TCD
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(Report Part I
Summary:
Ellen and I had wanted for a long time to do the thru hike of the NP as our summer vacation, and it finally came around on the calendar this year. We were originally planning on doing it the week before, but someone else at work needed to change their plans, so we moved our vacation to 8/11 - 8/18. WOW, did we hit the weather right! After a summer of rain and heat, we had 8 perfect days in a row. This was probably the only block of 8 perfect days in the last two years.
Everything about the trip was perfect and we loved it. We only had two regrets: 1. We wished we had more vacation, so we could stay out longer - 8 days was kind of hurrying it; 2. Our cheap camera died on day one, so we have no pictures. In a few years, we'll go back and do this trip in about three weeks and really take our time.
So here are the details:
Logistics:
We bought and studied the ADKs NP Guidebook, which, though dated, is extremely helpful. We searched for and read info on this site, which was also very helpful.
We have the luxury of living nearby (in Glens Falls), so we recon’d the locations where the trail crosses roads in advance, in order to find out what facilities were there, their hours, etc. We also had help from friends who were able to drop us off in Benson, and other friends who were able to pick us up in Placid.
We used two food drops.
The first was the Irondequoit Inn in Piseco (0.2 miles N of the Haskell Road turn on Piseco Lake Rd). These folks were extremely accommodating. They were more than happy to hold a bag for us, both before we arrived, and after we left. The office also has long hours (from early AM to 9 PM), which provides a lot more flexibility than the Post Office).
(We also reserved a campsite for 8/11 at the Irondequoit’s campground.)
The second food drop was Hoss's country store in Long Lake. Again, they were very accommodating, and have long hours (early AM to 10 PM).
Food:
We are boring. Breakfast most days was the staple oatmeal and instant cappuccino. We did bring a couple packages of the fully cooked bacon, which we enjoyed. Lunch was energy bars and gorp each day. Dinners were freeze dried, the standard Mountain House and Backpacker's Pantry stuff. We brought a few small cans of meat (chicken, salmon, etc.) to add to the FD food, which improved it.
Equipment:
We do all our summer trips in trail runners, and this was no exception. We wear the OR scree gaiters over the trail runners, which keeps the scree and mud out of them. We had almost no foot problems (a couple slight heel hot spots). We took care of these as soon as we detected them, so they didn’t slow us down. For this long, relatively flat trail hike, we used trekking poles, and they were extremely helpful! We carried a tent, and did use it twice, so it was worth carrying. We used very light summer bags, which were adequate, but just barely as it was about 40 F on a couple of the mornings. Cooking was with a gas stove (I brought two, a Coleman and Merrill). We did not consider a bear canister, as it was not mandated (or needed) and would be extra weight and awkward. We used a good high bear hang each night, and never saw or heard any bear activity. For water, I carried a PUR Hiker Filter. It worked well at first, but I had failed to heed other peoples’ advice on this site about wrapping a coffee filter around the intake, and by day 5 my filter was clogged. I had to buy an off brand replacement (Coughlan’s 2.0 micron) at the Hardware Store in Long Lake. We won’t catch Giardia, but I hope we don’t catch anything smaller! We carried bug dope, but only used it a couple of times. Bugs are largely done for the year.
So with our food drops in place, and our packs packed, off we went!
(I’ll save trail commentary for the end.)
Our days:
Night of Thursday 8/10:
We stayed at TrailHead Lodge (0.6 miles from the Benson trailhead). A friend dropped us there after work. The Lodge caters to NP hikers, and is owned by John Washburn. John is very interesting to visit with. He is the author of “Point Last Seen”, a standard in the SAR business, and the founder of a local SAR team. He’s a prolific writer; he’s currently writing a history of Ireland.
8/11:
We got an early start (6:30), and walked straight through to Piseco. The trail was almost deserted. In 22 miles, we saw no one walking, and only met 5 people at leantos . We especially enjoyed meeting Josh and his huge Fila (dog) Jaga, who had left such monstrous prints on the trail that we had speculated that we were following a bear!
We ate a sumptuous restaurant dinner at the Oxbox Inn in Piseco (0.5 miles E of the trail on rte. 8). We were fortunate that the good folks from the Irondequoit happened to drive by, and they gave us a ride right to our campsite, sparing us the 2 mile pavement walk. They even brought us firewood!
8/12:
We slept late, and ate a big breakfast at the Irondequoit’s restaurant. We decided on a short day after the 22 miles, so we only walked 10 miles up to Spruce Lake. We saw the mysterious boots (see rhihn’s thread), and we also ran into Josh and Jaga again, as well as a gentleman named Gilles. We ended up sharing the 3rd Spruce Lake Leanto, and it was sociable and fun. (And thanks, Josh, for the Tiger Balm!) (The first Leanto has been relocated VERY far from the Lake. It’s more like a “View of Spruce Lake Lean to.” Go for #2 or #3). Again the tail was deserted; these were the only folks we saw walking.
8/13:
We got an early start, and put in 17.5 to the Cedar River (“Carry”) Leanto. In 17.5 miles, we saw no one walking. We shared the Carry Leanto with John, who was familiar with the area, having thru hiked before, and was in for just a couple days. (And thanks, John, for the brandy!)
8/14:
Our plan called for us to get to Tirrell Pond, so this was another long day, although it was all flat. About 21 miles. We were not fortunate enough to be offered a ride, so we walked the 6.6 miles of the Cedar River Road from Wakely to McCanes. This was boring, and very hot on the feet. If you can arrange a ride for this section, do so!
Mr. Macaluso was very gracious, confirming that we were in the right place and waving us on through. He stated that he has no problem at all with thru hikers; he just does not want people starting or finishing hikes at his house. Seemed quite reasonable. We walked through the McCanes property, and on by Stephen’s Pond, down to Lake Durant. In all that, we only saw two people. We hammered out to Tirrell Pond (Ellen really wanted to get there; we covered the 4.8 miles from rte 30 in 1.5 hours, I was running to keep up!). We passed a family day hiking, but we had Tirrell Pond to ourselves. The timing was great! We swam, ate, cleaned up and hung everything up, and we in the Leanto in bed when we got the only rain of the trip, on Monday night.
8/15:
Nice, easy, varied day, about 15 miles total. We started early. Everything was already dry, and it was another perfect hiking day. We were really starting to wonder what we had done right as kids to earn such luck with the weather! We hiked over the ridge and then out to 28N on pleasant flat trail. 1.5 miles got us into Long Lake at about 2 PM. We had a sensational lunch at the Adirondack Blarney Stone, and then did our business at Hoss’s with the food drop. Of course we bought a few things there too. They have everything! A visit to the ice cream stand and to Stewarts, and then it was back into the woods, to Catlin Bay. We saw no one on the trail, and had gorgeous Catlin Bay #2 to ourselves.
8/16:
One place we really wanted to stay was beautiful Miller’s Falls (the Seward Leanto) on the Cold River. It was a nice flat 14 miles. We saw no one until after Plumley’s when we met a few groups. The northern part of the trail seems to get more use. There was a camp group (counselors and a bunch of kids) hiking in to Plumley’s, and a family at the Cold River Leanto. It was another perfect day. We shared Miller’s Falls with a young man who was on a solo trip in the area. He had arrived at Miller’s, and found it so beautiful has stayed an extra day. We had a great tent site behind the Leanto, and we were able to cook and eat right out on the flat rocks in the river. It almost looks like the Sierra there.
8/17:
Our shortest day. We had decided in advance that we wanted to stay at both Miler’s Falls and Duck Hole, which we have always loved, and they are only 8 miles apart. It was a quick easy walk. We saw several parties of people and a couple more beautiful dogs on this section. Two fellows we met had done the Santanonis, and bushwhacked down to Cold River with full packs. They were a lot more tired than we were! Duck Hole was wonderful as always. We stayed in #1, near the trail junction. Of course we saw the snakes (garter snakes) that share their Leanto with hikers!
8/18:
12 miles out to Averyville Road. We got an early start, so as not to inconvenience our friend who was picking us up. We took the short side trip to Wanika Falls, and had a great swim in the icy water. We saw no one on the trail until we were within about 3 miles of the end. It was sad to be done. Next time we’ll take longer. But dinner, drinks and a bed were real luxuries!
Summary:
Ellen and I had wanted for a long time to do the thru hike of the NP as our summer vacation, and it finally came around on the calendar this year. We were originally planning on doing it the week before, but someone else at work needed to change their plans, so we moved our vacation to 8/11 - 8/18. WOW, did we hit the weather right! After a summer of rain and heat, we had 8 perfect days in a row. This was probably the only block of 8 perfect days in the last two years.
Everything about the trip was perfect and we loved it. We only had two regrets: 1. We wished we had more vacation, so we could stay out longer - 8 days was kind of hurrying it; 2. Our cheap camera died on day one, so we have no pictures. In a few years, we'll go back and do this trip in about three weeks and really take our time.
So here are the details:
Logistics:
We bought and studied the ADKs NP Guidebook, which, though dated, is extremely helpful. We searched for and read info on this site, which was also very helpful.
We have the luxury of living nearby (in Glens Falls), so we recon’d the locations where the trail crosses roads in advance, in order to find out what facilities were there, their hours, etc. We also had help from friends who were able to drop us off in Benson, and other friends who were able to pick us up in Placid.
We used two food drops.
The first was the Irondequoit Inn in Piseco (0.2 miles N of the Haskell Road turn on Piseco Lake Rd). These folks were extremely accommodating. They were more than happy to hold a bag for us, both before we arrived, and after we left. The office also has long hours (from early AM to 9 PM), which provides a lot more flexibility than the Post Office).
(We also reserved a campsite for 8/11 at the Irondequoit’s campground.)
The second food drop was Hoss's country store in Long Lake. Again, they were very accommodating, and have long hours (early AM to 10 PM).
Food:
We are boring. Breakfast most days was the staple oatmeal and instant cappuccino. We did bring a couple packages of the fully cooked bacon, which we enjoyed. Lunch was energy bars and gorp each day. Dinners were freeze dried, the standard Mountain House and Backpacker's Pantry stuff. We brought a few small cans of meat (chicken, salmon, etc.) to add to the FD food, which improved it.
Equipment:
We do all our summer trips in trail runners, and this was no exception. We wear the OR scree gaiters over the trail runners, which keeps the scree and mud out of them. We had almost no foot problems (a couple slight heel hot spots). We took care of these as soon as we detected them, so they didn’t slow us down. For this long, relatively flat trail hike, we used trekking poles, and they were extremely helpful! We carried a tent, and did use it twice, so it was worth carrying. We used very light summer bags, which were adequate, but just barely as it was about 40 F on a couple of the mornings. Cooking was with a gas stove (I brought two, a Coleman and Merrill). We did not consider a bear canister, as it was not mandated (or needed) and would be extra weight and awkward. We used a good high bear hang each night, and never saw or heard any bear activity. For water, I carried a PUR Hiker Filter. It worked well at first, but I had failed to heed other peoples’ advice on this site about wrapping a coffee filter around the intake, and by day 5 my filter was clogged. I had to buy an off brand replacement (Coughlan’s 2.0 micron) at the Hardware Store in Long Lake. We won’t catch Giardia, but I hope we don’t catch anything smaller! We carried bug dope, but only used it a couple of times. Bugs are largely done for the year.
So with our food drops in place, and our packs packed, off we went!
(I’ll save trail commentary for the end.)
Our days:
Night of Thursday 8/10:
We stayed at TrailHead Lodge (0.6 miles from the Benson trailhead). A friend dropped us there after work. The Lodge caters to NP hikers, and is owned by John Washburn. John is very interesting to visit with. He is the author of “Point Last Seen”, a standard in the SAR business, and the founder of a local SAR team. He’s a prolific writer; he’s currently writing a history of Ireland.
8/11:
We got an early start (6:30), and walked straight through to Piseco. The trail was almost deserted. In 22 miles, we saw no one walking, and only met 5 people at leantos . We especially enjoyed meeting Josh and his huge Fila (dog) Jaga, who had left such monstrous prints on the trail that we had speculated that we were following a bear!
We ate a sumptuous restaurant dinner at the Oxbox Inn in Piseco (0.5 miles E of the trail on rte. 8). We were fortunate that the good folks from the Irondequoit happened to drive by, and they gave us a ride right to our campsite, sparing us the 2 mile pavement walk. They even brought us firewood!
8/12:
We slept late, and ate a big breakfast at the Irondequoit’s restaurant. We decided on a short day after the 22 miles, so we only walked 10 miles up to Spruce Lake. We saw the mysterious boots (see rhihn’s thread), and we also ran into Josh and Jaga again, as well as a gentleman named Gilles. We ended up sharing the 3rd Spruce Lake Leanto, and it was sociable and fun. (And thanks, Josh, for the Tiger Balm!) (The first Leanto has been relocated VERY far from the Lake. It’s more like a “View of Spruce Lake Lean to.” Go for #2 or #3). Again the tail was deserted; these were the only folks we saw walking.
8/13:
We got an early start, and put in 17.5 to the Cedar River (“Carry”) Leanto. In 17.5 miles, we saw no one walking. We shared the Carry Leanto with John, who was familiar with the area, having thru hiked before, and was in for just a couple days. (And thanks, John, for the brandy!)
8/14:
Our plan called for us to get to Tirrell Pond, so this was another long day, although it was all flat. About 21 miles. We were not fortunate enough to be offered a ride, so we walked the 6.6 miles of the Cedar River Road from Wakely to McCanes. This was boring, and very hot on the feet. If you can arrange a ride for this section, do so!
Mr. Macaluso was very gracious, confirming that we were in the right place and waving us on through. He stated that he has no problem at all with thru hikers; he just does not want people starting or finishing hikes at his house. Seemed quite reasonable. We walked through the McCanes property, and on by Stephen’s Pond, down to Lake Durant. In all that, we only saw two people. We hammered out to Tirrell Pond (Ellen really wanted to get there; we covered the 4.8 miles from rte 30 in 1.5 hours, I was running to keep up!). We passed a family day hiking, but we had Tirrell Pond to ourselves. The timing was great! We swam, ate, cleaned up and hung everything up, and we in the Leanto in bed when we got the only rain of the trip, on Monday night.
8/15:
Nice, easy, varied day, about 15 miles total. We started early. Everything was already dry, and it was another perfect hiking day. We were really starting to wonder what we had done right as kids to earn such luck with the weather! We hiked over the ridge and then out to 28N on pleasant flat trail. 1.5 miles got us into Long Lake at about 2 PM. We had a sensational lunch at the Adirondack Blarney Stone, and then did our business at Hoss’s with the food drop. Of course we bought a few things there too. They have everything! A visit to the ice cream stand and to Stewarts, and then it was back into the woods, to Catlin Bay. We saw no one on the trail, and had gorgeous Catlin Bay #2 to ourselves.
8/16:
One place we really wanted to stay was beautiful Miller’s Falls (the Seward Leanto) on the Cold River. It was a nice flat 14 miles. We saw no one until after Plumley’s when we met a few groups. The northern part of the trail seems to get more use. There was a camp group (counselors and a bunch of kids) hiking in to Plumley’s, and a family at the Cold River Leanto. It was another perfect day. We shared Miller’s Falls with a young man who was on a solo trip in the area. He had arrived at Miller’s, and found it so beautiful has stayed an extra day. We had a great tent site behind the Leanto, and we were able to cook and eat right out on the flat rocks in the river. It almost looks like the Sierra there.
8/17:
Our shortest day. We had decided in advance that we wanted to stay at both Miler’s Falls and Duck Hole, which we have always loved, and they are only 8 miles apart. It was a quick easy walk. We saw several parties of people and a couple more beautiful dogs on this section. Two fellows we met had done the Santanonis, and bushwhacked down to Cold River with full packs. They were a lot more tired than we were! Duck Hole was wonderful as always. We stayed in #1, near the trail junction. Of course we saw the snakes (garter snakes) that share their Leanto with hikers!
8/18:
12 miles out to Averyville Road. We got an early start, so as not to inconvenience our friend who was picking us up. We took the short side trip to Wanika Falls, and had a great swim in the icy water. We saw no one on the trail until we were within about 3 miles of the end. It was sad to be done. Next time we’ll take longer. But dinner, drinks and a bed were real luxuries!