Woke at 4 am to rain. We knew that was possible. We didn't really want to start the next backpacking leg in the rain because the first two miles are going to be difficult even if the trail is dry. So we went to plan B.
With intermittent showers we thought we could get in the two sections that we had planned to do the day after the backpacking. Spoiler- we managed the hikes, but not the dripping sky.
The Adirondacks are stunning no matter what the weather. Dramatic moments on the road as the storm clouds cleared out and the mist rose.
We started with a drive to the Blue Hill Trail. That had to be hiked as an in-and-out because there is no vehicle access to the south end. There's a "road" there, but, um, you need a truck to drive it.
This is a beautiful section, although it probably won't be on the final NCT route. It was actually the most foot-friendly trail we've walked yet with fewer rocks and mud holes. It does climb 400 feet and then drop back down 200.
It goes past a nice beaver pond. Yeah, there are lots of these, but I haven't shown you many yet.
Many blue flags. Common, but always beautiful
One of the things I love about the Adirondacks is that you never know what you may see as you drive around any curve in the road. I have no idea what peak this is, but it's pretty cool!
We stopped at the campsite to check in with Diane who was having a nice relaxing day (which is what she wanted). The steady rain was done but there were little pop-up showers happening. We had one more short piece of trail to do.
Diane hiked a short way in with us on the snowmobile trail up the west side of Oak Mountain. She said she liked listening to us do the inventory stuff. The big news of that section is that it's all grass and weeds in the summer. Think pop-up rain. Think soaking wet. Think climbing up another 200 or so feet in wet berry bushes and ferns.
Then we came over the top on to Oak Mountain Ski Resort property where I helped build trail in 2020. Then it was downhill on nice clean trail, and we were done for the day.
Diane fed us another wonderful dinner of Cornell recipe barbeque chicken and macaroni and cheese! It's amazing to have hot food just appear without having to work for it. We are so thankful she wanted to come be part of this adventure.
This means that we will start the two-day backpacking tomorrow. There will be at least one more batch of rain tonight. Hopefully that will be the end of it. The backpacking starts with a big climb up a very rocky trail that is more or less a creek, so we'd like it to not be totally wet and slippery.
So no blog tomorrow for sure.
A total of about 8.5 miles today.
New York, Adirondacks, North Country Trail, Blue Hill Trail and Oak Mountain. 8.5 miles
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