I did a spur of the moment trip to the Oswegatchie recently and it was a great time. I planned to spend three nights up there poking around above High Falls. Things didn't go as planned. The last cell phone call I made to my wife was dropped, the last thing I heard her say was "text me tonight." I tried calling back a couple times with no service and couldn't even get a text out. I wanted to tell her that there would be no cell service up there and I wasn't sure my Garmin Inreach was charged and not to worry if she didn't hear from me, but never got a chance. After getting my camp set up I was going to send a message via the Garmin but realized I didn't have it with me. Not wanting my wife to worry for three days I decided it was possible to make it to High Falls and back to the car the next day. Here's how it went.
I got on the water at 2:30 PM. I had my Seliga Tripper, pole and a 72" and a 60" paddle. There was light rain on and off during drive and it was grey and gloomy when I put in. The going was pretty easy paddling and didn't use the pole until the first beaver dam. Most of dams were easy to get over without having to get out of the boat. Some I had to get out of the boat, but they were low enough (maybe a foot) that I could "pop a wheelie" and get far enough up on the dam (to almost the center thwart) where I was able to step right out onto it without having to climb over my gear. There were only about four dams that were too high to attempt to wheelie up on and I had to get over my gear to step off the bow onto the dam. This was made easier by using the pole to keep myself from drifting back away from the dam as I stepped off. To make this easier I had my packs positioned so there was space to put my feet while walking over the packs. I also had to adjust my bow light trim to an even more bow light trim to be able to wheelie as high up on the dam as possible. This was my first time pulling a loaded boat over dams and it was more than twice as hard as doing it with two people.
I wanted to find a campsite by 5:30 and came to #34 which had a lean to on it and decided to stay there. I hadn't stayed in a lean to since the 80's and that was in winter. My most recent experience was stopping to check one out near Paul Smiths that looked like an abandoned homeless camp that I would have never stayed in. This one was nice and clean and I decided to use it and not set up my tent. I was concerned that there may be some habituated creatures at this spot because I presumed it was heavily used. At about 8:00 PM a mouse showed up. He seemed to be on a recon mission checking all the likely p[laces where food might be. I ran him off, but became anxious about being harassed throughout the night. Twenty minutes later I shined a light on my food pack and a mouse jumped out, time to take action. The first thing I did was take the food out of my Duluth pack. It was in a soft sided cooler and a roll top dry bag and I put them in an army duffle bag figuring I'd rather they chew holes in it than the Duluth. Then I took the duffle and stashed it on the ground about a hundred feet away. It worked and the mice never found it.
I still had visions of a hoard of mice going through my gear and walking on my head during the night. I had a mouse walk on my head thirty years ago and I'm still talking about that, I didn't want any more mouse stories. For the first time ever I kept a light on at night. It was pointed at my packs so I could easily check on them for mouse activity through the night. If worse came to worse and I got swarmed my best defense I could come up with was blasting them with my air horn. Luckily it was not a problem.
There was a lot of beaver activity at this spot. Every time I woke up I could hear them chewing. I also heard them vocalizing, dragging branches and splashing around. It was comforting to know that the beavers going about their business and if a bear showed up they would almost certainly slap their tails alerting me that something was going on. I did hear a couple tail slaps but they were far away. It was a very calm night with temps low enough for frost and it seemed like sound was carrying very far. In addition to the chewing, I thought I heard ones stomach groan but wouldn't swear to it, it could have been mine. A little later I'm pretty sure I heard one burp. It definitely wasn't me, and I'm almost positive it had to be a beaver.
I got a cold misty start at 8:00 AM. I decided to use the pole more that day in hopes of making better time. I was glad I had a wood pole, my hands stayed warmer than I thought they would have with temps in the low 30's. The higher and harder to get over dams were in this upper stretch, along with some rocky riffs that took some maneuvering. There were a few drops I poled up where staying high and dry wasn't a given, but all went well. I reached High Falls at 10:30 making it there in a total 5 1/2 hours travel time. I hung out for about an hour enjoying this beautiful place. I checked out the lean to at the falls and found a bag of weed in it. Not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands I took it with me. If it belongs to any of you guys PM me.
I took it easy on the way down, stopping to check out some campsites and enjoy the sunny day. FYI, at campsite 22 there is a spring a short walk from the water. A good place to replenish your drinking water. The rest of the way down went well until the last couple hours when the wind picked up. Luckily I only had to fight it about half the time because of the way the river changed directions. I did have to move my gear around to get a flatter trim to deal with it. I got back to the landing at 4:30, a little over 5 hours travel time, which included a few breaks.
My total travel time was less than 10.5 hours which I thought was pretty good. When I made the decision to get to the falls and back to the car that day I thought the falls were only 11 miles one way. The distance is actually 13.2 miles. I'm not sure I would have tried had I known that. I'm not sure how far I had gone on day one to get to campsite #34, but figured it was about 7 miles. This left me with over 19 miles, about 6 of them upstream and a couple into a stiff wind. I not sure I could have done it without the pole. Another thing that helped on all of the tight turns was my new to me turning technique. This is where I lean into the turn and paddle on the opposite side rather than lean towards my paddle side like I would typically do when heeled over. This enabled me to make the tight turns keeping my momentum going forward with sweeps rather then having to slow down and pivot the boat.
It's a beautiful river to paddle with lots of wildlife and old growth trees. It's just technical enough to keep it interesting but was forgiving too. The hardest part was getting over the beaver dams. I could also see where someone could have a problem with all of the tight turns. As the saying goes, if you take the turns fast enough, you can see the back of your neck. It's a great trip, but I wouldn't want to do it without a pole. Not that it couldn't be done, it just makes it easier.
I got on the water at 2:30 PM. I had my Seliga Tripper, pole and a 72" and a 60" paddle. There was light rain on and off during drive and it was grey and gloomy when I put in. The going was pretty easy paddling and didn't use the pole until the first beaver dam. Most of dams were easy to get over without having to get out of the boat. Some I had to get out of the boat, but they were low enough (maybe a foot) that I could "pop a wheelie" and get far enough up on the dam (to almost the center thwart) where I was able to step right out onto it without having to climb over my gear. There were only about four dams that were too high to attempt to wheelie up on and I had to get over my gear to step off the bow onto the dam. This was made easier by using the pole to keep myself from drifting back away from the dam as I stepped off. To make this easier I had my packs positioned so there was space to put my feet while walking over the packs. I also had to adjust my bow light trim to an even more bow light trim to be able to wheelie as high up on the dam as possible. This was my first time pulling a loaded boat over dams and it was more than twice as hard as doing it with two people.
I wanted to find a campsite by 5:30 and came to #34 which had a lean to on it and decided to stay there. I hadn't stayed in a lean to since the 80's and that was in winter. My most recent experience was stopping to check one out near Paul Smiths that looked like an abandoned homeless camp that I would have never stayed in. This one was nice and clean and I decided to use it and not set up my tent. I was concerned that there may be some habituated creatures at this spot because I presumed it was heavily used. At about 8:00 PM a mouse showed up. He seemed to be on a recon mission checking all the likely p[laces where food might be. I ran him off, but became anxious about being harassed throughout the night. Twenty minutes later I shined a light on my food pack and a mouse jumped out, time to take action. The first thing I did was take the food out of my Duluth pack. It was in a soft sided cooler and a roll top dry bag and I put them in an army duffle bag figuring I'd rather they chew holes in it than the Duluth. Then I took the duffle and stashed it on the ground about a hundred feet away. It worked and the mice never found it.
I still had visions of a hoard of mice going through my gear and walking on my head during the night. I had a mouse walk on my head thirty years ago and I'm still talking about that, I didn't want any more mouse stories. For the first time ever I kept a light on at night. It was pointed at my packs so I could easily check on them for mouse activity through the night. If worse came to worse and I got swarmed my best defense I could come up with was blasting them with my air horn. Luckily it was not a problem.
There was a lot of beaver activity at this spot. Every time I woke up I could hear them chewing. I also heard them vocalizing, dragging branches and splashing around. It was comforting to know that the beavers going about their business and if a bear showed up they would almost certainly slap their tails alerting me that something was going on. I did hear a couple tail slaps but they were far away. It was a very calm night with temps low enough for frost and it seemed like sound was carrying very far. In addition to the chewing, I thought I heard ones stomach groan but wouldn't swear to it, it could have been mine. A little later I'm pretty sure I heard one burp. It definitely wasn't me, and I'm almost positive it had to be a beaver.
I got a cold misty start at 8:00 AM. I decided to use the pole more that day in hopes of making better time. I was glad I had a wood pole, my hands stayed warmer than I thought they would have with temps in the low 30's. The higher and harder to get over dams were in this upper stretch, along with some rocky riffs that took some maneuvering. There were a few drops I poled up where staying high and dry wasn't a given, but all went well. I reached High Falls at 10:30 making it there in a total 5 1/2 hours travel time. I hung out for about an hour enjoying this beautiful place. I checked out the lean to at the falls and found a bag of weed in it. Not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands I took it with me. If it belongs to any of you guys PM me.
I took it easy on the way down, stopping to check out some campsites and enjoy the sunny day. FYI, at campsite 22 there is a spring a short walk from the water. A good place to replenish your drinking water. The rest of the way down went well until the last couple hours when the wind picked up. Luckily I only had to fight it about half the time because of the way the river changed directions. I did have to move my gear around to get a flatter trim to deal with it. I got back to the landing at 4:30, a little over 5 hours travel time, which included a few breaks.
My total travel time was less than 10.5 hours which I thought was pretty good. When I made the decision to get to the falls and back to the car that day I thought the falls were only 11 miles one way. The distance is actually 13.2 miles. I'm not sure I would have tried had I known that. I'm not sure how far I had gone on day one to get to campsite #34, but figured it was about 7 miles. This left me with over 19 miles, about 6 of them upstream and a couple into a stiff wind. I not sure I could have done it without the pole. Another thing that helped on all of the tight turns was my new to me turning technique. This is where I lean into the turn and paddle on the opposite side rather than lean towards my paddle side like I would typically do when heeled over. This enabled me to make the tight turns keeping my momentum going forward with sweeps rather then having to slow down and pivot the boat.
It's a beautiful river to paddle with lots of wildlife and old growth trees. It's just technical enough to keep it interesting but was forgiving too. The hardest part was getting over the beaver dams. I could also see where someone could have a problem with all of the tight turns. As the saying goes, if you take the turns fast enough, you can see the back of your neck. It's a great trip, but I wouldn't want to do it without a pole. Not that it couldn't be done, it just makes it easier.
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I think I'm just gonna burn it.
