Friday, June 08, 2012

Chase Lake
69/365

It rained all week.  The forecast for today was partly sunny in the morning with chance of rainstorms in the afternoon.  We knew we'd have time to hike and get back to the car before the rain began.

It turned out to be a great day.  Just cool enough to enjoy the long walk with
an accompanying breeze.  And no rain!  

Our destination was Chase Lake lean-to.  2.7 miles one-way.






Hikers seem to be a breed unto themselves.  There's an etiquette among those who hike.  One of the  sayings of the Adirondacks is "Leave only footsteps, take only pictures".  

Wherever there's a lean-to along a trail, you'll find items left for the use of any hikers who frequent the location.  Hanging on the outside of this lean-to was a hoe, a shovel, a fish net and a hand saw.  
Inside was a coffee pot, a can of baked beans, a zip loc bag of plastic spoons, a bag of tea light candles, a couple of canisters of propane fuel and a plastic bag of newspapers to start fires with.  


Oh.  And one item you're sure to find at any lean-to even if there's nothing else, is a composition book and pencil (safely and dryly stored in a zip loc bag)
Leave a message, share a though, report on trail conditions, write a poem, make a complaint, encourage those who follow, whatever.  It's great reading.

One of the comments in this book was written by a visitor from England.  He was so impressed with the lean-to and the items left there.  He said that if such a thing were done in England, the items would be gone within hours and the lean-to probably burned to the ground by the next day.
High-five to the Adirondack hikers!


Another fun thing.  One of my hiking buddies brought pedometers for each of us to use today.  It only counted "steps taken".  

10,000 steps = 5 miles.

We took 13,434 steps on the trail.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

2 comments:

trishalyn said...

That's a LOT of steps...LOL!

Enjoyed your story and accompanying images. So happy you managed to get your weekly hike in, in spite of all the rain this week! :-)

Anonymous said...

I love the description of all the stuff in the lean-to -- I think we Americans often short-change ourselves and picture those British as so much more civilized, but the man paints an accurate picture -- I think his assessment was correct :) He forgets to give his countrymen a little wiggle room though to excuse what he thinks would be their behavior: as in, his whole country would fit into the state of NY. When you have as much space as we do over here - usually only the avid hikers (people who want the place stocked up kindly rather than looters) are the ones who would even hike out there, while in England there are few places where such a trail exists that no one else might happen upon, you know?