Plumley's Landing to Ouluska Pass Brook

After a great start, we headed off toward Lake Placid.  It was another beautiful day for hiking, not too warm, a light breeze.

We crossed a beautiful suspension bridge over the Moose Creek, one at a time, since I never trust the floor boards in those things.  After a little further, we crossed another suspension bridge over the Cold River, and we didn't have to worry about floor boards, since the flooring was made of steel mesh.

On the other side of the Cold River bridge was Cold River #4 lean-to.  We took off our boots and ate our lunch with our feet in the river.  When you climb down to the rocks below the bridge, you can look directly upriver about 1/4 mile and see the Cold River #3 lean-to high above the river, right at the bend.  This looked like a terrific spot to spend a weekend, fishing and lounging.  I filled our water bottles and Bob took care of a spot on his toe, and we were off.

We made it to the Ouluska Pass Brook lean-to after about 4.5 hours of hike time, and began to pitch a camp.  First thing today was a bear bag set-up, since I didn't want to feed any more chipmunks.  Then we climbed down to the river (the Cold River) and tried to swim, but the footing was too rough for our feet, and the water was too cold for our other parts.  We only waded in about thigh deep.  And the air was cooling off, and it seemed to be getting dark early, so we proceeded to fix dinner.  We got a pretty good fire going, but there was no grate at this lean-to.  There was a broom for the lean-to, however, and a leaf rake for the ground in front of it.  We made a tidy home, and pitched our bivys inside the lean-to in anticipation of rain, since no one else appeared to share the lean-to with.

This was to be our longest hiking day, about 10.5 miles, and we decided to cut back on dinner, eating a couple of Maruchan lunches each.  That seemed to be enough, with a hot cocoa for desert.  After that, we were pretty sleepy, and bedded down pretty early.  Of course, our appetites may have been reduced by the smell of burning hair.    I lost a little of what I have left when I failed to let the stove cool enough before lighting it for a second pot of water, and the ensuing blast got most of the hair on my right arm, along with the knuckles of my left hand.  Bob assured me I was not on fire, and we proceeded to cook our water, wondering what had allowed me to live this long.

And rain it did - it must have poured for at least three hours during the night.    We stayed dry, though, and didn't have to dry things out in the morning.   We ate a quick breakfast, deciding that all we needed was some oatmeal and coffee, and away we went.