West, Canada and Lily Lakes, Part 2

Welcome back to my description of our paddle on West, Canada and Lily Lakes.  There is Brody, our Boston Terrier, in the photo above.

We left off part one with our arrival onto Lily Lake.  It is easy to see where it gets its name, since there were many lily pads as well as water lilies on this lake.

 Here is a water lily on Lily Lake:

 

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed paddling through long, skinny Lily Lake.  As you can see, it was a tad windy, but the breezes were mild and intermittent, so we didn't have any trouble paddling.

On the southern shores of Lily Lake, there were 2 incongruous boulders.  They just looked so out of place, sitting there in the grass...

The sun and clouds played chase with each other so sometimes the sky looked a little dark.  But when the breezes weren't blowing, it was almost as smooth as glass on Lily Lake.

One word of note-- if you like or need to get out of your kayak along the way, this may not be the trip for you.  We did not find a place to land along Lily Lake.  With a potty break and a need for stretching hips and legs, we cut short our paddle to head back.  Maybe if we'd gone farther we would have found a place to land.  Or, maybe the higher water this year made low/dry spots disappear.

This photo is quite a contrast to the one above-- seems like a different day, but as you can, the clouds are moving out and blue sky is becoming dominant over head. 

Below is one of my favorite photos of the day.  We've turned around (did not make it to Stewart's Landing) and are headed back toward Canada and West Lakes.  One of those bumps in background is Kane Mountain.  I can't tell from this photo, but a close look will show a fire tower.  We have not taken the hike, but the photos from the tower make it look like a great view of the Southern Adirondacks area, especially the lakes that I'm blogging about in this post.

Here is Brody, checking out more of Lily Lake.  He enjoyed the closer banks of this lake as compared to the other 2, and was on the look-out for ducks.

I'll be back soon with the final part of West, Canada and Lily Lakes.  In the meanwhile, I hope you're all enjoying paddling.  For us here in Northern NY, we are watching the leaves fall and wishing it would stay warm a few more weeks so that we can get some more paddles in.  Last weekend it rained, but we managed a short but beautiful evening paddle on Friday night.  This weekend looks good in the northeast.  Get out and enjoy it!

Happy Kayaking!

West, Canada and Lily Lakes, Part 1

August was a busy month!  We haven't gotten much kayaking in since the end of July, but we've had a great time visiting our daughter in Michigan and visiting with my husband's brother who came to visit from California.

We had planned to kayak on West, Canada and Lily Lakes a few times but it never worked out.  We made it there this summer, finally.  I have to admit that one of my favorite spots on the entire paddle was the little creek where we put-in, north of West Lake.  Here is the put-in. It is made for trailer-ed boats, so it's not as gradual a slope as we prefer.  But we got in without much trouble.

The creek twisted and wound around before reaching West Lake's northeastern shore.  There was a tiny breeze, but the reflections were still quite visible.

Brody liked this part best also.  He loves the closer shores of creeks and narrow rivers, compared to the openness of lakes.  I think he is some times bored with the expanse of water and far away banks of many lakes.

I forgot to mention that West, Canada and Lily Lakes are in the southern part of the Adirondack Park.  There are no large towns in the area, but it is northeast of Johnstown.

Here is my husband, on his way to West Lake from the creek.  As you can tell, it was a beautiful day!

 
Brody really enjoyed the views, and I enjoyed not only the views but the reflections as well.

After reading about the area, I knew that our favorite type of paddling-- in the wilderness, was not what this destination is about.  There are many camps on Canada Lake, quite a few on the north and western shores of West Lake, and some on Lily Lake.  We crossed West Lake, paddled through a small portion of Canada Lake, and ended up on Lily Lake where we spent most of our paddling time.


As you can tell, Brody was featured quite prominently in my photos of the first part of our trip.  Here he is showing you the southern and western shores of West Lake.

And this is a view looking east from the entrance to West Lake.

We paddled along this peninsula once on Canada Lake.  The peninsula divides the waters between West and Canada Lakes.  Anyone know why these 2 bodies of water are named separately instead of being one bigger lake with one name?  I wonder if it has something to do with the water source?  Or is it just "the way it is"?

After paddling along the peninsula past a number of camps, we arrived on Lily Lake.  And it is full of lily pads, so I see where it got its name!

Since it was a weekend summer day, we did encounter some motor boats.  In the morning there were only a few and most were fisherman who slowed for us and gave a friendly wave.  There were also people outside around their camps puttering around or getting their boats ready for a spin.

Brody watches both lily pads and the shoreline for anything interesting.  He didn't find much except the rock ahead of us,but he was intent, just in case!

I have more photos and descriptions of the area to share with you.  Join me again soon for part II.

Happy Kayaking!