After this, my first season of kayak commuting on the Hudson River, I loaded the family into our 15 year old Old Town Tripper for a labor day weekend paddle on the Raquette River in the Adirondacks. I still prefer the canoe for a camping trip with gear. I mean, no way am I going to load four days worth of supplies, two children, two adults, _and_ a dog into my sea kayak and stay upright. The tripper handles all this stuff with ease, especially when it comes to loading and unloading. And with that much ballast, it is very stable, too, even when some of the ballast (dog and kids) insist on moving around. I just have to remember to push down on my knees when bracing, instead of up. Admittedly, this barge is something of a dog to paddle after my Guillemot Coastal, but you can go for hours with a nice steady stroke. Had a great trip on the Raquette between Long Lake and Tupper Lake, although I was disappointed to be reminded of how little wilderness is really left in the Adirondacks. Too many houses on the lakes. Posted signs are everywhere on the shorelines. We saw a couple of loons, but the motorboats chased them away on the lakes. It mars the experience a little when the party at the next campsite over hops in their outboard runabout to run to "town" for dinner. And I am not sure what to make of coyotes howling at the moon, which ignited a chorus of barking suburban dogs (our own stayed quiet for some reason). The river above Raquette Falls was beautiful, and, for Saturday of Labor Day weekend, surprisingly empty. We saw a sparrow hawk, and found a great campsite on a bluff rock overlooking the river. The water was clear and cool. The only fish biting were sunnies, though. Very few boats passed (a couple of canoes and some very low powered outboards). On sunday, after the portage around Raquette Falls, we discovered motorboat country. Every few minutes, a runabout would come roaring around a bend in the river, at around 20 knots, splitting the air with noise, and drowning the riverbank with their wash. Yes, most of them would slow down as they passed our heavily laden canoe. But the Raquette River is only about 100 feet wide thereabouts, and I believe it is state law that you have to slow down to 5 knots within 100 feet of any shoreline. We were excluded from a beautiful campsite by a party in a runabout who said they were just there until dinner time, then planned to "drive" home. Fortunately we found another empty campsite (though not as pretty, and within hearing distance of the road), and put up with the motorboats passing every few minutes until sunset. Oh yeah, and the red and green navigation buoys on the river detracted from the wilderness feeling also. Whip-poor-wills woke us in the middle of the night, as did a thunderstorm. Tupper Lake was beautiful, but again, heavily populated by houses and motorboats. Even worse, all of most attractive looking lunch and swimming spots had posted signs on them. I'll admit, I am spoiled. Usually we spend a week canoeing in Algonquin Provincial Park each summer, where motorboats are banned on most of the lakes, the shorelines are all open for canoeists to land, there are no houses or roads, and the loons serenade you to sleep each night. This year, we didnt have a whole week for our canoe trip, and looked for some wilderness closer to home. Still, it was a good camping experience, nice swimming, nice campsites (and plenty of empty campsites, even on Labor Day weekend). We have canoed Lows Lake and the Upper Oswegatchie river in years past, which is much more of a wilderness experience, but requires a three mile portage. The St Regis "Canoe Wilderness" is also, unforetunately, more like a hiking trip with a canoe on your back than a canoe trip with some portages (when the portages are generally longer than the lakes, something is wrong!). I understand that Little Tupper Lake, recently aquired from the Whitney family, will have motorboats banned and camping allowed, but multi day canoe tripping routes appear to be quite limited. Too bad that when the state aquired land in the Adirondacks, it didnt set aside just one chain of lakes with no roads, no camps, no private land, and no motorboats, just for those seeking peace and quiet under muscle power. As it stands, the state owns a little land on most of the lakes, but private owners own most the land, and camps, posted signs, and motorboats rule. Professor Karl S. Coplan Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Inc. 78 North Broadway White Plains, N.Y. 10603 kcoplan_at_genesis.law.pace.edu (914) 422-4343 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Sep 30 1998 - 07:49:25 PDT
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