jeudi 1 septembre 2016

French Louie Trail 8/22

First things first: I've been a follower and subscriber of this forum for several years and would like to thank the admins and knowledgeable posters for all your valuable insight and information. You guys&gals rock!!! ......and now for my first post.....

Sometimes the best trips are the ones that are established during a short conversation. "Hey, got time for some trail dust before you head to grad school?" Reply: "Hell yeah!!! Only enough for one night/two days though"

The plan: Get off duty on 8/22 @ 0800hrs and head northbound around 1000hrs. Well, we all know how that usually works. Sometimes things happen a little slower than expected. We signed in at the Pillsbury trailhead @1330hrs and headed out. The original idea was to try the loop, but since it was a late start, we opted to just walk and see where we ended up along the way. We left two options with our family contacts in case we changed our minds along the way.

We passed a nice group of day hikers within our first mile. We later learned that they are from a local hiking group. We strolled down to the Pillsbury Lake LT around 1500hrs. There was a nice gentleman already gathering wood for an evening fire. We chatted a bit and headed out toward Sampson Lake LT. Along the way we passed a group of college ladies who were completing their outdoor expedition training. They were from SUNY Potsdam, and had been out for 12 days. Pretty funny to chat with them. Some looked very excited about what they had experienced, and several had the look of "what the heck did I get myself into?":cry:

We strolled up to the Sampson Lake LT at 1630hrs. The LT was occupied with 3 individuals who gave us the impression they were calling it their home for the night. We wandered up a few yards and came across a woman who was doing the loop counterclockwise, and this was her second night out. We opted to set up camp between her and the LT.

We enjoyed a nice dinner and hung out on the rocks near the shore. We had some great conversation, and made some new friends while enjoying a hot cup of tea. Photo ops were abundant at sunset. The three loons on the lake kept the music going all night. A bright half-moon beat out some of the stars, but we managed to suffer through the scenery of the night sky before turning in.

Sunrise breakfast and photo ops along the shoreline. We cleaned up camp and hit the trail back to Pillsbury @0900hrs. We had a great stroll back to Pillsbury LT for a little snack and more photo ops. Signed out around 1230hrs and headed for Logan's in Speculator for my traditional post hike cheeseburger, fries, and a brew.

Kudos to the crews managing the roads in to Pillsbury trailhead. They were in pretty nice shape.



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