I have only paddled in the Adirondacks once before - Long Lake to Saranac Village. With family obligations and limited vacation time, the RICKA trip never made it to the top of my list of things to do. Since I am now retired things have changed. My trip this year will have two parts – 4-days (Friday to Monday) tripping on the Oswegatchie River with Aaron, and then 5-days (Monday to Saturday) base camping at Lake Eaton Campground and doing day trips with Bill and the RICKA crew.
Oswegatchie River
The Oswegatchie trip will be up-and-back from Inlet to High Falls – about 22 miles round trip. The river meanders through the Five Ponds Wilderness Area - a massive state forest that contains one of the largest stands of old-growth forest in the Northeast.
There are 30 to 40 primitive campsites and several lean-tos along this 11-mile stretch, so there will be plenty of campsites to choose from. Depending how things go, we will probably spend our first night at High Rock (sites 41A and 431B). If we make it a little further, another nice site is at the Wolf Pond Trail (site 22). At High Falls there are two campsites and a lean-to down a 450-foot portage trail on river right.
On our lay-over day we can either paddle upstream above High Falls or hike over to Cat Mountain, which has great views of the surrounding wilderness and Cranberry Lake. The hiking route is 8.6-miles round trip on the Plains Trail to the Cowhorn Junction Trail (passes alongside Glasby Pond) to the Cat Mountain Trail.
On Monday, we paddle back from High Falls to Inlet. Aaron heads home and I head to Lake Eaton Campground to meet the RICKA crew.
Day Trips from Lake Eaton
At Lake Eaton, I’ll be sharing a campsite and paddling with Bill. We'll be paddling my Spirit II. I haven’t done a lot of base-camping, so I needed to upgrade some of my gear. I got a new base-camping tent, a cot, large and small folding camping tables and a 16’ x 12’ tarp.
In terms of trips, there are lots to choose from. Here are some of the trips that RICKA has done in the past:
- Raquette Lake
- Forked Lake
- Little Tupper Pond
- Bog River-Lowes Lake
- Rich Lake
- Upper Saranac Lake
- Middle Saranac Lake (Upper Locks and Hungry Bay-Weller Pond)
- Second Pond (Lower Locks-Oseetah-Kiwassa)
- Lower Saranac Lake
- Raquette River (Axton Landing to The Crusher, Axton Landing to Raquette Falls, Axton Landing to Stony Creek Pond, Crusher to Tupper Lake)
- Long Lake
- Round Lak
- Lake Lila
- Oswegatchie River
- Rollins Pond
- Boreas Ponds
- Lewey Lake – Miami River
Links:
Lake Eaton Campground
Five Ponds Wilderness
Five Ponds Wilderness map
Five Ponds West Map (GeoPDF)
Five Ponds East Map (Geo PDF)
Suggested trips from St Regis Canoe Outfitters
