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The local Adirondack Mountain Club Chapter (Iroquois) scheduled a three day trip up the Oswegatchie River in the Five Ponds Wilderness Area April 27-29. Under the threat of thunderstorms and lightning on Friday we scaled it back to a Sat-Sun trip. Our group of 7 boats (2 kayaks, 3 Hornbeck canoes, and 2 Wenonah canoes) met for departure at 8am from the Oswegatchie River Canoe Access. I was the only single bladed paddler.

We stopped for a snack at Griffin Rapids lean-to. There were parties camping at High Rock and a group of 6 at the Cage Lake Springhole lean-to that paddled up to High Falls ahead of us. The river was blocked by two log jams on the way in that required exiting the canoe and dragging around the obstacle. We suffered one ‘canoe re-entry’ dumping on the way in.

The map below depicts the 9.8 mile route mapped by Greg’s GPS unit on the way in with waypoints indicating designated campsites. Clicking on the map will revel more detail.

We arrived at our campsite (Site #22) where the Wolf Pond Trail crosses over the Oswegatchie River at roughly 2pm. As we unloaded our boats Vinnie declared that he wasn’t going to set up a rain-fly since “it is not going to rain tonight”. Our howls quickly informed him of jinxing us and sure enough just as we completed setting up our tents it began to sprinkle. It continued to lightly rain on and off for the next 24 hours.

Having arisen at 3am in the morning I was bushed that night and turned in early at 8pm and slept through the night until 8am the following morning - better than 2 cups of coffee.

After breakfast we chatted through the morning with most of the party deciding to head back at 11:30am leaving Greg and Bill to hike to High Falls on their own. Our trip downstream only took 3 hours 20 minutes and we only suffered one dumping on the way out.

After loading up and driving home for 30 minutes the sun broke out. The pictures of High Rock below were taken by Greg on his return trip out.

With the warm weather over the weekend we started feeding the fish in the pond.  On Sunday there was no action.  I don’t know if the fish were dormant or just not yet used to being fed, but we saw no risers.  On Tuesday when we walked around the ponds we fed again and got surface feeding in the bigger pond.  I am hoping they didn’t all die out in the smaller pond.

Trey got a bath over the weekend.  He has dandruff and got a bath with T-gel, a coal tar based shampoo.  The day was warm and he dried off quickly and fluffed up.  Since we are around him all the time we take his size for granted, but this is a big dog (110lbs).  We thought our other Bernese Mountain Dogs were big but they were in the 75 lb range.  This is another 30% larger.  I wish I had something alongside him for scale.

The household is definitely divided over this issue.  We have geese nesting at the pond.  The actual nest is probably 50 yards from the pond, but we have a pair of geese settled in for a summer residency.  I am not happy.  They are messy, very messy.  I observed a lone goose on the pond over the weekend and then spotted the hen sitting out in the field.  When we walked down to check the other night Kathryn took the position of “if there are eggs we leave it alone”.  Eric and Trey were just intrigued by the idea of investigating a nest.  At first I thought I was in luck - a nest but no eggs.

Both geese were on the pond and paid no attention to our investigation.  However, when we looked under the blanket of dead grass we saw four eggs. I believe the hen covers them up with grass to keep them warm when she isn’t sitting on them.

Kathryn tried to pacify me by citing all the dangers that oppose a successful hatch: coyotes, neighborhood dogs, skunks, raccoons, and crows.   (She neglected to mention John Deere tractors with mowers).  We are now resigned to playing out the saga -more to come later.

The arrival of warm, sunny spring weather prompted us to make a list of outdoor chores that was unachievable, but attempted none the less. We washed, waxed and vacuumed all three vehicles, washed house windows and put on screens, washed the dog, picked up 100 trees (White Spruce and Colorado Blue Spruce) from Oneida County Soil & Water District and planted, and planted and planted trees. On Saturday morning Trevor came to play with Eric. We packed a lunch and held a little picnic across the road. In the picture below Eric, Trevor and Kathryn enjoy a drink.

We played some silly games including the boys hammering on a tree that I was leaning against. I told Kathryn that my obituary should read “Could make 4 year olds laugh.”

We also exploited remaining snow banks for snow ball fights with the target (me) usually fleeing in a homeward direction.

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday afternoon with Ed, Kelly & Izzabella and Billie Jo & Dakota. Kathryn grilled London Broil and accompanied it with homemade muffins, snap peas and rice.  The dinner was capped with Tomato Soup Cake - the birthday cake of choice for as long as I can remember!  Ed & Billie Jo gave me a couple of super powered rechargeable flashlights: of 1 million and 6 million candle power.  Once they are charged up we plan to perform illumination tests on distant hillsides.

The kids alternated between playing in the sand box and playing chase. Below Billie Jo, Jim, Eric,Dakota, Izzabella, Kelly and Ed pause for a picture.