Sometimes
the outcome of your wilderness trek depends on the trails you take! This sounds obvious, I know, but sometimes
the trails you take can seriously affect your plans and the conditions on the
ground can be very different from what you expect when you study a map. Also, you should always have a “Plan B”
ready to go and you should always be ready to cut your losses and change your
plans when conditions and situations warrant it.
As
an example of this, I just got back from guiding some members of the Scouts BSA,
Troop 285, on a wilderness canoe trek from Little Tupper Lake to Lake Lila,
traversing through the William C. Whitney Wilderness
Area in the southwestern Adirondacks, and the trails we took and the
conditions on the ground changed our plans and the route we ended up taking.
The area through which we travelled, photograph by the Author.
We
had originally planned to travel from Little Tupper Lake to Rock Pond and then on
to Lake Lila and to Low’s Lake, via Clear Pond and Bog Lake, before portaging
to Big Deer Pond and the headwaters of the Oswegatchie River, coming off the
water at the Oswegatchie River inlet to Cranberry Lake. We knew that the second day of our trek, when
we planned to travel from Rock Pond to Lake Lila would be a long and hard day,
but what we didn’t plan on was “unimproved” portages!
But
unfortunately, the portages from Rock Pond to Hardigan Pond, from Hardigan Pond
to the Salmon Lake Outlet and from Little Salmon Lake to Lilypad Pond were “unimproved”
and for our nine-member trek crew almost impassable. And it looked like the portage between
Lilypad Pond and Single Shanty Brook was going to be just as bad or maybe even
worse than the others!
The beginning of the “unimproved” 2.2 mile (3.5 km) long portage to Hardigan Pond, photograph by the Author.
The Trails
You Take ... “Improved” versus “Unimproved”
The
best way to describe these portages is as “unimproved”, but what does
that mean? Unlike the well-travelled or “improved”
path between Little Tupper Lake and Rock Pond, the portages between Rock Pond
and Lake Lila apparently don’t see many travelers. At various points on these portages, the path
was a stream, a bog, a washed-out ravine, was covered with fallen trees, or was
an overgrown thicket. Now, to be fair, the
maps of the area were excellent and the portages themselves were marked with
round yellow markers nailed to trees along the trail, orange tape tied onto
branches and markers at the landings.
An example of one of the trail markers nailed to a tree, a tree which a bear had decided to use as a scratching post. This photograph was taken on the portage between Hardigan Pond and the Salmon Lake Outlet by the Author.
It
wasn’t that the portages were bad necessarily, it was that the level of
wilderness experience of our group, the age of the members and the heavy weight
of the equipment which we were carrying which made these portages difficult for
us. Now, we were looking for the “full
wilderness experience”, and that is exactly what we got. The problem with this “full wilderness
experience” was that seven of the eight people I was leading, were new to
wilderness canoeing and trekking and when these seven people reached the
portage to Hardigan Pond, they were only on their second portage of their
lives. And not only were they new to the
wilderness, but worse yet more than half of them were 14 years old or younger!
Crossing the Rock Pond portage, carrying the heavier 72 pounds, 33 kilograms, canoe. This was a well-travelled, “improved” portage. Photograph by the Author.
Compounding
this problem, when you are leading people who are relatively new to canoeing
and trekking in the wilderness, the canoes you use, have to be virtually
indestructible, which means heavy, and in this case the lightest weighed more
than 60 pounds or 27 kilograms, and the heaviest was 72 pounds or 33
kilograms. Carrying this type of canoe
over an “improved” portage with a clear path, without fallen trees, bogs
and wash outs is difficult enough, depending upon the incline, roots, and
rocks. Carrying these same canoes over
an “unimproved” portage, which at different points is a bog, a stream,
the top of a beaver dam, pushing through thickets and over fallen trees, is
much more difficult!
Sunrise over Rock Pond, at the beginning of day two of our travels, through the William C. Whitney Wilderness Area, photograph by the Author.
When
we planned this trek, I originally had estimated, based on my previous
experience in Algonquin Provincial Park, that the 2.2 mile (3.5 km) long
portage to Hardigan Pond would take us just over two hours, -- it actually took
us over four hours because of the condition of the path and the difficulty of shifting
canoes and gear across the portage. I also
had originally estimated that the next two portages, which were both about half
a mile or 800 meters long, should take about half an hour each -- they actually
took well over an hour each, due to the conditions of the portages.
The
additional time that it took to cross these portages, put us seriously behind
schedule by the time we reached the portage from Lilypad Pond to Single Shanty
Brook. Because of the lateness of the
day, a developing thunderstorm and the awful beginning of the portage from Lilypad
Pond to Single Shanty Brook, in which you had to cross 50 feet or 15 meters of
hanging bog and three trees, which had fallen down on top of each other to make
a three-foot or 1 meter high wall across the beginning of solid ground, we
decided to stop there for the night and camp near the portage path and not try
to make it to Lake Lila until our third day.
Camping
along the portage is an example of cutting your losses and making a new plan on
the fly. Nobody really wanted to camp
alongside the portage path, but we had to get off the water because of an
incoming thunderstorm and because, since it was 7:30 pm and there was at best
only two hours of daylight left, there just wasn’t enough time remaining in the
day to make it to Lake Lila. At that
point in our travels, we had no choice but to setup camp then and there,
whether we liked the location or not. Also, it is always a good rule to stop and setup camp,
while there is still at least two hours of daylight remaining (for more on this
read “Estimating The Time Till Sunset ©”, HERE). While
we were setting up camp along the portage path, I reviewed our options and the
chances of successfully completing our original travel plan and decided we needed
to move to “Plan B”.
With
“Plan B” we would have to change our planned pickup site from the Oswegatchie
River inlet into Cranberry Lake, to an exit from the Lake Lila access road
instead. Lake Lila was the last pickup
point on our trek before we reached the Oswegatchie River inlet pickup site and
was therefore the only “Plan B” option available. We needed to move to “Plan B” because
I knew that we wouldn’t be able to make up the time we had lost on the second
day of the trek, without canoeing harder and longer than anyone would have
wanted to. At this point a forced march
was the only way to get us back onto schedule and since this trip was supposed
to be fun for everyone and not a forced march, we had to go for “Plan B”.
Lake Lila, a beautiful lake that everyone enjoyed exploring, photograph by the Author.
The
good news is that because we switched to “Plan B” and didn’t push
everyone to complete the original plan, everyone had a good time and enjoyed
the remainder of their trek, which included canoeing the entire circumference
of Lake Lila and exploring part of the Beaver River.
The beginning of the portage from Little Tupper Lake to Rock Pond, photograph by the Author.
If
I was to follow these trails again, now that I have firsthand knowledge of the
ground conditions, I would travel with a more experienced crew and with lighter
canoes and gear, that way these “unimproved” portages wouldn’t get the
better of us. And again, I would make
sure that we had a good “Plan B” and knew to cut our losses and change
our plans when the conditions warranted it!
Sunrise on Lake Lila, photograph by the Author.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Field Repairs, or What I
Learned on My Canoe Trek ©”, where we will talk about what’s in your repair kit
and how to repair your gear.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
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That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
