Campfire Cannons

Posted On September 6, 2025

Climate Change, Chainsaws & a Camping Chronology

This piece begins with a question:

How many folks out there have spent ten days or more at a single stretch with family in a remotely pitched ADK camp? I’m not talking about “going into camp”, sitting in hunting camp playing cards with buddies, RV camping, or a week at the cottage. I’m talking remote boat or hike access only, “Carry it in, Carry it out”, tent sleeping, campfire warmed, Coleman stove powered ADK camping.

My bet is that some folks out there have & do, but in the grand scheme of things, most folks have not.

I say this because each year when camp is finished & I trek out of South Creek, folks invariably ask me “How long were you in for?” When I hold up all ten fingers (sometimes plus some), the look on their faces matches their verbal reaction, which is invariably “Ten days!?! Wow!”

Carrying out such an endeavor requires weeks of detailed coordination, planning and preparation. From menus to packing lists to water consumption rates to itinerary planning based on working family members’ vacation schedules, not to mention the weather, the needs of young grandchildren, max boat capacities & considerations for our canine companions, an extended stay remote site ADK camping trip is an all hands on deck full on family commitment.

“When you come in, bring ice. When you go out, take garbage.”

Fortunately I am blessed with a family in which everyone gets it, both a wife who’s embraced it & three dedicated children ingrained with a life set of camp skills bestowed upon each of them by their “Gramps”, my father, former NYSDEC Region 5 Regional Director, Tom Monroe.

Dad has passed now. The kids are all grown. They, along with my wife, do most of the planning and prep work now, including captaining their own boats.

For my part, I spent part of one day pre-cooking two bacon wrapped, bone in, mushroom pepper & onion venison neck roasts. I’ve long been a big fan of pre cooked camp meals. My wife & daughter also made several double foil wrapped hunter’s stews, our family’s traditional 1st night camp meal. I also called my brother Ray, who lives in SL for a scouting report. He’d been in to Middle Saranac Lake on his brand spanking new aircraft carrier masquerading as a pontoon boat (I must admit, it is rather awesome) just a few days before.

“Water’s low, but not abnormally low for this time of year, I don’t think. But I couldn’t get into Bull Rush Bay for a close-up look because the site was occupied. I did have to walk my new boat (and its 100 horse motor) into the locks though.”

So, fully planned, prepped, packed & armed with my brother’s Middle Saranac Lake scouting report, we loaded up & headed out for our beloved Bull Rush Bay and another ten day family stint in camp with just one pre-deployment word of caution:

“Trim Up”

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DAY ONE:

LOW TIDE INSERTION

I immediately knew things were going to be different this year the minute I pulled into the parking lot at South Creek. Forget my brother Ray’s scouting report. South Creek’s canoe access was a beach. There was simply no water.

I’ve been accessing Middle Saranac Lake via South Creek for 54 years. In over half a century, I’ve never seen the water this low. It was so low, in fact, that many folks were portaging their canoes across the highway and putting in on the other side of the bridge at a spot where small motored private camp boats usually pull up on the shore.

For my part, for the 1st time in my life, I found it necessary to wade in and pull my canoe downstream about 20 yards beyond the Route 3 bridge before I got to a point where there was enough water to support both camp gear and my body weight in my canoe without bottoming out.

It was the same thing at Bull Rush Bay. There was simply no water. In fact, someone had built a stone fire ring where we usually beached our boats.

The kids had to anchor their boats nearly twenty yards further offshore than in any past year. It was a damned good thing we packed extra ropes!

I don’t know if this year’s low water is a one year outlier anomaly, the result of global warming or indicative of climate change. What I do know is that we were all in agreement that none of us has EVER seen the water in Middle Saranac Lake anywhere near that low. I don’t think anyone with an inboard motor and an affinity for their lower unit was getting into Middle Saranac via those upper locks.

Despite the low water, the Monroe family’s initial insertion team, consisting of me, my wife, my son RJ & daughter Abby proceeded to busy ourselves unloading gear and setting up camp.

Supervised, of course, by our canine companions.

Khalisi Lyn & Gypsy Rose

Once camp setup was finished we capped off Day One with our traditional hunter’s stew meal and a quiet night by the fire.

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DAY TWO:

THE CHAINSAW CONSPIRACY

Folks using chainsaws for in camp firewood procurement in the Adirondack Park. It’s a topic I have not seen getting much media attention, but a trend I have seen increased evidence of each time I camp. Chainsaw usage is pretty unmistakably easy to spot. Bow saws or hand saws leave sawdust, but chainsaws spit piles of chips.

Maybe it does not matter. Maybe I’m just an old school guy tilting at windmills.

Maybe it’s “Quit yer whinin’ Monroe. Throw a little saw and a couple spare battery packs into your boat & get with the program.”

But I won’t.

Chainsaws at ADK campsites is a complete game changer. Not to mention illegal. A couple of guys with lithium battery powered chainsaws stowed on their boats can cut enough wood in a couple of hours to fully fuel camp bonfires for weeks. And from what I’ve encountered in Bull Rush Bay over the past couple of years, that is exactly what a growing number of folks now do.

This big driftwood cedar has graced Bull Rush Bay’s shoreline intact for years. Five minutes with a battery powered chainsaw is all it took someone to cut four feet off the end of it to burn in their shoreline ring of stones.

I’m not sure what can be done about it. Maybe nothing. Battery operated saws are everywhere now. They are compact & quiet. They leave ADK campers free to devote their time and energy to endeavors other than gathering firewood. But their growing impact is both multifaceted and prolific. Bull Rush Bay’s woods are rapidly filling with chainsaw cut “dead soldiers”.

For our part, my son & I have and will always meet our family’s campfire needs with hand saws & axes, as ADK remote site camping was and is meant to be. (Though I will admit, I’ve ditched my father’s wooden ax handles and bow saws in favor of composite ax handles and double tooth saw blades.)

“Tools of the Trade”

“Men at Work”

Day Two also saw the much anticipated arrival of our two grandchildren, Ari Rae & Alayna.

The last weekend of August brought the summer’s first cold snap. Since Alayna had been off and on battling the sniffles, the kids & their mom ferried in and out via the Ampersand walk in from my brother Ray’s house through the weekend. Even when it’s cold & blustery they are a lot of fun & a riot in camp.

Day Two also chronicled another Monroe family camp tradition:

A big camp chef pot of Wild Turkey Soup, on which Ari Rae commented:

“I’m not eating turkey soup this year, because I’m little. But when I’m bigger I will.”

So our “not big enough for turkey soup yet” Ari Rae opted for some camp mac & cheese, a hotdog, and S’mores instead.

Apparently Ari Rae IS big enough to roast her own marshmallow.

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DAY THREE:

“IT’S A DOG’S LIFE”

By Day Three, nearly our entire family had in one form or another made their way into camp. Everyone who came, either to visit or stay, brought their dogs. Khalisi, Gypsy & Maizee had all come into camp with us initially.

Graham and Luna came in with my daughter Chelsea and our granddaughters on Thursday because they knew a dog’s life in camp would most likely involve treats.

Our daughter-in-law Carrie came in via the Ampersand walk in on Friday, bringing with her Finley & Ellie.

I suspect that at certain moments in time there were more dogs than people in camp.

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DAY FOUR:

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CUISINE

Day One featured Hunter’s Stew. Day Two’s special was Wild Turkey Soup. Saturday’s dinner menu featured steaks on the grill. On Sunday my brother Ray came in and he & RJ devoured both bacon wrapped onion, mushroom & pepper venison roasts.

Day Five was Pizza night at the Bull Rush Bay Inn.

Then there was of course, Jiffy Pop.

Fortified with wine coolers & M&Ms.

The remainder of camp involved eating whatever was left. Along the way Ari Rae learned the fine art of campfire toasting her own bagels.

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DAY FIVE:

FISHERMAN’S PARADISE

Middle Saranac Lake was far too windy for RJ & I to fish before Sunday. Despite our best efforts, the river’s overall level of shallow proved unconducive for fish.

But once the weekend’s front finally passed and we found the right spots,

the bass fishing was good.

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DAY SIX:

A ROOM WITH A VIEW

So, at this point I feel compelled to point out, that if by Day Six one has not yet visited one of Bull Rush Bay’s finest amenities, well… all I can say is, I sincerely hope I’m not sleeping in the same tent as you.

Both Interestingly and unfortunately, for some unknown reason, at some point, a Bull Rush Bay visitor apparently thought it an upgrade to bestow a vibrant blue gel seat of highly suspect provenance upon all who followed. Whoever it was, they must have considered it serious business, because that gel seat is glued down.

All I have to say on the matter is that if one finds themselves in desperate need of a gel seat in the forest, maybe, just maybe, camp life ain’t for you. This situation may or may not have at various points in time persuaded one unidentified ADK outlaw to rough it and go “old school”.

Though, let’s face it.

For the price of admission, you can’t beat the view.

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DAY SEVEN:

WHERE IS THE CHANNEL?

I don’t know how many times we sat in camp or were out fishing the lake when some canoer or kayaker passed by asking “Where is the channel?”

Just for clarification purposes:

THIS IS NOT THE CHANNEL!

For those who find themselves confused by such matters,

THIS is the channel.

Not only is it marked by big red and green buoys, but they are both lit at night!

At one point while RJ & I were out fishing a weed bed not far from 1st Island, we heard a guy passing by in a kayak, yakking away on his cell phone, asking someone who must have been ahead of him: “Where is the Channel?”

We tried to assist him. “Go around the right side of the island and head for the buoys.”

When he said “I don’t see any island.” RJ & I just looked at each other. “Buddy if you can’t see 1st Island, I don’t know what to tell you, because if you paddle about ten more strokes you’ll be aground on it!

Truth be told, for all I know that guy is still out there somewhere in Bull Rush Bay thrashing around.

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DAY EIGHT:

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

RJ had packed Carrie, their dogs & some gear in the Outlaw and taken them out via the walk in on Tuesday. RJ packed up the rest of his gear and returned to civilization and work via the locks & the State Bridge boat launch boat on the morning of Day Eight. I rode down with him, helped him unload, then he dropped me at the walk in, where I snapped some photos. The water level was extremely low there as well.

I then met Abby in her boat for a ride back to camp.

That left my wife and me, our daughter Abby, Maizee Mae, Khalisi & Gypsy Rose as the sole remaining occupants of our Bull Rush Bay camp.

At that point we were closely watching the weather. Our reservation ended on Saturday. Robin & Abby had planned on going out Friday, leaving me one final night in camp for myself. With RJ now gone, and colder weather & rain in the forecast beyond Thursday, I focused on building a good on hand stockpile of wood.

As Wednesday progressed, the weather report for late Thursday and on into the weekend kept on going downhill. I took a walk over the hill to the next cove & beach on which sits site 64, a Middle Saranac Lake overflow site, which was unoccupied. Someone had built a peace sign there in the sand out of moss, pine cones and snail shells. I spotted it a couple days earlier and wanted to photograph it as I found it quite Zen.

Upon my return, with eight good days in camp under our belt, nothing to prove to anyone and a desire to get everything out dry, we made the decision to beat the weather and break camp instead on Thursday, Day Nine.

So, with a fully stocked wood supply on hand, we decided to enjoy one final Wednesday evening bonfire.

I decided to sleep in the lean-to and keep the bonfire burning all night.

It was so toasty and warm in the lean-to I never needed my sleeping bag.

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DAY NINE:

SOLE SURVIVORS

Thursday dawned sunny, but windy. A new front was incoming. According to the weather predictors, rain would be on us by 5 p.m.

After breakfast we set about breaking camp and loading the boats. Seeing no sense in hanging around, we decided to go. My wife and Abby went down through the locks to the boat launch, whilst I rowed my Zen boat back up through South Creek until I again reached the point where I had to get out and tow it.

We beat the rain home & got everything unpacked and put away dry just ahead of the rain.

Sometimes discretion truly is valor’s best part.

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So, that’s it, more or less, in a freshwater clamshell, our Monroe family’s 2025 extended stay Middle Saranac Lake Bull Rush Bay camping trip.

The entire endeavor required a great deal of teamwork & effort. But it was all worth it. It left each of us with both many great shared experiences and many new things to think about. For my part, I just hope, for the sake of my children & grandchildren, that issues like chainsaws & climate change somehow get figured out.

Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO