Canoeing through the Saranacs

My action packed week continued this weekend with a camping trip in the Adirondacks State Park. I was invited to go with my friend Andrew, who is one of Marissa's good friends and my companion in Barcelona.

After a 5.5hour drive up to the Adirondacks and sitting in traffic through Lake Placid, I made it to Flower Lake and Saint Regis Outfitters. It was a beautiful ride and really great to see all of the old Olympic structures such as the crazy ski jumps and the bobsled runs.

The trip started with Andrew, Eric, and I portaging our 18ft canoe through town about a mile to the town park on Flower Lake. Our canoe loaded with gear, and us were an estimated 700lbs and it was impressive to see it all loaded at the beginning of our trek. Each of us had a stiff hiking bag and Andrew brought about 50lbs of food: including GORP, trail mix, canned food, a water filter, and summer sausage.



It was great to get onto the lake and I quickly realized this would be unlike any other camping trip I have done. It was also much different than my biking trek and much more liberating. Unlike what I expected, we were going to be canoeing everywhere with very little hiking. Our whole trip focused around Lower and Middle Saranac Lake with several ponds and rivers in between. Each night we were going to be staying on a different island and we lucked out to have it all to ourselves each night. Another interesting aspect was that the lakes were very shallow, usually around 20ft or so and even though it was a huge lake, there were designated lanes for boats that were dredged.
The first night of camping was a learning experience. We decided to rough it and only camp in lean-tos. Seems like a good idea, we were only concerned about rain which was forecasted for everyday, but instead we were surprised with mosquitoes. That night we were all hiding under our 2-walled lean-to in our sleeping bags sweltering. I decided I would rather sweat to death than be bitten anymore by those devil bugs.

The following day we canoed from Lower Saranac to Middle Saranac and had to cover about 9 miles. In those 9 miles were locks that we got to operate ourselves. Each lake is about 10ft higher than the previous one meaning a lock is definitely necessary. It was quite simple to use, we just canoe in, close the doors, and open the slats on the other end of the lock. As for our second night, we were on an island more in the middle of a lake and a storm was approaching. Combining these elements and a steady breeze meant that the bugs were much less but we were fearful of a monster thunderstorm. So, what do I do, I go for a swim because I found a big rock and of course wanted to climb it. It was nice to get out on the water and I figured since I was wet it would count of a shower and I know that would make my mom happy.

Very quickly the trip was coming to an end and on Friday we only had about a 6mile trip back to Lower Saranac. Due to our "short" trip we decided to canoe to the portage to Upper Saranac. It was a great thing we decided not to camp on Upper because the portage was a 1.5mile hike through bug infested swamps and ankle twisting trails. Well our last island was a little like the first. The water around it looked too calm and there were way too many trees. Quickly we all realized that this was a recipe for mosquitoes. Thanks to all my years as a professional fort builder in the basement we were quickly able to make our own tent out of tarps. The picture basically explains it all, one problem though is that a tarp is not exactly breathable. We slept without bugs, but not without realizing that it was again sweltering hot and condensation was building on all the walls. However, it did lead to quite a humerous night of us pretending we were WWII anti-bomber patrols and were treating the bugs as "boogies" to be shot down. The whole 2hr event of killing mosquitoes came when Andrew yelled, "I'm a medic not a killer!"

After returning to civilization after 4 days of camping and canoeing I would eagerly do it all over again. Like my biking trip I wish I did such trips earlier, but I am glad to have started. I saw this trip as an opportunity to appreciate the simple things and to find that I can do such trips on my own.