NP Trail, 8/11 - 8/18

[TCD]

(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!

 

[TCD]

(Report Part II

Trail commentary, especially nice places, and watch outs:

Especially nice places were:

90% of the trail was the nicest, most wonderful forest path we have ever walked on. A tribute to the concept and the original execution!

Spruce Lake. Great swimming! Really felt like wilderness. Beautiful lake, serenaded by Loons and Coyotes at night.

All of the West Canada Lakes wilderness was just gorgeous.

Almost all of the trail along Long Lake. Great trail, great views.

Catlin Bay LT #2. It’s a little hard to find (the book says you hike over a rise, but you actually hike over two rises), but it’s worth it.

Almost all of the trail along the Cold River.

Miller’s Falls: Most beautiful spot on the trail, in my opinion. Great swimming!

Duck Hole: Always great. Save Duck Hole! Great swimming! (If you plan a fire at Duck Hole, it’s a little hard to find wood due to the popularity of the area. Knowing this from experience, we picked up a big load of dead stuff about a mile out of Duck Hole and tied it on our packs. You can also find wood a couple minutes up the Bradley Pond trail.)

Wanika Falls: Very pretty, and a good spot for a swim on your last day, so you can come out of the woods fairly clean.

Watch outs:

Incredibly enough, given its status as one of the state’s major through trails, the NP is for all intents and purposes an un-maintained trail. Aside from cutting of SOME blowdown, nothing has been done on this trail in years. Plan your trip accordingly.

Now, 90% of the trail is in great shape, but that is NOT because of maintenance. There are three reasons why 90% is great: 1. The trail was routed along old forest roads and work roads, which were properly planned, drained, and compacted decades ago. 2. The trail is mostly flat, and is therefore less subject to erosion. 3. The trail gets almost no traffic. So there are miles long sections that are flat and gently rolling, leaf carpeted trail. It’s pretty, it’s easy on the feet, and it’s fast.

Unfortunately, the 10% of the trail that needs maintenance, has had NONE. Plan to be lucky with the weather, like we were, or plan on wallowing up to your hips in mud. By going in the dry season, and being lucky enough to hit dry weather, we were able to walk straight over almost all the mud, and not even sink in.

Here are some specific spots to watch out for:

Benson to Piseco: Most of this is great, but the blowdown has not been cut on the Silver Lake to Mud lake section, as an earlier report pointed out. I dragged some of it off the trail and cut out some smaller stuff on my way through, but there’s a lot left. Also, the Beavers have raised one of the vlies in that section and drowned the trail. The “go around” trail (to the E around the vlie) is a horrible muddy mess, and involves climbing over and crawling under all sorts of blowdown. This seems to be a common theme on this trail: in many places where water or very deep mud are on the trail, the cleanest and least destructive solution would be to put in a pressure treated boardwalk. But that costs money, so instead, nothing is done, and we hikers eventually thrash out a way around. After a few years of enough people thrashing a way around, the state (or someone) comes in and puts markers on the thrash route, and now it’s “the trail.” It’s a shame, because these thrash routes do a lot more damage both environmentally and aesthetically than a good board walk would do. It’s a further shame, because the whole section from Benson to Piseco is perfect except for these two problems.

Piseco to Wakely: Lots of good trail, but some problems. There are a few sections of really deep mud. Several times in this section, we thanked God that we had good weather as we walked over the mud, only sinking in a couple inches. As others have mentioned, the bridge is out over Sampson Bog outlet. We thought it might have been washed out this June in the rain, but others we met told us it has been out for years. If true, that’s shameful. The state’s solution: staple a little sign to the Piseco trail register that says “We haven’t bothered to replace this bridge because we don’t maintain this trail. If you’ve traveled from out of town to do this trail, you might be screwed. Tough luck.” (It doesn’t actually say that, but that’s what it communicates.) Sad. The saddest part is that an out of town visitor is not going to cancel their plans, they’re going to tough it out. And in times of high water, that crossing would be genuinely dangerous. (Reminds me of the ridiculous “closed” bridge over John’s Brook.)

Wakely to Long Lake: Almost all great trail. Actual recent maintenance is seen in the cross country ski area just south of 28N. There was only one problem area, and it’s a real watch out. Shortly after leaving the McCanes property and returning to State land, there’s a spot where the beavers have raised some water onto the trail for about 100 feet. If it’s fairly dry when you are there, you can still follow the original route straight across, stepping on sticks and logs, and not even get your feet wet.

Here’s the watch out: Apparently, the “go around” route is to the NE. But when you are approaching from the South, there is no indication of a “go around” route leaving the forest road trail. So, like we did, you go straight, and breeze right across the wet area. When you get across, the trail continues on good forest road. About 100 yds past the wet area, there is a junction. The marked trail appears to be leaving the good forest road. This side trail to the right is heavily marked with official markers, and festooned with flagging, and there are NO MARKERS AT ALL for a long way on the continuing forest road. So naturally, we turned onto this side trail, as it was heavily marked. It was a mess, poorly routed and covered with blowdown. After a couple minutes, the sense of direction kicked in and we realized that this route was actually leading us back to the wet area, to some kind of wobbly crossing on a downed tree. So we turned around and went back to the junction, and continued on the UNMARKED forest road. After a long while, we finally came to a marker, confirming what we thought. It only cost us a couple minutes, but it could result in someone else getting lost or seriously delayed. I don’t know who or what group did this “maintenance.” Please, folks, if you are going to reroute a trail, put in proper signs, arrows and markers on your new “creation.”

Long Lake to Duck Hole: Almost all great. Dry and flat. Between Plumley’s and Shattuck clearing, there is one beaver swamp, that could be traversed with a 75 foot boardwalk, but instead is gone around to the W with a quarter mile of muddy path.

Duck Hole to Lake Placid:

There are several beaver swamps south of Wanika Falls, and one north of the Falls. These featured the by now familiar hacked up mess of herd paths. You can generally follow them and pick your way through, but it will slow you down a little. Some parts of this section have been rerouted up onto the hillside to the SE. Other parts need similar rerouting.

Overall, the NP is a fantastic trail, through the heart of some of the most beautiful country anywhere. Plan for the problem spots, and enjoy the rest! We can’t wait to go back.

 

[rhihn]

Congratulations, TCD! A nice report. I think we remember more mud than you do , though certainly there were many stretches of wonderful, flat, dry trail.

I know 120 miles is a lot to maintain, but I was surprised at how much some of the trail had overgrown since the last time I visited. I'm not sure what can be done about the beaver activity. We encountered reroutes around the reroutes! A major blowdown sweep is needed between Silver and Mud Lakes for sure. We had read on another forum that the Sampson Bog bridge was scheduled to be repaired at some point before our trip, though no signs of work were seen. I'm sure all of this maintenance (or lack of) is due to lack of workers and $$, and too many other places that need attention as well.

In the "misery loves company" category, I'm pleased to see that we weren't the only ones that got turned around in the area after McCane's!

Sounds like we had similar experiences. If I were to do it over again, I'd take more time, perhaps 2-3 weeks, so we could really enjoy our favorite places.

Congratulations again.

 

[TCD]

Thanks!

We also noticed the lack of brush cutting in several areas. In these wet years, it doesn't take long to grow in, especialy the deciduous stuff. I think the mud seemed less a problem to us because of the exceptionally dry weather we had. After several days of baking, some of those mud holes firmed up pretty well.

Another thing that was interesting was that we did not see or meet a Ranger in 8 days and 110 miles, whereas we meet Rangers fairly frequently in our High Peaks trips. Perhaps if there was still a Ranger station at West Lake and at Duck Hole, the trail conditions would be better known and dealt with.

When we retire in a few years, we already plan to go back for a leisurely trip on the trail. There are also a lot of one to three day loops that you can put together using parts of this trail. Always more to explore!

TCD