Adirondack Canoe Trip


Fourteen Scouts and five adult leaders braved the wilderness of New York's Adirondack Park for a week-long canoe trip in mid-July.

The group endured speedboat wakes on Cranberry Lake and a major storm before jumping to the solitude of the Oswegatchie Wild River. Of course, they got rain and high wind there too.

In addition to testing their back country camping skills, the group got a first hand look at damage to the Five Ponds Wilderness from a wind storm one year earlier.

In many places designated campsites were obliterated by fallen timber. A hike of the recently cleared trail from High Falls passed through corridors cut in stacks of old growth white pine and younger trees. Some of the prettiest old growth forest in the country was lost to the "micro burst" of July 1995.

The trip measured 52 miles in length (to the best calculations of Mr. Duncan) and qualifies all for their 50 miler award following completion of 10 hours of work on a conservation project.

Enjoy the pictures from the Troop's first high adventure trip in some time.



The Pictures

Scouts and leaders load their canoes at the Cranberry Lake boat launch on Sunday of their week-long canoe trip.

Obstacles like submerged rocks and stumps had to be watched for on Cranberry Lake.

A crew eats lunch Sunday during a stop on Eagle Island while gulls (not Eagles) squawked overhead for being displaces from the small rocky island in Cranberry Lake.

One group's first night camp at East Inlet on Cranberry Lake



Matt Duncan cooks dinner, left, and later, B.J. Ledinsky and Chip DuMound clean
up while Justin Hofmann shuffles cards for a quick game before dark.

Mr. Headley loads his canoe for the start of the second day on Cranberry Lake. Just after noon a rain storm hit forcing the crew to make an unscheduled stop on Joe Indian Island.

Michael Weeks (aka Bo Bo) cooks under a makeshift vestibule in the rain on Joe Indian Island, left,
and later tends his shoe-drying business, right.

Eric Drda, left, Bryan Machala, Nathan Littleton, center, and Matt Duncan study the map during a trip to the "Black Duck Hole" on the Dead Creek Flow of Cranberry Lake.

Canoes are loaded on Joe Indian Island Wednesday morning for the trip into Wanakena and the move to the Oswegatchie River.

B.J. Ledinsky and his father, Bob, lead a group of canoes heading upstream on the Oswegatchie River.

Justin Funk, right, and his brother, Nathan, battle a blowdown blocking the river.

Chip DuMound has the bath all to himself in a pool above High Falls until...

...the neighborhood gets crowded as EVERYONE decides to try the water

The roof of a shelter at High Falls proved a convenient drying rack
as Matt Duncan inspects their progress. One shelter site on each side
of the river was all that was available as the rest of the campsites
were buried under trees felled a year ago in a windstorm.

Justin Hoffman and Chip DuMound depart High Falls on Saturday for the 13 mile trip to the cars. Downstream was almost as hard as the earlier upstream trip while fighting high winds from the northwest all the way down.

The last canoe is carried to the parking lot at Inlet. Now it was time to load up and head for home.

The crew poses below High Falls on the Oswegatchie River



Photos by Mark Duncan