "weeds" we have when in blossom.

Long Pond and Round Pond are both great spots if you like reflections in your photographs.  I was intrigued by the brown-toned rocks under the shallow water as well as the reflections made by plants on shore.  I think this shot looks like an old-school double exposure-- or maybe just some kind of collage.  It's kind of hard to look at since your eyes don't know what to focus on,  but it's interesting, I think!

Here is the footbridge that marks the entrance to Round Pond.  You can paddle under it on the left-hand side where it's higher above the water.  The best thing about the footbridge is that it prevents motorboats from entering Round Pond!

 Well, I have more to tell you about Long and Round Ponds, but the photo uploader is giving me trouble again, so I am going to finish this post and continue with part two in a few days.

Happy paddling!