Raquette River, Part 1

 

Hi everyone!  Welcome back to my blog about kayaking in NY state.  I usually start my posts off with photos that are chronologically from the beginning of our paddle, but I decided to post this pretty photo of Brody to give you all an idea of the GORGEOUS day and beautiful Raquette River.  Don't be fooled by the photo above-- our paddle here was 3 weeks ago-- the brilliant leaves have all fallen in this area.  But it was a great day to be on the river that Saturday.

We paddled the Raquette River a few years ago and I have some great photos of the reflections from that summer day.  The river was lazy and very still in many spots as it twists and turns and contorts back on itself.  That trip was taken from the state boat launch just north of the village of Tupper Lake.

This time, we decided to put-in further upstream at Axton Landing.  Below are 2 photos taken from that put-in.  The first is looking upstream from the creek which is only 50 yards or less from the river.
The second photo is  looking downstream, with the Raquette in the background on the left.

Once on the river, the yellow leaves were so bright, they were almost neon!

We headed downstream from Axton Landing.  Here are my husband and Brody just a few minutes after starting our paddle.

There was enough current to float us along, but it was sometimes almost non-existent.  Brody is checking the banks, just in case a duck is hiding there somewhere.

As I mentioned, the day was just gorgeous.  The sky was a perfect blue, there was a barely detectable breeze, and the sun warmed us up nicely.

Here is one of my favorites photos from our paddle that day:

I love reflections and love taking photos of them.  I also love how usually the reflections in the water are more vibrant that the actual objects!

I took this photo as I was floating by these leaves in the water.  The resulting photo reminded me a bit of a Monet watercolor-- not in composition or technique-- just the general "feel" of it.

As I am looking over the photos for this blog post, I am realizing that most of my favorites were taken during the first half of our paddle.  I think there are 3 reasons for this:  One, morning light (even late morning light) is better for photos than afternoon light.  Two, we paddled downstream when we started and it's much easier to float and take photos while going downstream rather than up. And three, a breeze began in the afternoon which makes the water ripple, so reflections aren't as clear.

At any rate, another of my favorite photos from this trip is below.  In fact, I think it is THE favorite:
*NEWS: The photo below just won Photo of the Week on Adirondack.net!!

This next photo, as we paddle downstream, shows just how little current there was in some spots.  It looks like a lake, doesn't it?

And, what do you suppose this is, hanging out on the bank of the Raquette River?
 

We really got a kick out of it.  My husband spotted it first and I snapped a shot for posterity!


Brody in his red dfd (doggy floatation device) and my yellow kayak fit right in with the colors of fall, don't you think?

I actually got one of his face!  He's such a sweet boy.

If you're looking for a place to paddle that allows you to get out and stretch your legs, this one should be on your list.  I'm sure in the middle of the summer, and/or especially on weekends in the summer, there are a lot of people on this river, including motor boats. But in the fall, there are less people around  AND the primitive campsites along the river are great for a picnic lunch.  They can be used as long as no one is already occupying them.  A big plus is that they are, naturally, made for boating campers so the sites are easy to get to-- gradual sandy banks.

This was such a relaxing paddle.  It's exactly what we're looking for when we plan a trip.  Here is another photo showing the stunning yellows with the bright blue sky as a backdrop.

We're about a third of the way through our trip, so I'll end this post now and pick up here next time.
I hope you are all enjoying the fall season and have been able to get in a few more paddles if you're in the northeast.  Those of you further south, keep on paddling!

West, Canada and Lily Lakes, Part 3

Welcome back to part 3, the last installment of our adventures on West, Canada and Lily Lakes.

 Here is Brody, below, checking out the scenery on pretty Lily Lake.

On the southern bank in one area of Lily Lake, the woods were right up to the water.  I found the bright yellow-green moss growing here intriguing.  I had to investigate to see if the bright color was due to the sunshine in that patch, or if it was really that bright.  Well, the sun IS shining on the moss, but it is still a very vivid, almost neon color.

Dead trees in the water always interest me.  I love trees and hate to seem them down, but their dried "skeletons" have neat shapes.  Sometimes they can even be used to frame other subjects, as in the 2 examples below (sorry-- I know the subject is pretty small-- I actually took both of these without knowing my husband was being framed!)

Brody looks like he has a big head and no body in this shot!  He is also not looking particularly happy.  He really doesn't like to look at me when the camera is hiding my face.  I also did not have a treat handy.  If I had, he would certainly have looked a bit more excited!

There were some pretty marsh areas along the shores of Lily Lake.  Brody is looking for ducks.

Here is another one of Lily Lake when the sun was behind the clouds.  But I love the patterns in the sky, don't you?

The sun is back out in this one, and Brody is looking back at me like I need to get paddling instead of taking more photos!

Going back toward Canada Lake, we cut off some of the corner gong through the reeds.  It's a risky move-- sometimes there is a lot less water than you think!  But this time, we made it with neither one of us getting hung up.

Here is Kane Mountain.  It's tough to see in this photo, but there is a fire tower on top.

I just loved this cloud.  It had such definition from the darker areas.  It looked like someone had taken a cloud sticker and pasted it on the sky.

We've paddled back across a small section of Canada Lake and are now back on West Lake, headed for the put-in.  West Lake's eastern and southern banks are completely wild-- not a camp to be seen.

Yes, I do like clouds.   I couldn't resist taking a photo of them.  As you can see, I was not checking the frame, just trying to get the clouds I wanted a photo of... hence, the tree tops on the bottom.

Below are more of the clouds with the creek flowing into West Lake. 

We enjoyed our time on West, Canada and Lily Lakes.  It was an area we'd never visited by car or kayak.  The mountains in the distance as we paddled back gave us something interesting to look at.  Although it's a busy area with the 3 lakes, we were pleasantly surprised at the quiet and the lack of motor boats in the areas we paddled.  There were speed boats, fishing boats and pontoon boats, but in our few hours of paddling, we encountered only 5 or 6, and once we got on Lily Lake, I think we only encountered a fishing boat and no other motorized ones.

I'll leave you with this last photo of Brody and my husband.  Brody is still searching for ducks and has one eye on his daddy ahead of us.

I hope all of you in the northeast will be able to get in a few more paddles before the weather completely turns.  We managed to get on the water last weekend, but not the one that has just passed-- too rainy. 

Happy Kayaking!

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!

Rollins Pond and Floodwood Pond, 2013 part two

To continue my description of our paddle through Rollins and Floodwood Ponds...

As I mentioned in part one, we loved this section of our paddle.  The creek is high right now and flowing well through the rocks, making it easy to paddle through, except for a few spots where the current threw us toward downed branches or boulders.  This was not anything dangerous or scary-- we just had to steer to avoid a collision.  If you have paddled in fast moving streams, you understand what I mean.  It was fun, not stressful.  (The creek being only a few feet deep in most spots with an average of 3 feet wide helped!)  Here is the creek shortly after we began paddling downstream:

And another shot along the way:

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We have heard that this part of Fish Creek between Rollins and Floodwood Ponds is often shallow, forcing you to either walk your boat through it or use the carry which is to the left of the creek, coming out onto Floodwood Pond.  From the maps we saw, it looks to be less than a 1/4 mile of a carry, but I can't be certain.

Near the end of the creek as it flows into Floodwood pond, many wild irises were in bloom:

I took a lot of photos of these gorgeous flowers.


Here is Brody as we enter the widened area of the creek before reaching Floodwood Pond.

Here is Floodwood Pond at its southern end:

And here is another iris shot, this time with butterfly!  Ahh.... just found out they are tiger swallowtails! (Canadian or eastern)

Near the shore in 8 inches or so of water, I spotted these 2 circular disturbances (lighter areas in middle of photo) in the sandy bottom.  I have no idea what they are.  Did a turtle or fish go around in circles creating these?  Anyone have any idea?

Brody has his eye on something ahead of us.  Want to hazard a guess?

People in a kayak?  Fisherman?  A leaf floating on the water?  ...........

Ducks seem to be his favorite.  Not sure why he likes them better than loons, but he does.  This duck is a black duck, very common to the Adirondacks.

This is a pretty view looking toward the northeastern corner of Floodwood Pond.  We thought Floodwood was just beautiful.  There are a few camps/houses on the eastern shore in this area, but that's it.   At the end of this stretch of water is another place to put-in.  We may try that next time.  There is also an outfitter in that area if you don't have a canoe or kayak and want to give it a try.  (Or you're on vacation and don't have your own boats with you!)

Floodwood has a number of primitive campsites that are first-come, first-serve.  There are a few on the large island in the middle of Floodwood and others along the northern bank and even more as you paddle east on the pond.  We love paddling places with these bare campsites because on week days, even in summer, they are often empty and provide us a great resting and picnicking spot!

After our picnic lunch, we rested with a pine needle mattress.  Brody is at his most attentive when food is involved!

As I reclined, I found this angle of Brody and the trees worth a shot:

And I really liked the shapes made by the trunk of this paper birch against the sky:

Here are some scenes of the water from the campsite where we stopped for lunch:

And here is the area where we beached our kayaks at the campsite:

The island is just across the water in the photo above.  The campsite was such a beautiful spot, on the mainland, north of the island, that we plan to stop here again the next time we paddle on Floodwood.

Well, it looks like I have enough descriptions and photos for one more part to this set of blogs on Rollins and Floodwood Ponds.  I will meet you back here for part three very soon!

And I'll leave you with this shot:

Happy Kayaking!