Trip Report - Little Tupper Time
July 9 - 14, 2003

Determined to eek every possible minute of Tupper time from our
Adirondack canoe camper we departed home well before dawn. While this
early start played havoc with our plans to meet a NY friend for ice
cream en route (yum, ice cream for breakfast) it did allow us to have
the dry bags packed and boats afloat by early afternoon.

Heading up lake, Diane and Cooper tandem in the Penobscot 16, Tyler in
a small sea kayak and me in the Reflection we noticed a kayaker in
green cutting across the lake on an intercept course and paused for an
anticipated ranger greeting. After a brief fires-bear bags-designated
campsites routine we continued uplake, aiming for our favorite site,
#10, Bocce Greens.

Site #10 is, in our opinion, the nicest of the 31 designated sites on
Little Tupper or the adjoining Rock Pond. We have now seen and scouted
every site at Little Tupper, seen most of the sites several times in
fact, and have rated them on a seven-criteria scale (tent capacity,
landing ease, views & water proximity, bugginess, swimming potential,
site wanderability and sun/shade) and Bocce Greens has it all.

Unoccupied too. Our little slice of heaven. Site occupancy at Little
Tupper continues to be less than expected for such a beautiful place.
Although the ranger told us that the parking lot was full on the July
4th weekend that is to be expected; he also told us that only three
other parties were camped on the lake as we paddled in. Away from the
major holidays, and especially with a mid-week put in, the site
pickin' is easy.

With a palatial camp set up beneath the open understory of the conifer
forest the boys flew to the water for some Adirondack swimming, and
Tyler picked up the first leech of the trip. I'm trying to imagine the
reaction of other kids at finding a leech sucked onto their leg - I'm
envisioning revulsion, cries of anguish, fear of swimming. Having
already spent a lifetime camped with mosquitoes, flies, leeches and
ticks Tyler and Cooper are inured to an environment where everything
stings, sticks or stinks.

As evening drew on the campfire was set (downed wood is plentiful - by
the following day we had a woodpile cut and split to last us our
entire stay) and a rousing game of Botticelli was underway. Turning in
early we discovered one mistake in our campsite architecture - our
tent was erected directly downwind of the smoking campfire. Something
else to consider in the arrangement of backwoods bedrooms and kitchen.

Thursday morning Tyler and I took a short day paddle to scout out site
12 (Big Haven), another site on the A list. Back in camp we commenced
a spell of site clean up - collecting a very small bit of trash from
previous campers and disposing of a large pile of green or sodden
Birch squaw wood left behind by overly optimistic sawyers.

Little Tupper sites are still amazingly clean and untrammeled. In part
this is because the area was only recently acquired by the Adirondack
Preserve from the Whitney family, in part because backwoods campers in
general have a better sense of ethic and in part because there is
scant reason to visit Little Tupper other than to paddle. The fishing
is all catch & release, and poor at that, thanks to the State's
protection of Little Tupper's strain of heritage brook trout. The
absence of stocked bass or other gamefish has kept the fisherman at
bay and the oft-omnipresent snarls of monofilament line, bait
containers and Budweiser cans are nowhere to be found. Let's hear it
for the Little Tupper Brookies!

Cooper and I took a short daypaddle down to check the beaches at a
cove, finding footprints of deer, raccoon and bear in one secluded
spot and paddling within 30 feet of a perched bald eagle before he
took flight. Back in camp a bushwhacking hike lead us to an unnamed
pond and bog to our west, which we christened Moss Hopper Pond for
obvious reasons.

Friday dawned gray, windy and intermittently rainy. A perfect day for
lingering, dawdling camplife. A morning campfire that was sustained
all through the day. Reading, writing, wandering, wood carving.
Playing backwoods poker and all-terrain bocce with the boys. Glancing
at the whitecaps on the lake occasionally before retreating back to
the fireside. I do dearly love camplife.

Saturday saw us heading out for a daylong exploratory paddle. Up to
the north end of the lake, up Charlie Pond outlet to the Red Trail
footbridge, up the Rock Pond outlet, across the portage trail and onto
Rock Pond. All into a serious 25 knot headwind. A workout that left us
thankful for yesterday's rest and relax.

Between the outlet streams we scouted out one of the few sites we had
not yet seen, Camp Bliss. We decided that Bliss is actually BLISS, an
acronym for Bugs Love It, So Sorry. The maddening hordes of deer flies
of course accompanied us off site as we paddled up the Rock Pond
outlet stream. Bliss if you are a Kingbird maybe.

Paddling in to Rock Pond we espied a small flotilla of canoes headed
downstream. The Keewaydin boys in a beautiful collection of 30's and
40's wood canvas canoes loaded with wannigans and tumplines. We paused
to watch them paddle past, feeling something akin to viewing a passing
parade of classic cars.

Traversing the portage trail we entered Rock Pond just as a storm
brewed up and quickly pulled into Site 30 (Open Field) for a sheltered
lunch break. Post lunch the storm passed and we continued on to scout
the remaining sites on Rock Pond. The Island site, #28 and the site
nearest the portage trail (#25) are the nicest sites on the pond and
well worth a hump over the portage trail.

Heading back to camp, our raging headwind having now abated (unfair!)
we checked the topos to discover that we covered 12 miles on the day's
explore, 6 of them into a strong headwind. Not to mention traversing
the portage trail twice. A delightfully tiring day that concluded with
an evening of campfire games; more Botticelli and a hilarious round of
charades in which Tyler acted out what appeared to be an unlicensed
Disney parody "The 100 Wounded Damnations"

Sunday saw some bits of blue sky and more day paddling. Another trip
to footprint beach, and then Tyler and I paddled across the lake to
reevaluate sites 18 through 21 (#19 is the best of those). As the
breeze abated that afternoon I treated myself to a long solo paddle up
the Charlie Pond outlet, over several beaver dams to the boundary of
the Whitney Wilderness.

Monday broke warm and sunny, and we decided to take our time packing
camp and grab as much Little Tupper time as possible. Sunny swimming,
a long friendly visit with the roving Ranger (Bruce Coon, today double
blading his personal Bell Wildfire instead of the State's kayak), a
leisurely paddle back to the take out with a lunch and swim stop on
site #2 (good deep swimming spot...bring a mask and flippers). Lunch
was a smorgasbord of leftovers and assorted remains. Kudos to Diane's
food packing experience - six days of meals and snacks for four people
and we came out just right

The haul out was easy thanks to the portage cart. As we were wheeling
back to the van we encountered the Keewaydin girls (Songadeewin) with
their wood canvas canoes and wannigans hauling down to the lake. One
of the counselors inquired about sites on the lake and we shared our
now complete site-rating sheet with her (she kept laughing about some
of the names we'd given sites, especially the bad ones - Proboscis
Point and Mal Lodgment and Mud Camp).

En route home we finally managed to hook up with friend Mike for ice
cream and boat taking and an impromptu gift exchange. We'll hope for a
longer visit next time Mike, and maybe a tour of your cabinetry shop.
As it was we rolled home well after midnight, having successfully
eeked out every minute of Little Tupper time we could.