Please Wait....Re-Routing....

Once again, I present to you : A New Route. After thinking about it, and reading Adirondack Journey concerning the parking/fees situation at The Garden trail-head and the absolutely free parking at Upper Works, I've come to the decision to change my starting point to Upper Works. I was willing to pay the $40 dollars to park at The Garden but then I thought to myself, "Why pay if I can drive for a half hour and park for free?" Whereas my old camp three was just a spot that looked good on my map, my new camp three will be at Scott Clearing; so I can be reasonably sure of finding a campsite. And, it may or may not be a plus but, the area east of Colden and Flowed Lands is black bear territory so I may get a sighting or two in. Lastly, with the added threat of possibly having to park in the overflow lot at the airport I didn't want to risk having to walk or hitch to pick up my car (the shuttle only runs Saturday and Sunday). So, the new route. The plan is now to start at Upper Works, make my way to Panther Gorge for camps one and two (bagging Skylight, Marcy and Haystack on day two), head to Scott Clearing for camp three and then hike out to Upper Works. The added bits are in red and positioned on the left of the map. Upper Works Rd and trail-head are at the lower left point.

An Adventure in and of Itself

I'm fidgety. I've gotten or have ordered everything I need for my trip and I still have about two months to go. So I have nothing to do except my normal day hikes to get in shape. The only thing I'm waiting for is food. I ordered a few things from packit gourmet (bangers and mash and pasta putanesca) and I'm waiting to get them so I can repackage and stuff stuff into the Bare Boxer. After that, I'm loading up the pack and hitting the trails around home to get used to the weight. While, I'm waiting I've been messing around with my maps. I took a tip from Rylan and Golden over at Southeastern Backpackers (who got it in an email from someone) and took my maps to CopyMax to get the sections I needed copied; so I don't have to carry the whole map. A note of caution: Your CopyMax people may be different but mine wouldn't copy copyrighted material. Instead, they turned me loose on a copier to figure it out myself. At one point I found myself making 875 copies.... After the CopyFiasco I headed home and grabbed the MapSeal. For those who don't know, MapSeal is a magical elixir that will make your maps waterproof and tear resistant. It also stings if you get it in your eyes. I have one of the Trails Illustrated maps and after I applied the MapSeal my copier paper map felt similar. It added a little weight to the paper and feels as if a wax coating was applied; like a grocery store apple feels. It also made the paper transparent in spots where I applied too much and slightly smeared the ink. I'm not displeased with the MapSeal, but only taking a portion of my map means I have to leave UTM grids, and other good info that is printed on the map, at home. So, I just decided to take the whole map and MapSeal it. It works better. The paper is a heavy enough weight that it didn't become transparent and the ink stayed stable. I bought the smaller bottle that comes with the small round applicator brush from REI so I just used an old paintbrush for the initial application. After brushing on the MapSeal I removed the excess with a sponge and let it dry. I also picked up something I absolutely don't need (but it looks cool) so my map will be safe and secure; and dry. I'm much happier now that my map is ready. But I'm still fidgety.

The New Route

As I stated in a previous post my route was going through a serious makeover. I finally got maps and took the time to study some trails and came up with a new route. The new one is shown below. I was looking for a mix of solitude (Panther Gorge), some of the more iconic landmarks (Marcy Dam, Mt Marcy) and just some cool place names (Flowed Lands is the best name for a lake I have ever seen!) in the area. Hopefully I can show it to some of the folks who would know the terrain over @ the ADK Forum and get some comments and criticism. Again, this route is not neccesarily permanent but for now it's where I'll be come June.

Location, Location, Location!

I've started the research for the trip with my number one concern for any trip: Maps. I don't usually take one with me for my bushwhacking because I follow watercourses but I'm comfortable with them. I've taken map reading classes (one of the benefits of working for a park district) and I can "see" the terrain if I peer long enough (I think of them as those hidden image 3D pictures). But all of that means nothing when it comes down to brass tacks. Looking at a topo without having actually seen the terrain is like saying Manhattan is easy to drive in because the streets are laid out in grids. So, I'm obsessing. The Backpacker (hereafter: BPMag) trip planner has the topos you need from the USGS listed, and National Geographic seems to be a good choice, too (according to ADKForum posts). But I need to make sure (for my own OCD) that I have the right maps. And unless I'm able to walk into a store, pick them up and look at them to see that they are what I want, I tend to obsess. And I get upset when I can't get the ones I need/want. Luckily, my wife knows I need maps (I still have bus routes/schedules from a 2004 Seattle trip) and when she walked into the dining room, saw what I was trying to do and heard me say 'I'll be spending $30 on real maps' she didn't get upset. But she did roll her eyes a little. Maybe it's just me but printing the BPMag maps seemed rather....annoying.

The Trip

If everything goes according to plan (yeah, right!), this will be the trip for June. My plan is to add a day to the Backpacker itinerary; I want to find a campsite to stay @ for a day so I can day-hike away from any homo sapiens.