Rollins and Floodwood Ponds, part 3

To continue with my description of Rollins and Floodwood Ponds...

After our picnic lunch and about a half hour of relaxing, we headed back out on the water.  We had close to a few hours of paddling to do in order to return to the boat launch at the campground, so we cut short our exploration of Floodwood Pond.  When we return, we plan to check out the eastern part of Floodwood.


Below is  Brody, guiding my way on the water, keeping his "daddy" in view.

 

As we came around the east side of the island on Floodwood, Brody was checking out signs of campers-- towels hanging on a line, kids' voices.

Here is a pretty view looking northwest from the east side of the island on Floodwood.

Hmmm... I was hoping to show you the abandoned railroad tracks in this photo, but it's more difficult to see than I thought.  If you can see a raised bed about 1/3 of the way up the photo, that's where the tracks are.  This is on the west side of Floodwood.

My husband took the camera long enough to get a shot of Brody with his Doggles on.  They are a bit crooked, but he doesn't seem to mind.  He kept them on long enough to get some fans who were also paddling.  He's becoming a star-- we had 2 different groups of people say hello and ask if they could take Brody's photo.  I'm sure the Doggles had something to do with it!

When we had almost reached the creek to paddle back into Rollins Pond, I thought I saw a dead baby turtle in the water far from shore.  It was floating, not swimming.  (But what do I know about baby turtles??)  I felt bad for it, and wanted to see if he was really dead or just resting.... Sure enough, when I picked him up, he poked his head out all the way as well as his feet, and started scrambling around in my hand.  He was very quick for such a little guy.  I was just happy he wasn't dead!  Apparently he was resting.  I got a few photos of this painted turtle before we gently returned him to the water where he could continue his adventures.

At the entrance to the creek, I took more photos of the beautiful wild irises:

 Along the creek, paddling upstream, I did not take any photos.  The current was strong in some spots, making stopping for a photo impossible.  It took some muscles to get back up the creek due to the rocks and tree stumps creating hazards that required lots of steering and paddling.  But it was fun, not dangerous, and we felt a sense of accomplishment when we once more reached Rollins Pond.


In the northwestern corner of Rollins Pond, a creek flows in from Rock Pond.  Here is the culvert which the creek flows through into the pond.  NOW you can see the abandoned railroad tracks I spoke of earlier in this post.

I took a few more close-ups of the culvert with the creek's water flowing.  This one is my favorite of the 4 or 5 I shot that day:

Below is a photo of Rollins Pond looking south from the area where the culvert is:

Brody was happy we were greeted by a family of black ducks once we got closer to the boat launch.
We were happy too, since the only other wildlife we saw were the loons.  But, that is to be expected in an area where there are lots of campers and lots of paddlers on the water.  I'm sure very early morning would yield better wildlife viewing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our paddle on Rollins and Floodwood Ponds and plan to go back in the future and hopefully reach a few of the other ponds as well.

I'll leave you with another photo of Brody-- this pose and shot are almost becoming an icon, I think!

 Happy Kayaking!

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!