Snow Shoe: Murphy, Middle and Bennett Lakes

Randy and I took advantage of another nice winter day and invited our hiking friend Kathy on a snow shoe hike. She brought along a new club member: Al.

We decided on hiking the Murphy, Middle and Bennett lake hike and we met on Creek Rd at the southern end of the trail. There, we left our car and Kathy drove us to the north end of the trail on Pumpkin Hollow Rd.


The trail, a snow machine route, was well packed down so we packed our snow shoes and hiked the trail, starting about 10am. There was lots of deer sign as well as racoon tracks. The day was perfect, bright sun, blue sky and perfect temperatures. I don't think we could have ordered a nicer day.

When we reached the north end of Murphy Lake the snow machines had veered off trail and either went across the lake or along the right shore. We decided to stay off the lake as there was quite a lot of sign of melting on the lake. So we strapped on our snow shoes and followed the trail around the end of the lake and along the left shore. As we hiked along, we saw old tracks of a moose! It didn't take long to get to the Murphy Lake lean-to, we were there about 10 minutes till noon.


At the lean-to I got the shelter log and signed in. While there was lots of sign that people have been at the shelter (snow machine tracks, people tracks and more trash than rightfully should be in the lean-to), the last entry in the log was from the local ranger in Janurary. We took a break, ate some lunch and got to know Al a little better.

About 1220 we picked up the trail, again snow machine packed, and started to Middle and Bennett lakes. What was nice about the trail this time of year is the normally very rocky trail was nicely covered with snow. Actually easier to hike this time of year! When we got the Bennett Lake we hiked down to the lake shore and took a final break. Kathy saw something out on the lake and snow shoed out to it. Turned out to be a dead deer, possibly taken down by coyote's but pretty well picked clean.

The last mile went quickly and about half way down the trail from Bennett lake we met a small family and their cairn terrier out for a walk to Bennett lake. This section was tricky as the trail is steep thru here and the hard packed trail had experienced several thaws and freezes, making it very slippery. We reached the Creek Rd trailhead with only 1 fall (Al) and lots of slipping, by 2pm. Kathy, using her GPS wrote to us later: "Thanks again for a fine trip on a fine day with fine company. The GPS says we did 7.6 miles. We reached our highest point at 4.6 miles. That was 1600 feet. We had climbed 370 feet to get there and we dropped 635 feet from there out to Pumpkin Hollow Rd." (I think she meant Creek Rd.)

I agree! A fine day out.

Snow Shoe to Auger Falls

Randy and I decided, since the weather was predicted to be good on Sunday, 2/1/09, to do a snow shoe hike into Auger Falls from the east direction. This trail head is off of Rt 8, just north of Wells NY.

We invited Kathy, our usual hiking partner. Then decided to invite Emily and Haleigh. Haleigh couldn't go but Emily could. At the last minute, we also invited Steve. He had to borrow snow shoes and fortunately, Kathy had an extra pair. She invited her neice, Nancy.


We met at the corner of Rt 30 and Rt 8 at 1040 and drove the 2.5 miles to the trail head. The day was overcast but not windy and in the high 20's, so very comfortable for a snow shoe. We walked a plowed road .2 mile to the bridge over the East Branch of the Sacandaga and got to the start of the seldom used snow machine trail on the opposite side of the bridge. This trail goes all the way to Speculator, about 10 miles away.


We all put our snow shoes on but Randy and Steve. The trail was firm enough that they decided to hike in their boots. The trail was good, and very pretty, going through snow covered trees. At about 1.6 miles, we were about .3 mile from MacCumber Creek and were ready to take the sharp left (west) to Auger Falls.
The only trail was a deer path so Randy and Steve got their snow shoes on and I broke trail about 1/4 mile to an overlook, just upstream from Auger Falls. Since the weather has been cold, the snow has stayed pretty powdery. Even in show shoes, I was sinking to my knees. It made breaking trail pretty difficult. Since Kathy, Nancy and Steve had to get back, we decided not to push on but did take a quick lunch break.

Going back was very quick since all trail had now been broken, only 45 minutes to go about 1.7 miles. A good bit of exercise on a really good day for snow shoeing.