ADK Backpacking

Louie Da' Boy

This trip started with a lot of uncertainty following a rogue storm system that had hit the Adirondack area 2 days prior causing major flooding and damns to break in the Long Lake area as well as other areas of the Adirondack area. I had a 4 day backpacking loop trip planned out for myself and friend for the Cranberry Lake area. Unfortunately due to the geography of that area being primarily lowland and already a wet and water crossing filled loop we decided to change our plans and instead target the West Canada area as we were more familiar with this area and with a strategic route should be able to know if our complete would be passible on day 1.

It was an unfortunate situation considering we had been planning this loop for the previous 2-3 months and had many daydreams of the Cranberry lake area. However, I think we made the best decision given the circumstances and knew the West Canada area would serve us well for a 4 day get away so long as the access roads to the trailhead were not washed out and luckily that was no issue at all.

French Louie Loop (ignore the offshoot to Whitney Lake)

Day 1, July 13th

I got up early on July 13th to meetup with my friend Jason and carpool from his place, leaving from his place around 7am. We set off for our 2 hour drive to the trailhead at the end of the dirt Military Road with a little bit of nerves surrounding the unknown of our trip. Excited for the day and to be isolated in the woods for 4 days we discussed our expectations for the trip, fully expecting sloshy boots and river crossings and arrived at the trailhead without fault at around 9:30am. Eager, we put on bug spray, strapped on our backpacks, and signed in.

This was our second time doing the French Louie Loop, our previous journey being in August of 2022. Knowing the loop and knowing where the most swamp area was we decided to traverse the loop in the counterclockwise direction. Doing so would mean that we pass a previously sketchy deep swamp area with an infamously known warped bridge soon into our trip and place this possibly water engulfed area behind us before any other possible storms had a chance to move in.

We set off making our way up the soon climbing terrain away from the Pillsbury mountain trailhead, with a slight stream running down the moderately steep and rocky trail. Quickly in, approximately 1.5 miles we pass the turn off towards Pillsbury Lake and head straight towards Cedar Lake and the wetness of the trail fades away for a brief moment as we plateau and start to heads back downwards slightly towards the more swampy parts of the trail. Luckily while this section of the trail is pretty wet with the recent storms it was still easily navigable via rock and log hopping aside from some sections of deep mud. As well, the infamous bridge has since been replaced for a very well crafted bridge and boardwalk section of the creek and surrounding swamp area... very very lucky for us. With the passing of this bridge my worries for the trip quickly faded away.

Soon there after and a few slips and bear prints we made it to the washed out dam, and then the first lean-to on Cedar Lakes. This area has never really been my favorite as there are lots of grassy areas but some pretty great views of the lake just not the best views from the few campsites and lean-to location itself.

We continue on and take a break just past the Beaver Pond campsite on the large bridge which is just before Cedar Lake's second lean-to. We snacked and made observations of just how different the lake looks. The water level must have been at least 6-8 inches higher than the year previous with Cedar Lake's beaches completely submerged. Definitely a very interesting change.

We set off for our final leg of the day planning to make Lean-to 3 our home for the night and if occupied the nearby primitive tent location nearby our backup option. With our trudge over the smaller mountain that always seems to feel bigger than it is and our .4 mile detour off trail to Lean-to 3 we arrive without incident and more importantly without any guests, very lucky!

We quickly set up our gear in the lean-to, wash off our legs in the lake, and get to cooking up our lunches of ramen following our arrival 1:30pm. 8 miles in 3 hours, not a bad pace considering the trail conditions.

Our plans for the remainder of the day included swimming, cold beers and trail cocktails (more about this later), exploring the new to us lean-to, and enjoying the large thunderstorms passing by us.

In order to save a little bit of weight for a 4 day/3 night trip we both brought an assortment of liquor filled single server apple juice containers and assorted Mio pods for taste. Higher ABV = lighter weight packs = happier trail days!

After many conversations, a trivia podcast, the sunset, and plenty of cocktails we headed to bed around 10pm knowing we'd be back on the trail in the morning.

Day 2, July 14th

A slow awakening to a sunny clear sky morning around 7:30am. We dried off our clothes and boots in the morning sun while preparing coffee and tea and packing up our bags and discussed a game plan. Our plan for the day would be to continue our loop past the lean-to at West Lake and continue shortly past to the primitive tent spot across from the beach on South Lake, with our early start we would be able to secure that spot and not worry about having company for the evening and we would also be able to "picnic" to both the lean-to at South Lake and West Lake for swimming.

We set off at 9:15 am with a brisk pace eager to get to our new home for the day and enjoy the low mileage hike and scenic route over. I could recall that parts of this section between southern Cedar Lake and West Lake were quite enjoyable and picturesque. Moods were high, considering we'd only have about a 6 mile hike today with slightly lighter packs. As we trudged through our easy beginning miles we started to get a bit wet as the storms from the day before had soaked all of the plant life overhanging the trail.

Soon we arrived at a section of trail that I had forgotten the severity of, the outlet areas around the beaver pond between Mud pond and West Lake. Due to the storms and possibly also additional beaver activity this section of trail required quite the display of athletic maneuvers to navigate without completely soaking our boots. Parts of this area have at least waist deep water and untold depths of mud... which we luckily did not have to experience. We moved through the beginning section of this area from the counter clockwise direction of the loop and then took a brand new re-routed area around the final and possibly worse sections of this area. The re-route was very easy to follow but we had to walk around plenty of stump sections of the freshly cut down trees.

Directly after this was a river crossing that is typically an easy rock hop across. We walked about 50 feet further upriver and found a section of larger boulders that we were able to navigate on across the river in order to avoid a water ford.

After this it was a quick hike over past another trail register, West Lake, and then onward to what I would deem the most scenic bridge in the Adirondacks. This area is truly breathtaking and a spot that remains fresh in my mind even the second time visiting it. Directly after the bridge we arrived at the tent site which is next door to South Lake's lean-to and the beach on South Lake which isn't so much of a beach currently with the higher than normal water levels.

We took a quick break to dry our feet out before we were planning to set up camp for the day. This is when we noticed a few issues with the campsite that lead to us hiking back to West Lake lean-to for the night. First and foremost, there is no official DEC primitive campsite marker here, I couldn't recall if that had been there last year as we only passed by. And secondly, there are at least 5-6 widow makers directly overhanging the camp spot... this was the real deal breaker for us. Another note, the lean-to on South Lake appears to be very leaky as the inside of the lean-to was soaked, apparently the McDonald's tarp isn't holding up any longer. Luckily it appears the DEC knows about this as there was plenty of fresh materials that appeared to have been flown in ready to go to rebuild the shelter and a newly cleared area that will most likely abide by the new standards of having lean-tos 100 or 150ft away from the water, I can't seem to recall what the new regulation is.

Arriving at West lake we got set up again and made our selves lunch. Instant potatoes, breakfast skillet, and some packages salmon for me and Lentil soup for Jason. Not too much to say about this spot that hasn't been said before... It's an amazing spot that is very mystical feeling with an uncountable amount of glacial erratics. In fact, the entire lake bottom seems to be boulders. I'll leave some photos but I hope anyone coming here respects it and practices Leave No Trace principles. <3

Our only campfire on the trip

Another great day with plenty of drinks and great company.

Day 3, July 15th

I awoke to another bright, sunny, and beautiful morning. Our plan for today was to head to Sampson Lake lean-to for hopefully another day of solitude. Our original plan was to bushwack to Whitney lake, however the idea of trudging through underbrush to a non-official campsite with a lot of possibly tall grass did not seem appealing. Mileage for the day would be 3.8 miles, easy peasy.

River Crossing

The trip over to Sampson went off without a hitch, nothing really of note along the way.

The lean-to here is in a great location as well as the majority of the other lean-to's in the West Canada Wilderness area. Lean-tos here seem to be notably close to the bodies of water they reside on. We got set up for our final night and hoped to once again be alone for the night however we were not holding our breaths on this considering it was Saturday now. After setting up and cooking our lunches we noted a visitor or I suppose we were the visitors...

This trip being a 4 day/3 night trip was my longest backpacking trip so far, my previous longest being a 3 day trip. I think it was on the morning of day 3 that I started to realize I was getting a bit home sick most notably missing my S.O. Claire. However I quickly brushed that aside and we had another great day together decompressing from our usual lives in the modern world. If only things in the modern world could be as simple as they were here. Hiking, eating, drinking, visiting and generally just having an overall great time free of most current day stressors.

My perch overlooking the lake

Minnow pedicure

Possible fungus I originally misidentified as Lichen

It's curious how there may be so little things to note during camp life while at the same time so many great conversations were had. We enjoyed our beach day full of swimming, fun podcasts, and exploration of the surrounding areas. The night ended with a monstrosity of mosquitos coming out. We could hear their buzzing echoing down the pond, it was a surreal sensation and actually sounded like a motor it echoed so loudly. We decided to hang our tent bodies form the ceiling of the lean-to to act as bug nets of sorts, a faux pas typically however we left plenty of room for possible late night guests and without tent frames I think we would be safe from judgement.

Day 4, July 16th

I was awoken by the sounds of heavy rain storms moving through at 6am. Not wanting to leave the comforts of my sleeping back I fell back asleep and woke back up around 7:30am to the sound of dwindling rain. Now I was definitely at peace with our trip and ready to return home to life's normalcy. All it would take was a final day last hike out of 6.4 miles, not too far at all with light packs however the last 2 day's short hikes had spoiled us. Typing this makes me question my ability to thru hike in the future... 😏 We hiked out in 2 hours 20 minutes all the time I had a feast of Chinese food on my mind.

We arrived back to the car at around 10:45am and with that our trip was over. 4 days, 25 miles total, and not a single other person encountered. It was a great trip.

-LikingLichen

The day started off a bit poor with various mishaps, one of which involving our friends who would be joining us later and bear spray. Behind schedule, Claire and I set off on our way to Goose pond around 10:30am. The weather wasn't looking the best with mid to heavy rain predicted for the majority of the day and because of this and other mishaps I couldn't help but wonder if this trip would end up being a mistake... Luckily for myself, or unfortunately for my party we all decided to persist 😏

When we arrived to the trailhead at Crane Pond Road we were shocked that the downpours had not hit this area yet and that the bugs didn't seem bad at all. Both of these things would change shortly. The mosquitos were so bad on the dirt road in and trail leading to Goose pond that I wasn't able to snap any photos on the way in.

We made very good time on the way in, about 40 minutes from trailhead to pond and only saw one other group day hiking on the way in. This didn't come as a surprise knowing how the weather was predicted to be. Judging off of her silence and out of character lightning pace I think Claire was starting to regret her choice of joining me on this trip which I can't fault because I was feeling the same thing for myself. Once we made it to Goose pond I opted to choose the first site knowing that this one had a bit more closely spaced trees than the other 2 sites further west along the shore of the pond. Our first task was to hang my 10x10 tarp and to load up with an excess of 100% deet to fend off the hoards of mosquitos in hot pursuit.

We then got our tent set up and Claire took shelter in the tent to get a break from the mosquitos for a bit before our friends showed up to join us. Once they arrived I could tell they had been through the same ordeal as us on the hike in...

Our tent and tarp setup

By this time in the afternoon, around 3 pm, we were all wishing the storms would come soon and hard enough to blow the bugs away and to douse them in water. Unfortunately, the wind never stayed strong enough to keep them fully at bay. Also, ironically even with tarps for shelter, choosing to stand in the rain wearing rain jackets became the preferred option as the mosquitos came out in groves to take shelter under our tarps.

Best place to get away from the bugs

I feel like this write up has become a pity party so at this point I feel its necessary to say that even though there were many hardships on this trip I still feel it was a great day and night spent with my GF and friends. It just turned out to be a different type of experience... But then again that's just backpacking and sometimes everything is great, other times it turns out to be a third type of fun experience.

Our Loon friends

Around 7pm, the storms stopped and we were all able to enjoy dinner, snacks, and some time out on the waterfront ledge enjoying views and wildlife.

We all headed to bed around 10:30 pm and woke up around 7:30 am to some much much nicer weather and almost no mosquitos compared to the day prior.

Large and loud bullfrog

We spent some time at camp in the morning enjoying the sun and the beauty of the pond and then headed back to the trailhead as a group after packing up camp and all trash.