Central Adirondack Backpack trip
My second backpack trip of 2015 occurred on August 22nd and 23rd. It was in the central Adirondack region in the Siamese Pond Wilderness area. It is only about 1 1/2 hours from my house so it was a reasonable drive to the trail-head. I had planned out the route about two years ago after picking up the Central Adirondack trail guide. The trip started at the Eleventh Mountain trail-head parking area (shown below).
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| Looking south at trail-head parking sign |
I started hiking at about 9:45 am on Saturday with good weather. There was already one car in the parking area and just as I was getting myself ready another car came in with a single occupant. As he was about to set off he informed me that the last time he was there it had been almost 30 F below zero. He asked where I was headed, but did not tell me of his plans; I never saw him after that. This hike which started on the East Sacandaga Branch trail, soon starts uphill onto the shoulder of Eleventh Mountain. But after 15-20 minutes the trail heads back down the other side and not long after starts giving views of the East Sacandaga Branch. A view of a meadow is then seen on the right (below).
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| View from East Branch Sacandaga Trail |
After some more level hiking and some trail through brush I reached the bend in the river/trail at the Sacandaga Lean-to and suspension bridge. I took the following video there.
The funny thing here is that after I crossed the bridge there was two guys (father and son?) that asked whether that was the trail to Siamese Pond. I let them borrow my map and I looked at my guidebook pages (I had copied just the pages I needed). At that point we realized they were on the right trail (they thought they were not) and that I was not on the right trail, I was not supposed to cross the bridge. After that embarrassment I crossed back over and proceeded north on the trail. After another hour I stopped for lunch and made the following video.
I saw some bear scat soon after and so was on the look out for bears but never saw any. I eventually reached the junction with the Puffer Pond Trail (I had come a little over half the distance I needed to cover for the day at that point). Below is the photo of the trail junction.
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| Junction of Puffer Pond Trail and East Branch Sacandaga Trail |
The Puffer Pond Trail goes through a pine plantation here that smells just like the alpine zone on some of the high peaks. After less than 2 miles I reached the junction with the short trail to Hour Pond seen in the videos below.
And here is some photos of the cascades that the trail passes. They reminded me of some of the features on the Loyalsock Trail in PA.
Pushing on past the cascades, the trail continued through the woods, gaining a little elevation before dropping a bit just before Puffer Pond. Although I could see little bits of the pond through the trees it was a while before I had a fuller view (seen below).
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| Puffer Pond |
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| Puffer Pond |
This view was at the second Puffer Pond lean-to. It is also the location of the trail junction with the Kings Flow Trail (which I needed to take). But because there was no trail junction signage and there was a group of young people at the lean-to I did not see my turn and kept on the Puffer Brook trail for about 10 minutes before realizing my mistake and backtracking to the trail junction. This lost time would have an impact at the end of the day. Anyway the Kings Flow trail went moderately up hill for about 15 minutes before heading back down hill. The it reached the junction with the John Pond Connector Trail, my last trail of the day before my destination. The junction is seen below.
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| Junction of John Crossover trail and Kings Flow trail |
The guidebook extols the virtues of this trail for being a true wilderness trail. If by that they mean there is lots of blow-downs, rough footing and obstacles they are correct. This trail was the slowest of all on the trip and took a full 2 hours for me to traverse. I stopped for dinner after 5:30 pm which was a little lighter than past trips, but just right for this time. The chocolate milk (water plus powdered whole milk plus Quick) was a good end to the meal. Going on from there as it was late afternoon and in conjunction with my lost time before put me near John Pond (my intended destination) after 6:30 pm. I reached the junction to the 1/2 mile trail to the John Pond lean-to (see photo below), and remembering the crowd at the Puffer Pond lean-to I listened as I approached the John Pond lean-to. Not too surprisingly I heard many voices as I got closer. Not in the mood to intrude and preferring some distance from the group, I bushwhacked around the pond to the opposite side to make a 'stealth' camp.
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| Junction of trail to John Pond and Crossover Trail |
One unanticipated problem I had setting up camp was with my food bag hang. It was starting to get dark and I wanted a stone to throw my rope to hang the bag with. I could not find one that would work. I tried a piece of wood but the rope would not drop once I tossed it over the tree limb. I tried for awhile, but the approaching darkness forced me to give up. Instead, I put the bag on the ground and put dead tree limbs on it (as if I were using my hard case bear cache [required for the high peaks region of the Adirondacks but not where I was]). I hoped it would be okay (it was) over night. I had a small fire after it got dark and listened to the campers across the pond. Once in a while I made out a word or two, but that was all. I waited for the fire (photo below) to go out and then went in my hammock for the night. It took a while for me to go to sleep, but eventually I did, even having a nightmare that a small animal was crawling up my hammock (it wasn't). It did get a bit chilly over night and there was fog the next morning that kept me from seeing across the pond. But, I did hear the voices of the other campers which surprised me as I figured that with their late bedtime they would sleep in.
I packed up my stuff and headed out, having to bushwhack back to the trail. I noticed when I did reach the trail I could not hear the other campers. When I reached the intersection of the trail to the lean-to and the John Pond Crossover trail I soon learned why it was quiet, the others were hiking out and were just behind me. A couple of them said hello, but most ignored me, by the way I counted at least nine of them which was a few less than I guessed from their voices the evening before. Anyway, at the trail junction we headed in opposite directions.
The Crossover trail was as slow going leaving as coming in. I did stop for my breakfast after about an hour and filled up my containers with water. After that I pushed on and soon reached the Puffer Pond lean-to, there was no one there when I arrived.
I turned onto the Puffer Pond trail in the direction of the East Branch Sacandaga Trail. This part of the hike was uneventful, pausing only for a brief look at the cascades again.
Eventually I reached the junction with the East Branch Sacandaga Trail near lunch time. At that point I decided to hike the 0.1 miles to the Old Farm Clearing (see below) for my lunch break. I expected to find a large clearing there, but it was just overgrown and there was a somewhat wider trail that went to the parking area a mile away.
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I had my lunch at the trail junction to Botheration Pond, knowing I was about halfway back to the start. After my lunch I pushed on and was able to keep a decent pace due to the better footway. I kept watch for the river knowing that once I saw it I would be close to the Sacandaga lean-to. A short while before reaching the lean-to I spotted the below permanent benchmark (I missed it on the way in). According to the guidebook that put me less than 5 miles from the trail-head.
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| Benchmark on rock (about eye level on east side of trail) |
When I got to the lean-to I kept going just glancing around as I passed. At this point I realized it was not far back to the trail-head, but that I had a bit of elevation gain to go through. After about 20 minutes I met a few people and their two Golden Retrievers, one with a French accent told me I had 3.6 miles to go (he must have read the guidebook). From here I made my gain in elevation and looked briefly at the cliffs off the trail (about 100 feet away) in the woods. After reaching the maximum elevation I started down and knew it would soon that I reached the trail-head. And after another 15-20 minutes I reached the trail register and then the parking area. I took the below photo before I loaded my gear into my truck and drove away. Of note, off to the side of the parking area and almost unnoticeable is a short walkway to a camping area for those that want to camp at the trail-head. It is out of sight of the road but I am sure it would be a noisy place to camp from the road traffic.
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| Trail-head sign with distances |