Lows Lake/ Hitchens Pond, Late October 2025

I made a last minute decision to take my Campfire Tent and wood stove on this trip. I can't believe I almost went without them. I'm too old to camp this time of year without a proper heat source. I was especially looking forward to this trip because I was going to meet up with forum member Penns Woods. Larry and I would have preferred to go earlier in the season but we both had other obligations. Better late than never as the saying goes. Although I had a lot of great day trips this year I only spent three night out camping, which is pitiful for a retired guy with a canoe tripping bug.

I arrived at the put in at the lower dam later then I planned. The gps on my phone wasn't sending me the usual route. I like to take back roads and am open to the different routes the gps takes me, but this seemed to be taking too long. To make matters worse when in the Adirondaks it took me on the road that accesses Little Tupper Lake and Lake Lila. This was new to me, but I went along. About eight miles in the road came to a dead end and I had to back track. By the time I was approaching the put in I was tired and would have preferred to take a nap then taking off. When I got there and saw there were only a few vehicles there and knowing I had the hot tent with a few Duraflame Logs my attitude changed. Even though there was a light rain coming down I knew that I in a short while I could be warm and comfortable at campsite #4, where I was to meet Larry in a couple days.

At the put in about 3:30


In route and arrival at campsite by 4:30.

The first thing I did was set up the tent and gather some firewood. I was going to forgo using the stove as there was no wind and I wanted to enjoy a fire. It worked great, I stayed warm, cooked up some food and was very comfortable.



The clouds that were present when I started out had moved on and the stars were the best I'd seen in a while. I decided to take a little paddle to get a better view. This is something I rarely have energy for. I guess it's a benefit of only paddling about 2.5 miles to a campsite. I didn't stay out long, maybe just ten minutes as it was cold. I took a couple of pictures. After one shot, I thought I saw a shooting star as I brought the phone down. I was surprised to see that I actually got a picture of it.



I got a good nights sleep and day two started about 6:30. Had a coffee and some sausage and was hoping for an early start. My plan was to head to Lows and explore the far end of the lake. I planned on staying back there at least one night while leaving my base camp set up on Hitchens. I didn't get out until about 9 as the fog was pretty thick. When I did get out I was treated to a spectacular paddle in the breaking fog mixed with blue skies.


This is how I left my base camp.



I made it to the portage to Lows and carried my stuff up over the dam. My goals were to check out Virgin Timbers and Grassy Pond and camp somewhere down there. While inroute I decided to check out the Bog River where it flows into Lows. I hoped to make it to the portage to Clear pond to get an idea what the ports were like, but I came across a beaver dam and decided not to cross it and headed back to Lows. I'll leave that for another day. I made an open water crossing towards Virgin Timber hoping I was reading the map correctly and got there about 5 PM.
Here are some pics from my paddle this day. I put in 15.25 miles. It took 7 hours and 42 minutes which included a stop for a hot lunch and many breaks. My moving time was 5 hours and 45 minutes, averaging 2.6 mph.


my only guess is that this is a muskrat mound, but I've never seen one like iy before. Anyone know what it is?



After getting to camp and collecting wood I set up a tarp. I wanted to see if I could be as comfortable hanging out by the fire using the tarp as I was in the Campfire Tent the night before. It was hard to judge because the wind was blowing off the water pushing smoke into my shelter. I was going to sleep under the tarp, but it didn't turn out as good as I hoped and I noticed lots of small holes in it. Not wanting to risk a bad nights sleep or a wet bag, I set up my tent. I had my MSR tent already packed when I decided to take the Campfire tent and I was glad I left it in there.

Camp was pretty comfortable despite the wind. I was up early, packed and hit the water without breakfast or coffee. I planned to do that at a campsite on Grassy Pond. It was 2.75 miles and took about an hour. I got to watch the sun rise on the way. I quickly made a coffee and boiled water for my Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy. This was only the second freeze dried meal I've had since the 70's and it was good. I had a second coffee and took my time. I took a little walk around and found a pile of cut and split firewood. It had been there quite a while and was slightly wet. I thought that it might burn so I took about half of it. I removed the pack basket from the Duluth pack that I keep it in and filled it with the wood. I felt a little guilty, but I didn't think the person who cut it ever intended to return for it. I paddled back towards the dam into a head wind. The predominant wind on this lake comes out of the west. I ran into that the day before. As luck would have it, it turned around on me and I had to paddle into it again. I paddled 13.6 miles in 7hours 18 minutes. My moving time was a little over 5 hours, with an average 2.7 mph. I got back to my base camp at 2:30


I was happy to be back at my base camp and see that it was undisturbed.

TO BE CONTINUED

Taking a nice slow pace you had time to experience a lot of the area. Site #4 is one I will never stay at again. Luckily you took it In October. It is one of the buggiest sites I have ever stayed at during bug season. Which site did you stay on in Grass pond? Site #31 is by far the best, although #30 gives you the best access to the cliff face of Grass Pond Mountain and the bushwhack navigation to follow up the ridge crest route to the summit. The channel to Bog Lake looks nothing in rality like you would expect from the map. There is normally more than one beaver dam to cross. The old Robinwood resort area is an interesting stop to visit. The portage to Clear Pond is short, than paddle across to the trail leading to the RR tracks and then south to Harrington and Lila is not difficult except for an ankle twisting fractured rock garden at the take out from Harrington.

Thank you for the great report.

Your trip was very similar to one I had taken some years ago - same route, same time of year, same weather, but I stayed at #30. Only saw a kayak close to the lower dam and a quick wave to someone at a distance. It turned out to be one of my favorite ADK trips, and your photo's and prose brought me right back there.

Thank you Al!!

As usual, great pics Al. Thanks for posting the TR.

I haven't been out much this year either but '26 will be different.

This is an area I’ve been wanting to check out. Thanks for posting the trip report. Excited to see the next installment.

Great adventure and thank you for sharing. I as well have barely been out. My first trip of 2025 was mid October.

Great pics, Al. Looks like you had ideal weather.
It's been interesting to see that area changing through the decades. Much improved from the float plane days...
And the scout camp is sold, Open Space Institute bought it, likely to be transferred to NYS in the future.
I would imagine the few seasonal restrictions on specific camp sites will no longer apply.

yknpdlr said:

Taking a nice slow pace you had time to experience a lot of the area. Site #4 is one I will never stay at again. Luckily you took it In October. It is one of the buggiest sites I have ever stayed at during bug season. Which site did you stay on in Grass pond? Site #31 is by far the best, although #30 gives you the best access to the cliff face of Grass Pond Mountain and the bushwhack navigation to follow up the ridge crest route to the summit. The channel to Bog Lake looks nothing in rality like you would expect from the map. There is normally more than one beaver dam to cross. The old Robinwood resort area is an interesting stop to visit. The portage to Clear Pond is short, than paddle across to the trail leading to the RR tracks and then south to Harrington and Lila is not difficult except for an ankle twisting fractured rock garden at the take out from Harrington.

Click to expand...

I wish I was able to take a slower pace, but it was a push to see that much of the lake in two paddling days. From the upper dam it was about 28 miles, and I didn't get back into the bay between Virgin Timber and Grassy pond.

I really liked site #4, but I'll bet it is a buggy one in season. I didn't stay at Grassy Pond. I stayed at Virgin Timber and had coffee and breakfast at site # 32 at Grassy Pond. It was a nice big site with a beach landing. There were rows of wooden pilings behind the site where I imagine a building stood. There was also what looked like the remnants of a road there. When I went up the Bog River it looked like I was pretty close to Bog Lake according to the map. The beaver dam would have been easy to cross, but that area wasn't a priority this trip, it was more of an afterthought. I would like to check it out in the future especially if you can access Lake Lila that way.

Keeled Over said:

Thank you for the great report.

Your trip was very similar to one I had taken some years ago - same route, same time of year, same weather, but I stayed at #30. Only saw a kayak close to the lower dam and a quick wave to someone at a distance. It turned out to be one of my favorite ADK trips, and your photo's and prose brought me right back there.

Thank you Al!!

Click to expand...

It is a beautiful area, and not much traffic at this time. I saw one guy solo, a women solo and three women in one boat. I didn't see any camps set up. I'm glad my pics stirred some memories for you.


It was nice getting back to Hitchens Pond having a camp already set up.
It was a nice quiet evening to hang out by the wood stove. While enjoying its warmth I no longer felt guilty about taking wood from another site. I think it was meant to be.


I thought this shot looked a little spooky, which was appropriate for the season.

As I was lying in the tent thinking about getting up I could hear wind in the trees off in the distance. Shortly after it had reached my site and was blowing off the water directly at me. I moved my tent to a more sheltered location that was out of the direct wind, but still had a view. You would think it was a major operation moving, but it didn't take long at all. It worked out fine, but at this time of year I should pick even more sheltered locations, or at least orient the tent with the opening away from the wind, instead of the exposed locations with good views I prefer.
I was looking forward to this morning and meeting Larry, as he was due to arrive today. My plan was to paddle back towards the lower dam to meet him. It was very windy by this time, the kind of day were you wouldn't travel if you didn't have to, but the trip in is mostly sheltered. I only got about a quarter mile and I saw a canoe coming my way, and it was Larry. We headed to camp, where Larry unloaded and started setting up, after a coffee IIRC. Larry had a small homemade canvas tent. It looked pretty compact and light, with only having two poles. His set up looked real comfortable with the wood stove and a cot. We spent our time in camp as the wind kept up. We spent our time hanging out by my stove for a while and also hung out in his tent, which was much warmer. Either way it was a comfortable camp. We got to bed early, about 8:30. This is usually not good for me as I expected to be up at 2AM wide awake, but I managed to sleep until about 6:00. Since I had my stove going first we had coffee and ham and eggs that Larry brought. I also made toast by placing the bread on a piece of foil with melted butter on it on the stove. It came out good.

Thankfully the wind had died, but it was cold, with ice forming in the cove in front of our campsite. It was quite foggy, reminiscent of a few days before. It was a carbon copy of that great morning I had on
Sunday. Events like this are rare and I felt blessed to have had two of them on one trip. We took a slow paddle and a walk to the upper dam. When we got back I finished packing and headed back to my truck to wrap a great trip. It was great meeting Larry and we plan on doing something in the spring.



It was a beautiful calm morning to paddle out. It was another great trip in The Adirondacks. I find that the reward to effort ratio is very high here, especially this trip. I was glad to get this trip in when I did. With these late season trips it's the amount of darkness that makes me think twice about going. I don't mind the cold too much. Despite the cold the weather was very good this trip, but when it gets bad this time of year it can be rough, to say the least. My system worked great. Even though I had plenty of wood I was glad to have those Duraflame logs with me. Not only do they give you the security of knowing that no matter what the conditions you'll have a fire, but they burn much hotter than fire wood.

I really enjoyed reading your report. I haven't paddled that area since the mid-early 90's; prior to the big blow down. My son and I portaged into Big Deer Pond and over the divide down and out the Oswegatchie. The big white pines on that route were incredible but sadly, I heard that they didn't survive.

I have very fond memories of that trip with my son. However, the ending of that trip was not so much fun. Prior to heading over to Tupper, we dropped my son's beater Toyota wagon (as a shuttle) at the Inlet parking lot and then spent the night sleeping in my van over on the Bog River side. Next morning we began paddling and a couple of days later arrived at Inlet. My son went to unlock his car only to discover he left his keys back in my van! Finding a ride back around Cranberry and Tupper back to the launch was not so much fun but certainly added to the adventure

Thanks for this nice TR, your pictures really made me sorry I missed this trip. I like the idea of base camping at Hitchens Pond. Back when I used to camp at Lows with my small wall tent, Virgin Timber Landing was my favorite site. I have many fond memories of that site.
When you think about how many people live within a days drive of Lows, it’s amazing that you can go there today and experience such solitude. If you walk in the forest surrounding the lake, you won’t see stumps and logging, just old trails amidst mature hardwoods and giant pines.
Now I have all winter to think about how I passed up sharing a campfire with you and Larry. Such is life.
Thanks for sharing your trip.