I spent all morning writing one of my newspaper columns. I spent most of the afternoon editing. Bell choir practice was cancelled, and it's still quite nasty outside. I didn't finish the current jigsaw puzzle. I didn't finish the prayer shawl. I need some different supplies to try more aspen trees.
So, you get another of my early hikes on the NCT.
In 1996, Marie, Mathilda and I decided to see the eastern terminus since we'd been to the west the year before. Sadly, David had to work for the summer although he really wanted to join us.
At that time, there wasn't even a hint of where the NCT route would be across the Adirondacks, except to say that it wouldn't go through the High Peaks. But the unofficial rule was that you could connect Crown Point with Forestport any way you wanted and it would count. So we decided that we wanted to see the High Peaks.
I was enchanted by the guidebook. Lower Wolf Jaw was described as "exceedingly steep." I couldn't wait!
The eastern terminus of the trail at that time was Crown Point on Lake Champlain. And the old bridge was still there. This was built in 1929, but was replaced in 2011 with the beautiful bridge with a pedestrian walkway that is now in this location.
We had to take some road walks to connect to the trail we were going to follow. This took us past Bulwagga Bay of Lake Champlain where we learned that they have their own "sea monster" whose name is Champ. These people claim to have seen him or her. We did not.
Hurrican Bertha was just winding down and managed to keep us wet quite a lot.
Lower Wolf Jaw did not disappoint. However, I have no pictures. We just felt lucky that we got up it. "Exceedingly steep" turned out to be a climb up a nearly vertical pile of rocks and mud. In the rain and wind that was the tail end of Hurricane Bertha. And, as some of you know, Mathilda is legally blind. I turned Chips loose to find his own way up. Of course, he beat all the rest of us. That day ended with the wet campsite we nicknamed our Frank Lloyd Wright "Falling Waters" site. That's the picture I used to advertise Confidence Camp.
Do you want to know more? The chapter about this hike in North Country Cache is one of the longer ones, and it will give you all the details. We sure had adventures! Most of them were good ones.
We found places where the ice never melts because no sun every reaches that deep into the rocks. We learned about peaty Adirondack mud. We learned that we needed to hang our cache bag higher! We learned a lot about being flexible in planning even when you've already started the hike.
The high point, literally and figuratively, was summitting Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York state at 5344 feet.
Our last big climb was over Indian Pass. Yes, we are on the trail. Yes, this was a piece of cake compared to Lower Wolf Jaw.
We ended at Henderson Lake, another place that was never destined to be on the North Country Trail. So years later, to finish my first hike of the NCT we had to start there and connect up because by that time there was at least an identified corridor where the NCT would go.
Tomorrow, I need to go to the store. Doug plowed our drive today, so I should be able to get out.
 | See North Dakota 1995 |
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