LOCALadk Magazine

Summer 2017 LOCALadk Magazine 35 LOCALadk river bottom was sandy, it was a pleasure to hop out of the canoe and haul over these obstacles. We passed large clusters of pickerelweed and the occasional patch of roundleaf sundew, and eventually the alder-lined shoreline gave way to evergreens, which give Fishing Brook a boreal characteristic. Upon reaching a fork in the brook, we chose the channel to the right, and continued until we reached a shallow section of rapids with a dirt road just beyond. This marked our turn around, as the brook was too shallow beyond this point to navigate with a canoe. We explored the other fork on the way back, and ran into shallow rapids quite quickly there as well. Despite my curiosity about what lay beyond, we turned around and headed back, choosing the other entrance channel back into Rich Lake, which turned out to have a delightfully brisk flow. When we landed back on the beach, we were met by Dylan's smiling face as he stood ready for the traverse to Harris Lake. The three of us set off once again, this time heading east towards River Bay and the portage into Belden Lake. Once in the bay, we were delighted to find several small caves in the graphitic marble of the southern shore. This is a very rare sight on most Adirondack bodies of water. Were we able to shrink ourselves down to the size of gnomes, these would have been a thrill to explore by boat! The portage into Belden Lake presented a fantastic opportunity to explore the trails of the Adirondack Visitors Center, as a footbridge into their property lies just beyond. We chose to leave this option for another day, however, as the sun glistening off the water's surface was simply too enticing. After crossing Belden Lake we came upon a small rapid just deep enough to allow our passage. There were many small private camps along the southern shoreline, and soon we cruised down another section of grass-lined swiftwater. Around the next bend we went under the bridge for the road to Santanoni Preserve, and here we decided to turn around, as we had chosen not to leave a car at the other end of the trip. Had we continued, a short portage would have brought us into Harris Lake, and we could have paddled uninterrupted to the public boat launch at the end of the traverse. On the way back to the Rich Lake Beach we needed to portage or wade each of the rapids we had previously paddled down. In the warm temperatures and under a splendid sunny sky, this was more of a treat than a chore. Once back at the beach, we took our long-awaited swim and then basked in the glorious sun. Can a summer day in July get any better?

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