Dunning Pond Hike

My spouse Randy and I decided to brave the hot, humid weather and take a hike yesterday. I broke down and had bought a new pair of boots in a effort to find a pair that don't hurt my feet. So, I wanted to take a fair length hike in them to test them out. We started out for the Northville - Lake Placid trail, the Whitehouse to Piseco section but the road leading to the trailhead has a bridge washed out from the recent flooding so we skipped that trail. We headed a little north, past Wells to this Dunning Pond hike. It's supposed to be 3.4 miles to the pond but the guidebooks say it's actually a little farther than that. Anyway, we sign in at the trailhead and a sign is posted that the Bridge is Out. Since I didn't have the guidebook with me, we ignored the sign and went on our way. It's actually a snow mobile trail and in pretty fair shape for hiking. We reached the washed out bridge and took a rest and snack break. The creek there was wadeable, only knee deep at most but we decided to turn around at that point and head back to the car. About 1/2 mile into the return trip a thunderstorm hit and we did the rest of the way back in the rain. Kinda made me glad we had not decided to press on to the pond. This morning I looked in the guide book and it turns out we were not far from the pond. We had actually done 3.2 miles to the washed out bridge and the pond was another 1/2 mile or so. All in all, a 6.4 mile round trip in 2.5 hours. My right heel hurt but the problems with my toes was not. So, the new boots allow room to keep my toes from hitting the ends and callusing on the side of the big toes. A big improvement. We'd like to go back to this trail, spot a car at the other end and walk all the way thru to Gilmantown Rd entrance to the trail, a little over 4 miles.

4H Overnight to Wilcox Lake

I organized an overnight to Wilcox Lake for the Mayfield Community Guys and Gals 4H club. I took along my 2 nieces and 1 nephew. They are 10, 11 and 13. The 4H'r along was also 10 and was with her mom, the 4H club leader. It's about 5.5 miles from the trailhead to Wilcox Lake. We left the trailhead Thursday morning about 9:45am. We didn't get to Wilcox Lake till after 3pm. It had rained heavily Wednesday and into Thursday morning and didn't actually stop till about 9am. Therefore, the trail was in many place more creek than trail. My niece Emily slipped off a rock in a particularly muddy boggish place and got stuck. Her sneaker came off and we had a heck of a time getting it out. Then, a little way on, she came near to slideing off a board walk over the bog. I thought she'd go into the swamp for sure. About 2 miles in, a normally boggy spot with a pool of water was so high the normal way around it was flooded. We had to tight rope walk along a fallen, moss covered tree to get by. Then, about 2.5 or 3 miles in we came to a large creek flowing downhill. Now normally, a person can cross on the rocks, not so on Thursday. It was in full raging flood. So, they all indicated they wanted to continue so I scouted upstream till I found a place where it looked like we could wade across without getting swept away. Three of the group made it across but when Chelsea started, her pack over balanced and I thought for sure she was going in. Fortunately, she tipped over onto a rock and her pack stuck so she didn't fall in but she did drop her sister's shoe (yes, the one we had to pull out of the bog earlier). I managed to snag it out of the water before it was swept away but it was a close call. All the rest of us got across uneventfully. The rest of the trail was similarly swamped. When we got to Wilcox Lake the leanto was all ours and a nice breeze was blowing off of the lake. The kids put on swim suits and got wet and we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. We left about 8:40am on Friday morning. The trail had drained off in most of the spots we had trouble with on Thursday. We still had to wade across the big creek but the water was lower so we could cross at the normal trail point. My husband met us on the trail shortly thereafter and we got back to the trailhead about 12:15. A much better pace than the day before. The kids were awsome and helpful to each other when it really counted, offering a hand across muddy spots and crossing streams. They were really troopers and get a big round of applause from me.

4H Club Hike to Tennant Creek Falls

As part of my project for the local Mayfield NY 4H Club, the Community Guys and Gals, we took a day hike to the Tennant Creek Falls. It's a round trip of about 5 miles with 3 water falls along the way. We spent some time at the 2nd one, eating lunch and doing some playing in the water. There wasn't a lot of swimming cause the water is sooooooo cold but I think much fun was had by all. More importantly, they are psyched up about next weeks over night hike to Wilcox Lake.

I tried cutting a foam insert in half and putting it in my boot under my orthotic insert. It did lift up my heel and raised the insert some under my arch. I have some less pain than I would have but still, not as good as I'd like. (I'd like no pain, of course!) So, I'm going to call my orthotic guy Monday and see what we can do before the end of the month. I'm still planning to go and finish my Northville - Lake Placid hike. It would be nice if I could do it with a little less pain.