Saranac Lake Rocks! - Trip Report

“It wasn't car camping, but it wasn't exactly backpacking either. It was true Adirondacks wilderness camping, but the mode of travel would probably be the major difference in the way I want to describe this past weekend. I have never camped out where the only way to get to my site was by water, so this was novel for myself and Mapleleaf. We started out after the work whistle blew at 5 PM on Thursday. Saranac Lakes are located about 40 miles south of Quebec and about 10 miles past Lake Placid. We left that night so we wouldn't have to use most of Friday for traveling. So, what we did was get ourselves up to Albany on Thursday night and figured we could do the other 2 to 3 hours of traveling the next morning. This way, we would have more of Friday to get our canoe and start paddling. Mapleleaf had great intentions on getting us a discounted hotel room on Thursday night and in the car, we joked about ending up at the Red Crappit Inn. Well, we fell right into it. This place was a dump! The night guy on there was a real jerk. "No, you don't need a reservation for a discounted room", they said over the phone. No rooms for us at that price either. He told Maple they didn't have extra blankets when she asked for one. I called the front desk and said "Do you have an ice machine anywhere?" He said, "Yes". I finally had to pipe up and say "Could you tell me where?" Well, this kinda stuff went on and on but I won't dwell anymore on that.
The next morning, we awoke and got on the road (hit the stores for a few pieces of gear we wanted) and proceeded north. In a few hours, we were up in Lake Placid where we saw some of the cool Olympic Training areas. The Ski Jump towers and the bobsled runs and that kind of stuff was very interesting. Everything was going well at this point and would continue to do so through the weekend. We got our bear canister and strapped our canoe to the top of the car and went to check in for our camp site. A few miles to the boat launch and we were in. We went through a small canal type entry and then onto breathtaking Middle Saranac Lake. It wasn't far from the camp site, so unloaded our gear and had a wonderful time boating, then mellowing out for the evening.
The next day, we headed out after breakfast for the biggest part of the canoe trip. We toured around Middle Saranac for a while and then proceeded to find the connecting point between Middle and Lower Saranac Lakes. It was hard to find but there it was, a narrow sharp right turn between two rows of grass and reeds. This was like entering paradise, my friends. The only thing ruining that image was the occasional passing motorboat (they had to go 5 mph through this long stretch). But, the absolute beauty of this place was ever present on either side of us. I will leave the wildlife descriptions for Maple to go into in her report. There were no designated spots to pull off and stop, so finding a place for lunch that was conducive to that was hard. We found one area, docked the boat and sat on a rock and started eating. Then, some mosquitos dive bombed us and started biting, so we wrapped it up and hightailed back into the boat. We came up on an interesting feature that connected the two bodies of water, called the Upper State Lock. The lock is manually controlled. They put your boat inside and close the doors on the front and back sides while the water level takes you down 2 1/2 feet before opening up and letting you out onto the other side. This compensates for the level difference in the two bodies of water. Way Cool!! We toodled along at a slow pace, observing the wildlife and scenery and shortly, dumped out onto Lower Saranac Bay. At this point, the wind was kicking up (getting dark clouds too) and we saw we were going to be going into a stronger head wind on the return. We could see by the patches of rippling water where the stronger winds were coming up and made our way back through the lock and getting closer to the entrance to Middle Lake again. Coming around that last corner, we caught a good head wind. That, combined with the warning from some other boaters who just came from there, we surmised that we were in for a little struggle here. Let me tell you, the choppy water and the wind that hit us around the last bend came within a hair of throwing us over. It knocked my paddle out of my hand and blew the boat right into the thick reeds that were on either side if us. We retrieved the paddle (with a bit of a struggle) and then got blown back into the reeds again. Maple and I were a little scared at this point, but adrenalin kicked in and we fought our way through it and out into the lake. We had about a mile to go to the camp site, but it turned out to be one of the hardest miles I ever paddled in my life, especially since we had just paddled for over 6 hours without rest. There was one or two motor boats that could have spared us the extra wakes we had to endure by slowing down a little, but some people are not that bright. We made it back without going over into the rough water and enjoyed some good food, music and some cold Coronas for the rest of the evening.
The next morning, we took a short trip out with the canoe before loading up all our gear for the last boat trip out to the car and for the long ride back to NYC. What a great trip!!! There are some details left out that I will let Maple fill in in her report. Perhaps I have gone on for long enough!”

“That sounds like a really good trip treebeard!”

“I was wondering if y'all had made it back without any trips to the ER. ;)
Glad y'all had a fun time. Any of the kids go?”

“No, Stove. Had the wife all to myself this time around. But we are planning on going back next year. There was an island (Shaw Island) right across from us that has one campsite only on it. We are going to reserve it for next summer. The poor man's way of vacationing on a private island...

We are getting the pics developed and there is a picture of it to be posted...”

“Cool trip report, tb!

And no side trip to the ER! How great is that?

I don't think there's an IQ test or anything to buy a motorboat. Or if there is, it must be set artificially low, like to 50 or something.”

“Probably equals the mph, Bit! lol”

“Higher the IQ, faster you can go!”

“not much more that I can add to a great trip report and a great trip!!!
oh ok,

just a couple of things...
the hotel was stright from HELL!.
the night guy was a nasty little man.

how the heck can a hotel run out ICE??

oh well,
the next morning we got up early because of the damn alarm clack that kept going off every 10 mins. tree could not shut it off.
so no sooner did he fix it and i fell back to sleep, then twgnut called. 7:00am!!(why do kids get up so early on there day off?)

took a shower and the fricken curtian FELL ON ME.

yuk
the animal life we saw was great.
lots of stuff on the ride up.
as soon as we put in we were greated by a Loon. the wing span on him had to be at least 3 feet.
but the highlight of the trip was the bald eagle.
it was when we were paddling our butts off to get to shore (the waves were coming over the front of the boat :()
we saw the eagle! I about tipped the boat over trying to get a photo of it. but once again i will not have a photo of it. i ran out of film.
Sunday morning we wanted to sleep in.
but around 7:00am i woke to an animal that freaked me out. i neve got out of bed so fast before.
well we thought it was a Coyote. But it turned out to be a Loon.
Man they are loud!!
it was a wonderful trip! so much that next year we are going to take the kids and stay a little longer. but this time we are going to stay on one of the Islands that has camping on it.

very very nice trip!!!”

“no trip to the ER but lots of bruises..

oh, we bought a Walmart special Tent.

It is kinda cool. good for the 2 of us and our gear.
(ya gotta love the wallymart)”

“Great report! Thanks for sharing.”

“Maple forgot to mention the blue heron on the side of the water. We stopped to watch him walk on the shore and look for food. Really pretty site, then suddenly, he tripped on a rock or stick. Ever wish you had a tape running? It was one of those moments. Also, made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only clumsy one walking around there...”

“LAND HO'”

“Who's a Land Ho?”

“Of course the heron stumbled. Maple was in the area. Her karma passed to the heron.

Great report.”

“Poor heron. But now maybe maple won't get hurt so much.”

“Birds and loons always waking you up, what's up with that maple?”

“no one is a ho!!

we were at camp and i said that i felt that i was still on land. so tree said "yo maple LAND HO'"


it may have been the beer that made it very funny.”

“damn birds!!!!”

“Maple means she felt like she was still on the water even though we'd been at the site for 45 minutes. So, that's when i said 'Land Ho!' Guess it was one of those 'moments'.”

“i was surprised that the birds were so quite. i mean even the bugs were silent (they were to busy bitting treebeard.)
no crickets or lighten bugs. very different enviroment up there.”

“Beer makes a lot of things funny.”

“Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where he wakes up in the middle of the night to write down something for his act that he thinks is funny (that he saw on TV). At the end, he finally deciphers the handwriting and figures out what it said and then says "that's not funny".”

“you were drunk TB!

ok, picture this if you will.


treebeard was in his hammock (wally world special) laying back and relaxing to the soft sway of the wind listening to some good tunes drinking a cold corona.

I look over at him and started to think "man, he is getting really relaxed!"

then mr. graceful goes to take a sip of his beer (while laying down) and spilt the beer all over himself. DUH
talk about ruining the moment.

very funny stuff I tell ya.”

“Loons are very active in the evening and early morning. It is one of the most soothing sounds I have ever heard. Loons only mate once in their life. The stay with their original mate until, "death do they part."

No such thing as a Kobe Bryant loon.”

“Beer hose. That's what he needs, a beer hose.”

“Here's what treebeard needs!”

“lmao @ Stove man...”

“Foam Dome!”

“oh that is the perfect thing. heck I may even want one.....

Wk, the loons are very cool birds. we saw one diving for its food in the lake. it could stay under water for a pretty long time.”

“uumm is Treebeard really Homer Simpson?

but then again, arent most men?

HAHA”

“They can stay under water for up to 6 minutes. I have been up to Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario numerous times and have had close encounters with loons. Their big birds too.”

“I don't know. Been wondering this for a few days. Mental masturbation time. Here goes:

According to scholars, the term "loony" is an abbreviation from the word "lunatic" which came into use during the 13th century. Its root is "luna" or moon since even then, mental instability was thought to be related to the phases of the moon. It wasn't until the 17th century that the water bird came to be called a loon and no one quite knows why.

The only reason I could think of for this phrase is its call. It's loud and they just seem to go off on a tear with it.”

“hey geobeet, you lied to me.
you said that there were Red Squirrel's in the Daks.

well I didn't see any.
why?
where they all at your house or did you put a hit out on um?
did you tell Tony to Get'um?”

“Way to go you two nuts!

Ya didn't spill the canoe but tree-bubba spilled the brew!”

“it was a great trip. looking forward to going back over the Christmas holiday and then next year.”

“ok here are the photos. Im not to happy about the way they came out. (the hard copies are GRTEAT) But here they are. They are not in order because I have no clue as to what the heck i'm doing..



photos”

“did the link work???”

“Yes, it did. Unfortunately, they didn't crop these pictures real well and that is out of our hands. But, they are nice nonetheless...”

“Very cool pictures and great trip report. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. I am thinking about joining you guys for the Cats trip.”

“hey thats my coyot!!!

man they are very loud. we heard one early one morn and we thought it was a coyot but it was a loon :(

no it's not it. but we did see some. man what wing span they have. like 3 feet.”

“Loons are my favorite type of waterbirds besides herons.....”

“We saw Blue Heron also, Adv...”

“bump :)”