Today began with the carry past Raquette Falls. It was a little bit over a mile. We started by carrying gear, but switched to wheeling with a light load in the boat because it was manageable. We found that lifting the canoe over bumpy sections helped reduce the jerking motions on our wheels.
Before nearing the end, we took a side trail to view the lower falls. The water was ripping pretty good. We snacked before putting the boat in near the Ranger Station. As an NFCT intern, I remember working on the Raquette River and the Ranger, Gary (I believe), had shown us the trail along the river and the carry route. I never actually imagined carrying it myself one day as an NFCT thru paddler, but here I was. Gary had us interns over one night for a delicious meal with venison and Yeungling at his cabin and we paddled back to our campsite by moonlight.
Calvin and I paddled out onto the Raquette as it began to rain. It was a cold drizzly rain. I put my gloves on, but they offered little warmth and I got colder. Soon, I was on the side of the bank layering up in just about everything I had, even fleece gloves with mitten shells.
We paddled by what I thought was the retaining wall at a site that we had fixed in 2014. It looked very different with the water so high. I had remembered stairs, but there were none to be seen right now.
The Raquette led into Stony Creek which had lots of trees and bushes. With the water so high, sometimes we just wove between everything like a maze, following our GPS which led us into beautiful Stony Creek Ponds.
After lunch, we took the carry into the Saranacs. Wheels continue to hold up, but Calvin thinks we should get new ones in Saranac Lake just to be safe. We plan to ship a bunch of excess items home too. We had one last carry for the day from Upper Saranac to Middle Saranac. Then we cruised across Middle. I wanted to call it quits for the day, but we pushed on to find a good campsite.
The first locks on the Saranac River were very cool and this brought us to a very beautiful campsite on Lower Saranac. Bug free! Hooray! It was finally sunny too. We mixed up some falafel that we ate with honey in wraps because it was what we had. Calvin said it was his first ‘satisfying vegetarian meal’. I call that a success!
