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 |
Rocking the headnet |
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" |
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 |
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? |
Red eft |
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
The rest of my pictures
I visited this lean-to as a Boy Scout twice in the mid 60's. Great memories of camping overnight. My friends and I intentionally left food out in the open just outside hoping to see some wildlife. Woke up in the middle of the night with about 20 raccoons crawling around and over us in our sleeping bags looking for more! And of course breakfast at the Red Apple Rest!
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