Last year while camping at Raquette lake, a park Ranger had suggested trying out Indian lake. This long weekend we ventured out despite the call for some horrible weather on Saturday. I had reserved campsite 10, on an island approx. 11 Km from the main campground office and boat launch. We chose to forego launching at the campground, and instead launched from the only marina on the Lake. Our campsite was now only a short 2 Km paddle, we did this for two very good reasons, firstly there was a high probability of being hit with a thunder storm, and secondly I was feeling lazy…..

The following description comes from the campsite webpage….A beautiful, wild, forested islands offering wilderness camping and some of the best recreational boating in the Adirondacks, Indian Lake Islands Campground is located on the southern shore of 4,365-acre Indian Lake. The opportunity to camp on an island or along the shore of Indian Lake makes this one of the most popular camping destinations in the Adirondacks. All of the large, well-forested campsites offer privacy. Indian Lake Islands Campground offers a variety of recreational opportunities, including canoeing and boating, hiking, fishing, and picnicking.

We made good time despite strong headwinds and very choppy waters, I was sure we were going to be hit with rain, amazingly it rained heavily everywhere but on us. We made it through the entire weekend without a drop.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the campsite, often back country campsites while beautiful are not very flat. Site 10 had room for multiple tents, the ground was not only flat, but had wood chips to keep down any mud should it rain. There was also two picnic tables, a great fire pit (went unused for two reasons 1) it was incredibly hot and humid all weekend and 2) Fu@*~ng Stable flies !!

Biting house flies, also called stable flies, appear more frequently during the summer months. They thrive in warm, moist environments. They’re looking for livestock or animals, but when they can’t find them, they bite human legs, feeding on blood. Stable flies look just like house flies. Except they bite, but in a different way than mosquitos. Instead of having tube-like mouthparts that pierce the skin, these flies’ mouthparts cut the skin, which allows them to lap up the blood. Some boaters claim that keeping your legs horizontal will prevent the flies from biting you because the flies attack animals when they’re standing and their legs are vertical. I can tell you nothing seemed to keep these buggers away, I was more of a target than Karen…and boy do they leave an incredibly itchy welt..

We relaxed in the Eureka Nobugzone that evening, secure that even the dreaded stable fly could not get in, unfortunately the mesh on the screen tent is so fine, that not only does it prevent the smallest of midges, it also does an excellent job of stopping any breeze from getting in…making for a very hot evening, good thing we had a lot of ice to put into our white wine (barbaric under normal circumstances)..all of which Segway’s into our sponsored item of the week…The Helinox chair one..don’t leave home without it. These things are crazy expensive, but when you are concerned about size and weight, they cannot be beat, we take them with us every time we canoe camp.

I used to have an internal alarm clock, that got me up at the crack of dawn, once we got Marcus that alarm became obsolete. Marcus without fail wakes me up every morning at an absurdly early hour for his early morning constitutional and breakfast.

Sunday was a very hot and sunny day, we spent most of the day exploring the lake and checking out a few other campsites (Those that were unoccupied) One of the nicest we came across was site 2. It had a great spot to land a small boat and had great views. Karen and I both love this lake and will definitely return, and try to get this site.

 

Monday morning came too soon, and we packed up and headed out for the marina, defying all that is science, we actually had the wind at our backs for the 2 Km trip back in…But the water Gods were just mocking us, a mere 200 metres from our destination I realized that I had left my camera sitting on a rock back at the campsite..Ahhhgh…we turned around and headed into the wind to retrieve my trusty Pentax..

Until our next adventures…..