Middle Branch Lake Hike

So, we decided to go on Sunday's hike with the Herkimer Alpiners. The lake is in the HaDeRonDah Wilderness area in the northwestern part of the Adirondacks.

The area is 2.5 hours away from where we live so we had to leave at 6am to get to the trailhead by 9am. We met the rest of the group there: Kathy, Gail, Jim, and Evie. For a change this summer the day was clear, sunny and hot. We got started at 9:30am and boy, what a nice change for me. The trail was pine needle covered, soft and not too mountainous. Just a couple ridges to climb, nothing strenuous. It took us about 2.5 - 3 hours to hike the 4+ miles into the Middle Branch Lake lean-to. Taking our time and enjoying the day.


We lunched at the lean-to. It was on a point of land into the lake and we had a nice breeze to keep the late season mosquitoes at bay. The lean-to was in good shape and we enjoyed reading the shelter log's past entries.

Eventually we had to head back to the cars so at 1pm we hit the trail back. On the way we all chatted about this and that. It turns out that Randy and I were the youngest members of the group. Evie, at 78 years old, the oldest. She was amazing. She had no trouble at all keeping up; leaping giant mud pits in a bound or two, climbing the ridges and hardly broke a sweat that I could see. Makes me hope I do as well at 78!

Anyway, we were back at the cars by 4pm. The day was humid so we were all glad to be riding home in air conditioned cars. This area has a lot of trails, I may have to get the guide book.