3 Lakes Trip - Saranac Lake - Part 3

We woke up to our second morning at Saranac Lake to sunshine again! Our friends made a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausages. We sat around the table for some time and talked before making sandwiches for lunch again. Today we would kayak across Middle Saranac Lake and hike (climb) Ampersand Mountain!

From Alltrails.com: "Ampersand Mountain Trail is a 4.9 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Saranac Lake, New York that features beautiful wild flowers and is only recommended for very experienced adventurers. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from June until March. Dogs are also able to use this trail."

DISTANCE                   ELEVATION GAIN

4.9 miles                      1811 feet

"Only recommended for very experienced adventurers" never mind that we had a 4, 6 and 7 year old with us, but they had great practice playing adventurers at the campsite all day!

No photos from the paddle across the lake because of strong headwinds but I do have this short go pro video!

The hike started out very easy, nothing more than a walk through the woods, and a little buggy but turned into a serious hike soon after and all the way up the mountain. It was a tough hike for myself and the only reason I made it, was watching 4 year old Isaac climbing up the mountain!

Let me tell you about a huge misconception about my kids... someone recently asked me "can you give me a list of your kids favorite hiking trails in Cincinnati" the truth is, there are non! My kids don't have favorite hiking trails because they don't like hiking! They do love an adventure though and that usually gets them through the hike! The first mile on the hike, I had one kid actually in tears crying "I hate hiking". He soon came to me and apologized because he realized how cool of an hike this was AND he beat us up and down the mountain. If I would give my kids the option of staying comfortable in our living room, campsite etc or go on a hike... they would always choose to be comfortable at home BUT I give them an extra push and they are always (seriously ALWAYS) glad they came a long!   well an extra push and a big bag of Swedish Fish in my pocket got them through!

On top of the mountain we were greeted with amazing views of the Adirondacks and some astronaut ice cream from our friend Matt! We explored the summit for a little bit, took a lot of photographs, and made sure kids didn't tumble down the mountain.

The pictures below you can see how far we paddled/ hiked that day! The first picture is from the summit of Ampersand Mountain (3,353 ft) and you can see our campsite (arrow) below! The second picture is of Jake at our campsite pointing up to Ampersand Mountain.

The way back down was tough!!! Apparently not for the big boys and Finn, all 3 of them just ran down the mountain and met us at the trail head! Isaac had a tough time and eventually fell asleep being carried by his Dad... Fireman's Carry Style! The paddle across the lake was not to bad but we did fight some headwind again!

We spent the evening around the campfire. The big boys, Ian and Jake, made dinner for us. Kielbasa & Jambalaya, I posted the quick recipe HERE! This was probably our favorite dinner of the trip. And we finished our Family Olympic Day events! You ask what Family Olympic Day is?

Scroll up, the second picture of our post you can see our home made trophy! We played about 10 games throughout the trip. The Roberts Family against the McGill Gamily. The winner gets to keep the trophy BUT needs to display it on their mantle at home for the year! Some of the games were (and we had funny names for them), who sets up their tent the fastest, who gathers the most firewood, who tells the spookiest camp fire story, who has the most mosquito bites, who catches the first fish etc. The other rule was that next year we are battling for the trophy again and the winning family has to come up with the games. The Robert's won but the McGill's are going to fight hard next summer and win it back!!!

The big boys (and Dad's) also played who can pull out the biggest rock out of the lake. Jake won and since no one caught a fish we counted the rock as the "catch of the day". Jake won us that game! Finn had such a bad allergic reaction to mosquito bites and required Benedryl that we decided we don't even need to count bug bites that he would win that game as well!

The next morning was sadly our last... we cooked breakfast and started packing up the campsite. It was a little bittersweet. We all would have loved to stay longer but we (the Mom's more than anyone) were really looking forward to a hot shower and a real bed! We will be back though Saranac Lake! 

Next stop was Lake Placid (hotel) and introducing the Robert's to our favorite pizza and swimming hole before we went on separate ways again! It was hard to say good bye but all good things have to come to an end... and next stop for us was VERMONT!!!

You can click here to read about PART 1, PART 2, and PART 4 of our trip!

 

 

UPDATE! and about 7 months later I finally put together a small video from our go pro footage. Enjoy!

3 Lakes Trip - Saranac Lake - Part 2

We met up with friends from back home in Saranac Lake. It was raining hard that day and I must have checked the weather forecast every 20 minutes... you know just in case the 4 day weather forecast of rain and thunderstorm will change to sunny and dry just because I checked! 

We had a quick lunch, purchased a few last minute items at Aldi and headed to the lake. Changed into our rain gear, unloaded kayaks and loaded them with our gear. One last prayer for our safety and a break in the rain, shuttling the trailer to a different parking lot, going back to that parking lot because of a forgotten life jacket and then getting pulled over and we were finally off. 4 adults, 5 kids, 1 canoe, 1 tandem kayak, and 3 single kayaks plus a lot of gear!

As soon as we started paddling, the rain stopped. Hallelujah! We arrived at our campsite, had enough time to unload the gear from the kayaks, set up camp, and started dinner.... and then the rain came again. And it rained, and rained and rained. The kids were all wet and cold.  The mosquitos seemed to all know that we were trapped under the tarp and they had a feast... We ate dinner (chili that we made at home, froze and reheated on our camp stove), quickly cleaned up and went to bed before 9pm. We felt defeated, especially with the forecast looking so grim.

It rained hard all night long! We woke up to clouds and soon after the sun came out! And the sun stayed out, no more rain for the rest of out stay!!! 

We made breakfast (eggs, bacon and sausages) and just hung around the campsite for a few hours. The little kids played "adventurers" in the woods, jumping from rock to rock looking to find paradise! The big kids (and the Dads) had a lot of fun gathering firewood (slim pickings and everything was soaked) and cutting down dead trees with a small hatchet.

After a few hours of just hanging out we packed up sandwiches for lunch and left to explore the lake with the kayaks. Our destination was the other side of the lake, paddle up Saranac River and kayak through the locks. We did this last year and loved it. You can read about it HERE.

It's about a 3 mile paddle (maybe a little more) to the other side of the lake and up to Saranac Lake. We went through the lock and kayaked a little bit further down the river. We stopped and we all floated down the river together while having lunch. On the way we saw a beaver dam, lots of loons, ducks and even otters! 

On our way back through the lock we decided to stop and stretch our legs. The lock operator let the kids help operate the locks and explained how everything worked.

On our way back to the campsite we stopped at a few unoccupied campsites to look for firewood. We really lucked out at one site (thank you #66) and brought a bunch of firewood home. We ended the night with some dinner (Hobo packs) and S'mores. 

Part 2 or Saranac Lake will come soon! I have a feeling this is getting a little to long! 

You can click here to read about PART 1, PART 3 & PART 4 of our trip!

Day 10 McGill's Go Up North - Saranac Lake, Adirondacks

Day 10 we woke up to perfect weather! Sunshine but still very comfortable temps (I think the high was about 85 that day). I love peaking out of the tent in the morning when everything is quiet and still.

Our tent is a 4 person tent and surprisingly pretty roomy (for our standards). The boys each sleep on a side. Scot and I, in the middle and Finn always on my side. Our bags are at the bottom of Finns feet. Finn is pretty bad about sleeping IN his sleeping bag. I have to repeatably check on him and make sure he is warm enough and stuff him back in his sleeping bag.

We didn't bring a cooler with us to the campsite. It was just too big to take in the kayak and really the only thing we needed to keep cool would have been milk. Scot and I learned to drink our coffee black and we actually liked it. Not enough to drink it always black, but we know now that we can survive with black coffee.

Again, we had to get creative with our daily numbers... here is Finn helping me out with the 10!

Today was a bit of a sad day, we were leaving our amazing campsite. We were all a little sad as we could have stayed here for another few days! Before we packed up we took a family picture.

The kids did a great job helping us pack up and we actually had to leave them behind at the campsite to do one kayak trip without them. It was just easier to get everything back to the car. But no worries they were absolutely fine and ended up enjoying the freedom they had for 30 minutes.

One last picture before we left the campsite! We had to be off by 11am, which made it a little hectic morning.

Even though we had to leave the campsite at 11am, we still had the kayaks till 1pm. The boys decided that they would kayak alone together. I knew it wasn't going to work out but let them try anyways.

It kinda went like this... 20 paddle strokes, 2 minutes break, 10 paddle strokes, 5 minute break, 5 paddle strokes, 10 minute break... you are getting the point! We didn't get far! We switched kayaks and paddled for a little bit longer.

Once back at the car, we took the time to really clean the car out and organize our camping equipment since we won't be needing it anymore. We threw away a bunch of old food, organized clean and dirty clothes. The timing was perfect as soon as we finished the car, the kayaking rental company was already there to pick up the kayaks.

We drove to our next destination and our shortest drive on the trip... 20 minutes to Lake Placid. We found our hotel and checked in and left soon again to explore Lake Placid.

Our first stop was the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey rink. The hockey rink where the Miracle on Ice took place. It was pretty cool walking around there and you could feel the energy in this place. Even the boys thought it was pretty amazing and like always had 1000 questions for us.

After vising the hockey rink we decided to take a scenic drive. We drove over a bridge and saw a few people swimming in the river below us. We stopped and checked it out, only to discover one of the greatest swimming holes we have come across. It was pretty amazing. Two waterfalls, a deep swimming hole and a cliff to jump off. The boys were in heaven! I think this might have been their highlight of the trip!

Of course Finn, didn't take much prompting and he jumped from the cliff, which was about 30 feet high. Later Jake and then Scot jumped off as well. Just for the record, I didn't jump... A that's not really my thing anyways but B I was pretty accident prone on this trip anyways and really didn't want to test it.

We hang out for a really long time and only left when is was starting to get dark. We stopped in Lake Placid to get a eat pizza to eat at the hotel. The pizza was amazing and we all went to bed happy and full! This was our last big day on the trip. We are heading back home...

Day 9 McGill's Go Up North - Saranac Lake

Day 9! Probably my favorite day of the trip! We had to get creative with our daily numbers because I forgot a pen/ crayon/ marker at the car and that was a 20 minute paddle (one way) away from us.

About 3 minutes after waking up, Finn was already fishing again.

It was really chilly that morning and I forgot my long pants for the trip (which I didn't, I found them at home at the bottom of the suitcase). After trying to warm up by just being busy and making breakfast, I decided to crawl back in my sleeping bag and lay in the hammock. It didn't take long for my little snuggle buddy to find me and join me. We stayed like this for at least an hour!

Late morning, it warmed up a little (but the sun never really came out that day) and we decided to go for a little paddle across the lake from us and explore this little island. We first paddled over to the cliff where we watched people jump from the cliff the day before. Jake climbed up to the top to see if he would want to jump down later and the answer was : NO WAY!

While on the island we looked at our map and decided on a plan for later in the afternoon.

To make it easier for you I decided to show you with help of Photoshop where we were and where we decided to go. The blue arrow is where our campsite is located. The yellow circle is where we parked the car and the boat access to the lake. We decided to kayak to the lock system in the Saranac River this day (blue line). It took us about 2 hours (but we took our time with the kids) one way to get there.

We explored this little island for a little longer and in the back you can see our campsite (blue cross)

We paddled back to the campsite, and made a big lunch so we wouldn't get hungry on our adventure. First time in 10+ years that I had Spam and surprisingly we all loved it! Finn made us a big bottle of lemonade to take and he has perfected his way of mixing the powder with the water. Throw it up in the air as much as you can...

And off we went... the fist half of the trip was a little strenuous, crossing big bays with lots of wind and boats. But the second part of the trip went through the river and that was really peaceful and beautiful. Of course Finn had his fishing line out most of the way.

The lock happens really quickly after a bend and a boat was already waiting for us, so we joined them in the lock. We had to hold onto the rope and the locks closed and the water rushed in. It was pretty cool. The other side of the lock opened and we were in the Lower Lake. Pretty cool.

We decided not to go any further but to stop at the locks and have a break. The boys were allowed to operate the locks and that was really fun for them. They needed to use a lot of muscle power but they did a great job!

We took a lot of pictures there since it really was absolutely beautiful. The picture of Scot and I cracks me up... this is not how I usually pose and I am not sure what possessed me to pose like that haha I guess I was super happy!

There is a lock operator who lives at the locks all summer. She has her house (in the background in the last picture of this block), her little boat and her dog there. She opens and closes (and answers a million questions from our kids) the locks all day and writes down each boat and passenger that goes through. Really a cool job and I am a little tiny envious for it. But Scot says, I would get bored after two weeks.

Ok and the shoe saga continues... remember how I packed Toms and Flip Flops... well the Flip Flops decided to break on this trip. The Toms were back in the car (and really useless on this trip) and now this. I was barefoot for the next 24ish hours!

(I love the above picture of Scot and Jake so much). We went back through the locks to paddle back to our campsite. This time we switched off. I paddled with Jake and Scot with Finn. Jake and I had some pretty cool conversations and he had lots of his stories to tell me, plus he taught me some pretty cool Boy Scout camp songs.

After another 2 hours of paddling we finally arrived back at the campsite!

The boys went swimming again, while Scot and I fixed dinner.

I brought a flint and steel with us and this kept the boys pretty entertained trying to make a fire!

Soon after Finn fell asleep in the hammock and we were able to just relax at the campfire. He slept in there until about midnight when Scot and I carried him into the tent.

It was just a really peaceful day with my favorite things to do in life (camping and kayaking) with my favorite people.

Day 8 McGill's Go Up North - Adirondacks

We woke up in our little hotel outside of Quebec, took advantage of the continental breakfast and got out of there before 9 am. We had another 4 hour drive to our last big stop... The Adirondacks!

I am asked a lot how the kids do in the car. I have to say very good for kids! Of course they fight and whine, here and there but we try to ignore it for the most part. Also, Audiobooks and snacks are a big key! What usually happens is that the kids will be on their Kindle for 45-60 minutes (I usually get them a new game the night before a long road trip), we then turn those off and listen to an audiobook for at least 30 minutes. Finn claims that he doesn't like Narnia but he still listens and quietly colors. When we stop to get gas and the kids have been good since the last rest stop they can each get a treat at the gas station. Also, this time we played a bunch of games such as Road Bingo and Mad Libs. Our entire road trip was a little over 40 hours driving time both ways and yes it was hard some parts with the boys, but it really was worth it and we try to make the journey part of our trip, and not just the destination.

Before we arrived at the Adirondacks, we had to cross back in the US and also exchange our money.

I am kicking myself a little that I don't have any pictures from where we picked up our kayaks. We rented the tandem kayaks for 3 days from St. Regis Outfitters in Saranac Lakes. The staff was amazing and they answered all of our questions (and the boys had a lot of them). They transported us to the boat ramp and even provided us with a map. It really was a great experience and we highly recommend them. I know we will be back one day!

We booked a campsite on Saranac Lake which was on a peninsula and only accessible by boat/ kayak. We chose a campsite (actually when we booked it was almost full) near the boat ramp but not too close. It was about a 20 minute paddle to get to the campsite and of course we had to load all of our gear into the kayak. We actually ended up having to make two trips.

The campsite was amazing! We stayed at #56. Each campsite has a large fire pit and an outhouse, which was surprisingly clean but still scary to me haha I have a thing about outhouses but that's another story. I made Scot sit in front of it whenever I needed to use it.

The kids went swimming and the water was pretty warm. They loved jumping off this smaller rock and we all enjoyed watching people across the lake jump from a much higher cliff.

Scot and I decided not to go swimming but just enjoyed ourselves relaxing and watching the boys.

The great thing about this campsite was that we had a huge area for ourselves. There was no one around. The kids were free to explore, swim and be loud as they wanted.

In the evening we all were tired and just really relaxed. We all took turns in the hammock.

Scot made us a great Spaghetti dinner.

This little guy followed us around the campsite on out first day there.... no wonder after Scot fed him :/

We made a huge fire, with sticks and leftover firewood from a previous camper. The mosquito's up there were really minimal and they only really came out at night but not even where it was too bad.

After using up most of our wood and playing enough with the fire, we all went to bed happy and relaxed.