Christmas Paddle in the Adirondacks

Adirondack Christmas Paddle 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
Lake Sacandaga
Town of Lake Pleasant, Hamilton County

Usually on or about December 25, I'm snowmobiling on the lake, or at least X-C skiing around the shoreline.
But not in 2006. It didn't look good for winter sports. January wasn't too encouraging. The lakes finally froze enough to ride, but there wan't much snow until fairly late in the month. It didn't look promising for winter sports but on Valentine's Day we had a huge storm and theree was good snowmobiling until April.

December 2015 is looking like a repeat of 2006. I looked at this page and realized I never went back and updated it with pictures from the 'famous' 2007 Valentine's Day storm to contrast with the mild December. Well, I'll have to try finding some pictures from later in the winter. In the mean time, take a look at these 2001 pictures if you want to see what a real Adirondack winter is like.

I paddled across the lake, pulled up on the beach at Fawn Lake Bay, checked my favorite spring, paddled over to Hatchery Brook Bay, walked to Sound Lake. There was almost no ice on the lake except for a little leftover patch in Fawn Lake Bay and some skim in Mud Lake and Hatchery Brook Bays. There was no snow in the woods, the ferns were green, the springs were running and Sound Lake (a pond actually) had ice on about 2/3 of the surface.

It was a nice paddle, not really cold, almost no wind. No boats of course, very quiet. The lake was a mirror most of the time. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me.

The temperature dropped and it started snowing later in the evening, then changed to a snow/sleet/rain mix. Evidently it was just cold enough to form some skim ice, which caught the snow. The next morning (Dec. 26) about 2/3 of the lake was covered, but it was just a layer of floating slush. So I went out again. This time I took the camera.