Eight Lake

We love visiting the Fulton Chain of Lakes in the Adirondacks. We've cruised the Lower Fulton Chain which starts at Old Forge and continues for 10 miles from the First to the Fourth Lake on a rented pontoon boat but we've never paddled on our own. These first 4 lakes were just too busy with power boats for our comfort.  The pond-like, 13acre Fifth Lake which is accessible from Fourth lake appears just a bit too small.  A portage for boats is necessary to reach Sixth Lake which then continues to Seventh Lake.  From there, another portage is necessary to reach Eight Lake.


But, there is a state campground that allows boats to be launched on either Seventh or Eight Lake.  And so, for a chance to finally do some paddling on the Fulton Chain, we headed off for the Eight Lake Campground which is conveniently located along State Route 28 between Seventh and Eight Lakes about 1 hour from Kayuta Lake.

Eight Lake Campground Map

Although the campground is located on the southeastern shore of Eight Lake, it has campsites extending to Seventh Lake where it also has a boat launch .  With an area of 851-acre and an 11-mile shoreline, Seventh Lake, is the second largest lake on the chain, the largest being the 2,050-acre Fourth Lake. Some websites (e.g, landlubbers.com; adirondacks.com) mentioned how challenging it could be to paddle here when it is windy.  Although it was a calm day, we decided to go to the smaller, 303 acre, Eight Lake.

Seventh Lake

We drove towards the north end of the campground, passing by some of the 126 tent and trailer sites, many of which were occupied.  We parked by the picnic area and proceeded towards the beach between the swimming area and the boat launch to set up our Sea Eagle inflatable kayak.

Eight Lake Beach

Initially wary about the predicted high and humid temperature, we were surprised to find how pleasant the weather was.  The average depth of this lake is 39 feet, with a maximum depth of 81 feet.  Although the lake was also formed by a dammed river (Moose River) like Kayuta Lake (Black River), the water was extremely clear, so clear that we could see sand and rocks at the bottom even beyond 4 feet of water.  We wished our lake was also this clear.


Completely surrounded by wooded and undeveloped land, the lake was mostly quiet. There were only a few kayakers and canoeists sharing the water with us, the calm only briefly interrupted by two jet skiers.






After passing a small island, we saw one of the three lean-tos on the lake. 



Although we were unable to completely circumnavigate the lake, we did see the north end of it.  Soon after we turned around, we were entertained by 2 loons actively diving for food.