Bob and I left work Friday at noon and headed to the Lake Durant parking area by way of Piseco, Speculator and Indian Lake.

We hiked through the Lake Durant State Park to Stephen's Pond, about 3.3 miles down the Northville-Lake Placid trail.  The lean-to was occupied when we arrived, but we wanted to tent at the campsite near the lake that we had used when we hiked the NLP trail.  I pitched my new BugHut II and Bob pitched his bivy.  We gathered some firewood, cooked our dinner on his stove, and lit the fire.  It wasn't long before we were both ready to hit the hay.  The bugs were all over the outside of the bughut, which is a tent floor with no-see-um netting for walls and roof, with 100% visibility.

In the morning, we boiled water for breakfast, packed up and hiked back to the state park, filled our water bottles, exchanged a few items at Bob's truck, and hiked North across the highway and onto the NLP trail for Tirrell Pond.  The O'Neill Flow lean-to (about 3.5 miles in) was unoccupied, but we were interested in lakefront real estate, and pushed on.  Bob found a camping area about halfway up the lake shore (another half mile) that was a very nice camping site, with a small beach.  We set up camp here, and went for a swim.  After a hot lunch, I took a nap while Bob fished.  After that, we went for another swim.  Then Bob fished some more while I gathered firewood.

We built a fire in the fire ring / barrel stove combination that was there, cooked supper, and settled in for another buggy, but dry, night.

In the morning, we again boiled breakfast, packed up and hiked back to Bob’s truck for the drive home.  The hike out was very fast.  We went back into the state park for a shower, but were very dismayed to find that the showers were pay showers and we didn't have any change.  Bob went in the lake, and I roughed it (riding home stinky).  Traffic was pretty bad coming home by way of Old Forge, but we got home in time for me to mow the lawn.

Some of Bob’s 2 rolls of photos are below.