Thursday February 18, 8.5mi/13.6km

Cold River Leanto #3 (24.8/1680ft) to Kelly’s Point Leanto (33.3/1640ft) (NY)

As usual, we were awake and 5am, and were on the trail at 7am. The first obstacle was a swingbridge over the Cold River, which was pretty easy. I had broken out the trail the night before, so there were no surprises. 

A half-hour later, we crossed another swingbridge, this one over Moose Creek. It was missing a handrail on the approach ramp, but was otherwise uneventful. These bridges seem very over-engineered and felt very safe.

The view from the bridge, looking down Moose Creek. It appears completely frozen over, but I could hear water running underneath somewhere.

For the next mile after Moose Creek, we saw many different animal tracks. These tracks appeared to belong to a large hooved animal.

And these tracks were likely from a rabbit. Apparently it was able to float on top of the crust surface!

We skiied along, taking turns breaking trail on the breakable crust. It seemed easier than yesterday, I think we are just getting used to it. The next few miles to Long Lake were thru a lower elevation forest, which had some weird trees. I called this one octopuspruce.

We stopped for lunch at Plumley’s Landing Lean-to, the first shelter on Long Lake. I had also stopped here for lunch during my summer hike, and it felt so much smaller in the winter. Maybe it’s all our extra gear?  

After lunch, we decided to ski the frozen Long Lake. The trail runs along the shore, so it didn’t save us any distance, just the work of breaking trail. The lake had very little snow or crust, and it was much easier and faster to ski.

We still took turns breaking trail, but much less frequently, given that is was pretty easy to be in the front. I think the mountains in the distance are Emmons/Donaldson/Seward range.

This will probably be the most unique picture I get on the entire trip. It felt strange to ski by a buoy frozen into the lake.

We skiied the Lake for just over 3 miles, exiting the frozen surface at Kelly’s Point Leanto. It was fairly early, only 3:30pm, but we exerted a lot of energy breaking trail all morning. And this Lean-to positions us nicely for tomorrow, as we are only 4 miles from the Tarbell Road trailhead.

I took one last picture looking back north across the lake, and then headed into the forest to the lean-to. It was nice skiing on the lake, but I also appreciated the lack of wind in the forest.

There are two shelters at this spot, and we chose the one further uphill. After setting up the tent and building a snow kitchen, I went exploring the immediate area on skis. Surprisingly, the NPT wasn’t broken out here, even though we are only 4 miles from the trailhead. I think we will continue skiing the lake as long as possible tomorrow.  We also had some extra time around camp, which was nice. And with some internet service, one of us was able to buy some longer skis. Ha!

This first section has proved to be slower and tougher than expected, and we agreed to revise our overall trip itinerary. The 10mi/day plan will become 8mi/day, and we will look at the specifics on Saturday, when we have our resupply night at Barrett’s house.

Wednesday February 17, 7.8mi/12.6km

Camp Desperation (17.0/1990ft) to Cold River Leanto #3 (24.8/1680ft) (NY)

We were awake at the usual 5am, and got the stove going for hot beverages. It was much colder this morning, which is good news for the ski conditions, but it made the hot cocoa extra necessary. Breaking down camp took a little longer this morning, as it usually does at a non-leanto site. We were moving down the trail at 7:15am. 

The good news was that the snow was no longer a gloppy mess of wet snow. The bad news was that the slush re-froze overnight, and there was a now a 1inch thick crust on top of the snow.  And we broke through that crust with every step.

The sunrise through the open hardwood forest was a nice distraction, though!

This is my favorite time of day, early morning in the woods. The untracked trail makes it feel very remote — and it was!

Jim coming up behind, as I pull over to take a photo.

This photo was taken accidentally, but I kinda like it. My left ski is covered in pieces of breakable crust.

We took a break at Seward Lean-to for an early lunch (or 3rd breakfast?). It was a nice sunny day, we took our time eating all sorts of calorically dense things.

After the break, the trail followed an old road for the rest of the afternoon. This was nice because it had gentle grades, with no steep up/down across drainages. But, it was also littered with blowdowns. Jim demonstrates a textbook blowdown traverse.

We also saw many different types of animal tracks in the afternoon, along the Cold River. I think this hooved animal might be a moose.

Another photo with the ski poles for size reference.

Towards the end of the day, the breakable crust was less severe, I think the sun softened it up a bit. And for the 2nd and 3rd skiiers, it was really quite reasonable skiing, as the first person had broken through the crust.

But, it was nearing the end of the day and we were all pretty tired. It was almost 5pm and we had been moving for about 10 hours.

We stopped at Cold River Lean-to #3, and setup our tent next to it. The kitchen was built on snow in front of the lean-to, and we sat in the lean-to and lounged with our boots off. We boiled water for our dehydrated dinners and hot drinks, and used the extra warmth to thaw some Nutella, which becomes a brick in cold temperatures.

I scoped out the nearby swingbridge, which will be our first obstacle tomorrow, when we cross the Cold River. It was a tiring day, I will sleep well again tonight!

Tuesday February 16, 7.2mi/11.6km

Moose Pond Lean-to (9.8/2240ft) to Camp Desperation (17.0/1990ft) (NY)

We were awake at 5am, and boiled water for morning beverages at the leanto. Boiling water and packing up generally take much longer in winter than summer, and we departed just before 7am. 

The morning started off nice, with good skiing under cloudy skies. The trail had some small climbs and descents, but overall was pretty flat.

We passed by a trail register, which was covered by a hilarious amount of snow. I signed in for the group; it looked like only two other parties had been through since autumn, and one of them was hiking the Trans-Adirondack route…badass!

After the trail register, we lost the nice snowshoe track from the previous group. (It turns out, they bailed out at Duck Hole, using an arduous exit route). Breaking trail was a little more work, but the flotation of the skis kept us mostly on top of the snowpack, and the untouched forest looked beautiful.

We stopped at the Cold River #2 leanto for lunch. The Cold River #1 was nearby, but a tree had fallen on it, yikes! We spent a relaxing 45 minutes snacking with our packs off, while the temperatures continued to warm up.

About an hour later, we were still breaking trail, but the warm temperatures were causing the snow to become sticky. Skiing was becoming more difficult, and we were having to occasionally knock off clumps of “mashed potatoes” snow.

We all had our pack raincovers on, as there was some precipitation starting. It was kind of a wintry mix of snow, rain, and freezing rain.

After two hours of worsening snow conditions, we decided to call it a day. It was only 4pm, but the wet, gloppy snow took 10x the effort to move through, and it just wasn’t worth expending the energy. My skis were so heavy with frozen mush that I had to use both hands to lift my leg up! We setup camp on the trail, put up the tarp to guard against the falling moisture, and Jim got to work building a snow kitchen.

It was dark by 6pm, and we made dinner in the nice snow kitchen, and ate on the “dining room” bench. Winter camping is great, you can always build benches and counters!

We starting getting in the tent around 7pm, and with 3 adult humans trying to get in through 2 doors, it took awhile. The whole process of removing boots, setting up sleeping pads and sleeping bag, and changing clothes can take awhile. Once we were in the tent, we started one of my favourite nightly traditions, Mark reading a chapter from a Guy/Laura Waterman book.

Hopefully tomorrow’s snow conditions are more conducive to skiing and covering miles!

Monday February 15, 8.1mi/13.0km

Averyville Road Trailhead (1.7/1840ft) to Moose Pond Lean-to (9.8/2240ft) (NY)

Mark, Jim, and I were up early in preparation for our 7am departure. Barrett made us some “breakfast”, which was so far above a normal breakfast it feels insulting to call it that…it was so delicious. He drove us the hour to the trailhead, and the common sentiment was “are we really doing this?!”

We were in the parking lot for only a few minutes, to put on our skis and packs, and we hit the trail at 8:20am. 

Mark signed our group into the trail register, and we were off into the wilderness! The trail was nicely broken out for the first few miles, and we encountered the only person we would see on the entire trail in the first half-mile.

We took turns in the lead, a common practice for breaking out snowy trails in winter. It wasn’t strictly necessary in this section of trail, as it was highly trafficked. It was nice having a nice smooth track to ski.

Every couple hours, we would take our packs off for an extended break. Usually winter hiking involves snacking on the move, but it was nice weather and we had pretty heavy packs heading into this 5-day section. Jim (left) is communicating with Barrett on his InReach, while Mark (right) eats a peanut-butter &bacon bar.

We crossed our first bridge a couple hours into the morning, and it was a nice double-handrail bridge. The bridges without handrails can be scary in winter, when snowpack makes balancing on a narrow bridge difficult.

Just after we passed Wanika Falls, we finished climbing and started our slow descent to Moose Pond. The trail was no longer broken out, and we ended up following the Moose Pond inlet stream. Unfortunately, it had one *interesting* crossing in which Jim broke through and earned a wet ski. Mark found a detour, and we extracted ourselves from that awkward spot.

The official trail travels through the thick spruce to the left, so it was unappetizing to follow. A previous group had attempted the NPT a week earlier, and their snowshoe tracks disapeared into the spruce. We decided to continue skiing the frozen inlet stream, which turned into a “vly” or “vlei”, a shallow marshy area in summer.

It was fun to ski the vly, as the elevation profile is flat, and there are no thick spruce to bash through. It was certainly faster, too.

Vly skiing is fun! The clouds briefly parted for some sunny-ish travel.

Occassionally we had to skirt a small unfrozen channel, or a patch of willows. Overall, it was a nice afternoon on the skis.

The view to the west across the vly looked familiar. I think it might be the Seward range.

We arrived to the Moose Pond Leanto at 4:30pm, though the last 100m took forever. We circumnavigated a steep section, but in doing so, had to figure out a way around a stream lined with spruce. Ugh. The leanto is perched well above the pond, so the trip down to get water was a little steep and arduous. This is the first of many photos of Mark getting water, a task he probably didn’t realize would become his routine. 🙂

I searched for the toilet/privy, but never found it. It might be a thunderbox, which would be impossible to find under 3ft of snow. In what would become our routine, we setup our 3-man tent behind the leanto, and made dinner and relaxed in the leanto itself. We felt pretty good about the mileage we made today, and I’m curious to see tomorrow how much further we will have the pre-existing snowshoe tracks.

Sunday February 14, 1.7mi/2.7km

Lake Placid Train Depot (0.0/1760ft) to Averyville Road Trailhead (1.7/1840ft) (NY)

I sorted and organized all my food and finished packing up my gear. I went through my checklist and everything was accounted for, so I threw it in the car and hit the road.

I drove over to Jim’s house in Albany, put my backpack in his truck, and along with Mark, the three of us drove up to the Adirondacks together. The first 1.7mi of the NPT is a roadwalk, so we got that done in the afternoon. It starts out at the old train depot in Lake Placid, and follows sidewalks for a half mile before it becomes a true roadwalk on a rural paved road.

There was a trail sign at one of the road intersections, so we got a group photo.

After 30 minutes we had arrived at the trailhead, and I got a quick photo before we turned around and walked back to the truck. Tomorrow morning we will start from this point, heading into the woods on skis.

With the road walk done, we drove a little further up to Barrett’s house. He has graciously offered to host us at his house, and support our thru-hike. It should be quite an adventure!

Friday October 2, 0.8mi/1.3km

Journeys End Cabin (270.6/1683ft) to Journey’s End Trailhead (271.4/1335ft) (VT)

We were up at 7am, and had a lazy morning in the cabin. We knew the girls had a long day ahead of them, so we stayed out of the way as they packed up.
It was an easy 15 minute jaunt downhill on a nice trail. The fall colors were near their peak!

We signed out on the trailhead register, and walked back to my waiting car.
We stopped at a diner, the first time I had eaten indoors all year. It was empty, so it felt safer. The amount of food we consumed was considerable, and the speed we are was surprising, even to me.
We drove back to our starting trailhead, and Mark’s car was still there waiting for us. We said our goodbyes, and drove our separate ways home. It was a beautiful drive home amongst the autumn foliage!

Thursday October 1, 17.5mi/28.2km

Hazens Notch Shelter (253.6/2064ft) to Journeys End Cabin (270.6/1683ft) (VT) + 0.5mi Journeys End Trail

We got up at 6:15, and were walking down the trail at 7am.

It was a dry, crisp morning, and after an hour we reached the summit of Buchanan Mt. Unsurprisingly, it was again viewless.

However, a few minutes later we came to Chet’s Lookout, a ladder up to a boulder for a view.

We hiked on, and the next little summit was one of my favorite mountain names, Domeys Dome.

The ridgewalk ended on a shorter bump, Gilpin South Peak.

The descent to Jay Pass was steep, and I (and my knees) was relieved to be at the road.

The climb up to Jay Peak was long, but not steep, and generally a nice trail.

This was a very persistent tree, growing against gravity, ha!

We emerged at the Jay Peak treeline, and crossed a ski trail.

Another 10 minutes of rocky uphill, and we were on the summit.

The summit benchmark.

Looking south:

More views:

Group summit photo!

The view from the top of the ski gondola:

We ate lunch on top of the summit, in a spot sheltered from the wind under some krummholz trees. It was cold, so we ate quickly, and descended down the mountain. The views were pretty good.

We hiked over Doll Peak, a short 3300ft summit on the ridgeline. The trail was very moist and green.

The trail can’t seem to avoid unnecessary bumps on the ridgeline, so we climbed Burnt Mountain too.

We crossed our last road, and the sun came out more strongly.

Only an hour to the Canadian Border and the finish!

The trail was very nice and smooth for the last bit.

We climbed out last summit, Carleton Mountain. The lookout side-trail wasn’t worth it.

We passed a fun sign that I didn’t expect, the 45 degrees North Latitude sign.

A few minutes later, we made it to the finish!

We walked the few steps to the border clearing, where the forest is “shaved” off at the international border. The thin line is visible in the left side of the photo.

Mark contemplating the universe.

We ducked back into the woods, and hiked the half mile to the final shelter.

Journeys End Camp was a nice 8-person cabin, we arrived at 5:30pm. Long day!

We met the cabin’s other two occupants, a duo of SOBO girls from Vermont, just starting their journey. After a filling dinner, I fell asleep easily in my cozy quilt.

Wednesday September 30, 13.6mi/21.9km

Spruce Ledge Camp (240.0/1516ft) to Hazens Notch Shelter (253.6/2064ft) (VT)

We left the shelter a little later, to wait out the rain. By the time we left at 7:45am, it had slowed to a sprinkle.

10 minutes later, we came to Devils Gulch, a boulder-strewn crevice at the bottom of the mountain.

One of the rocks created a little tunnel, it reminded me of Mahoosuc Notch on the AT.

We walked all morning in the wet flooded trail. Mark is showing off his clothing system for wet days.

The fall colors were really on display today.

Some places the trail was a little overgrown.

We skipped the short side trail to the firetower on Belvidere Mountain, as it was still lightly raining and foggy. We hiked down to Lockwood Pond, a beaver creation.

We are lunch at Tillotson Shelter, as it was still a little wet outside. We met two SOBOs who were just leaving, getting a very late start to the day.

After lunch, the rain had stopped completely, though the trail was extremely wet.

We hiked up to the top of Haystack Mountain, and by now the clouds had started to clear out.

This is my summit face.

The view to the south was pretty good too.

We hiked down very steeply to Hazens Notch, and I took a short break at the road.

We hiked the final 1.5mi uphill to the shelter, and found it empty.

An hour later, a woman from Alaska showed up, she was very friendly, and interesting to talk with. We had another fun social evening, and went to bed at 8pm.

Tuesday September 29, 17.0mi/27.4km

Prospect Rock (223.0/1020ft) to Spruce Ledge Camp (240.0/1516ft) (VT)

We packed up camp early, aiming to make it to a shelter before the forecasted rain started at 4pm this afternoon.

It was a nice morning for walking, and in an hour we reached the viewless summit of Roundtop.

A mile later, we took a break for 2nd breakfast at Roundtop Shelter. We met the caretaker, Howard, who was an older gentleman with a very interesting and varied life.

After 30 minutes of food and caffeine, it was time to move on. The next stretch of trail was riddler with maple syrup lines, which was fascinating to me.

We hiked up to Laraway Mountain, a long sustained climb, though not steep. Near the top was a neat cliff formation that we followed under for awhile.

Laraway Mt had a viewpoint that looked to the south.

And looking east:

The actual summit was viewless, but I took a photo anyway, ha!

We descended the 2.5 miles from the summit to Corliss shelter very quickly on a nice smooth trail. It was 12:20, a perfect time to stop for lunch.

The next climb was up Butternut Mountain, a short steep half mile climb. Another viewless summit!

At least the trail coming down the mountain was nice.

We stopped to fill our water bottles a few miles before our intended camp, being unsure if that source was dry.

I’m not sure why I took this photo, but I like the colors.

We climbed up to another ridge, and the forecasted storm was starting to move in, as the cloud ceiling dropped.

It was a foggy descent to Spruce Ledge Camp, and we made it to the shelter just after 4pm. It had a nice view spot with a bench!

We met the 5 other people we would be sharing the shelter with, and had a fun social evening at dinner. I went to bed at 8pm, in a nice dry shelter.

Monday September 28, 18.4mi/29.6km

Taft Lodge (204.6/3609ft) to Prospect Rock (223.0/1020ft) (VT)

We departed the lodge just before 7am and hiked down the 2000ft to the road and Smuggler’s Notch. The bottom of the valley was in full color, and the low clouds obscured the ridgetops.

The trail re-climbed the other side, sometimes steeply. These stairs were a fun shape to behold.

It was a wet morning, with intermittent rainfall alternating with blowing mist.

The puncheon boardwalks were a nice break from the usual rocks and roots.

The trail joined a ski trail near Sterling Pond, this verbose sign was kind of hilarious.

We stopped in Sterling Shelter for an early lunch break, and to get out of the rain. Rachel, another NOBO, was there too. We ate while watching the heaviest of the rain fall down. After lunch we climbed Madonna Peak. No views up there!

The descent if the peak was easy at first, then it became very slippery on wet slab rocks. Yuck. The intermittent views were non-existent.

We descended down a little more to Whiteface shelter, and had another good break. More NOBO hikers were there, and a friendly SOBO guy too. The rain was lighter now, and we left the shelter without using rain gear (aka my umbrella). The climb up Whiteface Mountain was steeeep.

Of course there was only a view of the inside of the clouds on top.

The descent was slippery and slabby rocks again, along with mud.

We descended steeply for an hour, and then less steeply on a nice trail, to the next shelter. By now the rain had stopped completely, and the sun was making efforts to appear. We stopped in for only a few minutes, trying to get to a hiker/camping store before they closed at 6pm. The rest of the way to the road was nice smooth trail, following an old logging road.

This stream crossing looked cool.

We shopped at the town Hardware store for a while, and I bought a new pack raincover (I had forgotten mine in the car), and a map and fuel canister. Sweet. Mark and I hiked on, along a nice trail with some caves.

And then we crossed the Lamiolle River.

We had a final climb up to Prospect Rock, where we setup camp. It was a perfect end to the day, watching the sunset while eating dinner.