Ghost Ships

Posted On July 1, 2026

Just Another Day in Camp Life on Middle Saranac Lake

Canoed back into Bull Rush Bay late Sunday afternoon after the windstorm. I rowed my Zen boat down from South Creek to spend a couple more days in camp with my brother.

The weather was calm, muggy and warm after the storm. One of the benefits of which was an absolute plethora of firewood! We spent most of the morning on Monday cutting, splitting & stacking a good bunch of it. White pine, birch, maple, cedar, a veritable campfire smorgasbord just lying there waiting to be harvested.

Once we stockpiled several good honest stacks, we decided to take a mid-morning break and cruise down through the locks to Lower Saranac Lake to pay an old friend a visit.

As we passed through the upper locks, the lock tender, Randy, told us that someone had spotted a capsized canoe bobbing, semi-submerged on the lake, visible only by its keel. Apparently it was an orange colored canoe & had floated up into a cove where it was spotted by a passing boat somewhere along the Middle Lake’s shoreline. No one knew the story behind it. There had been no reports made of any missing camper, capsized canoe, calamity or mishap. DEC folks had been out Sunday evening in an unsuccessful effort to spot it. I’d actually seen them scanning the lake shore on my way in. Ray & I agreed we would conduct our own Middle Lake grid search on our way back to camp.

Accompanied by Ray’s dog Pepper, we made our way down through the river and locks on my brother’s pontoon boat to Lower Saranac. There we boated down through the narrows, past Bluff Island, down the lake to Eagle Island & our morning’s planned destination.

Lower Saranac Lake’s Eagle Island has two lean-to sites. Site 2, situated up high above a cliff, is a stone leanto campsite overlooking the lake. We’ve never camped there, and every time we pass by, it always seems to be occupied. Such was the case this day. Someday I’m actually going to get a chance to stop in and experience that stone leanto for myself.

But the site 2 stone leanto was not our this day’s itinerary anyway. We were headed for site 4, to pay our respects to an old friend, the refurbished, rebuilt & relocated Bull Rush Bay leanto.

This leanto occupied MIddle Saranac Lake’s site 63, “Bull Rush Bay” for over half a century. The DEC removed and replaced it several years ago in order to salvage what they could of those beloved cedar logs. It was the summer home leanto my brother Ray & I grew up in.

It had been given a new deacon’s log, and a new roof. Most of the cedar log walls, however, were the same. Even some vintage Bull Rush Bay graffitti remained.

(Original Bull Rush Bay Leanto on the left, refurbished on the right.)

Even the old camp cribbage wall score (not ours) had been saved.

We did notice the leanto’s new deacon’s log had been invaded by ants.

Carpenter ants were busy boring it out, building a big pile of sawdust, really doing a number on it. Something we would make sure the DEC’s Saranac Islands Caretaker & staff wold be made aware of so that they could address it before the damage to our old friend’s new deacon’s log went deep.

After we finished our visit, we boated back up the lake back through the locks, where Randy, the lock tender, told us another boater had reported spotting the capsized canoe. We scoured the middle lake and scanned up and down the shoreline, both sides. We did not find it. We went out again later that afternoon and looked again, twice, without finding it.

I don’t know that capsized canoe’s origin, story, or if it ever even existed. Had it been blown from its dockside camp mooring in the storm? Had it blow off a campsite? Had someone realized it was missing & already retrieved it? Was an as of yet unreported canoer capsized and lost? Had it in reality just been a haf submerged log?

Maybe it’s still out there.

Somewhere.

Floating.

A ghostship.

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO