We packed up Sunday morning and drove to the Adirondacks and set up camp at Wilmington Notch State Park. The ranger wasn't in so we picked a campsite and set up the tents and the kitchen area. After eating dinner and relaxing around the fire we went to bed. The next morning we found out that we had to move to a different campsite so we picked up the tarp, tables, and tents and carried them across the camp to a new site. It didn't take long. We cooked up a good breakfast and then went down the steep hill behind the campground to check out the west branch of the Ausable River and the big waterfall that we had listened to last night. After lunch we drove to Pitchoff Mountain to do some rock climbing on the walls there. Everyone gave it their best effort and we had fun trying to challenge the different routes up the wall. Late in the afternoon we packed up the ropes and headed for the beach in Wilmington. We got there and the beach was closed so we went for ice cream instead. Then it was back to camp for dinner, another campfire and bed since Tuesday was a long hike.
Tuesday morning we woke early, had a good breakfast and drove to Keene Valley and up to the Garden parking lot to begin our hike up the 3 Brothers and maybe Big Slide Mountain. We found the last 2 parking spots in the lot, put on our packs, signed in at the trail register and started up the trail. After a while we came out of the trees and found our first view of the high peaks. Directly across the Johns Brook valley, the peaks were displayed in a long row starting with Mt. Marcy (highest peak in NYS) in the distance and moving east over Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolfjaw, Lower Wolfjaw and down to the town of Keene Valley with Giant Mountain way off to the left. It was a beautiful day for hiking and we continued up over 2 of the brothers. Some of the hikers were getting tired so a few went to the 3rd Brother and back and we decided to skip Big Slide and go swimming. After swimming, we went back to camp to clean up and drove into Saranac Lake for Dinner at the chinese buffet. It was getting late and Wednesday was going to be another busy day so we drove back to camp and bed.
Wednesday morning we packed up for the canoe trip and drove to Cranberry Lake, stopping at McDonalds for lunch along the way. Putting in at the boat launch be began the long paddle to the south end of the lake in the hopes of finding a good campsite on Joe Indian Island.We found a great site on the northeast end of the island and moved in for the next couple of days. We set up the tents and some tarps in case it rained. We set up one of the 17 ft. canoes as a table and after exploring the area a little, cooked dinner. Afterwards we went for a paddle around the island and caught the sunset as we were returning to camp.
Thursday morning was a little cold and windy so instead of paddling west down the lake, we explored closer to home, going around some of the islands, visiting Elephant Rock, and having fun swamping the canoes and swimming off of them. We played a game of tossing rocks against a rock to see who could get closer. We had a campfire with live music and went to bed late. Friday morning we packed up and did the long paddle back to the boat launch .
