October 2, 2010 Harrisburg Lake a.k.a. Mud Lake

On Saturday October 2nd Tim & I headed to Harrisburg Lake in Warren County. Last Fall Tim, his dad Art and his brother Tom went for a drive up there. Art wanted to show the lake to Tim to see if it was a place we might like to try kayaking. To get there you drive up Rt. 9N through Corinth and into Luzerne. Turn left just past the High School (onto Bay Rd. ?), go left over the Bridge, up the hill and then right onto Harrisburg Road at the Hadley General Store. This 11 mile road dead ends at Harrisburg Lake.

                                                          Tim in cold weather gear

The Lake is split by the road. Since there were already some people (duck hunters) at the section on the left of he road; we decided to paddle on the right side. (besides I wasn't wearing Camo, so I would have felt out of place). This section is pretty shallow and is much smaller.

                                                              Nance with fall leaves

We headed out and were glad to see how clear the water was. You could easily see the bottom and the leaves that had settled there. It was pretty.

                                                                         Leaves

                                                  
We found a beaver dam that was pretty long. The water was flowing over the top of it in a few areas. I am always amazed by the work the beavers do. The dams are so secure. I am also disappointed by the limits they put on us when we are kayaking. There are many dams that you can't paddle over. As at Harrisburg Lake, you can't go any further because there is no place to step out and carry your boat around the dam.

Beaver Dam

This lake had many piles of "mud" scattered about the water. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for them. We had to paddle around them and between them. At one point Tim was going to hit one, so he used his paddle to push away from it and his paddle just went into it like it was hollow. We spent a lot of time wondering about them.

                                                                   Random Mud Piles

There were also a number of stumps at one section of the lake. We wondered a lot about those as well. I haven't been able to find much information about this lake except for the fact that the Pickerel fishing is good!

                                                                   Random stumps

There are several islands in this section of Harrisburg Lake; including this tiny one. Two trees, and one of them blew over!

                                                      Tim paddles past the 2 trees island

Almost every tree along the shoreline that had fallen over; fell towards land and not into the water... interesting.

We had a nice paddle and would like to return to see what the lake at the left side of the road is like.