Goal distance: 15 or so miles to 8th Mile Lake
Actual distance: 22 miles to Big Island on Raquette Lake
Weather: Perfect. Sunny, in the 70s with a light tailwind
Portages: 3
#1: .4 miles between 5th and 6th lakes. With the exception of the first .1 mile out of the lake, completely wheelable. (Up a hill, along the sidewalk.) Note: There is a gas station at the top of the hill. We had topped off the air in our portage wheels the night before in Old Forge. Could have saved the trip by doing it at this location instead.
#2: 1.1 miles through 8th Lake Campground. Wheelable on gravel campground road. Good signage marking the way. Filled water bottles up with water while here.
#3: 1.3 Miles to Brown's Tract. We each took a bag (leaving the wheels and canoe behind) and walked about 1/3 of the way or less. There were about 6 trees down over the path, but were easy to get over. Decided we could use the cart and went back to get it. Wheeled one bag, paddles and other light stuff the rest of the distance. Boardwalk was fun.
Wildlife:
2 deer by our car by the motel, loons, 4 beaver dams, 1 beaver
Dinner:
Tomato sauce (dehydrated powder, vegies, spices) with whole wheat noodles. Pistachio pudding.
 |
| 6:45 am Old Forge |
Woke up at 5:45 and was on the water at 7 a.m. Within the hour, we met our first trail angels, John and his friend Steve, who were kayaking around by President Harrison's summer home on First Lake. John invited us to breakfast at his family's 1920's era "camp" on Fourth Lake. We learned more about this history of the Fulton Chain and had blueberry pancakes. (Thanks Kathy, who didn't know who John had brought back home with him.)
Being the fourth of July, the lakes were busy and we made it through most of the busier ones. The wind and weather made for very easy paddling, but we expected camping to be dicey. The remote sites at the end of 8th Lake were open, but it was early enough (3:30 pm) and we weren't that tired, so we kept on going.
The portage from 8th Lake to Brown's Tract was a little buggy, and being that it was getting to the end of the afternoon, and it was over a mile long, we were starting to get a little tired. It took about 1 hour or so to paddle through Brown's Tract, and while beautiful, we were anxious to get to a site. Plus, we DID see a special note left for us by another thru-paddler which made the day. In hindsite, staying on 8th Lake might have been more relaxing (note to future thru-paddlers.) We also might have enjoyed stopping at the Raquette Lake Taproom, but we needed to find a site and kept on paddling. Being that it was the 4th of July, camping on this more popular lake WAS a problem. We ended up on Big Island, probably in an area we weren't supposed to be camping--which we only found out about by the neighboring campers well after we had set up. It was late and we were leaving early, so we kept our fingers crossed. Mosquitos were not very bad at all.
 |
| Paddling Brown's Tract at the end of the first day |
This lake is also home to several summer youth camps and we heard recorded versions of taps (and in the morning, Revelry), so be prepared to hear those activities if you camp in this area.
Went to bed and were pretty tired, but heard lots of firecrackers going off including one right in front of our tent. I stepped outside to talk to the kids and learned that the "real" fireworks were just about to start. Woke up Sam and we sat with front side seats to a pretty good Raquette Lake 4th of July firework display. So that was fun.
Really good first day.
