Northern Forest Canoe Trail: Segment 1, Day 3

It rained overnight and on and off in the morning as we were getting ready so we took it slow. We needed rain gear but no kayak skirts. I have the Seals Sneak Skirt which has a zipper on it that you can open to cool off somewhat on a warm day, but has suspenders and should go under your jacket. Ben has the Seals Splash Deck which doesn't entirely cover you in the case of rain, but I feel it almost might be better. I sometimes get wet through the zipper, and at least he's got both his rain jacket and rain pants for protection. Ryan was borrowing a friend's kayak and gear, and I think he has the version that's the driest, but probably the warmest - full neoprene.

It's probably only 1 mile or so to the carry to Forked Lake, which is right before the end of the lake as the outlet from Raquette is too shallow to paddle. Ben managed to throw his back out lifting his kayak on shore, and that really threw him off for the rest of the trip. At least we had wheels. It's also only a .5 mile walk to Forked Lake, which is much more remote and quiet than Raquette or any other lake we'd been on so far. Much of the land around it is private, but on the east end, there is a state campground, a dam and the river to Long Lake. By the way, a "local" (my mom) told me that people pronounce it "For-ked Lake." Take it with a grain of salt.

Forked lake was perfectly calm but quite misty. Beautiful. As you get closer to the put in spot for the campground (about 3.5 miles), you'll start to see numbered campsites along the way. There were only a few people at the campground, but one guy came over to ask us if we had jumper cables. We obviously didn't, but thought it would have been fun to search for them for a bit before exclaiming, "Oh! They're in my other kayak!"

The campground is at the end of a seasonal access road, and you take this road for a while before you can put in again (1.4 miles by the map, 1.2 by the signs). The river is Class 2-3 rapids, and supposedly you can run them in the spring or summer but by fall we definitely couldn't.

After a while, you come to a trail and sign for a lean-to (maybe .25 miles to the river) where you can put in until you get to the top of Buttermilk Falls (1.0 miles by the map).

This section wasn't too crazy, but you definitely need to be careful of any ripples as there are rocks right below the surface. I avoided a hidden rock, shouted to Ryan to stay to the right, and he did the opposite and managed to crash right into an exposed rock. I guess he hesitated. Ben didn't join us as his back was hurting, and we beat him to the falls. We'd been discussing on Saturday Type 1, 2 and 3 fun, and it was some pure Type 1 fun.

At this point at the top of the falls, I definitely wouldn't put back in again. It's not too far to the road and you can probably wheel some of it, but if you don't, you have to carry up and down some steep, rocky sections below the falls for .1 miles. Also, the map says .6 miles more before you have to take out again for more rapids but I don't think I got to even .3 miles on my watch before we saw the next rapids sign.

There's a sign that warns you of the Class 2-3 rapids at least so you know to take out, and a trail hugs the river but is a carry only trail. I'm extremely glad we didn't take it. I shouldered my full kayak and bushwhacked a few hundred feet to the road. Ryan managed to get his wheels on and by the time I had done the same at the road, he had made it as well. By this time, I was drenched in sweat. Not sure why I didn't take off my rain pants earlier.

Then we had a 1 mile walk to the next lean-to. The map here is WRONG. It says to take out at the Deerland Carry, but they mean take out for a 1 mile carry to the Deerland Lean-to. As you go along the now paved road, you'll come to a sign at the road for the Deerland Lean-tos and you'll want to descend to get to the river. We were confused for a while, amplified by the fact that while Ben had brought his kayak to the bottom down by the water, he was nowhere in sight nor in the 2 lean-tos there. He had walked upstream along that river-side trail all the way back to the falls, then back again along the road to find us. All in all, we wasted over an hour because we did the second section of the river.

Happy to be back on the river.

From here, you continue on a few more quiet and narrow sections of the river before it starts to widen and you really get into Long Lake.

We saw a merganser that wasn't wary at all of us, and also saw a hawk or osprey catch a fish. There were some neat clouds rolling over the hills to the southeast but they didn't amount to any clouds or rain for us.

I tracked 4.9 miles from the Deerland Carry to the DEC launch in the town of Long Lake. It's probably 1/3 of the lake, and fortunately for us, the wind only turned out to be bad after we crossed under the bridge.

Ben and I were looking the whole way for Seaman's Cabins, a very popular place to rent 1 of 4 cabins for a week, owned by a relative. I hadn't been there for maybe 20 years and while we managed to spot it, we couldn't stop then or on the drive back as it was getting late. There's also a ton of neat camps along the way to spy on.

Before the bridge is the seaplane base, and after the bridge is the town beach and motels on the same stretch. Long Lake is much quieter than Old Forge or Inlet, but still has a fair amount of places to eat and shop while not being too touristy.

The DEC boat launch is not very far past the bridge and in a small cove. It's a great launch with quite a bit of parking, especially if you're there in the fall like we've always been. The total for the day was almost 16 miles, but the carry distances are variable depending on how much of the Raquette River you kayak. While the day had started out cold and wet, and we had had our misadventures along the way, it was a great trip and it ended with fabulous weather again.

For us, it was back to Old Forge and home. Looking back at the map while writing this report, I'm seeing all these other lakes out there I want to explore, especially as they are often more remote. My hope is to hit Lake Lila next summer, as my elderly neighbor used to fish and camp there, and always talks about it.