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Published: June 10th 2008
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It has been an arduous three days. We've switched from DEET to sunscreen as the intense heat has kept the bugs down (plus we're further north and the bugs don't seem that bad). The Saranac River is what we have been traveling since Saranac Lake Village and it has many different facets. It's very snakey and slow moving coming out of Saranac Village as it meanders through town and out into the marsh lands and forests of the Adirondacks. We ended up not being able to find the exact location of a campsite marked on the map, so we ended up bush wacking into the woods a bit and setting up camp in a misquito infested woodland.
Day One: Windbound
The first day on the third map of the NFCT, we paddled all the way up to Union Falls pond and got windbound (the waves were huge) on Bear Point, an official campsite at Adirondack park and it was beautiful. The weather though extremely windy, was nice and we got a chance to dry our gear out and set up camp and relax a little bit. I've been practicing my juggiling skills and Brett has been reading up
on the history of Fermat's Last Theorem (a very sweet and old math problem, that wasn't solved until the late nineties). We also discussed what we would do the next day as the map suggested that one needs to be trained and have the equipment to run class III-V rapids for the next nine miles of the river (hard to believe this snakey slow river was about to change into a raging beast).
Day Two: The Raging River, The Longish Walk, and the Fortuitous Meeting
So the next day we got up early and broke camp and started to paddle across the slightly breezy pond, by the time we were almost at the dam on the far end, the wind had picked up and we were navigating through foot high waves, taking on a little water, but mostly fairing well! Luckily it was a tail wind and it helped speed us over to boat launch! We had decided to give the walk a try, but we ended up missing the turn to Claysburg and walked another half a mile before we realized something was up. So turning around, we ran into a nice fellow by the name of Randall
from Union Falls, who made sure we had the correct tire pressure in our cart wheels and convinced us of running the rapids down to Claysburg (after all, he mentioned the locals do it on occasion they just portage over that one waterfall!). So we decided to give it a try and tied down all our gear good and tight and hoped into the river. Brett took the stern and off we went. He guided us down the three sets of technical class II's with narry a bump. It was at the class V waterfall that we decided that for the sake of time, we would get out on the otherside of the river and make our way up to the road to walk the rest of the three or so miles to Clayburg (there were some class III and IV rapids further down that we didn't want to chance the canoe and the trip on). As we were walking a nice fellow by the name of Eli (who SCUBA dives to destroy milfoil for a living) gave us a ride all the way to Baker's Acres campground and substantially further down the river and past the rapids! It was
a good, but very long day.
Day Three: More Rapids and finally Plattsburgh
This day was the day of portages, we had a two mile and a one mile, and then two more little portages to do on this river to get us over all of the dams that NY Electric and Gas has put up to harness the Saranac for making electricity for the people of NY. The portages weren't bad until the last one. It is poorly marked and in a marsh and Brett and I had to bush wack around trying to find it and by this time in the day (late afternoon) the sun had been beating down on us and we were sweaty, tired, and in no mood to waste time to get down to the big lake Champlain and off the river. Finally we navigated our gear and ourselves to the river and hopped in navigating some fun and less technical class I and II rapids, lots of splashes felt really nice on this hot day and we paddled down into Plattsburgh around five thirty or so. We are treating ourselves to a wonderful two night stay at the econo-lodge to wash the
river off our clothes, dry out some gear and get some much needed R&R (we both got a little burnt even with all the sun screen).
I'm gonna end this journal entry with some odds and ends here:
1.) My camera is broken, it broke somehow trying to take pictures of the rapids, so I will no longer be taking photos of this journey. Kind of a bummer, but Brett also has a camera and when it is said and done, I'm sure I'll get some of his photos to post here.
2.) Still on a public computer, won't be able to post pictures until this is all done I'm afraid.
3.)Broke a paddle up on the Raquette and forgot to mention it, but we did and we have a nice new one, so don't fret!
4.) The NFCT mentions that lake Champlain is the sixth largest in the country! Brett and I called "bullshit" on that we are pretty sure the five Great Lakes and the Great Salt Lake are much bigger than Lake Champlain. Though Lake Champlain is pretty big and the waves out there can get WAY bigger than a foot, we may end up taking the ferry across depending on weather.
So that about wraps it up. We have finished NY and are about to start our long slow journey up the Missiquoi River into Vermont, Quebec, and New Hampshire. I'll post when I can, but it may be a lot less frequent. Thank you all for tuning in and we'll see you the other side.
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Thom T (dad)
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Congrats
Well done. Enjoy the day off. We enjoy reading of the progress, and the challenges.