Oh What Fun in Adirondacks | NY – Part 1

Before we headed out to the Adirondacks (ADK), we stocked up in Syracuse at Aldi (one of our new favorite stores with cheap prices and some delicious surprises over our last couple of trips there) and Wegmans’ flagship store.

Our first stop in ADK was Brown Tract (BT) Pond Campground near Inlet, NY. There are two ways to get here. One is the shorter and more direct route which contains 7 miles of gravel roads and the other is the longer route with only 1-2 miles of gravel to content with. We chose the longer option and got to drive through the quaint town of Inlet.

We checked in at 7p so had time to set up camp and make dinner before enjoying beautiful sunset over the lake. We were lucky enough to snag a shady beach site with direct access to Fourth Lake. BT is a somewhat remote campground (far from the main roads). Some sites are close together especially the loop on the left of the lake. We stayed in the loop by the water in the middle of the campground. We only had three other camp neighbors in this small stretch of sites.

There is no reception at all except for a bar or two at the registration station. On our second day at BT, we backtracked a bit by going to Bald Mountain (towards Old Forge) to hike 2 miles to and from the Rondaxe Fire Tower. The girls thought it was a fun hike due to the rock hopping and climbing and wanted to come back again the following day. We all climbed up the rickety steps of the fire tower and the girls thought it was gonna come down while we were on top. Luckily it held up under our weight and we got to see the lakes below from on high.

After the hike, we drove out to and explored Inlet, NY. We parked in the town beach parking lot which is free. The beach area and library offer WiFi and it felt great to be connected again. There’s an ice cream shop called Northern Lights where we grabbed cones before cooling off by the beach. We also checked out the gift shop, grocery store, and restaurants. In the local bookstore, we met a loom weaver with a small shop inside. We found out later (by way of her husband, a friendly ADKX museum staff/ADK historian) is retired from Baltimore government like himself.

Inlet was definitely worth checking out for a couple of hours. We even picked up some pizza from the Screamen Eagle restaurant to enjoy back at BT.