To my surprise our new campground had no WiFi...I had great plans to be right in synch with my blogs but it was not to be.
Snoopy had a very pretty site right beside a beautiful, flowing stream. As we looked at the water we realized we had forgotten how much tannin is in the water up here. All the streams flow tea! (Streams that flow through watersheds dominated by conifers have a characteristic brown tea color that is the result of tannins leaching out of decomposing conifer needles.)
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| BEHIND SNOOPY AT THE CAMPSITE |
Once we got set up we headed into Old Forge for lunch and to look around. It is definitely a tourist town, all on one two lane road/street that winds beside a small lake in the center of town. There is a small "square" (triangular I think) in the center with stores all around.
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| DOWNTOWN OLD FORGE |
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| TOWN "SQUARE" OLD FORGE |
We had lunch in a "so-so" diner then headed to the stores. Our first stop was to meander through the old fashioned hardware store looking for lights bulbs for Snoopy and shower shoes for Chick.
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| INSIDE THE HARDWARE STORE |
We then walked up one side of the street, browsing shops, and returning on the other side. That's it for Old Forge.
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| "DOWNTOWN" OLD FORGE |
Until dinner, we drove down side roads looking for places to fish and to hike. We explored Old Moose Road, and concluded the trail around Moss Lake would be a simple walk for tomorrow (3 miles). We failed to make a backroad loop to the campsite because the dirt road finally gave out. Pooh!
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| THE SIGHT OF THE BROWN & YELLOW SIGNS ALWAYS MEANS FUN! |
After supper at Snoopy we called Chick's brother, Joe, and arranged to meet him in Old Forge one night for dinner at the steakhouse. He lives about an hour drive away in Rome, NY.
The next day we began our first "hike from hell". Described as easy, and "kid-friendly", we began the hike to the firetower on Bald Mountain with enthusiasm.
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We don't usually take our hiking poles on "easy" hikes, and this was no exception. Shortly into the walk we decided that the hike description had been written eons ago (the Adirondack mountains are pretty old.) before rains and erosion had washed all the soil from the paths, Roots and Rocks! That's what was left!
The reasonably steep path spent most of its time on the crown of large bald, sloping boulders whose shoulders dropped steeply into the woods
. The saving grace was that other "not so mountain-goat-like" hikers had over time created meandering small trails off the main trail circumventing the steep, bald thoroughfare. We had a longer hike that way, but we only panicked a couple of times.
The Adirondacks in this western part have some mountains, but lots and lots of lakes and marshes. Views from the mountains are beautiful and unspoiled by towns or roads and highways. Folks you meet on the trail are friendly and it is really a wonderful way to spend some hours...as long as you survive the actual trail.
One thing we noticed about having to watch our step so closely on these trails...you see more mushrooms! The path was actually Rocks and Roots and ' Rooms (mushrooms). Incredible variety.
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| AND A TINY ONE INCH TOAD!! |
We were certainly tired when we finished and a simple dinner with Snoopy and a glass of wine were welcome indeed. A chipmonk enjoyed a dropped bit of bread and even climbed onto my leg to beg. (Its four tiny little paws were cold!)
On next day, we returned to Old Moose Road and explored a short hike to Cascade Lake, apparently "owned" by a select group of people.
We had lunch at Moss Lake and did the trail around the lake.... 3 miles. It was very pleasant and pretty and a welcome change from the hike from Hell.
That evening we had dinner with Joe and enjoyed the visit. We will head to Cranberry Lake, deeper in the Adirondacks tomorrow, and begin the challenge of "dry camping".
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Enjoyed this very much. What is dry camping?
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