Prequel:
2 summers ago a group of us set out to do the CL-50 from Burntbridge TH to Peavine Swamp TH through Wanakeena, out to High Falls...along the way there was an injury so we ended up camping for 2 nights just shy of High Falls before trekking back to Wanakeena via Janack's Landing.
This week I set out from Janack's landing to finish the remaining portion I had left...
The trip started well, got a boat ride from my FIL from the house on Columbia Road to Janack's Landing and headed out at 8am on Wednesday morning. After 1.5 miles I reached the trail split where to the left it goes toward Cat Mountain and Cowhorn Junction, to the right goes to High Falls. Since I missed out seeing High Falls the last time I decided to redo this section (2.9 miles each way to HF).
I soon came to the log of supreme balance (The Bridge of Death I had dubbed it the last time), followed by the skirting the top of the beaver dam. I had trepidations about crossing beaver dams now due to the recent beaver attack on a kayaker back near our home in Webster. I soon arrived at High Falls, saw some campers who had canoed up and one other backpacker.
I looked around, took my pictures and headed back down, across the accursed beaver dam and the Log of Supreme Balance and to the Cat Mountain split. From there I headed up the trail towards Cowhorn Junction.
I arrived at the Cowhorn Pond Lean-to split and faced one of those famous back-packing dilemmas, I had already hiked 10 miles and it was another 4 miles to Olmstead Pond lean-to. 14 miles is about my daily limit and it was still early so I decided to press onward.
I came to the Olmstead pond split and saw with much joy and satisfaction that I was only 0.5 miles from Olmstead pond. As I climbed the last ridge to see that majestic body of water come into view, my heart soared. Only to realize the lean-to was still a ways off. As I continued to plod down the trail, cursing sign makers in general I soon caught glimpse of that Holy Grail shaped beacon of Castle Anthrax which in reality turned out to be the Lean-To of Olmstead Pond. I quickly dropped my pack and basked in all my glory of having completed a 14-mile day and still knew my name and the day of the week (though my watch tells me the day of the week so I think I cheated).
I surveyed the surrounding country-side, found the Olmstead Pond Row-boat which looked like it had seen better days and decided to setup my hammock atop a rather large and easily defensible rock formation where I would easily spot any hordes of approaching zombies.
The following morning as I filled my water bottles on the big rock there at the pond, I was overwhelmed by the number of fish who were there, almost as if they expected to fed/caught by some local fisher-person. Also there were leeches, so I resolved not to go swimming in any of the local ponds back there. There were supposed to be two primitive campsites near Olmstead, I found one because the trail went right through the middle of it, I didn't see a sign for the second one, but there was trail that went off into the woods that I did not investigate for fear of running into the Blair Witch or something like that.
I set off with the plan to complete the ~4.5 miles to Chair Rock Flow and then break for a snack and water resupply. I arrived at CRF without incident though there was quite a bit of elevation change between the West Flow and CRF due to the trail avoiding the private lands. While eating snack and resupplying my water at CRF I ran into 4 ESF students from the Bio Station where my cousin is working for the summer. We chatted for a bit and told them to let my cousin know that I passed by this way and they went off to do student things and I continued on towards Dog Pond.
I arrived at Dog pond around 12:00 and stopped for lunch. The Dog Pond rowboat looked to be in much shape than the Olmstead Pond Rowboat. The campsite at Dog pond was nice enough and I again resupplied one of my water bottles from the pond.
I set off again at 1:00 to complete the last 2.6 miles to Curtis Pond which was my destination for the night. I arrived at Curtis Pond at 2:00 and found the camp site with incident, there was no rowboat :( I setup camp and started my dinner around 3:30, then at 4:00 it started to pour. I climbed into my hammock and watch it pour, on my dinner, for 20 minutes before mustering the courage to venture out there and rescue my dinner. The rain continued to pour until 5:30 when it stopped until the next morning.
The next morning I awoke at 4:15 and really had to answer the call of nature, so I got up and started to make my breakfast, at which point it started to rain again, le sigh. Knowing I only had 8 miles to go to get to the TH at route 3 where a warm shower, bed and home-cooked meals were awaiting me, I packed up everything in the rain and after resupplying my water, headed out at 6:00am, with the intent of being at the TH at 9:00am, which I arrived at at 9:01am so pretty good estimating on my part.
From there I had to hike up the road about 200 yards before my cell phone got enough of a signal I could call for my ride and get picked up...
2 summers ago a group of us set out to do the CL-50 from Burntbridge TH to Peavine Swamp TH through Wanakeena, out to High Falls...along the way there was an injury so we ended up camping for 2 nights just shy of High Falls before trekking back to Wanakeena via Janack's Landing.
This week I set out from Janack's landing to finish the remaining portion I had left...
The trip started well, got a boat ride from my FIL from the house on Columbia Road to Janack's Landing and headed out at 8am on Wednesday morning. After 1.5 miles I reached the trail split where to the left it goes toward Cat Mountain and Cowhorn Junction, to the right goes to High Falls. Since I missed out seeing High Falls the last time I decided to redo this section (2.9 miles each way to HF).
I soon came to the log of supreme balance (The Bridge of Death I had dubbed it the last time), followed by the skirting the top of the beaver dam. I had trepidations about crossing beaver dams now due to the recent beaver attack on a kayaker back near our home in Webster. I soon arrived at High Falls, saw some campers who had canoed up and one other backpacker.
I looked around, took my pictures and headed back down, across the accursed beaver dam and the Log of Supreme Balance and to the Cat Mountain split. From there I headed up the trail towards Cowhorn Junction.
I arrived at the Cowhorn Pond Lean-to split and faced one of those famous back-packing dilemmas, I had already hiked 10 miles and it was another 4 miles to Olmstead Pond lean-to. 14 miles is about my daily limit and it was still early so I decided to press onward.
I came to the Olmstead pond split and saw with much joy and satisfaction that I was only 0.5 miles from Olmstead pond. As I climbed the last ridge to see that majestic body of water come into view, my heart soared. Only to realize the lean-to was still a ways off. As I continued to plod down the trail, cursing sign makers in general I soon caught glimpse of that Holy Grail shaped beacon of Castle Anthrax which in reality turned out to be the Lean-To of Olmstead Pond. I quickly dropped my pack and basked in all my glory of having completed a 14-mile day and still knew my name and the day of the week (though my watch tells me the day of the week so I think I cheated).
I surveyed the surrounding country-side, found the Olmstead Pond Row-boat which looked like it had seen better days and decided to setup my hammock atop a rather large and easily defensible rock formation where I would easily spot any hordes of approaching zombies.
The following morning as I filled my water bottles on the big rock there at the pond, I was overwhelmed by the number of fish who were there, almost as if they expected to fed/caught by some local fisher-person. Also there were leeches, so I resolved not to go swimming in any of the local ponds back there. There were supposed to be two primitive campsites near Olmstead, I found one because the trail went right through the middle of it, I didn't see a sign for the second one, but there was trail that went off into the woods that I did not investigate for fear of running into the Blair Witch or something like that.
I set off with the plan to complete the ~4.5 miles to Chair Rock Flow and then break for a snack and water resupply. I arrived at CRF without incident though there was quite a bit of elevation change between the West Flow and CRF due to the trail avoiding the private lands. While eating snack and resupplying my water at CRF I ran into 4 ESF students from the Bio Station where my cousin is working for the summer. We chatted for a bit and told them to let my cousin know that I passed by this way and they went off to do student things and I continued on towards Dog Pond.
I arrived at Dog pond around 12:00 and stopped for lunch. The Dog Pond rowboat looked to be in much shape than the Olmstead Pond Rowboat. The campsite at Dog pond was nice enough and I again resupplied one of my water bottles from the pond.
I set off again at 1:00 to complete the last 2.6 miles to Curtis Pond which was my destination for the night. I arrived at Curtis Pond at 2:00 and found the camp site with incident, there was no rowboat :( I setup camp and started my dinner around 3:30, then at 4:00 it started to pour. I climbed into my hammock and watch it pour, on my dinner, for 20 minutes before mustering the courage to venture out there and rescue my dinner. The rain continued to pour until 5:30 when it stopped until the next morning.
The next morning I awoke at 4:15 and really had to answer the call of nature, so I got up and started to make my breakfast, at which point it started to rain again, le sigh. Knowing I only had 8 miles to go to get to the TH at route 3 where a warm shower, bed and home-cooked meals were awaiting me, I packed up everything in the rain and after resupplying my water, headed out at 6:00am, with the intent of being at the TH at 9:00am, which I arrived at at 9:01am so pretty good estimating on my part.
From there I had to hike up the road about 200 yards before my cell phone got enough of a signal I could call for my ride and get picked up...
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