This island is your island
On Indian Lake, you can own a choice piece of waterfront real estate for just $12 a night.
By Mark Bowie, Explorer Correspondent
On an autumn evening tagged with the
first freeze warning of the season, I
pitched my tent on campsite No. 2,
Kirpens Island, Indian lake. My neighbors
had introduced themselves on the outbound
paddle: three seagulls and a family of common
mergansers. I would be the only human
soul spending the night out here.

I scampered onto a rock ledge to scout the terrain. The
lake spread before me, a 15-mile-long blue-black jeweler's
velvet sprinkled with dark gemstones. The crescent moon
hung above several islands to the south, but I focused my
camera on a silhouette of mountains looming over the tiny
hamlet of Sabael, midway along the northwest shore. Twilight
clouds blazed in a golden glow. A smattering of lights
defined the community.
Above, pinpricks of starlight materialized. Nautilus and
the Big Dipper soon appeared. The Milky Way, becoming
luminescent as a cloudbank, formed a canopy over the axis
of the lake. Adirondack islands offer balcony seating to
celestial shows far from extraneous light, and on clear,
cold nights like this the stars shine so brightly they seem to
sizzle. I shot several time exposures: a five-minute image
shows the Dipper streaking north, a 10-minute record
reveals hundreds of multicolored stars raining down upon
the town.
Amidst this nocturnal majesty they came—invisible
squadrons of Canada geese flying south, navigating by
starlight. I strained without success to see their V formations.
They remained hauntingly stealthy; some flew so
near I could hear their wingbeats. Hour after hour, wave
after wave flew by, fervently honking to one another.
There's magic in this wild place.
For many Adirondack lovers, owning waterfront property
may be a romantic dream; an entire island, the ultimate sanctuary.
Take up island camping, and you can experience hundreds
of waterfront sites without a major financial investment.
Lake George alone has 387 shoreline sites on 44 islands. You
can have an island in Indian Lake for $12 a night.
Writer John Thaxton has made numerous island-camping
excursions on Adirondack waters. He has written,
"With a little luck you can secure a two-acre island all for
yourself and camp there for two weeks, listening at night to
the calls of loons and the splashes of leaping smallmouth
bass, in the morning to a song sparrow's startling explosion
of music. Islands always face the sun and in the Adirondacks
almost always offer thick woods and deep-green
shade. They are at once the noisiest and quietest of places.”
The state Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) operates campgrounds with island campsites on
Lower and Middle Saranac lakes, Indian, Fourth and Forked
lakes, and Putnam Pond. Reservations and a fee are
required. Predictably, island sites are very popular in season.
You'll find more choice sites available midweek or even
slightly out of season, with more solitude.
Other Adirondack waters also have island campsites.
Designated sites on Upper Saranac, Lake Lila, Lake
Champlain, Cranberry Lake, Stillwater Resevoir and Lake
Placid, and in the William C. Whitney Wilderness and St.
Regis Canoe Area, are available on a first-come, firstserved
basis. There are no fees, and permits are not
required for groups of less than eight people staying less
than three nights.
The major island campgrounds have minimal facilities:
picnic tables and fireplaces, but no running water or electricity.
All but Stillwater have privies. Plan on bringing
your own fuel and water; firewood is scarce, the lake water
unpotable without purification.
Islands make enchanting base camps from which to
explore the region's woods and waters. Lake- and pondhopping
by interconnected waterways or short carries can
ferry you into some of the state's remotest waters. Hiking
trails from the water allow you to explore the wilds on foot.
I put in my ultralight canoe at Clark's Indian Lake Marina
in Sabael. The mile-long crossing brought me to an
island cluster near the east shore. Pervasive drought conditions
had lowered water levels about five feet below normal.
The exposed bedrock resembled the rugged coast of
Maine, though not with picturesque pink-granite boulders,
but fantastically banded metamorphics laced with magnetite
and garnet.
I searched for a particular shoreline gap and, after a couple
false openings, found it—Norman's Cove, as perfectly
round, as idyllic a secluded pirate's cove an Adirondack
lake could offer. I quietly entered. The beige boat drifted
into blazing autumn reflections. I beached at the Baldface
Mountain trailhead for the 1.1-mile hike to what Thaxton
extols as "the second most spectacular view in the southern
Adirondacks."
The late afternoon sun dappled the forest floor. I paused to photograph lime-green ferns, their
fronds artistically splayed above maple
leaves. The trail rambled through shaded
glades and drying creek beds, then ascended
a steep rock staircase to a summit ledge
capped with red spruce, red pine and blueberries. The plants overlook a breathtaking
180-degree vista of Indian Lake, from the
Jessup Bay arm in the southwest, past a
jumble of mountains, including Snowy
and Blue, and toward the lake's outlet into
Lake Abanakee at the northeast end. Norman's
Cove, imitating a pothole on a riverbank,
lay at our feet.
Across the lake, the reciprocal views
from the knob summit of 3,899-foot Snowy
Mountain are perhaps the most spectacular
in this part of the Adirondacks. From
Snowy several of the area's most prominent
peaks stand out: Gore, Eleventh and Crane.
On the clearest days, most of the High
Peaks are visible. The trail to Snowy starts
off state Route 30 on the north side of Indian
Lake. It's a challenging ascent with precipitous
cliffs just below the summit, but
the sights justify the effort.
More moderate hiking trails lead to
other local destinations worth exploring.
The 1.2-mile trail up Watch Hill, also off
Route 30, climbs to ledge views of Snowy
and the south end of Indian Lake. Trails
accessible only by boat lead to beautiful,
seldom-visited ponds east of the lake. It's
an easy 1.6 miles to John Mack Pond on
the western edge of the Siamese Ponds
Wilderness. Another trail branches from
here, traveling two miles to Long Pond, a
remote favorite of rock climbers wanting
to scale its 150-foot shore cliffs.
At the south end of long, skinny Jessup
Bay, Dug Mountain Brook tumbles in scenic
cascades into the Jessup River, just before it,
in turn, feeds the lake. A half-mile hike
along the brook leads to 40-foot waterfalls.
On a sunny day several summers ago, my
family and I launched canoes from Lewey
Lake (which connects with Indian's south
end) bound for its inlet, the Miami River.
Once there, we glided through a maze of
channels, past white lilies, over and around
beaver dams. Until it began sprinkling.
Reluctantly, we retreated. We reached open
water when sprinkles turned to rain.
Then the clouds burst. We hadn't seen the
storm approach, couldn't sense its presence
on the breeze. We fled to a tiny rock island,
overturned our aluminum canoes, and
scrambled beneath them. The pelting rain
was deafening. Then it got wild. Lightning
flew around us. Figuring metal boats stranded
on bare rock was probably more dangerous
than metal boats briefly in water, we
struck for the nearest mainland, paddling
with fear-inspired vigor, paddling, literally,
for our lives. We were fortunate. We made
landfall before becoming lightning rods.
Beware the weather. By the nature of
the activity, island campers are exposed.
Monitor weather reports and avoid camping
if storms are predicted. A portable
weather radio isn't a bad idea. Because I
go camping in open canoes, I store gear in
waterproof pouches and sealed garbage
bags lashed to the thwarts.
There's a certain nervous excitement
involved in paddling to an Adirondack
island with all your provisions loaded in
your boat. For there you can live on the
water, immerse yourself in its daily rhythms,
become intimate with its charms and wonders.
Go out of season, and you may do so
in complete solitude.
Map by Nancy Bernstein
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