Yesterday when I arrived it was cloudy and cool and not good SUP weather. It was only 3:00, I needed something to do. On the way in (you have to drive through almost half of Fish Creek Campground, another huge NY State Park campground to get to Rollins Pond) I passed a trailhead for the Otter Hollow Loop Trail, since I had a full signal on my phone I was able to look the trail up and learned that it was an 8 mile loop, with minimal elevation change & about half the loop was walking through Rollins Pond and Fish Creek campgrounds. This looked like a good plan so I headed out.
The first part of the hike was easy through the campgrounds and the first mile or so of the trail was nice too. It went past several ponds and was wide and dry and easy to walk. Soon however the trail was crossing some boggy muddy areas - remember, it's been raining for 2 days! The bog bridges were very slippery, the roots were slippery and nearly everything was wet. It didn't take long before both my feet were wet and my shoes were covered with mud. The trail continued to have very large sections of ankle deep water and mud! It was a long 3 miles back to the pavement of the campground. My hiking shoes were ready to replaced before this hike, they may not recover from it! (More than 24 hours later the shoes and smartwool socks are still soaking wet!).
I got back past the generator hours so I had a sandwich for dinner. Just before sunset the sun came out from behind the clouds and set with amazing colors reflecting on the lake!
This morning I slept in till almost 7:30! That's crazy late for me! The sun was out this morning! It was very chilly and I wore my hoodie while I was eating breakfast and reading! While the generator was running I inflated the SUP! It was about 10:45 when I took off on my 1st SUP of the day. I started with going down to the far end of Rollins Pond where the outlet is to Floodwood Pond. The pond was calm and smooth this morning! The air was still chilly, but the water was warm. As I was coming back by some islands out in the middle the wind started kicking up and made it very difficult to get back across to my cove. Since I'd explored half the pond it was time for lunch and a break. It was very chilly sitting in the shade with wet pants!
After lunch I went the other way down the pond, toward the boat launch area. It was very windy and I was paddling into the wind the whole way! Once I got to the boat launch I carried the SUP across the road and down a short trail to Whey Pond. Whey Pond is even calmer and quieter than Rollins Pond because they don't allow motors at all and because you have to carry your boat in! It's not a long carry, but it's still a carry! When I first got over there I enjoyed the calm and had a snack break. Then I noticed it looked like people were entering the lake from the far end so I paddled down there to see where they were coming from - there's another carry at the end, I don't remember that other ponds name. The paddle across Whey Pond was nice - the wind was at my back. Now I had to paddle back into the wind!
When I made it back to Rollins Pond I was going to take another break, but I couldn't because the wind was really whipping! I had to keep paddling or I'd blow right into shore. Funny, I was paddling into the wind on the way there and the way back. That's not fair. Eventually I reached the cove near my site and the wind was blowing into the cove so I could stop paddling and drift the rest of the way in!
By now the sky was totally clouded over. It had been partly sunny, but now it looked like it was going rain. Rain is forecast overnight and all day tomorrow, but today was supposed to stay dry. It was warmer though! After my paddle I walked the trash up and got some pictures of Whey Pond and then finally changed out of my wet leggings (I have found that my spandex leggings are so much better for SUP, they dry faster than my skort, but not super fast!). I think I have been wet and dirty since yesterday afternoon even though I took a shower yesterday!
After dinner I put the SUP away - it wasn't fully dry but I wanted all the chores done, especially since it was supposed to rain overnight - and went for a walk. While I was out walking, it started raining! Just a light shower, barely penetrating the leaves, but rain! Glad I'd already put the SUP away! When I got back I put the chair away and came inside. Of course the rain has now stopped, but according to the forecast there is more on the way. I got so lucky with my timing! I was here to SUP on the one and only day this week that was at all good SUP weather! I love that it was chilly enough for my hoodie this morning and evening but warm enough to SUP during the day!
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