Copy/Repost Hike

On Sunday, May 27th, five of us (Mike, Michael, Jeffrey, Jim and myself) got together for a half-day kayak from Second Pond through Lower Saranac Lake to Ampersand Bay.  Everyone was in town the prior evening, so we all went out to dinner the night before at Casa del Sol in Saranac Lake.

In the morning, we all met up again at the outfitters just prior to 9AM.  After getting ready the outfitter drove us up to the boat ramp on Second Pond.  It was about 10AM when we finally hit the water.  It was absolutely gorgeous out.  We initially headed eastward to explore Second Pond.  It was fairly peaceful through here with views of Ampersand Mountain just to the south.  After checking this out we headed back, past the boat ramp and through First Pond out into Lower Saranac Lake.  Almost immediately we could see the sheer cliff on Bluff Island.  It was about 11AM and we headed south first, so that we could time our lunch break back on Bluff Island.  We checked out some of the islands and camps, which dot the shoreline.  After some time, we headed back towards Bluff Island and we found a landing beach on the west side by about 12:30PM.  We headed up and checked out several ledges including the top of the bluff, which is about 65 feet about the lake.  It also provided awesome views to the east, south and north.

This island is known for it's cliff jumping, but there was noone else there and as it turned out we really didn't have time anyway.  The water was fairly warm though (Jim took a quick dip by the landing spot) and it would have been great to hang here longer...another time!  Anyway, we had our lunch on the top of the cliff wall and by about 1:30 we had to head back for a 2:30 pick-up by the outfitters.  The timing was perfect.  We made it back up the lake to the take-out spot in Ampersand Bay just moments before he arrived to take us back.

This was a great paddle with a wilderness feel (there is no development on the lake except for a few houses at the northern end of Ampersand Bay).  We couldn't have asked for better weather too.  Big thanks to Jim, Michael, Mike and Jeffrey for making the drive to join me.  I thoroughly enjoyed the company!

Afterwards we headed to Donnelly's ice cream stand just west outside of the town.  It was pretty good soft serve.  From here, Jeffrey and Jim had to head out; I had the ADK annual dinner; and the 2 Michaels went out to dinner in Lake Placid.

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