This week we took off on a five day four night trip to Saranac Lake Islands. We drove through the town of Saranac Lakes last year while camping near Lake Placid, and noticed how beautiful the area was. I booked about six months early and was able to get an island all to ourselves (Nothing quite beats having an island to yourselves especially at  the bargain basement price of $22 a day) The border crossing at 1000 islands has been getting congested recently (may be the new construction of the American side) So we decided to take the Ogdensburg crossing instead, it was much quicker getting through, and as a bonus there is a Dunkin Donut right across the border (so much nicer than Timmies)

The reception area and boat launch are the best we have come across, two beaches for canoe launching, huge paved parking lot, and firewood for sale. The forecast called for some cold evenings so we picked up a few bags, and then once loaded headed out to our island site.

It was a short paddle to site 21, probably about 2 Km, so was an easy trip in a fully loaded canoe. The weather was spectacular, low wind and sunny skies, perfect paddling weather (unlike what was coming up) Saranac lakes comprise of three linked lakes, Upper, Lower and Middle Saranac, with State camping on Middle and Lower Saranac Lake.

The campsite was not the best we have had, we noticed that most campsites here seem to be very steep, with not a lot of room for tents. We had to put our sleeping tent a fair distance away from the fire pit, and picnic table (We would have slid right out of our sleeping bags) This was the first time we have used such a large tarp, I’m glad we did, we had two days of rain.

The only flat piece of land for the tent was also very close to the Out House, convenient for midnight excursions…and thankfully the wind direction was always the correct direction.

Our first night we had a beautiful sunset, we walked to the other side of our island and sat on some rocks for about an hour watching it. Other than the occasional motor boat to spoil the serenity, it was very relaxing.

This has been an unusual summer so far, with very cool evenings. We brought fire wood with us, but also were fortunate to have a huge stack compliments of the rangers. There was also a huge amount of felled birch to provide great fire starter (birch bark makes phenomenal fire starter) Marcus was unsure about sitting any closer (you can see him up behind us)

As forecasted the next day was not pleasant, cool windy and a fair bit of rain. Instead of staying at camp all day, hunkering under a tarp, we decided to paddle the 2 Km back to the truck and take the day to explore the near by town of Saranac Lake.

Saranac Lake is a short ten minute drive from the boat launch, and was a good way to spend a rainy day, wandered around town, enjoyed their farmers market, and had some great Pizza (The Owls Nest Pizza Parlour). The town is very tourist friendly, with free parking available throughout the town. Our paddle back to camp was a wet and windy one, fortunately the rain paused for a few hours in the evening allowing us to have a much appreciated fire.

Our cores got a great workout on this site, there were few level spots to put our chairs, so were constantly working at keeping upright.

This weeks lucky sponsor is a handy piece of kit I picked up last week in Watertown New York the Verizon Jetpack. Allows me to use the internet anywhere there is a Verizon 4g service, even with only 1 bar of service it provides internet as fast as home, we were getting two bars and blazing fast speed. Great for checking the weather for tomorrow…yup the weather will be perfect, time for our trip into Middle Saranac Lake.

Lower and Middle Saranac Lake are linked by the Saranac river, with a single lock about half way. Today there was a lock keeper, but in talking with her, for about half the week it is a self serve lock system. If you were really adventurous you could attempt to bypass the locks, and race the rapids (We were not that adventurous today, not after having seen the rapids)

Once through the lock, the Saranac river changed to a slow meandering river with a lot of swamp and tall grass on its banks.

We made it to Middle Saranac lake (about an 8 Km paddle) found a tiny beach to pull up on and have lunch (Freeze dried Katmandu curry, very tasty) there were signs all along the beach of turtle nesting, with the remains of their eggs post hatching. Marcus was having a great time with all the strange smells.

With lunch done it was time to head back to our island…The return trip was not as pleasant, the winds had really picked up, and as usual when we canoe, they seemed to be always headwinds regardless of what direction we travelled. During the tough paddle back (If you paused you went backwards) we actually had a conversation about one day buying a motor boat (Yes you heard right) We knew we were going to feel it the next day (I did, Karen being much younger than I recovered fully)

We passed by site 45 (We were really hoping it was unoccupied as we desperately wanted to take a pause from fighting the headwinds) It unfortunately was not, but we did notice that it was one of the nicest campsites on the lake, and made the decision to book this one another year.

We finally were able to take a break from the wind at one of the few day use areas, this one was really nice, with a lot of great swimming spots.

We had worked up a huge appetite fighting the wind for 8 Km (16 Km of paddling today) for tonight Pad Thai a la John, very yummy, added some broccoli and herbed chicken balls we picked up in Saranac Lakes the other day…one thing we do well when camping is eat.

Our last evening at Site 21, we had a roaring fire, the temp was due to drop to – 1 Deg C (This has been an insane summer) our MEC Sleeping bags are rated to 0 Deg C (who would have thought we would need more. We bundled up and survived the big freeze. It was a beautiful evening however with great light. Next morning I was up at around five to have my morning cuppa, for the first time camping I had to wear my fleece and my down jacket..

Time to strike camp and head back to the office, it was another sunny clear day, perfect for packing up (not much worse than packing up wet gear) We were off the island by around 10:00 and headed back to the boat launch. Overall I would give this camping experience a big thumbs up, other than the steep sloping campsites that seem to be very common here, it is a beautiful lake with a lot left to explore.