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WHAT. A. DAY. Said hot dogs and beer? Biggest mistake we’ve ever made. What was supposed to be an easy day of coasting down the Lower Saranac to the edge of Lake Champlain became a living hell: we woke up with food poisoning and could barely drag ourselves out of the tent.
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A raucous thunderstorm woke us up in the middle of the night last night, but we managed to remain shockingly dry. With the buzz of mosquitoes and a looming day of portages ahead, we hustled out of camp and made our way to the end of the pond to eat breakfast (the last of our jar of PB with banana, granola, and dates).
Ben’s birthday! After paddling into Saranac Village, the friendly folks at the Adirondack Lakes & Trails Outfitters let us charge our phones and watched our boat for us while we went grocery shopping. We stayed in town just a smidge too long into the heat of the day, waiting on a deli to open only to be served some disappointing sandwiches. We encountered an unexpected portage right outside of town to avoid what appeared to be a class I+ (or even II) rapid under the railroad bridge.
3 Saranac Lakes in one day?! We enjoyed the winding, slow upstream of Stony Brook to Indian Carry and ran into the two kind older men whom we’d encountered the day before at the put-in below Raquette Falls. They had stopped to eat breakfast at the bridge over the brook on their way to the trailhead of Ampersand Mountain and were being investigated by some curious (and fearless) gray jays.
Man, these lean-to’s got us spoiled – not sure how we’ll fare when we’re tired, cold, wet, AND don’t have a nice wide, dry platform to sprawl all of our belongings out on to. For now, we’ll bask in the glamping lifestyle.
Today was a LONG day, or at least longer than we had planned. We kicked off the chilly morning with the Brown’s Tract Carry, passing over the highest elevation point of the trail (though it didn’t feel like it should be). Brown’s Tract Inlet was serene but cold, with only a few beaver dam crossings. Impending headwinds on Raquette Lake pushed us to blast through this portion of paddling.
Today, we began our thru-paddle. After a breakfast of bagel sandwiches and coffee at the boat launch, we said goodbye to Ben's parents and were on our way. Sadly, the sign-in book was missing from the kiosk, so we had no way of knowing who was ahead of us on the trail. We were off to a smooth start for about half an hour until we encountered a stiff tailwind and choppy 2-3’ waves on 1st Lake, and we had no choice but to land at a private dock on the northern shore before we could even approach Decamps Island.
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