Thursday, August 27, 2020

Adirondacks COVID Style

 Tuesday morning Gail did an early "normal" swim, merely an hour, on Mirror Lake in the village of Lake Placid.  I was happy to sit and do some planning for my hike on Wednesday.  I got a nice picture of her as she came back to shore.


 

 

Less than an hour later we were on Lower Saranac Lake for some exploration via the kayaks.  Gail had done this back in 2018 when her hip was bad and couldn't hike.  This year she wanted to do her swim here but we were advised not to as the motor boat traffic can get intense, especially on weekends.  We mostly had the lake to ourselves, an early start again, and it was a weekday.  We headed out on the lake and turned northeast towards Eagle Island where we got out and followed a blazed trail around most of the circumference.  From there we headed to the inlet on the southwest end of the lake to go up the river where we turned around at the lock to Middle Saranac Lake.  We heard thunder rumbling as we finished, even had a little rain, but the water remained calm enough we never had much to worry about.






 There was a point when the wind was in our faces a bit.  Something occurred to me in that moment:




Eagle Island had some cool features, lots of rock bluffs for views and many nice hemlocks and white pines.  None of the maps we've consulted showed the trail, and some had a lean-to on the north side but we didn't see it, I suspect it's been removed.  We did happen upon this rare stone lean-to that maps indicate is a picnic area so camping would be prohibited. 
 

I contemplated staying on the island for a few months when I found my old friend, Wilson.



 

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