Cod Pond and Little Joe Bushwhack

I joined a group of the Herkimer Alpiners on Sunday the 11th for a hike to Cod Pond and a bushwhack to Little Joe Lake. Little Joe is about 1/2 mile south of Cod Pond but no trail leads to it. I met the group at the intersection of Rt 30N and Rt 8E. We convoyed (4 cars full!) to the Cod Pond trailhead. There were already 2 cars there waiting for us bringing the hiker total to 13. The morning was brisk and on the drive up I saw that the quiet parts of the lakes and rivers had a skim of ice on them. However, the sun was out and the sky was a clear blue. A perfect hiking day. So we started the trek about 1030am and headed up hill. Some of our group is elderly so while we weren't going slow, we did stop for a couple of breathers on the way up. It's only about 1 mile to Cod Pond from the trail head so we could take our time and enjoy the walk thru the downed beech leaves. Once at Cod Pond we took a breather and the time to go to the shore side and take in the view. Two of our number decided to wait at Cod Pond as they didn't feel up to forcing their way through the downed trees and witch hobble. Another of the group decided that this was as far as she wanted to go. But she did invite everyone to her house after the hike. So we said goodbye to her and while she headed for the trailhead, we took our compass bearings and GPS readings and headed pretty much due south along the lenth of Cod Pond. I brought my new GPS with me. While I had waited to meet the group on the road, I set the coordinates of Little Joe Lake into the GPS unit. I wanted to see if the device would allow me to "mark" a location without actually being there. It turns out it did allow me to do that and it provided me a course to the lake from Cod Pond. Pretty cool. We had to push our way through a lot of witch hobble and over and around downed trees and branches and around big holes in the forest floor but it was still easier than when Randy and I did this hike with Kathy and Gail last April. (knee deep snow and no snow shoes!) We got to the southern end of Little Joe Lake which is a mature pine forest so the hiking there is very easy, no undergrowth at all. A very nice camping location is in place there and easy and convenient access to the lake shore is available. We ate our trail lunch there in the sunshine. The hike back seemed to take less time than the hike in and we were back at the cars by 2:15pm. All in all, a nice hike.