Lake Kushaqua – Rainbow Lake

Took a nice 3 day trip starting at Lake Kushaqua. Lake Kushaqua is a 380 acres lake near Loon Lake and Rainbow Lake in the town of Franklin, It is on the North Branch of the Saranac River. The shoreline is state owned except for two small in-holdings.

We paddled to Clear Pond (~5 miles). Clear Pond parallels the three-mile long narrow Rainbow Lake, separated from it by a narrow esker. Day 2 we paddled empty canoes from Rainbow Lake to Jones Pond and Osgood Pond and then returned to our Clear pond campsite. The round trip distance is about 12 miles with a 1.5 mile carry between Rainbow Lake and Jones Pond. That took us about 6 hours, which is more than I really want to be paddling anymore.We caught a break with the weather in that we only experienced rain on Tuesday morning; so we sat under a tarp and had a leisurely breakfast. Day 3 we paddled out.