Oswegatchie Canoe Camping (8/6– 8/8)

With beautiful skies and warm weather, 6 of us met at the Star Lake Post Office and made the short carpool to the put in on the Oswegatchie near Inlet. The water level was perfect and we paddled up stream for about 3 hours to the lean to campsite. We were the only ones on the river and had a pristine experience of the area. The stream became very meandering to the point we began to tire of the amount of sweeping strokes it took to make the hairpin turns. The campsite was terrific with flat areas for tents, a decent outhouse and a wonderful view of the river. The next day, we continued upstream for a few hours, over beaver dams, rocky rapids and even tighter turns. After a lunch break and the steady down-pouring of rain, we all agreed to return to our lean to and chill out. The rain was scattered so we could enjoy a fire and dinner without much trouble. We all agreed that we had fully explored the paddling opportunity and we were in agreement to leave the next day. On the way out, we had lunch on High Rock and was treated to hummingbirds, a blue heron and a lovely view of the meandering river. One memorable part of this trip was that 2 participants came from other chapters. One from Albany and the other from PA. I was so happy that they saw the outing on the ADK.ORG website calendar and felt comfortable calling the trip leader and joining us.
—Mary Schraven