Day 2 - Seventh Lake, NY, to Raquette River, NY

M-2016-8-22 – Day 2

Lovely dock at the end of John Brown's Tract,
about to head to Raquette Lake

Start: Seventh Lake, Lean-to near Goff Island

End: Pine Creek Lean-to, Start of Raquette River
On the Way: Fulton Chain of Lakes, Brown’s Tract Inlet, Raquette Lake, Forked Lake

Map:  1

Miles: 20 (Milepost 33)

Weather: Overcast in AM, then glorious and clear with precious little wind.

            Great day, despite big scary lake to cross (Raquette, the fourth largest in NY and a bear when it’s windy, but turned out to be quite pleasant today) and the John Brown Tract portage that was described as piddling in the books, but turned out to be quite draining.  Had to make a fool out of myself while carrying kayak up the initial hill, than having the cart collapse on some big roots a couple times.  Moral of story: be nice to your cart; it will ultimately save your spine.

            Had camp sandals break on me when the sole came unglued on this discouraging portage.  My usual M.O. would be to wrap them up in my gorilla tape, but since these have the potential to be constantly wet, I don’t think that will work.  IDK, guess I’ll go a few days and see if I need them.  Camp shoes are nice.

            Speaking of, as soon as I made to come down to the lean-to at the end of the portage today (great strategy, by the way, to end up at the next put-in, with the boat already mostly unpacked), a van of old men pulled up the trailhead.  Thought I’d be able to sprawl in the lean-to, but nope: they had a camp worthy of a small army set up down here already.  They were nice to chat with, though, and mark night two out of two of non-creepy interactions with groups of men on the Trail.  I hope this keeps up.

            Hammock is hung five feet from the Raquette River.  The sound is soothing, but I made sure to pee before bundling up.  Also having bug net on standby tonight, along with warmer duds in the bag with me.

Last steamboat on Raquette Lake

NFCT Raquette Lake Kiosk

The first of many General Stores along the Trail.
They came to be a very appreciated sight.

Things Learned: 

+  My experiment with soaking my morning oatmeal in my Nalgene overnight was a win!  Also a really portable breakfast that can just go on the Trail with me.

+  Jetboiling can also mean Jetburning.  Ugg.  Hopefully that scorched crust of mac-n-cheese sauce will wear off with more use.

+  Boatsnacks are a great idea.

+  Lashing drybags together into a makeshift pack makes for much easier portaging.

+  Beaver dams are usually passable with a few good strokes to achieve ramming speed.

+  Pastors (a profession to which one of my sitemates belonged) talk about feelings a lot.

Trail Magic:

+  Hellish John Brown Tract Portage ended with a two-mile paddle through pristine white water lilies.

Two miles of white water lily blossoms

+  Saw Mack Truax’s name in the register book!  And other more recent through-paddlers! 

+  Yesterday on the tiny Fifth Lake, I was startled by two guys sitting on the riverside porch of a cabin at dusk.  Looking closer, they were life-size statues of Jake and Elwood Blues.

+  No wind on Raquette!

+  Random MD flag on a boathouse on the Lake.

+  Nice chat with my campground bro about the kayak cart.

Day 1 - Old Forge, NY, to Seventh Lake, NY

U-2016-8-21 – Starting Day!

At the Eastern Terminus, Old Forge, NY 

Map 1: Old Forge to Long Lake, NY

Trail Overview-- at the Western Terminus!

Start: Old Forge, NY, Visitor’s Center

End: Seventh Lake, Lean-to near Goff Island
On the Way:  Old Forge, Inlet, Fulton Chain of Lakes

Map:  1

Miles: ~14.5

Weather: Downpour all afternoon, ending with a nice clear evening.

A fortuitous start at the Eastern Terminus, in the middle of a rainstorm

The gearpile, 1/4 of which is food.

Zach and I sign the first register.

Revisiting our lashing technique
 on the way up to Old Forge.

Today it begins.  With my 18’ yellow sea kayak, new camping setup, and way more food than I should probably be taking, I start off to see how far along the NFCT I can get before the autumn cold, exhaustion, or boredom convinces me it’s not fun anymore.  I think a good litmus test is this: if I can’t readily and convincingly answer “yes” when I ask myself, “Are you glad to be here?”  That’s when it’s time to consider calling up the dutiful Hannah and Zach and asking for a ride home.

            Along those lines, Hannah and Zach are absolute saints.  They accompanied me on the 5-hour drive from Boston to Old Forge, kayak precariously strapped to the top of the rental car, took in the glorified brochure of a kiosk that is the Visitor’s Center, helped me pack the boat and launch it, and only laughed a little uproariously as I fell in the water getting in my boat.  Then they turned around and headed back to Boston.  What pals.  Plus they saw me off in the middle of a torrential rainstorm that only worsened once they left.  Auspicious starts, all around.

Dieter Das Boot (he's German) is christened
with water from all directions.

            Feels good so far, but I need to make sure I hydrate vigorously, stretch religiously, and eat prodigiously to shrink this damn food bag.  It’ll be better to haul once it’s emptier…

            Errands-wise, I need to call the folks and visit an ATM.

The rain lets up!

Things Learned:

+  Keep the map out.

+  Use a sleeping pad in hammock.  Gotta.

+  The bailing sponge can live behind my seat, where it won’t drench my bottom.

+  Don’t overfill the skirt pockets, or it won’t grip the boat well.

Shandy Point Lighthouse on the edge of a Lake.  (It's trying soooo hard.)

Trail Magic: 

+  Got surprised by the biggest loon I’ve ever seen when he surfaced right next to my boat.  He laughed at me and swam away.

A post-portage double rainbow!

+  At the end of my first portage, which had all the frustrations of the steep end of the learning curve, I saw a double rainbow.

The first night's hammock hang, next to Seventh Lake.

+  The two dudes already at the lean-to had a toasty fire ready.

I did the thing!

Well, that time flew by!  Not only on the Trail, but upon my return to Boston: I decompressed for about a day then jumped right back in to the costuming and work obligations of the Fall.  Plus I moved rooms, as if I didn't have enough to do.  Now I'm ensconced once more in Brambleberry, gainfully employed with theater gigs until January, and properly plump from my post-trip omigod-I-have-access-to-grocery-stores rebound.  Time to revisit Boldy Row!

Despite best intentions and no lack of affection for its audience, I have grossly neglected this poor little blog over the course of my travels.  I did, however, take plenty of pictures and journal nightly, so I can blog about it in retrospect.  I also plan on doing an exhaustive gear break-down, to both help me understand what was really valuable to have along on this trip so I can prepare for future adventures.  If you're thinking about a future NFCT trip, this might be helpful for me, too: I know Mack Truax and the Reed family's gear guides were invaluable for me.  (See their links to the right!)

I just submitted my Through-paddler Status application to the fine folks at NFCT.  I still have lots of journal transcripts to type, but I'll release them with photos, post-by-post, as I do.

Ta, and will post again soon!

Building a House

Some of my favorite bits of preparation were ones I saved for last, both to savor them and because I was waiting on supplies in the mail...  Yeah, sure, let's call that deliberate...

The two I tackled last night were the ones dealing with shelter, my house on the Trail.  Namely, I built a tarp rainfly for my hammock (or to use on the ground when the mood takes me) and an all-encompassing bug net.

The designs are pretty simple, but very similar to what's being built here, so I'll let Instructables do the work:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Complete-Camping-Hammock-with-Screen-and-Rainfly/step2/Materials/

Basically, it's a rectangular tarp to go over my Grand Trunk single hammock, with a reinforced D-ring attached with webbing at each corner and edge midpoint.  The bug net is a giant sleeve, which I'll cinch up at both ends so it envelops my hammock and drapes overtop the ridgeline.

The tarp.  It's so small!

Trying it out in favorable weather.

Starfishin'.

The material I used was a dream to work with: it's silicone-coated ripstop nylon ("silnylon") that weighs 1.1 oz a yard.  Ripstopbytheroll.com is a dream to use and has all the notions one could ask for in stock--highly reccomend them!

Next up for building is an ultralight, stuffable pack for portaging, a pee rag, a buff scarf imitation, and finishing up my bug net.  Then I'll give it all a test setup!

Have Wheels, Will Portage

Let's talk wheels.

With the acquisition of a quality boat and kayak and the slow but sure amassing of camping gear, the last major expense where reliability is critical is my cart.

But why wheels, Rosser? you ask, bemused.  Aren't you taking a water trip?  Water-ver will you use wheels for?  I'll tell you why wheels, you punny scamp, I say, while sitting back in my canvas-backed lounge chair and proffering a plate of cranberry almond scones as you sit on my rag rug.  I probably tousle your hair, too, but only if we agreed in advance that you're okay with that sort of thing.

There are about 62 miles of portaging--or carrying your vessel out of water--over the official route of the NFCT.  And that's when the rivers are at peak water level: as I've mentioned before, I'm probably going to do lots more at this stage of the summer.  Carrying canoes over portages is easy, since built-in yokes are designed for the job and have done it reliably for hundreds of years.  Kayaks are another beast.  Carrying them is possible, especially if you rig up a clever handmade yoke or packframe attachment, but so many of the portage trails around the NFCT are wheelable that it doesn't make sense not to save your back, grin and bear the extra ~10 pounds, and take a cart.

What's more, if something were to go down such that a hasty retreat back to civilization was called for, the route to that civilization would invariably be paved roads.  When the other option is abandoning your bright plastic boat in the brush, you'll wish you had wheels along.

So, I begin my research.  The two most promising options from REI are actually not bad:

Sea to Summit Kayak Cart.  About 8 pounds, folds down nice and small, but has air-filled wheels, which have a potential to leak.  On sale for about $90 on REI's website

Wheeleez Tuff Tire Kayak Cart.  Despite the corny name, actually quite appropriate.  Sells new for about $135, although I also have a dubious Craigslist lead...  Doesn't fold down quite as compactly, but has foam-filled tires, which won't deflate if punctured.  Lightest-weight frame of the lot.

There's also the Seattle Sports Nemo Extremo Center Cart that some folks have had success with.  It looks super-rugged, also has foam-filled tires, and sells for $140, although not through REI.  7.5 lbs.  The more I look at this cart, though, the more dubious I am about those wheels.  It looks as though the wheels are bolted directly onto the cart, relying on those plastic bushings to bear the shear stress.  The other frames, you'll notice, have a bar going through the wheel hubs, distributing the weight more easily and being WAY nicer to the bearings.  After hearing stories about plastic bearings doing a meltdown, I think I'll pass.  Shame, though: this guy definitely folds up the most compactly...

I wouldn't usually quibble over gear like this, but the NFCT features lots of horror stories about carts that are chewed up and spit out by the terrain.  NFCT Legend Mack Truax swears by steel frames, but can afford that weight with his light setup.  Joe Peterlin, on the other hand, had a catastrophic failure with a Mighty Mite end cart, after which he vowed to build his own from scratch.

Moral of the story, as long as I spring for something with a reasonably sturdy frame and wide wheels, I'll be golden.  Bonus points if I don't have to worry about air leaking out of my tires.

More shopping details as they pan out!

Gathering the Gear

The gear pile in my room and backyard grows!

In a shameless mixing of disciplines, I'm keeping track of my gear acquisition with the same spreadsheet protocol I use for costuming shows.  It's basically a giant spreadsheet that lists items down to the sock, categorizes them, and lists what source their coming from, even when that source is "Build it yo' damn self."  And, most importantly, whether or not the item is obtained and ready to go.

But this list has proven immensely helpful at keeping track of things I need and expenses.  It's helped me come up with this final shopping/sourcing list:

To find lying around:

• Bailing sponge
• Tinder box (AKA, a shored-up Altoids tin with grass and jute rope)
• Spice container
• Dense closed-cell foam for car transport
• Repair putty and cart hardware
• Airline cable for locking up boat.

To buy new:

• Hiking sandals, if I have some extra funds (I really like Keen, but we'll see what eBay can provide...)
• Reflective tape for PFD and boat
• iodine drops or squeeze-bottle filter for treating water
• nice skirt (my boat came with one, but it's rather old nylon, and I don't trust it to stay waterproof.  I quite like those nylon skirts with the neoprene tunnel...)
• Synthetic bucket hat
• Hippy dippy nice-to-the-soil toothpaste

To build:

• Yoke pad for kayak
• Neck/head buff
• portaging pack (I have a super-lightweight design in mind!)
• Silnylon tarp
• Hammock bug net
• Pee rag

To find via Craigslist or my paddling friends (I have leads on all of these!):

• Spare paddle, at least two-piece
• Paddling gloves
• small dry bags
• portaging cart

To otherwise arrange:

• US cash
• Canadian cash

After acquiring my high-end boat and paddle for a pretty fee (not cheap, but waaaaay cheaper than either would cost new), the only thing left where I have to spring for a high-end version is the portage cart.  The NFCT is notoriously brutal on carts and basically requires them, and I've tracked down one of the few models that is purported to survive the journey via Craigslist.  I haven't heard back from the poster, but if it doesn't shake out, they're also in stock at REI.

It's coming together!  And I'm getting really excited.  I'll be sharing a comprehensive gear list once I have the final kit ready to go, since doing so beforehand is just hubris in the face of the Craigslist gods.

I think I have a boat...

If this Craigslist meeting ends up shaking out, I'll be the proud owner of a secondhand Prijon Seayak!

This boat seems perfect for my trip needs:

• 16' long, which is right in my ideal 14'-18' range.
• Great V-shaped keel for tracking
• Rudders, hatches, and this nifty day hatch already included  --EDIT: The one I ended up getting is a later model, so no day hatch.  Womp womp.  But lots of lash points!--
• It's plastic, which means that, while it's a lot heavier than fiberglass or kevlar, it'll put up with bangs and scrapes on the river much better.  The NFCT eats fiberglass boats for brunch.
• Blow-molded, versus roto-molded.  If I recall my 2.008 correctly (that's Manufacturing and Materials II), this means that the polymer chains are a lot longer, making it a much more durable boat than ABS roto-molded ones, and with thinner, lighter walls.  It supposedly handles much more like fiberglass, without feeling like you have to pretend the bottom of your boat is made of pizza dough.
• Bright color.  When I want a ninja boat, I'll invest in composite.

Going to take a look later today--hope it all pans out!