Back in Maine after 10 years

Just incase you were wondering. The good kayaking in Maine is really far from Lake Placid, New York. I drove a lot this weekend, but had a really good time, doing some really good kayaking, with some really good people.















I rolled into Dartmouth on Friday morning, met up with Xavier and Jeff, and headed over to the Pemi. It was low, but it was on the way and it was my first time there. We had a good time banging down the NH classic and headed into Maine to pick-up Bradford. After leaving lake Placid at 8:00 AM we finally made it to the take-out of the Gulf Hagas at 11:30 pm.















On Saturday mornign our group coninued to grow from 6 people to 10. By the time we put on, we had a really strong crew putting on the Gulf Hagas at an "optimal flow." The Gulf Hagas is certainly a classic run. Really high quality rapids in a beautiful gorge. After a successful first lap four of us headed back up the road for a blazing second run.





























On Sunday we paddled a less than optimally flowing Moxie Stream, but it was still really fun. We began our journey back around 2:00 pm, and I arrived in Lake Placid at 2:00 AM.















I'm tired now, but after a week of work I'll be ready for more.

Thank you to Scott Barnes, and Xavier Engle for the photos

The Path of the Lumbermen

We all know that the Upper Hudson River was used to drive logs from Lake Harris, in Newcombe, to the mills at Glens Falls as early as the 1800's. On the Hudson river crews of three men were charged with the responsibility of traveling sections of the river to break up the log jams. The section from Newcombe through the Hudson River Gorge was regarded as the most dangerous. On Saturday, Justin McGiver and I chose to retrace steps of these brave men, from Newcombe to North Creek in just one day.

After finally locating a spot to put-in on Lake Harris, and being told "you can't get through there" we were off on our voyage. Paddling our boats (me in my Speeder, and Justing in his Pisgah) on the flatwater was surprisingly enjoyable. We just cruised right along and eventually made it under route 28N, and officially on the Hudson River. The river meandered through easy whitewater combined with longer stretchess of flatwater. There was a real feeling of being in the wilderness up there. Time seemd to drag on a little as we got closer to the confluence with the Indian, but once we saw the Cedar coming in from river right we knew we were close.

After reaching the confluence with the Indian, and being back in familiar territory we flew down the river. The rapids were exciting in our 14 foot long boats, but very manageable. We passed a few groups who had put on at the Indian for a run of the gorge like they were standing still. I don't think people were too sure what to think of our little endeavour.

After passing the commercial take-outs time seemed to drag on once again, but we knew were almost to our destination. Once in North Creek were able to walk up to Eric's house from the take-out, change our clothes, and celebrate our accomplishment along with the 51st Hudson River Whitewater Derby.

It was a fun day. We travelled the 30 miles from Newcombe to North Creek in about 5 hours. Worth doing again for sure.

It's a bummer we didn't get any pictures of the whitewater, but we were just going too darn fast.