C&K explores the best overnight paddling sections and unique gateway communities of the Adirondack Canoe Route: the historic 90-mile section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail from Old Forge to Saranac Lake.
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00:00In the Adirondacks there's thousands of waterways and bodies and each town has
00:16different offerings near them. There's just an opportunity here to paddle
00:21whatever type of water you want.
00:30I know I've traveled everywhere and like right there like I immediately thought
00:33this is like Amsterdam. A little cute canal like kind of thing like with
00:36houses lining it.
00:41Portaging right through the middle of the town to me I don't know that there's many
00:45others but you just walk your boat right through town to get through and the
00:50community is used to that. If you can do stuff in town but then get out and paddle
00:54and spend some time like immersed in nature it's just it adds depth to their
00:59experiences.
01:08Flat plateau with mountains interspersed on the plateau but the waterways were
01:13called Venice of the North Woods and that's how people connected all the
01:18towns was by these waterways.
01:22The basic straight line is a 90-mile route that comes down through connecting
01:30the whole plateau so it's 3,000 lakes and ponds throughout the area and then
01:36the Racket River is the main water course that goes through but there's
01:39other arteries that connect. If you've never been here you've got to do the
01:43route. You know, you got your introduction to canoeing. It still has its natural
01:48beauty. Racket Falls still feels like it did 150 years ago. It's just got the
01:53really nice wilderness feel and if that lights your fire then you're going to
01:58definitely want to go out and find these other places to go. It's one of the
02:02appeals of it is you can paddle. You start in Long Lake you can do a 50-mile
02:07canoe trip with only one carry.
02:19I think it's pretty unique to get on Long Lake and you're kind of staring at
02:24the Seward Range as we're paddling which is part of the high peaks and you're
02:28kind of paddling into the mountains. You can see everything out here. It's kind of
02:32rawest element on it. You can hide from things when you're on the trails. If it's
02:37raining you can duck in places. When you're on the lakes you're just there.
02:39You have to endure whatever is there and enjoy it at the same time.
02:48It's a challenging portage. It's a fun one when you're done it. But it's
02:53straight up and down a bit rocky but doable. There's gonna be you know times
02:59when you just want to be done with it but then you know you get past those
03:04times and then you wind up in a place where you see you know magnificent
03:10sunset or like you know the water is perfectly calm and you know you just
03:15kind of in this environment that you've been working to get toward and there's
03:21nobody else there and you have it to yourself.
03:29Tupper is like this old town that has like a lot of connection to traditions.
03:33Ragland River has probably been the same for a hundred years. It's not changing and
03:37there's Tupper Lake in that way. It's modernizing and doing all those things
03:40but it's still very close to the original roots of paddling.
03:48One of the unique things about the Saranac Lake region is there's you know a
03:52number of outfitters and guides around here and so there's kind of a culture of
03:57paddling. It's definitely a good jumping-off point if you want to you can
04:02entertain yourself in town but if you want to like get out away from you know
04:07the rigors of life you can just paddle two miles out on lower Saranac Lake and
04:13just get away from it all. It's easy in the Adirondacks to find new places that
04:19are unexplored to yourself. It doesn't just have to be a landscape but I mean
04:23you can explore different times of day. You can get up at like four in the
04:28morning and go out and paddle and like see a place you've been to you know
04:34dozens of times in a new way because you're there when the fog's lifting there's a sunrise
04:40you know you've never experienced that before. Listen to the loons, listen to the birds, watch a
04:45thunderstorm, sit in your Adirondack lean-to or your tent and yeah it does wonders.
04:54The woods are very healing. We forget about our true like root cells you know lost in the
05:02busyness of life and a reminder of stillness reminder of you know that deeper persons that we are.
05:13Like when we went and paddled out to the island over there and we were like jumping off the rocks
05:17and everything like that that's just like pure joy and you can like see it in everyone's faces.
05:22No other worries just like simply like what we're doing right now.
05:25I don't know it's kind of you know that enters the mystical range you don't question that you just if you feel it you feel it.
05:55you