The 'Long' Way to Kayaking

We wanted to kayak on Long Lake and Dave had the brilliant idea to incorporate a trip back to Tahawus, aka the historical town of Adirondac. You may recall that two years ago around the same time, I posted about this ghost town and the iron mining that started the settlement  https://intoanewhorizon.blogspot.com/2021/09/ghost-town.html. Since the temps were still in the 40's the morning of our recent trip, we opted to go to Tahawus and hike first, while the sun warmed the air, then head on over to Long Lake. Our first stop on the lengthy dirt access road was the Blast Furnace. What an amazing piece of history, but unfortunately it only was in service for a couple of years due to a flood and transportation issues. 

Then it was on to what is left of Adirondac, but I didn't take photos of the remaining house chimneys, since I posted that before. We did take a nice hike to Lake Henderson with its gorgeous view of Henderson Mountain and the changing color of the leaves. There must have been a huge rockslide on the mountain since you can see the bare spot in the distance. You can portage your kayaks and gear the approx. half mile to the water and go camping on one of the primitive campsites on the lake. We watched three guys do just that, but they had to take several trips since all their gear and the guys wouldn't fit in the kayak and canoe at the same time.

This is where Lake Henderson becomes the Hudson River.  

Then it was time to go to Long Lake and treat ourselves to lunch on the Adirondack Hotel's enclosed porch overlooking the lake. This moose greeted us and its eyes seemed to follow us everywhere!

Long Lake lives up to its name. It is 14 miles long and very narrow, almost looking like a fjord.  

We had a great paddle and only encountered one boat the whole time...we are loving this time of year! However, we were shocked to see that the pond that we kayaked in last time, was empty. During the heavy rains and flooding in July, the dam broke and the water drained out (there were also a couple of bridges on our way to the lake that had washed out and temporary ones were in place while they are rebuilding).

Even though our kayaking was abbreviated, we still had one of our best days exploring both on land and water. Returning to places that we discovered on our own is always a great experience. We never know what other interesting things we will find!