Get Out in New York Adirondack Mountains

For you outdoor enthusiasts, who only think of New York as an alias for Gotham City in the epic Batman movies; you are missing out on some wonderful outdoor adventures.  The New York Department of Tourism has been actively promoting the wealth of outdoor destinations and activities through out the state for several years now.

The Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area is located in the Adirondack Park, located between several towns in Hamilton County, New York. It is approximately 175 square miles. The Park was created in 1892.  It is mind blowing to imagine, but the Park is bigger than Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, Great Smokies, Glasier and Yosemite, combined! 

 Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area

As has been the case with most of my fond outdoor memories, the Siamese Wilderness area trip was referred to me by an acquaintance that I met while being outdoors.  I met John several years ago, while fly-fishing on the Willowemoc River in the Catskills Mountains, near Roscoe New York, on the Opening Day of Trout Season, surrounded by 3+ feet of snow. (No it was not an April fool’s joke.) 

I had been introduced to the river previously by another acquaintance that became a great friend, Rich Bradley.  John and I met at a pool at a bend in the river that I fondly refer to as Porcupine Bend. We took a few minutes to exchange comments about the fishing and which paths through the snow were the least treacherous to take back to the parking lot.  At some point during our conversation, John must have seen my enthusiasm about adventuring out to new places, when he mentioned that he and some friends had made hikes into the Adirondack Mountains, where the trout there have never seen some of the flies in our vests.  Needless to say, I was hooked!

That chance meeting was over a year ago, and now Q and I are traveling through scenic upstate counties of Warren and Hamilton New York, which is home to the Siamese Ponds Wilderness site.  John and his friends went in the night before and he told me just to follow the markers to the lean-to campsite.

With our backpacks in place, and after signing in on the visitor board, we set off on our 6-mile hike.  We needed to get to the lean-to campsite before dark. We had about 3-4 hours of sunlight remaining to get to site.  It was surprisingly warm for early May and about two hours into the hike, we (me, but I did look at Q) had to make a “keep on or turn back decision”.

Making an executive decision, we pushed on with the thought that if we were not at the site before dark we would have to find a place to pitch the tent for the night.  (A short time after making the decision, we saw our first set of bear tracks.)

Hiking early in the season offers wonderful opportunities to fully enjoy the outdoors.  Climbing over down trees, looking for missing trail markers, looking for fresh boot tracks, forging flooded streams, more bear tracks.  Did I mention the lost map?

So after back tracking to a split in the trail and finding some fresh “boot tracks”, and minutes from looking for a place to pitch the tent, I saw a shadow up the trail that called someone with a name similar to mine!

John and his friends had started dinner; freshly caught trout and I happily supplied supplemental food items that I was happy to unload from the heavy backpack.

Let me just say the scenery was breath taking.  It was as though we were some of the first pioneers to visit this place.  That amazing scene was quickly replaced by the enchanted sunrise out of the fog the next morning.  So amazing that I quickly forgot how Q took over the sleeping bag in the early season nightly 30 or so temperature.

On the drive back home, with Q’s deep breathing as the backdrop, I found myself smiling as I reflected on the trip that I almost decided not to make. I thought about the surprise on John’s face seeing me coming into the camp right before dark; telling the story about the missing trail markers and following boot tracks to the camp; the 5 of us sharing our outdoor stories around the campfire; fishing for brook trout in crystal clear streams; watching Q forge over streams and deep mud holes, and recalling all the beauty that surrounded us.

So even though every muscle in my body was aching from the hike in and the hike back up the mountain; that paled in comparison to the memories that I was able to collect and share with others.

OutdoorClique

Where “you have to get out to get in”