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Long Lake Parks and Recreation has launched a Hiking and Paddling Challenge that includes a variety of outings in the region stretching to Raquette Lake. There are 24 activities on the card with over 50 miles of hiking, 3 mountains, one fire tower, one Adirondack Great Camp and nine paddles enabling participants to achieve a variety of patches.
Posts Tagged ‘Paddling’
Long Lake/Raquette Lake Hiking and Paddling Challenge
Celebrate Paddling back after COVID hiatus
The organizers of Celebrate Paddling month are excited to announce that the month-long paddling festival is back.
Nearly all of our 2020 events had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the lack of events and races, people took to the water in droves, as interest in outdoor recreation boomed. Already, local outfitters are seeing this trend carry over into 2021, even as COVID restrictions are lifted.
Celebrate Paddling began in 2016 with the goal of featuring paddlesport events, races, presentations, guided trips, river clean-ups and more in Saranac Lake. Over the years, the event has expanded to include surrounding Tri-Lakes area communities, including Lake Clear and Tupper Lake.
This year, our schedule includes two races — the Tupper Lake 8-Miler on June 26 and the Celebrate Paddling Invitational on June 27 — as well as virtual presentations, river clean-ups on the Saranac and Raquette rivers and guided trips in the St. Regis Canoe Wilderness.
The Tri-Lakes area offers some of the best paddling in all of upstate New York and the Northern Forest. We hope you’ll join us this month at some of our offerings. You can find the schedule and other details at celebratepaddlingadk.com.
What’s on your Adirondack summer bucket list?
People all over the country are flocking outside during this pandemic summer. And recent top stories from AdirondackExplorer.org and AdirondackAlmanack.com reflect the strangeness of recreating amid Covid-19, I as wrote about in my weekly “Adk News Briefing” e-mail newsletter. (Click here to subscribe to it.)
I’m curious to know what’s on your Adirondack summer “to do” list. Have you tried something new this summer? Have you joined the crowds or ventured into more remote territory? Feel free to leave a comment or share an email: [email protected]
Paddling and Covid-19
I have such gratitude for the Adirondack woods and waters during this Covid-19 pandemic. Paddling my solo canoe is the best. When I’m with friends, we easily keep our social distance as we float on the open waters and maneuver up a stream bed.
Keeping six-feet away from the crowds at canoe access sites this summer is another matter. Often it’s difficult finding a parking spot with enough room to keep clear of others walking around their cars while lifting canoes and kayaks. My friends and I wear our masks, but not all do. Families are relieved that their kids can run around, which they do in the parking lots and beaches that serve as canoe and kayak put-in and take-outs. I stick with water access points that are maintained for use by cartop water craft, rather than launching sites appropriate for motor boats.
DEC Proposes More Recreation Access In Croghan Tract
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the release of a draft Recreation Management Plan (RMP) for the Croghan Tract Conservation Easement in Lewis County in the Western Adirondacks.
DEC is now inviting the public to share comments and ask questions about the draft plan at a public meeting and/or to submit comments on the draft RMP during the 30-day public comment period. » Continue Reading.
Plans Afloat For New Ownership of 90-Miler, Other Races
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) and the Adirondack Watershed Alliance (AWA) are working towards a transfer of AWA events and activities, including the Adirondack Canoe Classic, to NFCT’s care before the launch of the 2021 paddling season.
AWA, managed by Brian and Grace McDonnell for over two decades, currently coordinates the ‘Round the Mountain Canoe and Kayak Race and the Celebrate Paddling Invitational in Saranac Lake, the Long Lake Long Boat Regatta, and the Adirondack Canoe Classic, known more commonly as the 90-Miler. » Continue Reading.
Upper Saranac Shoreline Protected Along Canoe Route
The Adirondack Land Trust purchased five acres of forest along the shore of Upper Saranac Lake to ensure that a mile-long stretch of shoreline between Indian Carry and Indian Point remains forever wild.
The tract features 570 feet of rugged lakeshore edged by boulders and northern white cedars. The Adirondack Land Trust is expected to work with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to transfer the land to the state to close a gap in the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, which is protected under the “forever wild” clause of New York’s constitution as part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. » Continue Reading.
The Longest Adirondack Rivers
How many times have we seen the Adirondack mountains ranked by height, the tallest 46 separated into a revered category of their own?
There’s a club and way of life dedicated to hiking the 46, and a Lake Placid restaurant offers 46 different sandwiches named for the peaks.
For a change, today we list the largest streams in the Adirondack region.* » Continue Reading.
Dealing with the Environmental Effects of Flooding
Heavy rain has led to historic flooding in parts of the Adirondacks. Waters are receding, but the clean up and repairs will continue for some time as Adirondackers return to flooded homes and camps. Some will return to flooded outbuildings, destroyed docks and shoreline changes.
Building owners with flooded basements should check for sheens or odors from gasoline, oil or substances that may have leaked from fuel oil storage tanks, furnaces or motorized equipment before pumping out water. » Continue Reading.
Lorraine Duvall: A Visit to Paddle Boreas Ponds
“I’m from Canajoharie, the others from Albany and Catskill,” a women said when I saw her with two friends on Boreas Ponds last week.
“We met through the Facebook page ‘Paddling in the Adirondacks’ and we’ve been going on trips together ever since,” she said, “often driving hours, as we did today.”
These three middle-age women in their colorful kayaks were among the twenty or so paddlers I saw on the a trip to Boreas Ponds on a partly sunny, 60-degree Fall day. » Continue Reading.
Battles Over Boreas Ponds Brought Access to Wild Lands
Just after Labor Day weekend this year, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) completed its work to fully open up public access to the Boreas Ponds, in the southern High Peaks Wilderness Area. These beautiful ponds are now easily accessible for people to either canoe or to hike.
New state facilities were constructed over the past two years to rehabilitate the six-mile-long Gulf Brook Road, build parking lots, public education kiosks, a canoe carry and canoe launches to make this extraordinary natural wonder fully accessible to the public.
The reconstructed road and new access points opens a new southern gateway to the High Peaks Wilderness Area and makes easily reachable one of the most scenic and visually dramatic areas in the Adirondacks. Paddling through the network of three inter-connected waterways gives one the sensation of paddling through mountaintops. » Continue Reading.
90-Miler Adirondack Canoe Classic Results for 2019
The three-day 90-Miler Adirondack Canoe Classic starts in Old Forge and ends in Blue Mountain Lake on day one; starts in Long Lake and ends near Tupper Lake day two; and starts at the NYSDEC Fish Creek Campground Day 3 and finishes on Lake Flower in Saranac Lake.
This year, of the 250 boats that started the event on Friday, 235 finished on Sunday. » Continue Reading.
Nicks Lake Campground In Old Forge Gets Upgrades
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has recently completed of upgrades to Nicks Lake Campground on Bisby Road in Old Forge, Herkimer County.
The campground is known for it’s wildlife friendly surroundings and abuts a 205-acre shallow lake closed to motor boats for quiet water canoeing, kayaking, or swimming. » Continue Reading.
Several 70-Year-Olds Rescued in the Adirondacks
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people from the Adirondack backcountry.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers in the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.
Planning A Safe Backcountry Adventure
Always check weather and trail conditions, regulations, and advisories before heading out on an outdoor adventure.
Know before you go:
Latest News Headlines
- Succession planning: Conservation Easements can preserve farmland, pay owner
- Night skiing and economic planning in Tupper Lake
- Small businesses: The heart of a community
- Winter hiking is difficult, but I still enjoy it more than summer adventures
- Upstate NY waterfalls frozen in time
- Saranac Lake native, economic development leader to head the APA
- Adirondack Park Agency recruits Adirondack Council leader for key post
- APA director Terry Martino to retire
- Environment ranks high in New York's 2023 budget
- North Country interests call for restored funding for northernmost visitor center
Latest News Headlines
- Succession planning: Conservation Easements can preserve farmland, pay owner
- Night skiing and economic planning in Tupper Lake
- Small businesses: The heart of a community
- Winter hiking is difficult, but I still enjoy it more than summer adventures
- Upstate NY waterfalls frozen in time
- Saranac Lake native, economic development leader to head the APA
- Adirondack Park Agency recruits Adirondack Council leader for key post
- APA director Terry Martino to retire
- Environment ranks high in New York's 2023 budget
- North Country interests call for restored funding for northernmost visitor center
The Adirondack Almanack
The Adirondack Almanack is a public forum dedicated to promoting and discussing current events, history, arts, nature and outdoor recreation and other topics of interest to the Adirondacks and its communities
We publish commentary and opinion pieces from voluntary contributors, as well as news updates and event notices from area organizations. Contributors include veteran local writers, historians, naturalists, and outdoor enthusiasts from around the Adirondack region. The information, views and opinions expressed by these various authors are not necessarily those of the Adirondack Almanack or its publisher, the Adirondack Explorer.
General inquiries about the Adirondack Almanack should be directed to editor Melissa Hart.
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