Indian Falls Snowshoe

On January 21st Randy and I met with our hiking friends Kathy, Gail, Dan and his dog Brownie, a chocolate lab. We decided to go up to Canada Lake area, and finding a place to park at the Kane Mountain trail head, met with everyone for the hike.

Having had relatively warm weather for the past few days, we had really firm snow to walk on, didn't even really need the snow shoes for the 1st 1/4 mile or so of the trail.
The trail goes along Green lake then passing the end, goes to Otter Lake. There, in dazzling sparkles from sunlight on frosted branches, you can see the little private cabin that sits at the south end of the lake.

The trail continued along Otter lake, till we got to the end of that, then we
started the "bush whack" part of the hike. Kathy and Gail had been this way a couple of weeks previously and spotted a small waterfall a mile or two to the north and east of the end of Otter Lake. That's where we were headed.


We really didn't have any difficult trail but the lakes tended to be slushy so we avoided snow shoeing up the lake and stuck to the wooded shore. There was lots of deer and fox sign. Brownie made it more fun because he would decide to move from his position as point at the front of the group, drop back to check on Dan at the end of the group, then, trying to pass everyone to get to the head of the line again, step on our snowshoes. It made the hike kind of interesting. The hardest part of the hike was the last 1/4 mile into the gorge to the waterfall. It was very steep and a little tricky but we finally made it.

Once there, the falls, about 20 ft high, was frozen over tho we could hear the water running under the ice. We took a lunch break there, Brownie going from person to person just in case someone decided they didn't want their lunch. Gail, as always, had many dog treats with her to give to our 4 legged hiking friend. She's always a favorite hiking partner.

After lunch, Randy managed to get the camera set up on a hiking pole on the ice and
he got a good group shot of us all next to the waterfall. Again, the hike out of the gorge a little tricky due to the steepness. Over the now well trod trail, it didn't seem to take any time to get back out and at the end, we walked out without snow shoes on the icy, hard packed snow of the last 1/4 mile. Over the course of the whole hike, each of us managed to do a face plant at least once, sometimes because Brownie was stepping on our snow shoe or due to a trip over hidden branches or a steep spot. All part of the fun!

Overall, a great 4.1 mile hike.

Winter Hike to Mud Lake

Last weekend's snowshow was so much fun that Randy and I wanted to get out again. Unlike last week, the 16th was warm, 30+ degrees. We didn't even wear snow pants, just long johns and regular hiking pants. I did wear gaiters to keep the snow out of my boots. So we decided to just stay close to home and hike up to Mud Lake. The trail starts about 1 mile from our house and know we'd be tired after the snow shoe, we drove the jeep up to the trail head.

Once I had my gaiters on and was strapped into my snow shoes, I decided to put my jacket in my pack. I knew the trail up to Mud Lake is pretty much uphill all the way so I started out in just a short sleeve wicking t-shirt and my fleece, no hat and glove liners on my hands.

This area usually sees snow machine traffic so we were surprised that there were no snow machine tracks. Plenty of deer tracks tho and some others, squirrel, and something that looked like racoon but really pretty big.
So we slog up the hill and curve off the the right to cross the stream on a snow covered rickety bridge. Usually snow machine traffic keeps it pretty clear of snow
but it was obvious, no machine traffic had been thru this year. Not being able to see the wide spread slats made me uncomfortable but we got over without incident.

Turning left at the old cabin, we trudged up the hill to the State Forest boundary. Even tho no snow machines had been thru, we were able to find the trail pretty well. Along this part of the trail was not only deer tracks but big areas, under oaks especially, where the snow has been scraped away and churned up. I guess by deer looking for acorns.

As we got higher up the mountain we passed several of these spots. Toward the area I knew we needed to take a right to get to the lake, there was so much of this churned up area that I wonder just how many deer were in the area. Some of the area also looked like a lot of deer had spent the night or nights. Up on the shoulder of the mountain, and with the leaves gone from the trees, we could see both Winnie's Pond and the Sacandaga. A nice view since the sun had finally come out.

With all the deer track and snow cover, it turned out we missed our right turn and ended up bushwhacking. We proceeded forward for a bit, threading our way thru bramble areas and over fallen trees until we decided to bear right, up a small ridge and see if we could spot the pond. Sure enough, we had over shot the trail and ended up at the southern end of the lake. Not a huge deal tho, we were mainly out for the hike, not a really specific destination.

By now we were both tired and we started looking for a likely fallen tree to sit on out of the bit of breeze and have a lunch break. I found a pretty good spot and we spent 20 minutes or so resting, eating and have a hot tea. It didn't take us long to get back to our bushwhack trail and we followed it back down the mountian. Not too far along I spotted where we should have turned and that made us feel a little better. It was just hard to see in the snow and being unmarked, easy to miss.


Anyway, getting down the mountain never takes as long as getting up it tho by the time we got back to the car, it was still a 3 hour hike. We got our exercise and had a good time out.

Broomstick to Nine Corner Lake Hike

I'm a little late on this blog. This hike was on the 10th of January but here goes. Randy and I took Emily with us and arrived at the Nine Corner Lake trail head parking by 9am. The morning was cold, about 20 degrees and overcast but we were up for a hike. Several cars were there already and by 0915, it seemed everyone had arrived. Kathy Miles had advertized the hike in a couple of different media so we had several new people with us for the hike. Altogether, I think about 20, perhaps the biggest number of people turning out for a hike in many a long month.

Kathy's husband Don was along to help shuttle drivers. So we loaded up vehicles with all the passengers they could carry and shuttled hikers up to the Broomstick Lake trailhead. Then, drivers took the cars back to the Nine Corner Lake parking area and Don brought them all back. The only car still at the Broomstick Lake trailhead was Kathy's. All other cars were at Nine Corner Lake. Shuttling finished, we headed off toward Broomstick by about 10am.

The trail was unbroken snow and Gail started us out by breaking trail. We were strung out along the way pretty well as some members hike a little faster than others. About 3/4 of the way to Broomstick, we took a hard left (south) and began the bushwhack to Nine Corner Lake.

At one point, the trail led over a pretty steep spot and a few of us decided to slide down rather than step down.
A few places along the way held some interesting giant boulders, perhaps glacial erratics.

Several members had compasses and GPS units and a confab with devices and maps was held for several minutes.
The extra time paid off tho as we came out to Nine Corner Lake right where our hike leader wanted to. About this point, the sun came out but the day was still very cold. The plan was to hike out on the lake from this point but when a few of the hikers got out there, there was slushy ice. Feeling this was an unsafe condition, we continued to bushwhack thru the woods. We did this until we got to the area right across from where the Nine Corner Lake trail comes out to the lake.


Here, snow machine tracks on the lake reassured us that the ice would hold and we crossed safely to the trail. It was here we met a few hikers that missed Kathy at the meeting place and decided to meet us at the lake. Since a bit of wind was blowing, we hiked up the now snow machine packed trail to the Y intersection, out of the wind and had a bite to eat.


The hike out to the trailhead was uneventful and very fast due to the well packed trail. Once out to the cars, about 3 hours after our start, several people decided to meet at the Lake Pleasant Inn for some warming drinks. It was a great day out.