Nelson Lake which is tucked away south of Minnehaha, NY or just outside of Old Forge in the Black River Wild Forest has been on my radar for close to a year now. The week of September 23rd I found myself working very close to the Adirondack Park, combine that with beautiful weather and you have a recipe for adventure.

The Nelson Lake trailhead sits along route 28 several miles south of Thendera, NY. There is a .35 mile carry along a wide dirt road to the put-in. After you cross the railroad tracks the path narrows and drops for the remaining several hundred feet to the Middle Branch of the Moose River. Once on the river it was about .06 mile paddle to the Nelson Lake outlet according to my GPS. The outlet was shallow and loaded with Pickerel weed. I zigged and I zagged through the outlet and easily crossed a small beaver dam before entering the 84 acre lake.

A palette of red, orange and yellow was evidence that Autumn was here while the sun at my back gave me some warmth from a cool breeze. Slowly paddling the shoreline I realized I was alone, I had the entire lake to myself. As I made my way around the lake I was looking for campsites. I did see what I thought was one however it wasn’t marked. I’ll have to look into it for the future.

I would paddle 3.6 miles, hike just over a half mile but more importantly spend time in a beautiful landscape.

Cheers!