I sometimes have trouble choosing what story to write when I sit down to draft a blog post. Some stories are destined to wait ultimately as I try to keep things current. You may have noticed that I rarely edit my work here. I prefer to leave everything rather raw and in the moment. Kind of like how I try to live my life. There’s no AI here! Things have really centered around work lately as my last post mentioned. That’s about to change after next week unless something drastic happens. But seeing as the farm is looking rather neglected it’s probably a good thing to get busy back at the Homestead soon. There’s been one huge problem trying to do anything there recently. Did I already write about it? Well it deserves continued recognition if I did! Those darn mosquitoes! They are unbelievable right now and attack in full sunshine! This has gone on for weeks now. The last time I picked blackberries they bit my forehead to shreds! So even a trip to the garden at the farm has been less then fun lately. Luckily they aren’t as bad at Camp Edith. Zane and I recently celebrated my 62nd birthday there after work. We expect to continue to live here until sometime in October. It seems far off but is it really?
Last weekend was an extended celebration of my birthday so to speak. I had rented an Airbnb on a whim recently for the long weekend. It was hard to find a pet friendly one available on short notice and I had nearly given up. But around midnight one night I found a place that seemed perfect! Remote and private. Off the beaten path in a part of the Adirondacks unknown to me mostly. I booked it with little hesitation after a quick review of the amenities. It would do just fine! I wasn’t going alone but will keep details of my companion secret to respect her/our privacy. Something I haven’t always done I know. Perhaps I once made my life too public. It still is very public really. It’s hard to tell a story when you try to leave out a main character! But let’s focus on the adventures and the location for the moment! Our destination was just inside the Blue Line not that far from Lowville,New York in Lewis County. I was familiar with Stillwater Reservoir near there having camped and paddled on it in the late 1980s but this was a different area. We would be close to Brantingham Lake. It’s private and there is no state launch. Despite my lack of knowledge of the area I figured we could explore somewhere new and expand our knowledge of the Adirondacks. It proved to be a good decision! We were booked and headed to Fish Camp Village! Village meaning three cabins!
It took us over 2 hours to reach our destination but we had a couple shopping breaks to split up the trip. We stopped in Croghan for some world famous Croghan bologna! Some fresh cheese curd was also purchased. Adventures call for snacks. Sometimes even those not recommended!We also stopped for groceries of a more healthy nature. Fruits and vegetables. Chicken and even some fresh sweet corn! It started raining hard soon after we left the grocery store and continued for the duration of our trip. Phone service became sketchy but our navigation was sound and we found the road that would lead us to our cabin with little difficulty. There was a small settlement that had several restaurants and a general store. Atvs and off road Utvs were abundant in town. Lewis County has a trail system in place that allows them in this area. It all seemed a little lawless in some strange manner. We soon left all this behind. The pavement ended a few miles later and we were on a well maintained dirt road. There were all sorts of camps and houses along the route as well as sections of undeveloped forest. We were definitely out of farm country at this point. We reached the closed gate that signaled our destination and I used a code that I had been given by text to open the gate. High technology in the backwoods! The road into the cabin was fairly new and dropped down over a steep ridge. Once we spotted it we realized our cabin was obviously new also. We had arrived!
Our cabin was cozy and well constructed we discovered as we carried all our belongings in. The loft was reached by a spiral staircase. Everything was in order and just like it had been promised on the website. We took a stroll after unpacking but nothing serious as it was still a little rainy.We were close to a stream called Otter Creek and we could hear it running through a shallow rocky section. Further up it was calmer and wider just past another unoccupied cabin. What a nice location for some spirit battery charging I thought! But it was too wet for paddling or hiking so we headed back into town to grab some dinner. Cooking was not something either of us planned on doing until Sunday! We settled on a restaurant called The Coachlight Inn. Rebuilt in 2020 after being destroyed by fire, it was busy but not overwhelmingly noisy. We enjoyed a nice meal with large portions and left with leftovers. Back at the cabin our outdoor plans for a campfire had to be postponed due to further rain showers so I made a fire in the glass fronted wood stove instead. It got rather hot though and windows needed to be opened. Bedtime came early as we planned for the next day’s adventures. We were happy,well fed, and totally comfortable!
Sunday dawned dry and cloudy but the sun did shine some from time to time. We enjoyed coffee in Lori’s Lookout (my name for it).It’s a screened in structure with walls and a floor sitting high above the creek on a ridge side.The owner of the property had built it for his wife Lori but illness had ended their dream short before Fish Camp could be finished. Lori had made her husband David promise to finish what they had begun there and he did after her passing. True love holds great power and although this story had a rather sad ending it speaks of dedication,commitment,and romance. It’s a lovely place to sit and share life stories. This was how we spent our time there making breakfast and packing snacks for the day. We were rather conflicted about where to paddle but decided to hike to a nearby waterfall first. We explored a possible lead to nearby Big Otter Lake but the road leading into it has been closed off. We weren’t into a 3 mile portage to reach it! The Shingle Mill waterfalls were an easy walk down an old road and we thoroughly impressed by the beauty of the location! There are three sections of the falls to view. The water levels were somewhat modest so the falls were briskly busy but not excessive.It’s easy to see what they would be like during periods of high water though. We spent quite a bit of time there before leaving to seek out a paddle destination.
We soon learned something about maps and navigation in the area we were trying to reach. Navigation showed roads leading to places that ended up being just horse trails! One such example was the Blueberry Trail that leads to Cats Paw Lake. We had to turn back after the road got impassable. Things were proving difficult for paddling! I later learned of a possible alternative route but given the lack of cell phone service who can say for sure what we would have found had we pursued it. We finally settled for a lake named Payne and arrived there after yet another road turned into a horse trail! A friendly hiker told us how we could reach it by another set of roads. Payne Lake turned out to be tiny and not u h more then a big pond! We unloaded the canoe and paddled around it regardless. I was feeling rather upset as I felt that I had done a bad job of picking paddle destinations. We headed back towards our cabin and the rain returned once again! This storm blew itself out rather quickly and after having a snack in the cabin we decided to paddle up Otter Creek. We didn’t get to far however before it got rocky and super shallow. This was not to be our ideal paddle day it seemed! But our explorations had been fun and rewarding nonetheless. We prepared a yummy dinner in the cabin and later had a great campfire before calling it a day. We had to leave in the morning and it seemed like time had sped by like it always seems to do. But we had been having a good time together reminiscent of other times. Reconnecting out in nature comes easy and it’s the perfect place to do just that. Although having a cozy, comfortable cabin sure helps also! We are well suited for making the best of any place we chose to go.
Our final time at Fish Camp the next morning was spent packing up and cleaning up the cabin. I enjoyed my maple syrup infused coffee first however! I need that buzz! We enjoyed our breakfast up in Lori’s Lookout right before leaving.It was rather cool and the soft maples along the creek were beginning to turn red. We talked for quite some time about all types of things. The Lookout seemed to open up channels of energy that turned conversations down different avenues. I found our time there meaningful and was glad that we had spent time at Fish Camp. We left to start our day with no clear destination in mind exactly. But that often leads to awesome adventures.Ones where unforgettable MOONTABS are made. It turned out to be one of those days in the end. And that will be the next story I share here. Watch for the Cedar River Flow story.✍️