Calvin and I have been desperately waiting to take some vacation time together. During the last week of August, we both managed to take a week off and we'd been planning a route in the Adirondacks to canoe. We chose the Whitney Loop in the Whitney Wilderness which was about 55 miles of paddling and portaging. We hoped to be able to finish within 5-7 days. This was our vacation, so we planned to take some time to relax. Having just bought our new Wenonah canoe (a Minnesota II), a new waterproof barrel pack, and dry bag pack, this would be the test of our new gear that we planned to take on NFCT. It would also be a test of how fast we could paddle and portage, not to mention, a test of our relationship.
We left early Saturday and got up to Little Tupper Lake around noon, where we would leave from. A ranger came and asked us where we were headed. You could tell he knew we weren't yuppies once we told him we were doing the loop (and clearly had the right gear). We couldn't help but ask him how long the loop had taken him when he said he had paddled it early summer. 4 days, 3 nights, pushing it and doing double carries on portages. Calvin and I figured that based off that, our time estimate was pretty reasonable.
Little Tupper was as calm as can be and we paddled off on mirror-like water. It was incredible. For a big lake to be that calm is rare. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed a swim together. It was vacation after all. A few hops over beaver dams and we set up camp at a nice site on Rock Pond. Surprisingly, there seemed to be more people on the pond than the lake. We enjoyed some of the beer we brought and a few hot dogs before paddling out for a sunset view.
Early in the morning, we paddled across the pond to our first portage. We hoped to be able to carry everything in one trip. Calvin loaded me up with my barrel, dry bag pack, and paddles in hand. I was quite unstable. I already knew that we had packed way too much food (all food was in the barrel). We packed a little extra given that it was vacation, but the 50-60lbs of food was far too much. Calvin had a heavier load with his dry bag, day pack, and our canoe on his shoulders. We didn't make it especially far before having to set down our packs. We tried this for a while, just taking breaks, and then reverted to a double carry, frog hopping our gear on the trail. It felt as though the portage would never end. I was later told that it had been 2 miles or so. Needless to say, I was very glad to see water.
We lunched (eating our heaviest food) and paddled the depressingly short distance to our next portage. Luckily, this one was only 0.3 miles that led us out to a river. After the first portage, we were fairly certain we wouldn't see many people anymore. Now, it really felt like we were out there, in the best sense possible. The river had a cool grassy marsh like feel with a hint of fall coming. This brought us into a pond and another portage (0.3) to Lilypad. Even 0.3 miles was beginning to feel long. It was getting late. We paddled across the pond to where we hoped to set up camp for the night, only everything was brambles. It took us about half of the portage to find a place under some pines to camp. I was just about checked out for the day. My tail bone was hurting from the not so great harness for the barrel and all I really wanted to do was set up camp right there at the start of the portage, but we couldn't. Calvin pulled up the slack and got the majority of our gear to our chosen camp spot and we turned in for the night.
In the morning, we started fresh. Being over the second day hump, I was feeling good and strong. The barrel was feeling lighter. Calvin loaded me up to one way carry and the same for himself and we made quick work of the rest of the portage. We paddled a stream that led us into Lake Lila. As we neared the lake, two bald eagles flew in front of us! Lila was kicked up a little. We stopped at a campsite to layer up and snack. It was such a gorgeous site that begged us to stay, but it was only 10am or so and we wanted to push on.
We expected to find a brook to paddle into at the end of the lake, but instead, we found another portage. Calvin and I geared up, expecting a long portage now, only to find that about 0.3 miles in, we were able to put in and paddle up to the next portage. We were very thankful for this. Markings for the portages were getting more difficult to spot, marked only by one piece of flagging sometimes in an overgrown mess. The next portage was mostly along an old railroad which was pretty exciting and led us to Clear Pond. What a beautiful spot. We decided to stay and find what we believe is the singular campsite on the pond. The resident loons serenaded us for the evening. The two of us were quickly becoming an efficient team in setting up came. I put up the tent and bedding while Calvin cooked on his whisperlite stove.
In the morning, we were socked in by fog. As we paddled out, there was a calm, peaceful, and slightly eerie feeling as the sun broke through the fog. Unsure of the portage route, we opted to bushwhack down to Bog Lake. This led into Low's Lake which was a long stretch of paddling. At the upper dam, we lunched and set off as quickly as possible. We were starting to see a lot more people now. After the lower dam, we strapped everything into our boat, expecting to be paddling whitewater. Nope, nope nope. We tried tracking one section without much luck and chose to take the trail after a few in and outs of the boat. We walked a lot more than we expected. The 2 miles we had hoped to paddle was now walking. Both growing tired and frustrated, mostly at the difficulty and some gear challenges, I was ready to call it quits for the night when we made it to the next part that was supposedly paddleable. Calvin pushed us to continue more in hopes of finding a better campsite. We tried without luck and back tracked into the converging stream to a spot that was actually a site.
We woke to rain in the morning. Again, we tried to paddle the upstream section, but found some sort of trail and took it instead. 2 more miles until the next lake. We believe we took a wrong turn somewhere because we ended up at an old log landing and bushwhacked the .17 miles back to the water. All along, we were utilizing Calvin's GPS and had the water mostly within site, so we were by no means lost. Bushwhacking proved difficult as Calvin carried our canoe, Chip, overhead through dense evergreen. Eventually, we put in off a beaver trail and paddled a short while before carrying the rest of the way to Round Lake. Woohoo! Our joy in reaching the lake and knowing we had completed our last portage was immeasurable. A few miles across the lake, under the road, and into Little Tupper and we were home free. Little Tupper was unlike it had been before. Now it was kicked up, but we made okay time still. By hours, we finished in 4 days and 1 hour. Our plan of slow vacation mode had sort of gone out the window. All along, we had really been testing our limits and seeing how well and fast we could paddle. Why not push it a little?
In the end, it was an amazing trip. We're thrilled with our canoe. We plan on tweaking our pack system. I love my barrel, but the harness system that comes with it is lousy, so we are making adjustments. Calvin has a dry bag, but wants a better way to rest the canoe on it when it is over his head. This time, he had the bag attached to an external frame pack which he wasn't thrilled with. Wheels are another big question.
We expect to have more times on NFCT when we will get mad at each other. We're not unrealistic about that. But overall, we made a great team and we push ourselves (and each other). I surprised myself with how well I was able to push on during the difficult moments and carry my weight of the gear. We can't wait for NFCT!
Check out more of our trip photos here and more of our NFCT trip planning here.
A little video from when we thought we were done with portages.....we were not.
