I will be going thru there next year via hwy 3 and I’m looking for suggestions for the above…I will need to rent a kayak while there and hope to be able to do so in the nearby area.
If not, are any of you near there, and we could hook up for a paddle,and I could rent a kayak from you?
I remember seeing threads about Tupper Lake and wondered about paddling near there.
I am going to be traveling with my bike and I don’t have a hitch for my kayak for this one…I am hooking up with other bikers to ride NY, VT, NH and Maine next year…
Raquette River Outfitters…
has locations in both Tupper Lake and Long Lake. Both locations are on the water. You can park and rent a kayak at either location, put in right there and do a 2 day+ trip to the take out at their other location (Tupper Lake, Raquette River, Long Lake). They’ll move the car for you. If you want to go really remote, they can provide shuttle to and from recommended places in the area as well. 518-359-3228
PS Try a pack canoe instead (of course I’m bias).
Linda…
You’re just trying to appease us. Your bike has supplanted your QCC, and it’s not happy. Get a hitch and bring the QCC.
Andy
No can do Andy!
I will be traveling thru mountains and it’s not a good thing for this bike to haul anything around with that going on…I am looking to upgrade to a Triumph Rocket 3 Touring bike in the future and I will be able haul my kayak with that bike…
Thanks for the info BTW. And no, I won’t allow just anybody to park my bike…HAHA! I would prolly just do some local paddling…no extended paddling…
Second the canoe
If you are going to rent anyway - a pack canoe paddles double bladed, so that’ll be familiar, and gives you a lot more route options because they portage better than a kayak.
I will probably be adding a canoe to the fleet sometime this coming season specifically because once retired I’ll have time to do some of the Adirondack Mountain Club trips up there.
Hey Linda
do it in the fall and you can paddle and camp the three day ninty miler.
Over 250 canoes, kayaks and guide boats.
It is a happening that you won’t get over
We can even throw an extra yak on the truck roof for you.
check with Mac’s Canoe livery if you can’t make the 90 miler.
They will fix you up with a boat.
Cheers,
JackL
Cranberry Lake
There is a marina right on Rt 3 at Cranberry lake, which will rent you a bunch of Old Town 11ft-12ft rec kayaks. However, they seem to be for sale and the OT Loon that we rented was missing a foot peg so can’t really vouch for their quality. They did allow us to take it off their property so we could launch from Wanakena (the south part of Cranberry lake) because it’s kind of more interesting down there and we were short on time (rather than paddle the length).
I see Tupper lake is already mentioned here…
If you can find a rental and go south on Rt 30… Little Tupper Lake is a very nice non-motorized lake to paddle on… or Long Lake is a nice bigger lake…
Jay
I’ll be stashing any info I get here in
my info bag. I don’t mind what shape a rental is in, so long I can stay afloat! HAHA!! And if it’s a widess barge that’s okay too as long a s I get to paddle on this trip. The last couple of trips were NON paddling and I had planned to paddle- circumstances kept me from paddling so this time I WILL paddle dmnit!! I will have the 1st week to myself and can come and go when I want so I will ste up camp somewhere near a paddling rental outfitter store…
do it all
take an overnighter from Long Lake to Axton Landing or further west to Tupper Lake…there are a couple of access areas along rt.3. One portage of about 1.25 miles
Also Upper Saranac, Middle and Lower Saranac to Ossetah and Flower.
LTL-Rock Pond is good for a day trip( it has campsites for overnight)…also another overnight would be Lows Lake. Both near Tupper Lake
Cranberry Lake cont…
OK…there is a nice ice cream place across from the Marina…
Also there is a NY DEC Camping a bit west of the marina on Rt 3… it’s called…“Cranberry Lake…” duh! And there is some limited hiking right from the campsite to Bear mtn…
Rt 3 is a nice road to bike, wide shoulder, it’s pretty remote outside the towns once you get pass where Paul Smiths College is and then pass the town of Tupper lake. After Cranberry lake, you go through a neat smaller town of Wanakena and then eventually you’ll get to Star lake…
There’s a bar in the town of Cranberry lake too…
Jay
Really?
A biker bar? HAHA!! D*mn, sorry that’s my biker stuff popping out! HAHA!! I am scouting that area on my way to our cottage stay for our bike group next year…I’ll need to record gas stop areas, biker bars for food stops, etc. I hope I will be able to get in there and outta there on 150 kilometers as that’s when I start looking for gas stations for a fill
Portaging is OUT for me with my back
and shoulders the way they are…remember I broke my back last year and my collarbone has ahd 2 surgeries on it and is not the best…besides, I hate portaging! HAHA!!
You really need a Kayakacycle!
Something like a “Hobie-Davidson.” But foregoing that, and if you’re not overly concerned about what to paddle --that is, you just wanna paddle. Then why not try a low-end (but with re-inforced vinyl only, not pool toy) duckie? A Sevylor Pointer ($249, tracks great) or even the classic “Orange Torpedo”(like a $139, 17 lbs. I’ve blasted them on Class IVs). Stearns Spree One is also sturdy fun. I’ve also carried these cheap “disposa-boats” with me all over the continent, and if you’re not intending to do say 20 miles of water per day, then… And sure, they do puncture from time to time (more easily on boney whitewater than flat)but most come with repair kits. I’ve used two of these cheap floats for over two years on creeks, lakes, and even open ocean with no major problems (“Oh god. He’s crazy, he’s crazy.”) With a cheap 4-piece paddle, not only do I get to have my own boat and not have to rent many times over, but it’s allows me not to jeopardize losing a $1300 Thrillseeker off the back of my bike while zipping down the Interstates. Anyway, if I’m in the region this time next year, and you’ve nothing else shaking for a boat…Maybe I’ll lend you a Sevy with a skeg on it – If it’s lost, it won’t break me finacially, not break my heart. Cheers!
Hobie-Davidson?
HAHAHAHA!!! That’s a good one! I’ll have to post about this on the Aero forum! They’ll get a good laugh out of it too!! I have an inflatable but at 40 pounds, I don’t want to carry that and 70 pounds of gear…
adk
– Last Updated: Nov-13-07 5:51 PM EST –
as one of the previous posts already mentioned, you can rent kayak/canoe at raquette river outfitter in tupper lake. however, their base is actually on rt. 30, about 1 mile s. of town, just s. of the bridge. you can also rent at st. regis canoe outfitters in saranac lake. both outfitters have pretty good route suggestions on their sites, at
http://www.canoeoutfitters.com/routes.html and
http://www.raquetteriveroutfitters.com/routes.html
you can call them up, they'll be glad to help you plan your trip and find camp sites.
at cranberry lake, a popular route is the east branch of oswegatchie river, from inlet to high falls. it's a 2-day, out and back trip with no portage. i don't remember any specific outfitter there but there are marinas in town so you can probably rent from them.
as to camping near saranac lake, there are several water accessible sites on the shores of middle(?) saranac lake. i don't remember if they're first-come-first-serve sites or by reservations.
there's also rollins pond and fish creek pond campgrounds between saranac lake and tupper lake. they're right next to each other and it's a little out of your way on rt. 30, about 5 miles n. of rt. 3. they're both "mega" campgrounds with hundreds of sites each. just an fyi so you know what you're getting into.
there's a state campground at cranberry lake.
you can peruse the nys dec campground website at
http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/33154.html
one advantage of camping in the adk is as long as you're on public land, you can camp anywhere as long as it's 150' away from any bodies of water, roads or trails. you won't need a permit if your group is less than 10 or staying shorter than 3(?) days.
i'd also suggest you pick up the adk paddler's map. it has part of your trip covered, shows all the backcountry campsites, and it's color coordinated to show public/private land.
ADK paddler;'s map
The map is excellent, being waterproof and all that, but it is a pretty big map and only covers the northern lakes region (i.e. missing the Fulton Chain of Lakes, Indian Lake, etc… And I’ve found some of the information on the map outdated or wrong. i.e. the road to Little tupper lake from the south on Rt 30 is labelled incorrect. There is a DEC sign on Rt 30 but the road is Sabattis road and not Circle Road as the map shows.
Campsite#3 is on the wrong side of the island as marked on the Paddler map… (maybe it was moved?).
But other than that, most of the mistakes I’ve seen are minor and wouldn’t stop me from recommending it.
Jay
ADKs
You’ll find gas stations in all the major towns in the ADKs, just not much in between… I.e. if you are coming from the Northway, you’ll run into Stewarts or something similar in Keene (not Keene Valley), Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Cranberry Lake, Star Lake.
You’re probably about 150kms from the the Northway to get to Cranberry Lake or so… I’m not entirely sure because the last time I went to Star lake I went through exit 26 (Minerva/Pottersville) to the town of newcomb to Long Lake, up Rt 30 and then west on Rt 3.
There is an excellent diner in long Lake, gas, A nice Irish restaurant (Blarney Stone) and ice cream.
of course tons of places in Lake Placid and Keene Valley has the Ausable Inn, the Noonmark diner…
Jay
No the road name is partly right
Its Sabattis Circle Road.
I know nitpicky…
I found some errors on LTL campsite numbering on Short island but its not a big deal.
I wish they had included all the paddling from Old Forge instead of alot of dead space. The regional paddling maps are in some ways better, though not waterproof.
LTL…
I scounged all those free maps from the info center at LTL when I was there… they are cool, even providing a whole history of the area. I’d like to check out Lows lake and the bog river flow someday next year or so.
Completely off topic, but an interesting read is “The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness” by Paul Schneider which is told in a bunch of anecdotes of the famous guides like Mitchell Sabattis of what I assume is the road’s namesake.
Jay