The drive up to the trail is scenic in itself, rising up into the Southern Adirondacks and along the Western shore of the Great Sacandaga Lake. We found the hike in a reference book we own, called, "50 Hikes in the Adirondacks," and it was as interesting as billed!
The first 2.5 miles of the hike were up and down through woodland, but, because of recent rains, we were constantly stream hopping and gingerly picking our way through sloppy mudholes or trying to walk on VERY slippery logs laid out across boggy areas. We were amply rewarded by reaching Murphy Lake, where we did a minor bushwhack around the North end and then down the East shore. We encountered several other hikers here, grabbed an early lunch but didn't tarry long, and continued on down toward Middle Lake. Reaching that lake, we pressed on along a ledge about 300 feet above the shoreline because we were eager to make camp. Between Middle Lake and Bennett Lake, we encountered swarms of midges that had somehow learned to divebomb straight into our eyes, avoiding all of our Deet defenses entirely. For some reason, the lead hiker got it the worst, and David, who was in the lead on this stretch, was constantly tortured with little divebombers landing in his eyes.
Once we arrived at Bennett Lake, we set up camp --
-- and pulled out our flyfishing gear to try our hand at the trout said to be stocked in the lake. There were some lively little ones along the bank near our camp, and we found that, with appropriate little dry flies, we got repeated hits. But these trout were so fast at rejecting the fly, that we could never get them hooked. David actually finally hooked one little fish, only about 4 inches long or so, but the fish wiggled off the hook as he struggled to reel it in through bushes lining the bank of the lake.
Kathy was campfire mistress and, with the hemlock that crowded our campsite, she quickly had a good fire roaring. Meanwhile, David found a nearby beaver lodge and snapped a photo:
After a scrumptious hot camp meal and a long linger by the campfire, we retired to our new tent as dusk descended over camp. We slept hard, because the sun rose and we were awake at 6:00 am before we knew it. After a hearty apples and cinnamon oatmeal breakfast with camp cocoa-coffee, we were off on our return hike, but not before snapping a 20-something self-portrait:
Having more time on the way back, we climbed down to Middle Lake as we passed it. It is a beautiful tarn with an island in the middle and a beaver lodge at the North end:
Moving on, we arrived back at Murphy Lake and Kathy spied some cookware hanging on the back of a campsite lean-to at the South end of the lake:
On we hiked, over a beaver dam that held the lake back from its inlet at the Southern end. Kathy snapped a photo of David "reflecting" on the least wet path across the dam:
Around the lake, we decided to stop for a quick lunch and enjoyed our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the beaver dam out the outlet on the Northern end:
Before we knew it, we were back to the truck, and made it home to the RV by 2:00 this afternoon, giving us time to air out the tent and camp stuff, clean our gear, and have a leisurely dinner at home.
You can see all the photos from our backpack at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scranton21/sets/72157630107711182/.
Walking around the campground, we met a Dutch couple, Philip and Susan, who are bicycle-camping across New York State and up into Canada for 3 weeks. We also chatted a while with a fellow RV'er from Michigan, Fred, who is overnighting in the site next to our rig as he makes his way back home to Michigan from a vacation on the coast of Maine.
The weather here this afternoon is glorious, with a balmy breeze, no humidity. The only complaint is that the mosquitoes and black flies are biting, so our walks around the campground were shorter. But the sleeping temperature tonight will be perfect!
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