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!

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!

Long Pond and Round Pond, 2013, part two

Welcome back to part two of Long and Round Ponds!  Here is Brody, checking out the inlet to Round Pond, which is one of the branches of the Oswegatchie River.

The water was much higher than it normally is when we've paddled here in the past.  There is a swift water area which is indicated by the ripples in the photo below.  The water is usually shallow and the passage has lots of big rocks, making it impossible to paddle.

This time we thought we might be able to make it.  We both began paddling hard and made it most of the way up due to the higher water level.  But there were still a few extremely shallow and sandy areas that stopped my husband.  He decided to turn around rather than get out and pull his kayak through.  I continued on until I reached an area that was deep enough, but the passageway was narrow due to some large rocks.  The current kept throwing me back into a rock and prevented me from making anymore headway.  Since I had spent several long minutes making progress, I decided to get out and pull Brody through the last 15 feet that I couldn't paddle.

I was hoping to find a long stretch of quiet water, and if I had, my husband could have pulled through the shallow area and joined me.  As it was, there was only about 50 feet of calm water before another section of swift and shallow water, as shown near the bend in the river in the photo below.

So, I turned around and let the current take me back down to where my husband was waiting below the swift section in his red kayak.

Here are a couple of cute shots I was able to get of Brody:

We paddled back the way we had come, on our way to Round Pond from the inlet.  As I said in part one, it was a very peaceful day.

On Round Pond, several things caught my eye.  One was this tree in the water:

Another was the clouds.  I had noticed them when we began our paddle, but could not get a photo that did justice to the wispy clouds.  I tried again, and used sunglasses (my husband's great idea!) to capture the clouds in more detail.  The photos still don't really show what we saw, but at least you get the idea.

Brody and I paddled over to see a beaver lodge and as we approached we heard some squeaks that may have been beaver or muskrat.  The noise only lasted a second or two.  Brody's ears perked up immediately and he was on high alert for a minute, but with no more sounds coming from the lodge, he quickly lost interest.

I wanted a low shot of the just emerging reeds in the photo below.

It took several tries, but I was finally able to get the perspective I wanted by holding the camera out and close to the water.  (I had the strap wrapped tightly around my wrist!)

We were soon back at the footbridge marking the connection between Round Pond and Long Pond.
Brody is keeping an eye on his daddy ahead of us.

OK. I took a number of photos of the footbridge from underneath.  Which one (s) do you like best?

1.

 2.

 3.

 
4.

I think my favorite is #3, but then when I look again, I see different things and change my mind.


On Long Pond, we headed back to the put-in/take-out.  The wind had picked up a bit, giving us some ripples, but nothing too serious.  With the hot sun, the breeze felt good.

Brody tracked a loon for a little while as it dove for a meal.  It was too far away for a good photo.

Before we reached the end of our paddle, I turned Brody around for a shot of his face.  He would much rather be facing in the direction we're headed, but graciously posed for this photo.  (I had to hold a treat above the camera just to get him to cooperate-- he usually looks away when I put the camera up to my face for a photo of his!)

Although Long and Round Ponds are not very large, they still make for a nice half-day paddle if you bring a lunch along and take time to beach your boats and stretch for a little while.  We didn't do that on this paddle, but have in the past.

I hope you're all enjoying the paddling season so far.  Here in Northern New York, we had a few rain free days and were able to get a paddle in, but since then we've had days that can't seem to stay dry the entire day.... hope this weekend's weather is better!

Happy Kayaking!