Rollins Pond and Floodwood Pond, 2013 part one

How is everyone enjoying the paddling season so far?  It has been very wet in the northeast (and other places) this year.  We have had rain here for almost every day in the last 6 weeks.  I can only remember one day out of those that was completely dry for the whole day. 

So!  We haven't done as much kayaking as we would have liked.  We have also had some other commitments on the weekends that have kept us off the water.  But we did take a Friday off several weeks ago and made it up to Rollins and Floodwood Ponds.

This beautiful area includes many ponds that can be visited in the same day by way of a creek that connects some of them and others that are a short carry away.  It is a great area because there are loops you can do to return to your starting point.  I am only writing about Rollins and Floodwood because we did not do a loop on this paddle and only explored those 2 ponds.

There are a number of campgrounds in this area which is north of Tupper Lake.  The point of access to Rollins Pond is at the Rollins Pond Campground (which you reach by driving through Fish Creek Campground-- both of these are NY State campgrounds) and their boat launch as shown in the photo below: 

There is also a dock:

Once on the water and headed north, this was our view:

Brody already has an eye on a loon. But I didn't get any good shots of it.

Rollins Pond is very pretty.  And so is the campground from what we saw, and from talking to others who camp there every year.  It can kick up some waves if the wind is more than very mild so keep that in mind.  The campground covers almost every bit of shoreline on the eastern side and some of the southern bank, but the western side has only a few homes/camps.  There are a number of nooks and crannies to check out as well on your way north from the boat launch toward Floodwood Pond.

I took 3 or 4 shots of Brody when we had just started the paddle and this is the best of those.  He looks so serious (but handsome) doesn't he?

Here is my best shot of a loon later in our paddle:

And here are Brody and I still near the beginning of the paddle.  As you can see, it was still chilly that morning.  I have my hoodie on.  But the sun was very warm so in less than an hour, I was warm enough to remove it.

It was a gorgeous day for a paddle!  It takes us quite a while to get to this destination, so we did not get an early morning start, but we did manage to be on the water by 9:30.  Most of the campers were up but not making too much noise as we paddled by.  We saw only 2 paddlers on Rollins Pond that morning, but plenty more in the afternoon when we returned.

Here is my husband with mountains in the background.  There was pretty scenery like this during the whole trip.

And here is Brody as we got closer to the end of Rollins Pond.  Looks like he needs the Doggles on-- the ones he had just pawed off a few mins. before this photo!

At the top/northern end of Rollins Pond is Fish Creek which connects it to Floodwood Pond.  It is in the northeastern corner of the pond.  The entrance to the creek is about in the middle of this photo.  It seems difficult to discern from the photo and as you approach it on the water, but once you're in that northeastern corner, you will see the creek without a problem.  The current is flowing north, into Floodwood Pond, so you will have an easier time getting to Floodwood than returning to Rollins as we did.  (But if you do a loop, you won't have to paddle back upstream on this creek.)

Here is a better photo showing the entrance to the creek, right in the middle of the photo.
We really enjoyed this next stretch of the paddle, as the creek was closed in with rocks along the way and many close-up details to look at.  Brody enjoyed it as well.

I'll leave this part of the description with one more photo of Brody enjoying our paddle.  Meet me back here for the next part of the description and photos of Rollins and Floodwood Ponds.

Happy Kayaking!