• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

St Regis Canoe Area Carry Lengths

G

Guest

Guest
Does anyone know of a table or resource that gives the lengths of the carries in the area?

I've done most of them so I have a qualitative idea of how long they are but some are pretty hilly, and may be shorter than they seem.

I've been unable to find a resource that lists all of them.
 
Last edited:
I thought that the book "Adirondack Canoe Waters" by Paul Jamieson might have them, but he just uses mileage when he even discuses distance between the ponds and lakes from what I could gather at a quick glance.
 
Never found any on any source. I have several old maps and the Paddler's Map and nothing on them at all. All I do know is that every year they all get longer and the steeper get steeper.

In Algonquin where Jeff's map has accurate distances I never am right on with portage distance by feel. Often when there are two of us and we are doing the carry and a half thing we put the "halfway point" too far toward the end. Others that are flat and turn out to measure 700 m.. I go "thats all??"

In La Verendrye where some portages go up and down and I know the distancee is 265 m. I swear they left out a 1 before the 2.

Even if you did know the portage lengths you might feel the same as you do now.
 
Thanks for looking guys. I figure it might be a worthy resource in planning in the future.

I think the easiest way is to do all those routes as day trips with no gear. It can easily be done... but where is the fun in that?
 
Dave Cilley's book"The Adirondack Paddler" that's the companion to the map has them collated.
 
Thank you friend. I'll give that a look if I can find it at one of the outfitters. It's not that important that I'd order it...
 
I have the book right here. Which carries? Number them so I can respond by referring to the number please. I forgot about the ADK Paddlers Guide. Its the first edition.

Distances are in tenths of a mile. To me that seems quite imprecise being used to metric measurements. There is a lot of meters in a tenth of a mile.
 
Last edited:
Tenths are fine for what I want to know. But yeah, my heart usually feels like it's going to explode only on those last few meters... so they count.

I'd like them all actually. That may be too much trouble though. The short ones are of no consequence - it takes longer to unload and load the boat than to skip across them (and no I don't hand carry the boat loaded - that's asking to throw out my lower back!)...

1. Little Clear Pond to St. Regis Pond
2. St. Regis Pond to Ochre Pond
3. Little Clear Pond to Green Pond
4. Ochre Pond to Mud Pond
5. Ochre Pond to Fish (if it's listed - the route that bypasses Mud Pond)
6. Fish Pond to Clamshell Pond
7. Clamshell Pond to Turtle Pond
8. Nellie Pond to Long Pond (there is an unnamed beaver pond in the middle of that one, so I don't know if the break it up?)
9. Long Pond to Mountain Pond
10. Long Pond to Floodwood Rd near the Outfitters (I doubt this one is accurate anymore because it's flooded with a beaver pond)

There are a couple others outside of the Canoe area that I'd be interested in if they are listed:

11. Polliwog Pond to Hoel Pond
12. Upper Saranac Lake (via Hatchery Brook) to Little Clear Pond
13. Floodwood Pond to Middle Pond
14. Middle Pond to Polliwog Pond

All the rest are really short, I'd guess 1/4 mile or less.

Thanks for looking!
 
Last edited:
I think next year I'm going to do a biggish loop out there with a side of 7 carries.

1st day: Park the car at the Long Pond lot and launch at Floodwood by the base. Floodwood, Fish Creek, Fish Creek Ponds, and Upper Saranac Lake. Stay the night on Upper Saranac.

2nd day: Upper Saranac, Hatchery Brook, Little Clear Pond, St. Regis Pond, Little Long Pond, Bear Pond, Bog Pond, Upper St. Regis Pond, Spitfire and camp out there somewhere.

3rd day: Back to St. Regis Pond via same route.

4th day: St. Regis, Ochre Pond, Mud Pond, Fish Pond. Camp at Fish Pond

5th day: Fish Pond, Little Fish, Little Long Pond, Nellie Pond, Long Pond. Camp at Long Pond.

6th day: Back to car in the morning.

No way I'm dong the Fish pond carries on the same day.
 
Last edited:
1. Little Clear Pond to St. Regis Pond 0.6 mile
2. St. Regis Pond to Ochre Pond 0.7 mile
3. Little Clear Pond to Green Pond Little Clear to Little Green.. very short there is parking in it
4. Ochre Pond to Mud Pond 1.0 mile
5. Ochre Pond to Fish (if it's listed - the route that bypasses Mud Pond) 1.2 miles..with bypass
6. Fish Pond to Clamshell Pond book doesn't mention it that I can find.. maybe cause 7 is closed. Looks about half a mile
7. Clamshell Pond to Turtle Pond CLOSED
8. Nellie Pond to Long Pond (there is an unnamed beaver pond in the middle of that one, so I don't know if the break it up?) 1.6 miles
9. Long Pond to Mountain Pond doesnt say . Just to portage so you can hike.
10. Long Pond to Floodwood Rd near the Outfitters (I doubt this one is accurate anymore because it's flooded with a beaver pond) 0.8 0.5 n to s to beaver pond

There are a couple others outside of the Canoe area that I'd be interested in if they are listed:

11. Polliwog Pond to Hoel Pond 0.75 mile
12. Upper Saranac Lake (via Hatchery Brook) to Little Clear Pond I see it but the book does not mention its length.. looks over a mile.
13. Floodwood Pond to Middle Pond 0.5 mile
14. Middle Pond to Polliwog Pond 0,4 mile

I have the 2008 book that I don't really care for that much. IMO distances should be on any map. The book does give trip ideas but in some ways the details are hard to correlate with a trip. There might be more recent editions.
 
Great thanks!

On 3 - I meant the other Green Pond - there is a smaller pond North of Little Clear that is just called Green Pond. Little Green Pond is smaller (confusing huh?).

I'd say some of those distance seem wrong to me... for instance - Ochre to Mud and Ochre to Fish. No way the difference is 0.2! It's quite a ways. I bet it's at least 0.2 just from Mud to Fish, and then Mud Pond is at least 0.3. I bet it's closer to 1.5...
 
Clamshell to Turtle opens and closes depending on the beavers, according to the helpful kid at the outfitter's shop a few years ago.

One of the reasons I like a 1:50k scale map is that I'm very used to it, and can break the 1km squares very conveniently into 1/4s, 1/3s, and halves, of 250, 333, or 500m, just by looking at them... provided the map is accurate, this is good enough for me... but it sure would be nice to know down to the nearest meter how long a portage is.

I think the map deliberately omits the portage lengths in order to force you to buy the book with it, though I do like the descriptions of each portage as given in the book.
 
Back
Top