Chub Pond 6/7/14 - 6/8/14

I recently joined a few meetup groups in hopes of finding people to hike, camp, and backpack with. A little over a week ago, a new event was posted on one that caught my eye. It was an Adirondack backpacking trip being organized by DuctTape. His name caught my eye as I have seen him posting on the ADKForum. So, I took a look at the itinerary and decided to sign up to go. The trip was a 2 day, 1 night backpack to Chub Pond in the Black River Wild Forest. When I mentioned to my coworkers that my plans for the weekend were to “go backpacking in the Adirondacks with strangers” they all thought I was insane. They were fully expecting me to be murdered :)

Saturday morning I drove to the Bushnell Basin park and ride to meet up with the rest of the people going on the trip. When I got there a little before 8am, Russ (DuctTape), Eric, and Eric’s business associate (aka dog) Megan where hanging out in the parking lot. Soon, Tiffany and Bethany showed up as well. We all introduced ourselves, got the cars packed and were on the road by about 8:30am. We made two stops for snacks and bathroom breaks along the way and made it to the trailhead around 11:30. We ate lunch in the parking lot, got our packs situated, and then started our hike.

Gull Lake outlet

 The trail into Chub Pond is nice and wide since it is a snowmobile trail. We were able to walk two across which made it easier to talk with each other and get more acquainted.

Hiking into Chub Pond

There were some wet and muddy spots but no one got their feet wet as the wet spots were easy to skirt around or there were rocks or logs to step on. At one point, something that must have been large and very low flew by overhead. It was INSANELY loud. We all were looking up but none of us saw any planes through the trees. We made it to Chub Pond lean-to #2 only 1.5 hours after leaving the parking area.

Chub Pond lean-to #2

The weather was absolutely perfect. It was warm, sunny, and there were a few nice fluffy clouds that looked great in pictures.

Chub Pond

The bugs were definitely out but they really weren’t biting much. Some of us put our headnets on for a little bit but as soon as we got a nice smoky fire going, the bugs were much less of a problem near the lean-to.

Rocking the headnet

Bethany set out to hike around the pond to see lean-to #1. She didn’t quite make it all the way there due to the wet trail near that lean-to. She did mention she saw a couple with a tent set up at the other end of the pond.

Soon after we got ourselves situated at the lean-to, Eric pulled out the minikeg he had lugged the 4.5 miles in. We were told we had to finish it before we left the next morning because he wanted to carry it back out empty. No complaints here.

Eric and the "dutch oven"

For the rest of the afternoon and evening we each did a little exploring on our own. Most of our time was spent just hanging out at the lean-to talking, sharing stories, and giving each other advice on other hiking or backpacking trips. Russ really has a wealth of information about the Adirondacks and Eric did as well.

I explored around the Chub Pond inlet a little

When it got darker, the stars started to come out. The moon was pretty bright and we got the see the convergence of the moon and Mars. We also saw 3 or 4 satellites zipping by overhead.

Chub Pond at dusk

If I remember correctly, we got to bed a little after 10. Apparently Tiffany’s water bottle had opened up in her pack and soaked her long johns. Luckily, it was a very comfortable temperature for sleeping outside.

Sunday morning I got up around 8:30. I was the last person up but we were in no rush. We leisurely had breakfast and packed up camp.

Hanging out, eating breakfast, drinking beers?

We were back on the trail by about 10:30am. We again were moving at a pretty good pace and made it back to the trailhead in 1.5 hours. Along the way, we saw some red efts and there were a bunch of salamanders hanging out near the bridge over the Gull Lake outlet.

Red eft

On the drive back we were planning on stopping at Lacy J’s diner on route 365 but once we got there, we saw it was closed and looked to be for sale as well. This resulted in a bit of random driving around Rome before we finally decided to stop for lunch at La Roma Pizzeria in Rome, NY. After picking up some subs, we got back on the road and made it back to the park and ride by about 3:45.

I had a great time. It was an easy, relaxing trip and a good start to the summer hiking/backpacking season. I met some people I would be interested in going on trips with again. I also got a bunch of information about other trips and areas within the park. I wish there were more meetup events like this one!

The rest of my pictures