Essex Chain of Lakes (Adirondacks)

[Adk Keith]

I found a few hours on Sunday and decided to finally do a quick trip to Essex Chain of Lakes. This was recently acquired by the state and I had not been in there before so I thought a bit of a recon was in order. I got to the empty parking lot at the Deer Pond Access a little before 3 pm and made my way down to Deer Pond and over to Third Lake.

I made my way down Third Lake with the wind at my back. Resident loon was not shy about letting me know that this was his lake.

The weedy entrance to Fourth Lake.

Fourth Lake

Unique entrance into Fifth Lake

Fifth Lake

Unfortunately, I hit my turnaround time at Fifth Lake and went no further. So back through the culvert.

When I got back to Third Lake the wind had increased to whitecaps, but with a little work I got back to the carry to Deer Pond.

While not pristine wilderness by any means, the paddling here certainly has a lot of potential as some other trippers have noted. I checked out a couple of campsites and all were lightly used and the prohibition of fires definitely helps mitigate the impact of camping. When I got back to the sign in I noticed that almost all the users this summer were day trips.

I made it back to the car by 6:00 with just under 7 miles of travel, only 1 1/2 miles of which were carries. I like that kind of ratio!

 

[Srobocop]

Looks like a very cool area. How long has the state had it? Do they have any big plans with the area?

 

[Adk Keith]

Looks like a very cool area. How long has the state had it? Do they have any big plans with the area?

The state got it in 2013. Here's the DEC info page. http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/91888.html

It's crisscrossed with logging roads and there are still private camps on Third Lake (and maybe others) but it is an interesting area.