Mileage: 22.5 miles
Weather: Sunny am/overcast pm
Wildlife: Small mouth bass, youth groups and seal-like men
Portages: 1
Didn't sleep as well as I would have preferred, since we had the luxury of paying for an actual bed. Our room was on the street side on the second floor and we could hear people talking on the porch and later, emergency vehicles racing out into the night to, what turned out to be a critical accident along Hwy 30. Got up at 5:30 am and poked our head into the general store to see if we could get a spot of coffee. Although the store wouldn't open for another two hours, the kind young lady brewed us some coffee and sold us some nectarines. And with that, we were ready to face the day.
 |
| Leaving Long Lake with the one of the two elixirs of life. Beer, being the second... |
 |
| North on Long Lake |
Long Lake was calm in the early morning, but became windier as the day wore on. Stopped for a hobbit-inspired "second breakfast" at the Plummer's Landing lean-to. We may have camped here 30 years ago when we hiked a portion of the Placid-Northville trail. I'm certain we hiked along Long Lake, because we came upon some bears, which we later learned were common in the Long Lake area. (Hence their logo?!!!) It felt vaguely familiar, but since blogs didn't exist back in the day and I didn't keep a trip report, no way to know for certain if we were following old footsteps.
Entered back into the Raquette River and came upon a man fishing for bass at the confluence of the Cold River. Not wanting him to miss landing a fish, we waited and watched and then marveled at the nice size fish he caught. We were happy for him that we hadn't wrecked his chance of reeling it in. Then he pulled up his stringer. Apparently he knows what he's doing. A youth group caught up to us, with fishing gear, and stopped to try their luck after he left.
 |
| Not too shabby of a day |
The mandatory 1.3 mile portage around Raquette Falls was very busy. In addition to the youth group that ended up catching up to us, without fish, there were another 4 or more parties with whom we leapfrogged during the portaging. We took a break for lunch at the same lean-to we did last year while waiting out a downpour, and prepared the same lunch of skillet bread. While we were eating, we watched some young men race down the trail, each pulling a canoe tied to them--no wheels, just slick hulls on pine needles. Not sure their leaders knew what they were doing. Hope they were rentals. Or not. Not good either way. I think they were at least partially indestructible royalex. Watched a couple arguing, saw someone schlep a large cooler, kids portaging blue barrels by each holding the side handles as they walked and a one light-headed boy whose counselor was getting him to drink more water when they stopped. (That group decided to stay at this lean-to for the night.) I walked to the lower falls and looked around a bit more. There are lots of lovely campsites in this area in addition to the lean-tos.
 |
| Skillet bread lunch break |
When we repacked and headed to the put-in, I counted 13 canoes. We found that the canoe-pulling boy scouts were taking a dip and soaking up the sun on the rocks. Among them were several seals and one walrus.
 |
| Busy portage put-in area at Raquette Falls |
 |
| Several seals and one walrus |
 |
| Busy beading at the Stoney Creek campsite |
Dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, pecan fudge
