Day 7 – Pickett’s Corners, NY, to Cumberland Bay State Park, NY

S-2016-8-27

Start: Baker’s Acres Campground

End: Cumberland Bay State Park (above Plattsburgh)

On the Way: Saranac River

Miles: ~24.5 (Probably less than, Milepost: 148.5)

Map:  3, 4

Weather: Clear.  Maybe rain tomorrow…?

Trail Overview

Map 4: Plattsburgh, NY, to Enosburg Falls, VT

Checked in to Cumberland Bay!

So today I learned a big, big lesson: intuition says that you should send your post drop to a post office.  Intuition is wrong.  POs have awful hours, as I learned today when I pulled into Plattsburgh at 1320 and found that, on Saturdays, they closed at 1300.  And they weren’t open until 0830 on Monday.  Well, poo.  Looks like I now have an involuntary zero day as I wait for my goodies.  If I didn’t have some nice cold-weather gear and lots of tasty food in there, I’d say “eff it.”  But…a day off wouldn’t hurt, either.  My back’s been behaving better today, despite some hardships.

So I was hustling along, trying to make my mail drop, cruising down the Saranac’s wide, gorgeous part, got to the Kent Falls carry, made it to the subsequent put-in, and found Teton, the through-paddler I’ve been chasing through the registers thus far!  He’d camped by the put-in and said the water looked real bony down the river.  I believed him, and knew a long portage lay ahead and would be much more pleasant with company.  So we walked, boats in tow, the ~6 mi of road to Plattsburgh.  Definitely my longest portage yet, and technically longer than the longest official portage (emphasis on the official).

Anyway, we cruised along together until he stopped for a burger, I walked on ahead (calling Mom along the way), missed the PO hours, decided Plattsburgh was a great place to explore without a boat tagging along, and headed up to the nearest State Park for a campsite.  It’s a nice little CCC Park with a neat history from the Battle of Plattsburgh, although the fees seem kind of exorbitant after so many nights of ~free camping ($46 for two nights).  Worth it for a safe boat parking space, I guess.  

The strategic placement of the bay for the Lake Champlain naval battle.

Spooky to imagine the battle happening on this serene horizon, more than two centuries earlier.

Teton also made it up out of P-burgh, and after deciding that Champlain was too windy this afternoon, decided to join me for a night before tackling it again in the morning.  (Early morning and evening seem to be the least windy/wave-filled periods.)  He’s a really cool guy: I feel a little dwarfed by all the rad adventures he’s been on.

My campsite at Cumberland Bay State Park.  I made sure to choose one at the
edges so I could have lots of hammock hanging options!

And later, company!

[EDIT: Teton is actually one half of the blogging team The Wild Outsiders, and is much more attentive to his blog than I have been to this one.  He also covered his NFCT trip for a column in a Portland newspaper—talk about an awesome job!]

Things Learned:

+ POs are baaaaad drop points.  Bad bad bad.  Restaurants and hotels, as long as you call ahead, have much better hours.  Just have to be strategic about the location, and make sure a PO is nearby so as to send the box off again.

+ No kidding—Champlain’s green algae blooms are nasty.  The reports didn’t exaggerate: it’s everywhere, and it really itches when it gets under your clothes.  The public beach we pulled through to get to the State Park looked like pea soup, but that didn’t keep the plucky locals out.

Naaaasty.

+ I think my boat’s actually more like 18’…  Craigslist man I bought it from must have been mistaken when he billed it as 16’.

Trail Magic:

+ Finally catching the man in the mango kayak, after seeing his register entries a day ahead for a week!

+ The Park is adjacent to a rowdy public beach.  As I paddled in, I found a plastic water gun bobbing in the surf.  I scooped it up and handed it to the nearest kid, who seemed excited to squirt his mom.  There’s also a lakeside beach bar with ice cream and live music and a giant paella pit!

Routinely gorgeous sunsets over the Lake.

A peck of windsurfers also camping at the State Park!  I chatted with them at their site later: they were from Quebec, and very nonchalant about the amazing physics of their sport.  Or maybe that was the language barrier.

Giant paella pan for the fire pit!  Who'd have thunk: Northeasterners know how to do beachside bars.

+ Checking into this campground means hot showers two nights in a row—great for the back muscles, and for my sitemates’ olfactory glands.

+ Saw my first bald eagle this morning!

+ Rain tomorrow, as well as a Zero day in Plattsburgh!