Loop Hike Murphy, Middle and Bennett Lakes

My hiking friends Kathy and Gail wanted to do a trip on Monday the 22nd and I said YES! I haven't been out hiking all month and I was going into withdrawl. Randy is still treating his foot for bursitis issues so he stayed home. The last time I did this hike was way back when I first started hiking. Randy and I went with our dog Spot. I remember having a bit of trouble with steep parts so I was preparing myself mentally for those places in the trail.

Anyway, I met Kathy and Gail at the southern trailhead in Hope Falls NY on Creek Rd. I left my car there so we could pick it up and take Kathy and Gail back to Gail's car at the northern end of the trail on Pumpkin Hollow Rd. We parked at the northern end and were on the trail by 9:30am. We just couldn't have requested a better day. The sky was that beautiful blue we only get in October. By 15 minutes into the hike we had peeled off the fleeces and were down to shirt sleeves. By noon it was 70 degrees.

We got to the Murphy Lake outlet about 1115 and climbed up the small rock face there. This in particular was the spot that had worried me. I just stepped right up the rocks! I cannot believe how much more in shape and experienced I am now. We moved around the end of Murphy Lake, taking a minute or two to examine all the beaver signs at the end of the lake. Going around the lake we came to the swampy areas I remembered from the last time. Being so late in the year, the first two areas were easily hiked around, staying perfectly dry. The last swampy spot, a hundred or so feet from the Murphy Lake lean-to was also considerably lower. We didn't have to wade across (as Randy, Spot and I had on my first trip through here), a beaver had built a small dam and we were able to walk across fairly easily.

We stopped at the lean-to for about 45 minutes to eat lunch and enjoy the scenery. I tried out my new backpacking camera. I had to get a new one because the old one (and not that old either) just seemed to work only 50% of the time. Anyway, I saw Randy load fresh batteries in it before I packed it but the camera gave me an error message that the batteries were exhausted. The same error message with the spare batteries. AAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! So I packed it away and promised myself to tell Randy the problem.

After lunch we packed up and headed south to Middle Lake. It's only 1/2 mile from Murphy so it didn't take long at all. At the northern end of the lake we decided to try and go around to the "back" side of the lake as we had heard through the ADK Forum hiker web site that it was very nice over there. Boy were they right. Several extremely nice camping locations with wonderful views and easy access to the lake for swimming and getting water. All of the sites were very clean with nicely constructed rock firepits. Those who know about this side of the lake have taken great care to keep it nice! Since the lake isn't very wide and we would have hiked the length of the lake anyway, it hardly took any more time to explore this side of the lake than to stay on the official marked trail. Actually, it did take a little longer because we stopped at each camp site to admire the view.

We circled around the lake and found a herd path leading back to the marked trail and headed for Bennett Lake. The trail gets steeper here and very rocky. The leaves covering the trail make the going a little treacherous. I twisted my ankle a few times between Middle Lake and the trailhead when my ankle rolled while stepping on a loose rock. We stopped to admire the view at Bennett Lake. We saw some ducks and several newts in the water. Eventually we had to move on and we got back to my car about 2:30pm.

All in all we had a great day out, did lots of chatting and best yet, found a new place to do an overnight camp out! Lucky day.