Tramp & Trail

Write-up: Mary Pat Connors
Leader: Mary Pat Connors
Co-Leader: Kathy Countryman

The Adirondack weekend seemed ill-fated when not only did Meg, leader day 1, and co-leader day 2, get a severe case of sciatica but Bobbie fell and broke her arm forcing her to cancel her participation.

But we forged ahead. Kathy stepped up to fill Meg’s shoes, and we decided to check out the trails a mere day in advance. We entered the Cascade Pond Loop, via route 28 east out of Blue Mtn. Lake. The trail had deep, crusty snow making the snowshoeing very difficult! The cold and wind only added to the “joy” of it.

We also tried out the Grassy Pond/Wilson Pond trail. This was slightly better but still quite difficult breaking trail with only the two of us. The weather forecast did not bode anything more positive, with 4-6 inches of additional snow predicted with cold and wind.

First DECISION on the run…cancel Cascade Pond, and do a hike closer to Raquette Lake.

As we were coming by Raquette Lake we decided to try the road to Sagamore. The road was plowed to the lodge, making the trails near here more feasible and a better choice for Saturday.

Saturday’s hike went well, John suggested to add Uncas Rd. because this would be plowed also. The group did 4 miles here mostly without snowshoes, some with spikes because there was some nasty ice underneath. The Uncas Camp was tempting to explore but a caretaker shooed us off. I think “Private” pertains to Tramps also.

We then ate lunch, checked out the Raquette Lake ice harvesting, interesting but very windy and cold, and then returned for Part 2, the Cascade Trail to South Inlet. Fortunately some folks had broken trail somewhat and we snowshoed down the pretty trail to the inlet in no time. Such a different view in winter, white and yellow ice with raging waters below. Fortunately no one took a dip.

That night there were 16 and a half pint for dinner at the Woods Inn, Inlet. What a fun time we had…happy hour, delicious dinner with entertainment from the poetry corner,* fireball and basketball in the parlor.

We awoke to several more inches of lovely snow. As of the night before, we had decided to stay the course and hike to Wilson Pond, with several hikers breaking trail it would not be as difficult. But the weather, and news of bad roads from those traveling from Mapledale left us with DECISION #2. No vote was taken but I’m pretty sure there was a consensus to stay fairly close to Inlet. Fern Park was decided upon. Trails still had to be broken, and the snow came down heavily, but it was very beautiful, and we agreed that this experience was as good as any other we might have had elsewhere.

We bid good-bye to our weekend co-hikers, and had one last beer or hot chocolate at Kratzy’s to end a most marvelous weekend!

Thanks to my co-leader and to all participants, our Tramps are the BEST!

* We found out that you really had to be there to experience the hilarity we had assisting Kathy in composing this poem, but I decided to share it anyway.

“Love is a great adventure
I always take out my dentures. Dad gum it!
My mattress is very cushy
It’s comfy on my tushy.
We are the Tramps and we have no filter
You may find us a bit off kilter. Dad gum it!
But boy do we have fun!
Come join in and you will see-
we’re as easy as can be. Dad gum it!”

This has been attributed to Francis T. Roy, Kathy Countryman and Sylvia Plath.
No copyright has been infringed.

Thanks to Jim, Jerry and Lori for sharing photos.