Snowy May Lows Lake Trip 2017

[latremorej]

My father, brother and I plan a canoe camping trip every spring. The problem with my job is that I have to pick my whole years vacations in December. It usually works out just fine, but this year, when the forecast grew steadily colder and colder as the ten-day forecast became the weekend forecast we had a decision to make. Bail and go trout fishing from home, or pack some extra clothes and tough it out? Well given that I started this thread, I suppose you know what we decided.

Thursday night at about 10 PM I drove my wife's Town and Country into the work parking lot fully loaded to include the canoe strapped to the roof. That got a few chuckles. ( I work in the heart of Brooklyn) I knocked out the night's work in short order (technically, it's my Friday morning) and pulled out of the parking lot headed North by 0430. The canoe trip doesn't start until Saturday so I have half a day to try to get used to being awake like a normal human before we head out to our imminent frozen death. (Dad bailed out... too cold and wet)

Sometime around 1000, we arrived at the lower dam at Lows with sunshine and a nice South breeze. Surprise! 6 or 7 cars in the parking lot! Man, this place is getting popular! At least its nice now... maybe the forecast will change for the better after all!

In no time we had everything in the canoe and were paddling into Hitchins Pond.

Ahhhhhh, VACATION.... No matter what time of year it is, a cigar and a good beer always mark the beginning of a well-deserved vacation!

When we arrived at the upper dam I realized that I must have dropped the pin holding the wheel on my canoe dolly. (no need to carry anything here!) We improvised with a hardwood twig

Crooked photos!

After we had all of our gear up to the top of the trail we decided to have lunch on the wannigan. This one's for you Mem!

More to follow......

 

[deerfly]

what, no safety tie on the wooden cotter pin to keep it from falling out?

Actually looking forward to what happens when the fly rod comes out of the case. Hopefully the weather worked out for you guys too, but I guess we'll find out soon enough...

 

[latremorej]

The clouds are now beginning to pile in now but the temp is still plenty warm as we passed by site #12 we decided to push on and try for the lake proper.

Shortly after I snapped this photo, a mass of very "heavy" clouds were starting to appear to the South. Man, for once the weather man may be right. That stationary low pressure has that jet stream thingy messing this all up.

We paddled with a purpose around the point past the BSA camp and tried for site 14 as its more protected from the usual West wind. Occupied! The sky opened up with large cold drops and we boogied back to 13 on the point hoping the storm would pass quickly.

After an hour or so of 20MPH West winds, driving rain, and Whitecaps as far as the eye could see, we decided to make the best of the night there on #13 (my lucky number) with the kitchen tarp already set up, we re-hydrated some spaghetti and meat sauce that I had prepared the week before.

Wannigan all set up for dinner! The cheapo burner is under the large pot boiling the spaghetti and water!

Dinner is in the Coozie, now we wait and watch the rain come in!

The fire pit at this site is located right at the water's edge, almost anyways. the green tarp is covering that with some dry wood laying under it. we never even thought about trying to start a fire that evening!

MMMMMMMMMMM

Spaghetti!

After dinner, we didn't even wait for it to get dark. Bedtime. We didn't pull out the headlamps once during the next 5 days! (other than this picture lol)

Cont'

 

[latremorej]

what, no safety tie on the wooden cotter pin to keep it from falling out?

Actually looking forward to what happens when the fly rod comes out of the case. Hopefully the weather worked out for you guys too, but I guess we'll find out soon enough...

Yeah, no safety ties... I know better


Fly rod? What fly rod? No fly rod here!

 

[latremorej]

We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of more rain hitting the tent and lots of wind. Early in the am hours of darkness the loons decided to get busy seemingly close to our site. Breakfast consisted of instant oatmeal and black coffee in the java press. Before we fired up the stove a wind break was a necessity.

At least we didn't have to drink warm beer!

At this point, we were committed to staying on this wind blown site as we have collected a pile of dry firewood that we stashed under the tarp before the rain got too steady. A maple lost a large limb not too long ago that had this springs green buds on it. No good to burn but it turned out to be the solution to our windy fire pit location. Always bring extra cord!

The wind was blowing hard, the white caps were rolling in. Hopefully, the wind would give us an opportunity to get some fishing in.

As usual, the photo doesn't do it justice, there is a lot of tension on that Cooke Custom tarp! We were warm and dry behind it. lots of rain squalls and more wind to follow.

Early in the afternoon, we started our first campfire to dry out our wet feet and pants.

We did have a short window and got out to wet the lines for a few minutes. Fish were caught and released. No pics though, it was pretty rough in the canoe and I am using my smart phone as a camera. The rain and wind came back up and we headed back to camp for some Tyson chicken packets with Knorr Spanish Rice behind the wind tarped kitchen up on the hill. The sleeping bag called early again that night. The temps really began sinking and every exhale looked as if you were smoking a cigarette.


Cont'

 

[martin2007]

For some reason only a few of the photos (4 on the 2nd post), none on the first, are loading for me. Is it just my computer?

 

[Odyssey]

Same here. I can only see a couple photos, but wow that wind was blowing!! That storm should've had a name!

 

[latremorej]

Monday morning, a look out at the vestibule of our tent

See it?

No introduction need there! Early May in Northern NY, not as far as Maine, Canada, or Alaska, but far enough I guess. Not that it was a surprise... I did grow up here, after all, saw it before, later in the year than this. Heck, one year I pulled the canoe behind me up the access road to the lower dam in 8" of snow, paddled up to Hitchins to find it still locked up tight this same week. Anyways, the wind was still howling. The snow and rain showers came and went all day long. We didn't even pull the canoe into the water today.

The rain water we were collecting off the tarp for the morning coffee was stiff and had to be broken up.

The loons didn't seem to mind the cold. They were calling to each other on the regular.

The sun popped out for a while, it warmed up to about 38-40 degrees and all of the snow melted.

Soon enough it was lunch time again. Spam roasted over a fire, YUMMM

The wind and rain came rolling back in and we were once again trapped behind our makeshift lean-to for the afternoon.

 

[latremorej]

For some reason only a few of the photos (4 on the 2nd post), none on the first, are loading for me. Is it just my computer?

Odd, when I log in with my phone, all the photos show. I dunno? Maybe slow on my loading end? Are they there now?

 

[latremorej]

Onward

Dinner time! Since we had a fire already and my wannigan has a reflector oven in it.... a camp fire pizza was in order! Dehydrated pizza sauce:

My new emberlit Titanium Fire Ant stove doing a great job! Just a simmer!

Home made reflector oven with a grandma pie in it!

Its a hit!

 

[latremorej]

More snow, rain and wind was the calling for the rest of the day!

The view of Grass Pond Mtn was come and go

Is it a bad sign if only one side of the tree is wet and sow covered?

 

[latremorej]

Off to work, more tomorrow. I hope the pics are showing up.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

No pics!!!

 

[Canotrouge]

I can't see any of the pictures!

 

[stripperguy]

How vexing...we're all dying to see those photos.
Earlier, I could see a couple photos, now nothing!!

 

[deerfly]

I can see all the pic's?

Looks like dad called it, but at least you guys made the best of a rough situation. Although spam on a stick over an open fire isn't quite my idea of a touche' against mother nature. Thick cut ribeye's yeah, spam not so much, the other stuff looked pretty good though...

I almost bought one of those emberlit stoves too, but settled on the titanium firebox nano instead, which is smaller of course, but suits my needs a little better. I love that style of stove though, easy to pack and they do a great job, fun to use too since you're making fire.

 

[yknpdlr]

a big zero on the photos loading here. Too bad, since I am very familiar with the area, having been in there more than 30 times over the years as a guide training instructor. The wind and waves definitely can get bad at times.

 

[latremorej]

I'm not sure what to do about the photos, I have them uploaded into the Google photos thingy, I copy the photo, then hit paste on the thread. I will have to go and download them onto my computer and try to upload them directly to the site I guess. I would have done that from my phone (that's where all the pics are) but even that is failing to convert for some reason....

 

[stripperguy]

If your photos are on Google Photos, you should be able to right click on any individual photo and choose "Copy Image Location".
Then on this site, you can use the insert image icon to paste the URL and check the box to "Retrieve remote file and reference locally".

If that doesn't work for you (and us) you could use the share icon in Google Photos and copy the link created when you click on the "Get Link" button.
That would allow everyone to view your entire album...

 

[southcove]

no photo's here either. No comment on the spam on the stick, but I have enjoyed pouch chicken and Knorrs spanish rice a few times, helps to have a steady hand on the seasoning.