Northeast Wild

On online forums and social media, one often sees requests for suggested combination paddle and hike trips – the combination allows us to expand our experiences and also gets us to exercise a greater variety of muscle groups in the process. Examples I have often seen mentioned online are combinations like Long Pond and Long Pond Mountain in the St. Regis Canoe Area, Putnam Pond and Treadway Mountain in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, as well as Lake Lila and Mount Frederica in the Whitney Wilderness. A great view, in my opinion, should include at least one water body like a pond or lake, and have minimal sights and sounds of civilization. I have quite a number of favorites in this category and I have picked three of them to tell you about here. GARNET LAKE Garnet Lake is a 2-mile-long lake in the southern Adirondacks. Although there is some development at the north end of the lake, the southern half is fairly wild and most of it is state land. The put-in is at a small sandy bea...

Sep 21-Sep 23 (Tue-Thu), 2021 - Set up camp then went for a counterclockwise 4.5-mile paddle with a 2.5-mile side-hike to LIZARD POND lean-to which looked in great shape (it just so happens that Bill McKibben is the lean-to adopter) - saw one loon.  The pond has a great echo. Saw a few paddlers on GARNET LAKE, 1 small moboat, several loons, mergansers, mallards, gb heron.  Day 2 - Paddled around the lake clockwise in the morning & saw 2 otters, then went for a 5-mile hike to Round Pond, fairly flat at first but then the trail gains 700' before dropping to the pond.  Day 3 - packed up & headed home.  Fairly peaceful overall, fall foliage ~10% with some bright & some muted.       May 9, 2019 - GARNET LAKE. Great loonacy! Saw a group of 6 loons that all took off - suspect they were on their way to Canada. Regardless, the resident loons were often in sight or sound. Also mergansers, osprey. buffleheads, C geese, mallards, yellow-bellied sa...