Lower Bog River

[pico23]

I sort of included this question in my prior post about Warrent Point.

does anyone have first hand experience paddling the lower bog?

My wife and I are experienced I-II paddlers and from Jamisons description it looks like the river is mostly around class II with some obvious sections that are unpaddleable or class III.

I'd obviously intend to portage around the 2 falls, and the last 1/4 mile of class 3 rapids before the confluence of Round Lake Outlet.

What I'm wondering is how straight forward are the rest of the rapids and how scratchy in September. I don't want to line the 7 miles, and I don't want to go for a swim with a fully loaded boat.

We'll be running it in a fully loaded boat with a 50lb dog to boot. It will be the end of a 10 day paddling trip but since it's far from a road, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution if it's generally a harder river than the ratings indicate.

I realize this is subjective and based on the skill of the paddlers but I can find very little info on this section of river, and even the guide services I've talked to haven't actually paddled it, just scouted the portages and such.

[Wldrns]

I sort of included this question in my prior post about Warrent Point.

does anyone have first hand experience paddling the lower bog?

My wife and I are experienced I-II paddlers and from Jamisons description it looks like the river is mostly around class II with some obvious sections that are unpaddleable or class III.

I'd obviously intend to portage around the 2 falls, and the last 1/4 mile of class 3 rapids before the confluence of Round Lake Outlet.

What I'm wondering is how straight forward are the rest of the rapids and how scratchy in September. I don't want to line the 7 miles, and I don't want to go for a swim with a fully loaded boat.

We'll be running it in a fully loaded boat with a 50lb dog to boot. It will be the end of a 10 day paddling trip but since it's far from a road, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution if it's generally a harder river than the ratings indicate.

I can give you a only a snapshot only of the Bog River a half mile upstream from the Round Lake Outlet confluence, as I was there on foot (no boat) just a week ago, Aug 19. Forget about paddling or lining. The water level is so low you can walk across on rocks at any place you choose. There is no chance of floating a boat in any fashion through that area, so you should plan on a lengthy carry. I can't imagine any of the rest of the normally faster runs are any different outside of the obvious flatwater sections. Oh, and the witchhopple is particularly thick in a wide band along the riverbank here also, more than head high. Plan lots of time to push through.

[Bill I.]

I've never paddled the lower Bog either, although I have been considering it as a Hornbeck trip.

However, I was there this weekend on foot, visiting Winding (Pa's) Falls and the Round Lake Stream confluence. The previous post is correct, the river is very low and barring any unforseen deluges will likely remain that way into September. The flatwater stretches looked okay (from what I saw) but the rest is too shallow and rocky for even lining.

Note that there are no real carry trails on this part of the river. At best you will find a few rough herd paths, especially around the two falls. The carries that show on the Paddler's Map are by no means developed trails.

There is a *rough* herd path around Split Rock Falls, on the north bank. Take-out is just above the falls, put-in roughly 200 feet below, if my memory is correct.

At Winding Falls, you can paddle up to the bridge but there is no good landing. Shallows begin immediately downstream from the bridge. You may be able to get your canoe to a rocky spot on the north bank where a path leads up to an excellent campsite (room for several tents) just past the bridge. A clear path leads to the top of the falls (a.k.a. Pa's Falls; both names appear to be valid) and down to the bottom. For carry purposes, though, the pool below the falls dead-ends in another rock garden. You will need to bushwhack further to find the next stillwater.

On the other hand, I did scout a good path back in May along the "long rapids" leading up to the Round Lake Stream confluence. There was a takeout point in the alders just before the rapids began, and a narrow footpath along the north bank. It ended where a logging road came in from the NE (from Goodman Bridge) with only a few aging ribbons continuing downstream. I did not scout that section.

I found an old 1984 article in Adirondac magazine about the Lower Bog, and it mentioned a traditional carry trail on the south bank along the "long rapids." At that time, though, the trail was on private land and no longer maintained. The state purchased that parcel last year, but I don't know the status of that trail.

The state now owns ALL of the land on the Lower Bog, from Lows Lower Dam to Tupper Lake, by the way.

Immediately below the Round confluence, there is another good campsite on the east bank. This one has good views but lumpy ground.

For what it's worth, there is an excellent carry route from the Lower Bog to Round Lake, involving two carries and one flatwater section on Round Lake Stream. The northern carry is clear as a bell. The southern one is currently obscured by thick hobblebush growth, but I suspect it will eventually be marked and maintained.

[pico23]

Thanks for the info.

Seems 1) a bit shallow, not even scratchy as you noted, just plain dry.

2) seems even on higher water their would be a good deal of portage involved. With 2 peoples worth of camping gear at the end of a 10 day trip, this would be a pain. Condsidering out boat is not light, most of our portages will require doubles.

3) if the round lake portage is cleaned up, I'd think this would make for a splendid day paddle. I assume it's possible to paddle the bog to the RLO then paddle some ways upstream (1 mile) according to PJ Northflow and then portage part or the rest of the way to Round Lake?

Thanks for the info, I'm definitely saving this to mind as a possibility in the spring next year as a nice trip.

From talk with some guide services, they appeared to have an interest in this stretch of river and it's portages, all having at least checked out the lower rapids portage.

So from my guess, it would seem within a year or two this might be a reasonably effecient route to paddle.

Thanks again for all the info. We'll skip it this time but definitely it's on my list since it seems so few people actually paddle it.

[Bill I.]

3) if the round lake portage is cleaned up, I'd think this would make for a splendid day paddle. I assume it's possible to paddle the bog to the RLO then paddle some ways upstream (1 mile) according to PJ Northflow and then portage part or the rest of the way to Round Lake?

If you just want to paddle Round Lake as a day trip, you can drive down to Sabattis Road and put in at the bridge over the inlet. Or you can launch at Little Tupper HQ, where there is better parking.

The carry is useful for those people who want to include the lake in a longer route (Big Tupper --> Round --> Little Tupper --> Rock Pond --> Lake Lila --> Lows Lake --> Hitchins Pond --> Lower Bog --> Big Tupper). To find it, you'd paddle up the Lower Bog to the confluence. Rapids begin on both streams within sight of the intersection. The carry (currently unmarked but easy to find) begins just inside the RLS channel, on the left bank facing upstream. Follow it to a gravel logging road with a bridge over the stream; to the left is a large clearing where there was a camp until this year, and from it two separate trails lead to the next flatwater section on RLS. You should be able to paddle up to the mouth of Bear Brook, with perhaps a few shallows along the way. At Bear Brook, RLS becomes shallow, so land on the south bank and look for a prominent trail leading upstream. This trail currently becomes overgrown south of the Hamilton County line, but it's there and is so scenic that it won't be forgotten for long. This trail leads to the dam at the north end of Round Lake. From there, you can paddle across Round and Little Tupper without any further obstructions.

[Wldrns]

I assume it's possible to paddle the bog to the RLO then paddle some ways upstream (1 mile) according to PJ Northflow and then portage part or the rest of the way to Round Lake?

In low water (now) there would be very limited paddling available above the RLO/Bog River confluence - it is mainly shallow (1 ft or less) with many large boulders scattered about. I guarantee that above the Bear Brook confluence, the entire distance to RL is as unpaddleable as the typical view of RLO in the photo below (but it is a pretty stream):

[pico23]

Little Tupper --> Rock Pond --> Lake Lila --> Lows Lake --> Hitchins Pond --> Lower Bog --> Big Tupper

Yep, my original trip.

As of now it's just LT to Hitchins (possibly with a night on RL or Trout Pond or paddle up HorseShoe outlet and end there if the water is high enough, a few years ago we did that no problem other then many beaver dams)

Had to decide where I wanted to spend time and what I wanted to do. I'd like to hike all the little overlooks, maybe bushwhack up antedeluvian mountain. And dragging a boat those last 7 miles on the lower bog doesn't seem like a useful thing to do with a day.

BTW, Round Lake is nice but my wife and I can easily cover 15-25 miles a day in a boat, any single body of water is usually a bit confining unless there are some side excursions (outlets or short portages to other water). I expect within a few years for RL to be a premier destination with over crowding. A few weeks ago we did LT to site 14 (big island), back to RL, paddled all of RL checking out all the sites and back to Eagle Point where we camped. About 17 total miles, somehow it was all in a headwind (no joke) with whitecaps on both RL and LT. But while on RL I couldn't help but notice just how accessable it was compared to Little Tupper which requires a hard paddle into the wind just about every day.

There are some nice beach sites on RL, and while it is as windy as LT in some respects, the paddle into the outlet from the bridge is easy, and the total distance will make it a nice family destination with people hauling in huge amounts of gear and staying for a week at a given site. The lake is pretty though, with some great mountain views (better than LT IMO) and in 30 years those old camps and roads will be barely a memory making that a nice wilderness lake.

I've seen way too many overloaded boats on LT going into a headwind with whitecaps to realize LT will never be a family destination. Too much work and really not safe.

The portages are really what kill us. Right now my tandem is a 70lb river tripper. Great boat for a only boat but a bit heavy for long portages. I use a Knupack portage system and carry it overhead pretty easily. Still it's no picnick.

[Camp MacFox]

Lower Bog River in a cedarstrip canoe, 8/22/08

My husband, our 12 year old niece and I paddled the Lower Bog River last Friday. We were camping on Lows Lake with some friends who volunteered to deliver our car from the Lower Dam to the Falls/Route 421 bridge for us. Therefore, we were able to do the lower Bog as an unladen day trip. We paddled a 45 pound cedarstripper with minimal other gear. Here's what we found:

If you are willing to do some rough portages and have a lightweight boat, this is an accessible flatwater trip. The rapids we saw were too shallow and bony (even this wet summer) to risk our delicate canoe on. The parts we saw did not seem terribly challenging technically, but would involve a lot of bumping and scraping. You could do it in a plastic or aluminum canoe, but then you'd have to carry a heavy canoe around the falls and tougher rapids. We chose to portage them all.

The first portage (#11 in Cilley's new Paddlers Guide), around the lower dam, is well trodden and easy, if a little steep. The next portage (Cilley's #12) is poorly marked. We could not find a place that was clearly a "standard" take out. We found one or two ribbons of surveyors tape in the trees once on land, but could not follow them any distance. We ended up pretty much bushwhacking this one. Some marshy spots, lots of undergrowth and blowdown. Short but difficult. The next portage (Split Rock falls, #13 in Cilley's book) was similar.

Finding the start of portage #14 (around Pa's Falls) was easy as there is a bridge there, although the take-out is very steep. We were easily misled by the well-trodden hiker's trail to the falls overlook and Pa's memorial stone, and completely missed the untrodden (as in no footbed whatsoever) trail to the put in below the falls. Once we went back, we found just enough surveyor's tape to follow. The next two portages (#15 and 16 are practically adjacent to #13) were similarly difficult to locate and follow. One of them (I can't remember which) we traced the surveyor's tape trail backward from the end having bushwhacked there. For some reason it was easier to spot the tape moving in the upstream direction. All portages so far had been short but difficult to find, very overgrown, hard terrain to carry through. Portage #17 (mislabeled on Cilley's sketch map but correctly described in the book) is the longest one, at 3/4 mile around the Bog River Rapids. Fortunately, that was the best marked of the trails. The take out spot was reasonably obvious (at least compared to all the others) and there was a faint but visible footbed to follow for about half the distance (up to some stone cairns). The footbed disappeared for the second half of the portage, but the trail was well marked with surveyor's tape through relatively open woods, so you can usually see the next tape ribbon (if the tree holding it has not blown down). That portage brought us to the confluence with Round Lake outlet and a campsite with a nice rock for swimming, which was most welcome after miles of underbrush and mud. From there we paddled down the Bog quickly and easily until we saw the top of the falls and the Route 421 bridge. We took out at a large rock immediately above the falls, and a short stretch of easy rock-hopping led us back to our car.

It took us 5 hours to complete the trip, during which time we did not see another soul (although traffic noise from Route 30 starts to intrude below the Round Lake outlet confluence). The flatwater sections of the river are enjoyable, and no whitewater skills are needed as long as you are prepared to do the carries. We did the trip wearing paddling sandals and shorts-in retrospect a mistake, as our legs got pretty scratched and mosquito bitten while bushwhacking. If I was doing this trip with camping gear, I would want two pairs of shoes-watershoes/sandals for the muddy wet take outs, and decent hiking shoes and socks (maybe even long pants) for the carries. Although the distances traveled are not great, allow plenty of extra time for the carries. These are not the genteel, well marked and well-trodden carry trails you might be used to in the Adirondacks. However, if the carry trails become better established and are kept clear through use, this trip will become easier and within the reach of more people.

I hope this description helps anyone planning to paddle the Lower Bog this year.