Saranac Lake, New York

[rndn]

I just got back from a week long vacation in the town of Saranac Lake, New York. The town is situated around Tupper Lake and Lake Placid. I stayed at a cottage right on Lake Flower which also has access to 4 other lakes via channels and locks. The entire boating area is wonderfully marked so you always know if you are in the channel even though the channels are on average 5-6 feet deep. This was my first visit to the area and fell in love with the scenery and how remote and quiet the lakes tend to be.

Fishing is top notch with bass and northern pike being the most frequent catch.

There are plenty of areas to swim, ski, and kneeboard as well or you can just tie up to one of the many islands on Lower Saranac lake and spend the day or just stop for a picnic.

There are also several marinas in the area and the gas was $4.99 without ethanol and 91 octane which I found reasonable.

If you want to get away to a nice quiet place with navigable rivers, locks and lakes, and are looking at the Adirondacks, you may want to consider the Saranac Lake area. If you do make sure your cottage is on one of these lakes, Lake Flower, Kiwassa Lake, Oseetah Lake, Lower Saranac Lake and Middle Saranac Lake. If you are on any one of these lakes you can get to any one of the others by boat.

I traversed these lakes with the boat in my signature and did not hit anything with the prop all week, even though one of the lakes has a maximum depth of only seven feet.

 

[sea wolf]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

Thanx for the tip, rn. I've alaways wanted to boat on Saranac, but have never made it up there. How are the accomodations up there? Is it one of those places where you have to make a reservation a month ahead of time? Also how did u operate the locks?

 

[Expidia]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

Thx RD
We are going to get up to that area this year for sure. My Daughter like to go on the lower Saranac with her canoe and troll for trout. She loves it up there.

I wanted to go on Tupper Lake too as it looks to be a good sized body of water and there is a nice wildlife museum right on the water too!

 

[rndn]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

Places can be had but if you wait you'll need to take what's available. I needed a 3 bedroom cottage on the water that took pets. I ended up paying $1,000 for the week which I didn't think was too bad. Next time it's just the wife and I so I don't have to be too choosy or need such a large cabin. The cottage even included a covered boat house for my boat so I didn't need to worry about covering it for the nights.
The lock from Oseetah to Lower Saranac is attended from 9:00am till 7:30pm. After those hours you can operate it yourself, but I never needed to do that. There is no charge for the locks and the attendants are very nice. One even came down to our boat and gave us 2 dog bones for our dogs.
The lock from Lower Saranac to Middle Saranac is manually operated and very user friendly. Swing the gates shut and open the valves. There are very clear directions so it should not be a problem.

 

[allaboutheu22]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

saranac is a real nice lake. i have a house on the great sacandaga lake, which is pretty close to the saranac. ever heard of it?

 

[Expidia]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

saranac is a real nice lake. i have a house on the great sacandaga lake, which is pretty close to the saranac. ever heard of it?

Familiar picture . . . I used to rent a great house for $1000 a week right by the bridge. It had about 6 bedrooms and we did it for 3 years in a row. Huge deck hanging over the lake. About 40 ft by 40 feet with about 15 Adirondack chairs and a portable circular fireplace that we would put in the center of the deck at night. But alas, the guy went thru a divorce and sold it a few years ago.

We like to pull up to Lanzi's and eat on their deck.

Great lake but the fishing is tough over the years probably from acid rain or under stocking.

At least they keep the water levels up now. Years ago when they dropped the lake to make the Hudson River more navigable it was dangerous because Islands and shoals would pop up all over the place.

We were there about 1 1/2 mos ago. Put in at the NYS launch near sand island and puttered up to the dam had lunch in a bay and drove back.

Due to increasing high winds, we hit 3-4 foot waves as soon as we hit the main lake again. Thought it was all over. We were both totally soaked when we finally reached the launch. Can't remember getting caught like that in a long time. It was so beautiful on the way back from the dam, I saw no need to put up the enclosure . . . bad decision

Beautiful lake though, but ya gotta respect it!

 

[allaboutheu22]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

haha, yes its a very nice lake. yeah i live about 6 houses down from that bridge, and i my dad has owned that house for 26 years. that bridge is being knocked down, and being replaced with a new, higher one to solve controversy between sailboats not being able to explore the other side of the bridge because they could not fit under, as im sure your aware. i never thought i would be saying this about this lake, but they are keeping the water levels too high now. because in july, the water is extremely high, so they are forced to let the water out extremely fast in august so in august, it gets very, very shallow which making trolling at the wide end harder...so you dont rent anymore though?

 

[prc03sx195]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

Is it too late to try and get a place for end of August or early July? Do you have any specific recommendations for cabins on the lake, just for my girlfriend and I?
I would love to get up there with the boat. Thanks

paul

 

[rndn]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

Is it too late to try and get a place for end of August or early July? Do you have any specific recommendations for cabins on the lake, just for my girlfriend and I?
I would love to get up there with the boat. Thanks

paul

Here's a couple of links for you if you were talking about the Saranac Lakes area. Make sure you do your homework and will be on one of the lakes that are connected along the Saranac River. Lake Flower, Oseetah, Kiwassa, Lower Saranac, and Middle Saranac lakes are all connected and fully accessible by boat. There are fuel services on Lake Flower and Lower Saranac Lake. I found the cabin I rented through the first link.
http://www.adirondackbyowner.com/5558.html
http://www.saranaclake.com/cottagescabins.shtml

 

[rndn]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

This place looked really nice but the location is right on the windy end of the lake and once had 2 1/2 foot wave building up from the other end of the lake.
http://www.ampersandbay.com/home.html

 

[Devious]

Re: Saranac Lake, New York

We were there about 1 1/2 mos ago. Put in at the NYS launch near sand island and puttered up to the dam had lunch in a bay and drove back.

Due to increasing high winds, we hit 3-4 foot waves as soon as we hit the main lake again. Thought it was all over. We were both totally soaked when we finally reached the launch. Can't remember getting caught like that in a long time. It was so beautiful on the way back from the dam, I saw no need to put up the enclosure . . . bad decision

i was sacandaga a few weeks ago and had something similar happen. ended up going through the waves instead of over them. even goin 15mph on the jetski it was like having a firehose blasted in your face.