Here I Go! - Day 174

  I'm backdating the Adirondack posts so they will show up in the correct order. I'll try to catch up one per day. We'll see! This is a big post, because I want to tell you some expectations and give you general info.

Mary took this as I was about to walk away from her car. I look awfully clean, but that didn't last long. I also look happy. That mostly lasted.

Wait! What? Did I get lost and make a big U-turn? Nope! Ohio township is right on the edge of the Adirondacks in New York.

Just under 3 miles of road and then I was at the beginning of the first Adirondack trail. One of my biggest hopes was that I'd find good signage most everywhere. But I knew there wasn't going to be much North Country Trail marking.

One of the things you will find at almost every Adirondack Trailhead (where there is parking) is a trail register. They are pretty serious about wanting people to sign in. You just give some basic info, how many are in your party, your destination and expected days to stay. If you are coming back out to the same place, you are supposed to check that you have safely returned. I just noted that I was hiking through. But I was very conscientious about signing each one. Since doing this portion of the hike alone was almost certainly the most risky thing I'll do all year, I tried to ensure that my progress could be followed if I didn't check in on an expected date.

The first obstacle was Little Woodhull Creek.

Oops. Bridge is in bad shape, but I was able to get across it.

The tale of the day was that this trail hasn't been used very much at all in the last few years. Stone Dam Pond is dry, and I suspect that's why the trail has lost its appeal. The treadway was completely covered in matted leaves and there weren't enough markers. The NY DEC uses round discs- different colors for various trails. You can tell from the sign above that this one is supposed to have yellow markers. Anyway... very first day... the trail goes missing. But by using the Avenza app (no cell signal needed), I was easily able to find the trail again both of the times I lost it.

I just had to take some pictures of typical Adirondack wetlands.

I planned short miles for the first day, because it took a long time to drive me to my starting point, and I wanted to have plenty of time to get back in the routine of setting up camp. I reached Chub Lake at about 4 pm.

Setting up camp means putting up the tent, getting the sleeping bag deployed and all the gear rearranged for overnight. Then I have to get the cache bag hung- I try to get the rope over a limb and have everything ready so that as soon as I eat supper all the food can be hoisted high off the ground and away from tree trunks. I'll show you a picture of this another day. I have about a thousand pictures of my little orange bag hanging in the woods (from 30+ years of backpacking), and I don't feel a need to take many more pictures of it. I did a blog post about how to do this a few years ago, but the pictures have disappeared, and I can't redo them while on the road. I also try to have filtered enough water for the evening and breakfast. Mostly, I don't care for pond water, so I usually stopped at the last good stream before my camp and filled all my bottles. I carry one large extra bottle that is empty all day, but then I can fill it at that last water stop and I'm all set for overnight.

Anyway, I was all set up by 6 pm. I crawled in my tent away from the hordes of blackflies. Then I hosted the nightly killing party to get rid of all the flying vermin that got in the tent while I was putting my gear away.

I had to wear a headnet whenever I was outside the tent. I still got chewed. I'll talk about that more tomorrow. I'm also not going to show you the small tent in the woods every night because it generally looks pretty much like this.

Then, I can sit in peace and read a book. Yes, I take a book. The evenings would be awfully long without something to do.

Miles today: 8.5. Total miles so far: 2209.1.

See Teeny is Ready