Bushwhack to the Ledge

From my house looking north, one can see a ledge at the top of the mountain. Several of my family have been up there but I never have. Today, my brother Steve, his son Justin, Randy and I hiked up there. The only map I have does not lable the mountain but it's about 2000 feet. It is probably a mile there, up steep, rough terrain. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and the view of the valley was terrific. We could see a long way down the Sacandaga Lake, Northville, our own little valley (and our houses), and the local pond called Winnie's Pond. While up there we built a very small fire and grilled some hot dogs. Boy they tasted great. We built the fire on bedrock, right where a spring flows so putting the fire out was very easy. Then we hiked back down, a slightly different way. Again, extremely rough going. An ankle breaker if not careful. We were home by 2pm.

It was a great test of my new inserts. The way was so steep that the testing was very hard but my toes were not, except in the nearly vertical spots, pushing the ends of my boots. I took a day pack but with everything I carried, it probably weighed about 20 or 25 pounds. Spot tried to go with us but with her legs being so bad, I had to have my Mom hold her in the house till we were gone. Mom reported when we got back that Spot was very unhappy. I felt terrible but there's no way she could have made the hike.

I'm more than ever convinced that I'm ready to take on the Northville - Lake Placid trail. I'm not going to get any younger or have any fewer pains. I've started telling my family about my end of July hike date.

Herkimer House Hike

Yesterday Randy and I joined a local hiking club at lock 17 in Little Falls for a hike along part of the Canal Trail. We went about 1.5 miles to Herkimer House, an historic house of General Herkimer of the Revolutionary War, Battle of Oriskany. The house had a reenactment going with colonial era maple syrup making and the house and other buildings were open to tour through. The place had the best cold cellar I've ever seen. Apparently it was used during Herkimer's time as a fortified location against Indians or British. The Canal Trail seems to be a great, little known, resource. The total planned length is 500 miles along the Mohawk River starting in Cohoes and going west. There are still big sections that are in the proposed phase but with things like the Herkimer House along the way, what a great hike that would be. Lots of people were out yesterday with little kids, dogs and we even saw a pheasant that came within a few feet of us. I even got a little sunburnt.

April Already

It's April already! I didn't do any real hiking the whole of March. I did take my fully packed backpack to EMS and had them help me weigh everything out. After dumping the whole load on the store floor, all I really could trim was some packaging. No real savings at all. With a full load of water and food, I still have a pack that weighs 45 - 55 pounds. I guess I'll have to tough it out. My hiking friend Kathy sent me a schedule of her hiking club's hikes for the spring and summer. Several nice ones, near me are on the schedule. One is for this coming Sunday. My husband and I may have to hit that one. I'm also scheduled to see the orthotics guy on Tuesday. I want a set of full length orthotic inserts for my hiking boots. Then, if my toes are still hitting the front of my boots, as they do now with the 3/4 length inserts, I'll have to buy new boots. My husband suggests a new sport but what can I do that doesn't require feet? Anyway, I want to go backpacking. I've tentatively scheduled myself to finish the Northville - Lake Placid hike the end of July. So far I've only told Randy. I want to get this insert issue dealt with before I start letting everyone know.