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 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:

\

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!