Spring Vacation, part 5, Trip #2

We woke up fresh and energetic. Our first trip was over, but our break was not. Although Juliana, a friend from school, texted me and invited us over to her place in Vermont for a couple days, we decided to stick with the original plan of hiking has many high peaks as we could. We had a completely different plan this time. Learning from our previous trip, we decided that instead of moving camp every day, we would set up a sort of basecamp. We would then issue forth and conquer the mountain tops. With this new strategy, we planned to stay out for four nights, scaling seven peaks in all. All we had to do to prepare was pack some more dinners, replace the stolen peanut butter log, repack our now dry gear and then we could head out.

At the first break

We knew that today was going to be a fairly easy day. The goal was hike about four miles in, but it would be much easier than the first day because the terrain was relatively flat and the trail was definitely broken out. It was a little after three in the afternoon by the time we got to the trailhead. Our destination was a lean-to near John’s Brook Lodge. We hefted our packs, (that weighed on average 50lbs) and started to tramp up the trail. Since we were used to the exertion required to break trail, we put out with the same amount of energy. This caused us to cover the first mile in record breaking speed. When we paused for some water, we realized we were putting ourselves through unnecessary pain. We  slowed down and enjoyed the hike.

This snow face was right near John's Brook Lodge

When we got to the junction to the trail that led to the lean-to we were planning on staying at, we felt good and strong, so we thought it would be best if we pushed on to the next lean-to. This would lessen the distance that we would need to hike tomorrow. After hiking about half of the distance that remained between us and the new destination, we ran into the two guys who had offered us a lift the day before. We joked about how it is impossible for us to stay out of the woods for long. When we moved on the terrain quickly got steeper. Soon we were climbing some steep pitches that required the use of the heel lifters on our snowshoes. At the top of each rise we would crane our necks, looking for the destination lean-to. After more disappointments that I would like to mention, we finally saw the lean-to.

It turned out that there was a couple at this lean-to. As we walked up they greeted us and moved their gear over to one side. They introduced themselves to us as Jackson and Dana. Their dog, a malamute, was named Inga. It turned out that they had just gotten to the shelter a little before us, so we all got our respective stoves out and cooked dinner. After supping on curried rice and lentils, we prepared for bed. This time, in order to prevent the small animals from gorging themselves during the night, we hung our food from a hook in the rafters. Jackson assured us that this was sufficient food protection in the winter.

We quickly bedded down Raf against the wall, me in the middle, and Nate on the outside. This was strategic because the weather forecast was that it was going to get down into the low single digits, and I only had a bag rated for twenty degrees. We figured that if I were sandwiched between the other two guys, it might keep me a little warmer. We also made sure to fill up our water bottles with warm water. We put those at our feet to keep them warm throughout the night. After saying good night all around, we turned off the lights and went to sleep excited for tomorrow. 

Not many pictures from today.

Spring Vacation Part 4, Trip, Day 2

Our Camp

The next morning we woke up to lightly falling snow. About half an inch had fallen over night and temperatures were in the mid twenties. We had gone to bed at around 6:30PM and got up at 7:30 this morning. Needless to say, we were well rested.

Charlotte being guarded by the snow shoes

After telling the story from last night to Raf, we looked through our food, and found that the banana chips were missing. I, being serious, suggested we go scouting for them. Nate immediately started laughing, joking and putting his hand over his eyes, stared mock-seriously around. I quickly put him to shame however, when I found them ten feet from the tarp, lightly covered by snow. They were un-tampered with, so we put them with the rest of the food. We slowly ate breakfast and broke camp. Among the preparations to break camp, we noticed that our half eaten block of Monterey Jack cheese was missing. Again I suggested we go look for it. This time, although they did not make fun of me, the other two still did not join me in my decision to search. Undeterred, I set off in the direction that I had found the wheat thins the night before. I had gone about thirty feet before I spotted them about fifteen feet away under a tree. The animal had dragged it that far, and nibbled at one corner. Elated at having found our cheese, I retrieved it and returned to camp. Nate Mori-0, Nate Josephs-2.

Cheese Nibbled by something

Planning the day, Raf is actually 8 feet tall,
 I forgot to mention that

Overall, we were well recovered from the trek the day before. I, for one, was surprised that I was not sore at all. However, we did have one problem, though minor, it had the potential to grow into a bigger one. The day before, when we had gotten into camp, Nate had mentioned that his feet were cold. We had put water bottles, filled with boiling water at our feet to keep them warm during the night. This failed to fully warm his toes up. When we were breaking camp, he kept mentioning how cold his toes were. Raf’s toes were also cold, but not to the degree that Nate was experiencing. Nate had gotten some water in his boots from rain and snow getting inside his gaiters and running into his boots. This caused his feet to get colder than they should have.

However, at the moment, there was not much we could do, so we decided when we got to the road, we would check them. We slowly finished packing up and headed out. Today travel was slightly easier than yesterday. The snow was not quite so sloppy and wet; it having frozen some over the night. Even though we were breaking trail, we were soon headed on a slight downhill that helped immensely. We easily covered the two miles to Ausable Rd by noon.

Natural Snoballs

When we got there, Raf pulled lunch out of his pack, I pulled out my Leatherman, and Nate pulled out his feet. I ended up pulling out the only thing that was without fault. We realized the reason why the animal had seemed content with a couple wheat thins and a nibble of the cheese was because it had taken both of our peanut butter/honey/oatmeal roll. Now we were angry at the little bugger. We though up horrible deaths for it. Among some of the better ideas were that its mouth would get stuck by the peanut butter, causing it to starve with a full mouth. Another was that it would eat so much and become so fat, that it would not be able to fit in its hole and freeze to death.

Looking at options and feet

Besides hypothesizing different ways for the rodent to die, over lunch we discussed our options. One was to continue our trip as planned, while the other one boiled down to us bailing on this trip in order to make sure we would be able to look back on it with fond memories. Frostbite is not a cheery companion, so we decided to head out. My pick-up was parked about five miles away by road, so we decided to drop our packs behind a snow bank, grab a couple layers of clothing and, along with Charlotte, quickly cover the distance.

We set off the car speedometer

This part of the walk was smooth, flat and easy. It contrasted dramatically with the kind of terrain that we had encountered the day before. We pounded pavement at about four miles an hour and arrived at the parking lot excited to head out. However, when we got there I suddenly realized that I had put my keys in my rain jacket, and we had left our gear five miles back at the trail head. Two guys who had just arrived at the parking lot kindly offered to give us a ride to our gear. We accepted right before I realized how stupid I was. The keys were in my rain jacket, but my rain jacket was the warm layer that I had packed to bring along. Feeling foolish and apologizing to the nice guys, we found my keys, unlocked the truck and tumbled in. Quickly arriving back at our gear, we picked it up, and said goodbye to the Adirondacks.

You had better be careful

Me and Charlotte Hanging out.

We made it back home in time for Dad’s wonderful pizza and to start planning for the morrow.