G
Guest
Guest
Adirondacks - Little Tupper/Whitney Wilderness Area
Up as usual before dawn and headed north towards the Adirondacks. A stop at the White House Cabinet Shop in Sherburne to see friend Mad Mike and ogle his custom built furniture and I was soon at the Whitney put in on Little Tupper Lake.
I’ve been to Little Tupper, Rock Pond and, more recently, Round Lake every year since the State purchased the land in the late 90’s. Typically on family trips, starting early on with young bowmen in bow-backwards tandems and eventually progressing to trips with 4 solo boats. Both of my sons paddled their first loaded solo tripper on Little Tupper and I know literally every site (40+ just on those three lakes, not counting another couple dozen on Lake Lila).
The parking lot at the launch is packed on a sunny Monday noon, but I expect many are daytrippers and other trippers will be paddling out in the afternoon after a long weekend.
This proves correct. As I am loading gear a flotilla of various Placid boats comes out, most paddled by folks with a decade or more on me, and I envy them their 20lb boats. As I finish packing other boats are heading back to the landing, including a healthy smattering of Hornbecks. It’s good to see the local builders so well represented.
Packed and heading SW down the lake I am reading the weather. A storm is coming and the prevailing wind is from the west. It is warm, mid-80’s, and I’d like a site with some wind exposure to help keep the skeeters down.
I pass #6 (Rocky Point), my favorite site on the lake and unoccupied. But I’m looking for that wind exposure, and as a solo I don’t require the spaciousness of that site for my minimal tent and tarp needs. The next several sites I would prefer for wind and size needs are all occupied, and at the south end of the lake I turn about and head back to Rocky Point.
It’s hard to beat nabbing my favorite site on the lake, even if I don’t need the space, but it is as predicted unusually wind sheltered and buggy. I race the coming thunderstorm and have tent and tarp secure before the deluge hits.
A brief pause from the thunder and lightning allows for a refreshing swim in the lake and I am ensconced and dry under the parawing when the next storm cells pass. Early to rise and early to bed; I was up before the dawn and the still warm temperature, rain and lack of wind exposure have brought the dusk mosquitoes out in force.
Early to bed and early to rise. I dawdle over a lingering two-cuppa breakfast and as I ready to make for a day paddle a voice calls out “Hello the camp?”. A comely young Ranger lass in a Placid Rapidfire appears at the landing. What can one say but “Please, come ashore”.
The comely lass is Sarah, a new-to-me Ranger at Whitney. I have in the past met Bruce Koons (since retired) and Robert Zurwick (still there, all surname spelling are suspect), both good fellows, but if I have a Ranger visit in store an attractive young woman beats a grizzled old man any day.
I enjoy a fine conversation with Sarah, with an awkward moment when she asks about the foil trash in the firepit. I remark that it isn’t mine, that I habitually leave every site cleaner than I found it and that I have a pet peeve about trash in fire pits and haven’t had a chance to remove it. I am somewhat chagrinned when she reaches down to feel the fire pit for hot coals and I further explain that, since I sometimes cook over an open fire, I abhor burning trash.
A day paddle, a fine swim and a long layabout in the hammock fill my day. I was nearly bereft of new reading material to pack in, and despite the size (1200 pages) and 4 lb heft elected to bring a single hardback; Paul Reid’s completion of William Manchester’s 3 volume Churchill biography (The Last Lion, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965)
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Chu...157266&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+lion+volume+3
Masterful. I now have the previous two volumes on hand via inter-library loan.
The weather was largely pleasant, with overall temperatures dropping agreeable and moderate (to strong) winds keeping the bugs largely at bay. After a 3 night stay I wasn’t ready to hit the road, and paddled back to the truck to resupply from 30-day stash of food I had in barrels in the truck bed.
3 days turned into 6, and 6 turned into 9, and I might have happily stayed in the Adirondacks for weeks, but the allure of the road in my new tripping truck finally beckoned.
Next up: Vermont - DAR State Park and Green River Reservoir State Park
Up as usual before dawn and headed north towards the Adirondacks. A stop at the White House Cabinet Shop in Sherburne to see friend Mad Mike and ogle his custom built furniture and I was soon at the Whitney put in on Little Tupper Lake.
I’ve been to Little Tupper, Rock Pond and, more recently, Round Lake every year since the State purchased the land in the late 90’s. Typically on family trips, starting early on with young bowmen in bow-backwards tandems and eventually progressing to trips with 4 solo boats. Both of my sons paddled their first loaded solo tripper on Little Tupper and I know literally every site (40+ just on those three lakes, not counting another couple dozen on Lake Lila).
The parking lot at the launch is packed on a sunny Monday noon, but I expect many are daytrippers and other trippers will be paddling out in the afternoon after a long weekend.
This proves correct. As I am loading gear a flotilla of various Placid boats comes out, most paddled by folks with a decade or more on me, and I envy them their 20lb boats. As I finish packing other boats are heading back to the landing, including a healthy smattering of Hornbecks. It’s good to see the local builders so well represented.
Packed and heading SW down the lake I am reading the weather. A storm is coming and the prevailing wind is from the west. It is warm, mid-80’s, and I’d like a site with some wind exposure to help keep the skeeters down.
I pass #6 (Rocky Point), my favorite site on the lake and unoccupied. But I’m looking for that wind exposure, and as a solo I don’t require the spaciousness of that site for my minimal tent and tarp needs. The next several sites I would prefer for wind and size needs are all occupied, and at the south end of the lake I turn about and head back to Rocky Point.
It’s hard to beat nabbing my favorite site on the lake, even if I don’t need the space, but it is as predicted unusually wind sheltered and buggy. I race the coming thunderstorm and have tent and tarp secure before the deluge hits.
A brief pause from the thunder and lightning allows for a refreshing swim in the lake and I am ensconced and dry under the parawing when the next storm cells pass. Early to rise and early to bed; I was up before the dawn and the still warm temperature, rain and lack of wind exposure have brought the dusk mosquitoes out in force.
Early to bed and early to rise. I dawdle over a lingering two-cuppa breakfast and as I ready to make for a day paddle a voice calls out “Hello the camp?”. A comely young Ranger lass in a Placid Rapidfire appears at the landing. What can one say but “Please, come ashore”.
The comely lass is Sarah, a new-to-me Ranger at Whitney. I have in the past met Bruce Koons (since retired) and Robert Zurwick (still there, all surname spelling are suspect), both good fellows, but if I have a Ranger visit in store an attractive young woman beats a grizzled old man any day.
I enjoy a fine conversation with Sarah, with an awkward moment when she asks about the foil trash in the firepit. I remark that it isn’t mine, that I habitually leave every site cleaner than I found it and that I have a pet peeve about trash in fire pits and haven’t had a chance to remove it. I am somewhat chagrinned when she reaches down to feel the fire pit for hot coals and I further explain that, since I sometimes cook over an open fire, I abhor burning trash.
A day paddle, a fine swim and a long layabout in the hammock fill my day. I was nearly bereft of new reading material to pack in, and despite the size (1200 pages) and 4 lb heft elected to bring a single hardback; Paul Reid’s completion of William Manchester’s 3 volume Churchill biography (The Last Lion, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965)
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Chu...157266&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+lion+volume+3
Masterful. I now have the previous two volumes on hand via inter-library loan.
The weather was largely pleasant, with overall temperatures dropping agreeable and moderate (to strong) winds keeping the bugs largely at bay. After a 3 night stay I wasn’t ready to hit the road, and paddled back to the truck to resupply from 30-day stash of food I had in barrels in the truck bed.
3 days turned into 6, and 6 turned into 9, and I might have happily stayed in the Adirondacks for weeks, but the allure of the road in my new tripping truck finally beckoned.
Next up: Vermont - DAR State Park and Green River Reservoir State Park