Been away for a while

I have been busy with summer activities and such so I have been neglecting this blog. Not to worry. I have plenty of adventures to write about. Namely my adventure on the Northville-Placid Trail with my two trail mates. A four day odyssey through what I believe now is the most beautiful section of the Adirondack Mountains. Right now I am gathering my thoughts and will be posting again shortly.

Pharoah Lake

View of a beaver pond on the way up to the Pharaoh Lake

Beaver Dam

Today some friends an myself went in to the Pharaoh Lake wideness area via the Beaver Pond trail head. The trail in is very easy and a great beginner trail for people who would like to go into a beautiful part of the Adirondacks. There are 6 lean-to's that are placed around Pharaoh Lake. At this time of year there are usually full, but there are other campsites around that offer great places to camp and enjoy the area. There are also trout in this Lake.

We hiked in had lunch and hiked out. 8 miles of easy trails, a nice relaxing hike. The new hikers in our group enjoyed themselves.

Upper Wolf Jaw and Amrstrong

Laddder on Armstrong

Last Friday the 18th my buddy and I decided to hike Upper Wolf Jaw and Armstrong from the Garden as a day hike. This was something that I have been wanting to do for a couple of years as I wanted to see the ADK's Johns Brook Lodge (JBL) to see how the area would be for camping as it would be a good base for a lot of the high peaks in the vicinity.

The 3.25 mile hike in was pleasant and went fast. We took the trail that lead by the NYS Ranger's interior outpost, nice, and that is when we headed up toward Upper Wolf Jaw. The trail was steep, but not terrible but when we hit the 0.9 mile mark that's when it got serious. It was safe to go up without ropes, but you had to climb up ledge over ledge like steps for a giant. After some hard work we made it to the top of UWJ and spent some time taking pictures and then headed to Armstrong. It seemed that we climbed down 1000' into a col and then began the ascent up to Armstrong. This was similar to the ascent up UWJ; there was a 35' ladder to help us in one area. The view from Armstrong was better than UWJ, with an exceptional view of the Gothics. I wanted to go on and get Gothics as the elevation change was not as bad and we could then go down the Orebed Brook trail, but my buddy's knee was bothering him and we didn't want to add any more mileage to the day.

In all the day involved about eleven hours of hiking and when we saw the van back at the Garden we were very happy. It was a little scary in places but it was nice to be challenged.

Gothics

GPS and Comapss

In the last post I talked about my bushwhacking adventure on the side of Prospect Mt and the Berry Pond tract. As I said I calculated the true N bearing and followed it to the pond. I did drift a little to the west, but I hit the pond without any trouble. Now instead of figuring my heading from Barry pond to my van, I used the GPS to do that and then sighted my compass on a point that the GPS pointed at. When all was said and done I hit about 250 meters S of my car and I had to really on the GPS as I closed in. When I plotted my track on the map and looked at what I had done, my fist 100 meters were in a straight line as the woods were open, but that straight line if extended would had missed by 400 meters. That was the course set by the GPS.

Now what I think I observed was that the GPS is good at getting you to where you need to go, but you should not rely on it to set your compass bearing. I believe the GPS constantly updates and changes your course for you as you move. I noticed this when I started out for Berry Pond I check my compass sighting with the GPS and at first it was off then it settled down and was close. I will continue to use the GPS, but will set bearings independently of the GPS and rely on them when Bushwhacking. I think that is the best bet.

New Trail and Bushwhacking

I have not really been an outdoorsmen lately as work has taken a lot of my time. Finally, the catering events and major functions are over for a while and I am ready for some of doors fun. I did do a little catfishin' last week. Did ok, of course the big one got away...no really it did :-)

Yesterday I went geocaching at the Lake George Rec Park where I had been before. There was a new set of GC's planted that took me up to the summit of Prospect Mountain. A approach that I have never done. Also I looked for and found my first Hybrid Cache/letterbox. I would like to see letterboxers not be so adverse to the idea of using GPS coordinates in their clues, but at this time many letterboxers have a negative view towards this. I digress...

Anyway these geocaches where placed about 350 meters apart (Yes I said meters I am on a personal quest to go metric. And I was born and raised in the US) which I think are too close, however this placer hid the caches at strategic points that brought me up the mountain perfectly. The geocacher actually says that that is why they were placed there.

After learning the new trail, at the last Geocahe, I calculated my bearing and bushwhacked to Berry Pond a new acquisition by the Lake George Land Conservancy. I did pretty good for a 2.3 km hike through the bush. I hit the pond at about where I was trying to get to. I then, being lazy took a direction with the GPS and followed that bearing out to my car.

I will talk about that later this week. All and all a good day and I was able to work on my land navigation skills a bit.

Black Mountain 2009

This past Friday I went up Black Mountain on the East side of Lake George from Black Mountain Point. This is a favorite trail of mine as it is a nice little trainer for the High Peaks and it has some real nice views of Lake George. Also, since this trail is for the most part accessed via the lake, it is usually quiet. I was not disappointed. In fact the trail showed very little signs of recent travel. The trail is clear with only a couple of small obstacles. However, as pleasant as the woods were, they were well populated with black flies, that got out of hand a couple of times. One nice part of the day was that I had the summit all to myself, which is a first in recent years. Even the black flies left me alone up there. This trail and a lot on the east side of Lake George do not get a lot of use and are great places to get away. I usually see less people of these trails than I do on the high peaks trails in the Adirondacks.

I want to mention a couple of things about our boat trip up to Black Mountain Point. We saw an otter not 30 feet from our boat in Warner Bay. I saw a pair of them last fall in there, but I was surprised to see one during the busy season. They must be getting used to people. The other thing that I want to mention is my feelings as we made the turn at 14 mile island heading into the Narrows and looked into Shelving Rock Bay at the Knapp Estate. Even the houses that are not part of the Knapp Estate, like Tommy Hilfiger’s House fit into the Old Adirondack feel that little corner of the Lake has for me. I really enjoy looking at these new and old homes that take me back to how I imagine the glory days of the Adirondack were. Anyway this area just takes me back I guess.

Oh and I checked on both my letterboxes and they are fine.

Big Hollow Road letterboxing maintanence

I went up Big Hollow road in Lake George today. We locals call this road/trail the Backside of Prospect. What a nice day to be in the woods. I saw so much bird life it wasn't funny. At one time I had a goshawk jumping from limb to limb over my head for 500 feet. I also saw among other birds four different species of wood peckers... I really need to work on my bird identification.

I traveled up Big Hollow to check on my letterboxes that I have placed along the road and to find a pleura of Geocaches that have been hidden all over the place.

My Lb's survived the winter very well considering that they are in recycled containers. The one thing that concerned me was that all of them were either hidden in a slightly different location or they were left out in the open. The fourth Lb of my Prospect Mountain Environmental Series was left exposed in the rock wall that it was hidden in. I was lucky to not have them muggled. But the important thing is that they are all safe and ready for another season of letterboxing.

The geocaches were easy to find and were in non-discrip locations. The purpose of the caches I believe is to bring people up the road.

One thing to note. The beavers have replaced the dam at the second reservoir again and the pond is a pond again. Life is good.