Monday, January 7, 2019

 

Adirondacks – October, 2018

 Justin walked with me along the only street in Piseco.  We saw three people talking near a mailbox on the side of the road and stopped to inquire about getting Paul and Justin a lift back to Northville.

“You wanna walk down past the post office to a driveway with a pile of firewood and walk up to the house on the hill.  Jim’ll drive you down to your car,” one of the party offered.

I left Justin at the bottom of that driveway hoping for his sake that Jim was home.  Otherwise, they’d be sticking out their thumbs and doing it the old-fashioned way.

I re-entered the woods in another mile with easy going along an old lumber road for the next couple of miles.  Soon though, I was back to mud and blowdown and difficulty finding the trail discs to keep me on course.  On a well-traveled trail, the discs are rather unnecessary, but on this portion of the trail, where few people were traveling, it was hard to spot in certain places.  I went off course on a couple of occasions, but not for long though this added to the distance I walked and the time it took.  I had planned to make it to West Lake where there were three lean-to’s to camp for the evening.  If I did, I would have managed 17 miles, but with the late start, I’d have to hustle.

I stopped briefly for a snack of Clif bars and pushed hard all day.  When I reached the first lean-to on the lake, it was occupied by a family of four and so I pushed on.  The second one, about a quarter mile up the trail, had one thru-hiker and one fisherman already stationed.

“There’s one more lean-to about a mile further up the trail, but I think there’s a mom, daughter, and their dog at that one.  You’re more than welcome to stay with us,” the thru-hiker offered. 

Lean-to’s can handle five people comfortably and up to eight if you get really cozy.  They are first come-first served and always a welcome site after a long day of hiking and a disinclination to set up a tent.  I thanked them and opted to keep moving since one more mile tonight was one closer to my destination. 

I arrived at the last lean-to and did find the mom and daughter team.  Their dog, a black lab named Shadow, ran to greet me, tail wagging.  I believe dogs have a good sense of who they can approach and how, knowing danger from a dog lover.  I, of course, was the latter.  I explained to the mom and her teen-aged daughter that this was the last lean-to and since it was practically dark, I was hoping they didn’t mind if I shared it with them.  The mom greeted me warmly and they made room.

As I was packing to leave the next morning, the mom told me how she’d trusted me immediately after Shadow ran up to me and the way that I greeted her.  “We were in a lean-to once when a male hiker came in and Shadow began to growl.  He had this large hunting knife strapped to his leg and I decided that we’d push on and camp somewhere else.  I trust Shadow’s instincts,” she said.

I completely understood her statement.  Dakota does the same thing for me and I know that I can ignore my own instincts in an effort not to seem rude.  Alone in the woods is not the place to disregard those warning signals.  I thanked her for the kind words and wished them well and began a hike that would, if executed, take me over twenty miles for the day.  If so, I would break my single-day, Fit Bit indicated ‘steps’ for a day.  I’d set it the day before and it stood at 45,000.

Hike: Ten hours.
Training Heart Rate: 70-120 bpm.
Calories Burned:  5,000.
Bonus: 45,000 steps.