We went back to the Adirondacks in October 2015, to do some paddling, and enjoyed the whole trip. We left on Sunday morning, after early church, and spent the night in Buffalo at an 'over the top Italian motel and restaurant'. Enjoyed a hot tub in our upgraded room, and then had a nice dinner in a rather crowded restaurant. Up early for an included motel breakfast buffet, and drove to Old Forge to paddle the Moose River. We went to Tickner's Outfitters where a young man put our canoe in the water for us, and took a few pictures of us afloat. We paddled for about three hours on the nice flat Moose River. We had to put the canoe back on the car by ourselves as the outfitter had closed. We got to our local motel to find us the only guests, and the hostess was away at a golf course. She left us a key, and so we got into our room, took our obligatory nap, and had dinner at Flicker's, an Adirondack tavern. The $9.99 spaghetti special was OK, and they had Blue Moon beer.
Next morning we ate at Keye's Pancake house, and the waitress told us we had the same breakfast last year. We also picked up a sandwich at the grocery store, and took off for the Bog River. We arrived at the put in to find six young men packing up after an eight day trip. They offered to put our canoe into the water, and of course we accepted. We paddled from 11:49 to 1:00, and then ate our lunch at the take out. A photo shows the Ridge as a rock topped pile behind the trees. We started hiking up Low's Ridge at 1:32 and arrived at the top at 2:20. It is 1.1 miles, and Sophia did not think she could climb up there. We took a few photos, and had our photo taken by a photographer who passed us on the way up. The photo without us shows the distance we paddled as the furthest you can see. We also saw the two women who put in after us in the tiny twelve pound canoes that are very popular there. One sits on the bottom, by themselves, and uses a kayak paddle. They had carried a bottle of wine up, and were sitting in the sun having a drink out of stainless steel wine glasses. We departed at 2:40 and got to the bottom at 3:30. We put back into the water at 3:50 and got to the take out at 5:12. We were very tired, and lo and behold, the two ladies wanted to carry our canoe to our van. I think they wanted to see how much it weighed; as our canoe, which is a 2000 model, is still being made. Then we headed straight for our Tupper Lake restaurant, which only serves dinner, and had Blue Moon. I had the liver and onions, which I love; and we got to the motel after dark, in some light rain. The nearest parking place was across the lot, but we got in, and shortly to bed.
Wednesday, we ate the motel breakfast, bought a sandwich at the grocery, and drove to Fish Creek campground We were not charged to get into the park to put the canoe in the water. We departed the boat launch at 10:07, and got up to Floodwood Lake for our lunch at 11:30. We have been at that camping site over 10 years, and the old picnic table is long gone, but, they have put in a wilderness toilet. A box about three feet square with a lid; over a board top with a hole cut into it, in lieu of a toilet seat. We ate our lunch, and saw five kayaks head down Fish Creek, and also saw a loon out on the lake. We departed 12:10 and got back to the launch at 1:20. We met the five kayaks, who were almost our age, and also met a couple from Connecticut at the take out. They had never visited the place, and had two kayaks with them. We chatted awhile, and gave them an extra map we had and told them about the loon and picnic spot. Then we headed to Saranac Lake (village) to stay in room 133 at the local Best Western. We have stayed at that same room for probably 15 years. It was the room where I received the call that my mother had died, and from which I called my family. We took our nap, and got dressed up to drive to Lake Placid to have dinner at the Mirror Lake Inn. Enjoyed a very nice meal overlooking the lake, and Whiteface Mountain.
Thursday we ate at McKenzie's grill, picked up a deli lunch at Lake Flower deli, and off to the Raquette River. We put in at our old favorite launch at Axton's Landing, departing at 11:01. We paddled up Stony Creek for almost an hour, and turned around to get back to the Raquette where there is a wonderful lunch place at a camp site with a real outhouse. We arrived at the lunch spot at 1:02 and departed at 1:48. Got back to Axton at 2:21, and loaded up on our own. We did see another paddler when we put in, and there were two more cars in the parking lot, but we saw no one on the river.
That ended our paddling, and we returned to the motel. We had delightful sunny, but cool weather all four days. It was in the 30s in the mornings, but got into the 50s in the afternoons. The colors were quite spectacular, and we always enjoy the special color burst of a wonderful tree. We ate dinner at Nona Fina's Italian place, and it was OK. The pasta dinner was enough food Friday's lunch too.
On Friday we departed early in the morning to drive to Kent, NY to visit Sophia's sister, and family; and bought some repair 'goop' for our canoe at a giant canoe store near them. A great trip and we did not even think we would try it again, when we left last year.
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