Birding touches every part of my life, it’s that embedded. From the mundane morning routine of looking out the window with cup of coffee in hand to the intentional trip dedicated to seeing a specific species, birds are there, making a walk more musical, a morning more colorful, a skyline or landscape more dynamic with their movement.
This summer I was lucky to enjoy my cup of morning coffee at a remote wooded lakeside and behold the company of common loons in the Adirondacks of New York State, combining an ordinary routine (morning cuppa!) with an extraordinary experience in nature. These iconic birds of the Northern lakes wilderness are celebrated in this landscape, with signage dedicated to their protection, teams of local volunteers ready to rescue them from distress, and The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation in Saranac Lake a source for outreach and education about them.
Before I tell you more about this adventure, you gotta see a loon! Below is a photo of an adult loon with young, as seen from land. This was early morning from our campsite on Long Pond in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness area in the North section of the Adirondack Park region.
Adult Common loon with young on Long Pond, St Regis Wilderness area, New York State. August 2025. Photo taken from land by me.
Now the backstory: How did this trip come about? The magic of people, of course, and the routes laid out by others who care about nature, human-powered transport, birds, and each other.
My boyfriend Seth spent his childhood exploring the woods of the northwest corner of the Adirondacks, and in more recent years, has paddled miles of waterways and lakes during his visits home to see family. I would get short messages from his InReach GPS when he was out of cell range: “Lake to myself! Heard a loon.” And then photos of said loon, once he was back in range (bird always a respected speck on the water, the photo taken by phone at a distance).
Seth accompanied these loon sighting reports with gifts of loon mementos from the North Country: An Adirondack sticker bearing a loon; a North country take on the children’s book “Goodnight, Moon:” “Goodnight, Loon;” a bookmark with “Advice from a Loon” (Spend time at the Lake! one of the missives. There is more loon advice from the bookmark in this post).
This summer I joined Seth on one of these trips back to Northern New York, for a family wedding, adding on a substantive canoe trip as part of it (loons a hoped-for addition to the experience).
Our route, in yellow. We launched and finished from the Floodwood Outpost, seen in the upper left of this map. The push pins are the sites of our tent camping each night (our last campsite we stayed two evenings at the same site). August 2025.
Seth had scouted portions of our planned route by kayak earlier in June, and saved segments of it to explore brand new to both of us on this trip. He reported loons at each pond so far, and we had every expectation of seeing the same birds on this visit.
More loon advice from that bookmark: Call (on) your friends. Building on the foundation of Seth’s family and friends we borrowed a car and and a canoe, incorporated wise route advice, and enjoyed a generous stay at our pre-and-post trip launch site in Saranac Lake. Thanks to many hands, we realized a 5-day, 4-night canoe loop in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness area in August, 2025.
We also built our own foundation for a trip like this: Seth keeps camping gear with his sister in northern New York, making a trip like this turn-key with baseline supplies already accessible. Other than purchasing some water boots for me in Saranac Lake, we provisioned with stuff we brought with us, stuff already on site, or stuff we borrowed from friends on the ground. I even pre-made our dehydrated camp food for the trip, bringing it in our luggage on the flight over, it was light enough.
You’re going to blink at one thing I didn’t pack, tho: binoculars. My binoculars were too heavy for the human-powered canoe trip, and I decided to rely on my eyes and ears for the birding parts. And the Merlin app. The bird I wanted most to find was going to be big enough to see with the naked eye: There is no mistaking a loon’s profile or vocalization. I was fine without bincoculars in the end.
We arrived in northern New York in the last third of August 2025 and were on the ground until September 1.
A huge thank you to Seth’s mom Susan for use of her car to carry the canoe, friend Chrissy for loaning us her Wenonah canoe and suggesting parts of the route, friend Brett for delicious meals and cozy accommodations in Saranac Lake, and Seth’s sister Robin for caring for us on either side of the adventure with transport, humor, and generosity. We hope the homemade cinnamon rolls baked in your respective kitchens is a start to the reciprocation!
What follows is a caption-heavy photo narrative of the trip with an emphasis on the canoeing and birding portions, inspired by a third piece of advice from the loon bookmark: Surround Yourself with Beauty. I lay the atmospheric stage for the final section of the post which shares more about the loons we saw. You gotta scroll through the whole post, enjoy!
Seth and Bryony roosting at water’s edge (like loons?) at Camp High Skies, the summer abode of Seth’s mom Susan. This is shortly after our initial arrival from the West Coast, and we are tuckered. Northern New York. August 2025. Photo by Robin Wolpin.
A paddle at dusk on the St Regis River just off shore from Susan’s camp. Northern New York, August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
En route to Saranac Lake to begin the paddle portion of our adventure, we stopped at the Visitor’s Interpretive Center (VIC) of the Paul Smiths College. Miles of woodland trails, interpretive signage, and the occasional interactive nature installation like this giant listening horn. From inside this funnel you can hear the forest sounds more acutely. Paul Smiths, NY August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Arrival in Saranac Lake. Bry on Baker Mountain above town, looking south toward the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Look! It’s Bird Friendly Chocolate from Fruition Chocolate Works! That’s a Bicknall’s Thrush on the label of a chocolate bar made from bird-friendly certified cocoa from the Dominocan Republic. Saw these bars at Nori’s Grocery in Saranac Lake, NY. Friend Chrissy works here, and we bought this Zorzal bar for her as a thank you for loaning us her canoe. You can read more about Bird Friendly Chocolate and how to get your hands on it here.
And we’re off! Our launch place, the Floodwood Outpost on Floodwood Pond. Dave and Rivka Cilley run the outpost out of their home and have a small shop for paddlers, hikers, cyclists and general visitors. We bought potato chips and the last fizzy beverages we would enjoy for the next 5 days. Excited to kick off our paddle! August 2025. Photo by Dave Cilley.
Our first stop on day one: a little beach/campsite on Floodwood Pond for lunch. Seth is looking out at some mergansers. We had not yet seen our first loon. August 2025.
Fish Creek, recommended by multiple friends as a waterway we must see and paddle as part of this loop. Yes, we had to step out of our canoe to navigate this narrow channel at least once. It is amazing how shallow a waterway a canoe can navigate, though. We paddled most of this just fine. August 2025.
Seth in the bow as we paddle another narrow channel in this system of ponds and connecting creeks throughout our route. Behind him on the canoe you can see the wooden yoke which we used later during a half-mile carry across land (keep scrolling for pictures of that!).
The route looked more like this for most of the days of paddling: expansive ponds lined by an even mix of evergreens and deciduous trees, small mountains peeking above the tree line from our perch at water level. August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Opportunities to relax while the paddler in the stern did the work (thanks, Seth!). August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Seth preparing for one of the carries we completed as part of this trip. Also known as portaging, the canoe carry is what makes possible a complete linking of ponds along a route. There are not always waterways to link lakes and ponds and we had 5 such carries to complete our loop. August 2025.
If you look closely, you can see a tiny graphic of a figure carrying a canoe in that yellow emblem. These trails link ponds and lakes across the Adirondacks and up into Canada. August 2025.
Do not be that impressed, I only carried this canoe a short portion of this trail. It was over 50 lbs. We quickly learned we had a better system carrying the canoe in tandem and then going back for our gear. August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Our shortest carry, across the Adirondack Rail Trail, a 34 mile recreational trail linking Lake Placid to Tupper Lake. Here is Seth at the crossing between Hoel Pond and Turtle Pond. August 2025.
The Wenonah canoe that transported us safely throughout our route. Thank you to Chrissy for loaning us this trusty steed of a watercraft! August 2025.
Knot tying to secure the Wenonah. I knew what this knot was at the time, and clearly secured the boat, but I cannot now name nor replicate the same knot as I write this caption. Such is my knot tying skills—ephemeral! August 2025.
Campsite of our first night, Little Square Pond. The tarp was not excessive—we anticipated a thunder and lightening storm that night, and nature delivered! We woke up to pools of water collected in those tarp creases, but luckily none in our tent. Thank you to my mother Noel and stepdad Emory for this 30-year-old tarp! I brought it with us from the West Coast for this trip, and it delivered, too. August 2025.
Campsite of our second night, on Slang Pond. We were pleased to have these places mostly to ourselves. We saw few other paddlers by late afternoon, and no signs of other campers (such as visible fire or voices). Our only company each night was loons, their elegant silhouettes on the water, and later their trills at dusk and during the night. At Slang Pond we watched a loon come in for a landing, like watching a small plane descend and dust the water, eventually splashing to a landing on pond surface. August 2025.
Bry keeping warm at Slang Pond campsite. I am sitting on a bear can. Chrissy recommended we rent one for our route, as the summer had been very dry and the usual food sources for the local black bears were scarcer. We filled the can and stored it far away from our tent each night. It also made for a great camp stool. We never saw any bears, however. August 2025. Photo by Seth Wolpin.
Campsite of our third and fourth nights, on Long Pond. This campsite came with a wood pile for firewood, something other paddlers must have brought in and left for the next person. Long Pond is where we saw the most loons, by far, including the adult with a single juvenile pictured earlier.
Beavers were in evidence the duration of the paddle. We came across their dams and lodges in the smaller connecting channels, our canoe passing right next to these structures so close we could touch it. We never saw a beaver, however. August 2025.
The bore holes of a sapsucker. at Little Square Pond campsite. Our nature neighbors showed their signs everywhere, while mostly being out of sight. August 2025.
Five adult loons in a small raft on Long Pond on our last day. In August and September, loons gather in social groups on ponds and lakes before migrating to their wintering grounds on the ocean. You can read more about these loon cliques at the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation. August 2025.
Seth and a Common loon photobombing each other on Long Pond. We kept our distance when encountering loons, the result being these photos with loons as specks! The ubiquity of loons on the ponds we visited made it seem that loons are alive and well and living large in the North Country, and hopefully on these more remote ponds, they are. The majority of ponds on our loop currently prohibit shoreline development and motorized watercraft (why we chose this route!), but loons are still threatened by fishing line entanglement, lead fishing tackle ingestion, nest disturbance, and other human activity even here. August 2025.
Signage from the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation at the Long Pond parking lot. It references resources for helping loons in distress. Friend Trish is part of a network of loon rescue volunteers on call to jump in their canoes or kayaks to untangle a loon in fishing line, extract a loon from iced over pond or other space where it cannot take off for flight, and transport it to a safer place or wildlife rehab for care. August 2025.
We made sure to visit the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation, located in Saranac Lake, NY, the town where we stayed with friend Brett before and after our canoe trip. The Center ran a raffle fundraiser for this beautiful canoe and Seth bought two chances to win (as of this publication, winner still TBD). Seth is holding the bear can from our canoe trip, as we were on foot that afternoon, returning it to the St Regis Canoe Outfitters store in town. August 2025.
If you would like to learn more about the Common Loon in Northern New York, please visit and support The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation.
For more Adirondack paddle accounts in this same spirit, visit Seth’s website.
If you would like to learn more about the loop we paddled, visit this link.