The Holliston Conroys and the Guilford Conroys spent three nights at Rollins Pond, the best DEC campground in the Adirondacks, in early August 2010. They had two excellent adjacent campsites (89 and 91) and, once Bonnie told some adjacent campers to turn down the music on the first night, all was well. They had a couple of very short rain showers and otherwise the weather was fine.
It should be noted that the group spent the night before the camping portion of the trip began in beautiful downtown Lake Placid, which was full of touristas and lacrosse players. They had drinks at the Mirror Lake Inn cottage and dinner at Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood Company.
After enjoying Lake Placid, they arrived at Rollins Pond on a Monday afternoon and smartly set up their respective camps. They had brought the trusty lemon yellow Simpsons grill, so they ate well, grilling burgers and dogs as well as cooking eggs and bacon and pancakes in the morning on their various stoves. There was even ginger bread baked in the Bakepacker.
They did a good amount of paddling in their three Wenonah canoes: a Minnesota 3, a17-foot Sundowner with cane seats and wood trim, and a solo Advantage. On the second day in camp they traveled over to Floodwood Pond from Rollins, snacked on an island in the pond, visited St. Regis Outfitters on Floodwood Road and, after traveling back to Rollins, swam off some rocks at the end of a peninsula. They also enjoyed some vesting.

On the third day in camp, they put the boats on the vehicles and drove down Floodwood Road to the put-in for Long Pond. They paddled down the pond and completed the arduous hike up to the 2,533-foot summit of Long Pond Mountain. It was hazy on top, but they had good views of all the ponds in the area. To quote from Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow by Paul Jamieson, “It is a canoeist’s mountain. Most visitors to the Saranac country never see it at all. Yet it is strategically located so as to command the best possible view of the great oval basin in which upper Saranac waters lie, of the ring of mountains around it, and of the High Peaks beyond … The ponds of the St. Regis, Saranac, and Racquette drainage radiate outward in sparkling lanes through the forest … For the moment at least you are convinced that you are looking at just about all of the best part of the good earth. ”
To reward Bonnie, Jack and Reilly for making this impressive journey by paddle and foot, the North County Men’s Club board decided to give them the highest possible NCMC honor: THEIR NAMES IN CAPS ON THE LIST OF NCMC MEMBERS. CONGRATULATIONS FOR ACHIEVING THIS NOTABLE AND HIGHLY SOUGHT HONOR!!!
They made it back to camp in the early evening and enjoyed a well-deserved dinner and campfire. The next morning, the Holliston crowd packed up for the trip back to Massachusetts, while Jan and Tom drove to Floodwood Pond, loaded their boats and padddled about 15 minutes to the very island where they had lunched two days before. They secured a big, beautiful campsite, at which they spent two nights. They explored the other campsites on Floodwood, walked the portage to Middle Pond and also paddled down the oulet of Floodwood to Little Square Pond. During their stay on Floodwood Pond, they saw many groups of paddlers who were taking various loop trips among all the ponds in the area. Many of the groups were camping as they went.
After leaving Floodwood Pond, Jan and Tom were planning to drive to Connecticut, but as they drove through Lake Placid on a sunny afternoon, they decided to spend the night in town and wait until Sunday to leave the Adirondacks.

Gallery: Rollins-Floodwood