Saturday August 10 Bob and I headed for the French Louie trail again, but this time we started from the northeast, driving to a parking lot on Otter Brook Road south of Limekiln Lake.  We had perfect weather, sunny, no rain, and very little humidity until the last day.  We stopped for breakfast at the Farm restaurant in Thendara on the way up, and the obligatory gorging at Mickie D's in Old Forge on the way home.

Saturday August 10 we drove in and hiked to a tent site on West Lake.  Saturday was a 7.5 mile day in two sections on the GPS. See the tracks and elevations below.

I picked Bob up at 5:30 and we drove.  We stopped for a terrific breakfast at The Farm restaurant in Thendara.  The food was great.  Then we turned south at the Limekiln Lake park road, and signed into the Moose River Recreation Area at the entry gate.  Then a very slow 11+ miles on a washed-out gravel road to the trailhead near the Otter Brook bridge.  Actually, we turned right after crossing the bridge and the trailhead was nearly a mile.  There were a few other cars there.

Leaving the trailhead we passed a really old beaver dam that wound around the area, with grass and moss growing on top of it.  And in the middle of the flooded area was the beaver lodge.

We arrived at the lean-to on Brooktrout Lake and took our packs off to look around.  A couple of guys were already camped there.  Bob checked out the lake shore area and I took some readings and recorded them in my trail log.  And I took some photos.  While we were there, two guys from Manlius caught up to us and they went to check out the lake shore also.

We left our packs in the lean-to and decided to check out the tenting site at the west end of West Lake.  It was about 3/4 mile and off we went.  We met the two fellows from the lean-to bringing back some firewood on the way over.  The tent site looked pretty good and was unoccupied so we returned to the lean-to and grabbed our packs.  I noticed on the way to the tent site that the GPS couldn't receive any satellites, but on the way back to the lean-to it was picking up 5 of them good and strong.  That made me think the DoD was playing games with the GPS selective availability system.  But who knows...

We set up camp, ate a little lunch and took a nap.  Before sundown I hiked east a little way on the shore and saw a beautiful coloring in the sky, so I returned to my tent and got my camera.

We decided neither of us was hungry, so we skipped supper.  We settled for a hot chocolate.  We made a little campfire and watched it for awhile.  It was a nice calm evening with very little humidity.  I had on my long sleeved top and a fleece warmth layer, and it was in the upper 50s.  It got down to 54 that night.

Sunday August 11 it was on to the lean-to on Sampson Lake and was our shortest hiking day.  As the elevation profile shows it was a relatively easy hike of 5.65 miles to the lean-to at Sampson Lake.

We didn't get up very early, and we were in no hurry.  We made instant oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, made sure the fire was out and broke camp.  At the east end of West Lake we crossed the new boardwalk from last year and passed the Manlius guys again.  They were heading back out today.   They told us the bridge over West Canada Creek had been rebuilt.  I took some photos from the new bridge, but none of it.  One photo below shows some of the pieces of the old bridge in the creek bed below the new bridge.

At Sampson Lake lean-to, we found the the lean-to in good condition and clean.  in addition, the canoe was still there.  We decided to spend to evening, unpacked a little and Bob showed me how to put my fishing rod together and what hooks to use, etc.  Then he started fishing and I put the canoe in the water, got my fishing pole and paddled out to find Bob.

He got in the canoe and we paddled to the other end of the lake.  We drifted and Bob caught a 5" chub or baby trout.  I took it off the hook and threw it back.  Then we paddled out to the island, grounded the canoe on rocks, and had a lot of fun.  Then we paddled back towards the shore and there were two people there waving at us - people from Bob's church.

We landed and got introduced.  Then they went in for a swim and Bob and I also swam.  We swam out to the big rock across the lake like we did last year.  It was quite a way for me - I hadn't swam in a long while - maybe since February in Sun Lakes.  After recovering on the big rock, we swam back.

We both cooked our macaroni and cheese suppers and had dinner, feeling very hungry after our swim.  After dinner we fished some more, and Bob caught some more babies.  I took some photos, more to photograph the reflections of the trees and clouds on the lake surface than for the trees and clouds themselves.

After dark we built a fire in the fireplace in front of the lean-to and Doug and Kelly joined us.  After a while we all went to sleep, listening to the loons.  The 2 baby loons from last year were still there with their parents.  They were still brown, but much larger than last year.

On Monday August 12 we didn't go to work, we went to Cedar Lakes.  Monday we hiked 9.23 miles to the Cedar Lakes dam, and back and forth between lean-tos, finally settling on the tent site near the dam that we used last year.

This morning we fried eggs for breakfast and they were yummy!  Doug and Kelly got off to a head start on their way to climb Pillsbury Mountain before going back to their car at Sled Harbor.  We caught them at the Pillsbury Lake lean-to where we took a short break.  Then we had the lead and cleared the trail of spider webs.

There were a couple of places along our hike where the pines grew close to the track on both sides.  In the section below, the trail was across the top of an old beaver dam, and the tress were along both edges forming a neat section of trail - a pine aisle.

We made especially good time and got to Cedar Lakes Dam to find the lean-to with a pack in it, but no one around.  We rested a minute and decided to check out the other lean-to, another half mile around the lake.  Then a loose dog chased us away.  At the other lean-to, there were three guys.  We checked out a rather dismal tent site down the shore from that lean-to, and then another poor tent site on the edge of Beaver Pond, about halfway between the two lean-tos.  We decided the tent site from last year was preferable and returned there.  On the way by the lean-to, the dog nipped at Bob and its owner didn't even speak to me as I went by.  Jerk!

We set up camp and took another nap, after having a soup.  Before we finished lunch, the guy with the dog hiked on by, but we decided to stay where we were instead of packing everything up and moving to the lean-to.  It was getting late when we awoke, and we went fishing.  I sat on a rock and fouled my spinning reel, but I had my Leatherman Micra tool and sat on the rock, took the reel apart, re-wound it, and continued to fish.  While I was working on it a frog nibbled at my bobber.  That was the only bite I got the entire trip.  After fishing for a while the fish started jumping all over the lake, but not too close to shore.  I kept casting and reeling, but no bites.  I thought I heard something up near the lean-to.  It was pretty dark, and another guy with a dog came down to see who was fishing.  He was trying to through-hike the NP trail south to north and had sore feet.  I wished him luck as he returned to the lean-to.

After dark we stopped fishing and decided we didn't want supper again - 2 out of 3 nights we didn't prepare a meal.  But we did devour some s'mores before hitting the sack.

Tuesday August 13 was our longest hike back to the trailhead and then a drive home.  Tuesday we hiked a tough 10.6 miles in under 4 fours.

We both slept really great and rose pretty early.  After oatmeal and coffee we were ready to go and took off to find the trail.  Hiking up to Lost Pond we climbed a pretty big ridge, and of course back down the other side.  Last year there had been a man who said he tried to find Lost Pond but thought he missed the side trail to it.  As we hiked along we could see Lost Pond, and thought we had missed the side trail to it.  After a while longer though, we found the intersection.  Then we crossed over a beaver bog created by damming the Otter Brook, which rises near Lost Pond. 

Bob found an old piece of equipment in the woods.  I think it was some kind of log skidder.

Another place along the old road to Otter Brook bridge there was a large area of abandoned equipment and belongings, like a junk pile scattered over an acre or more, including this an truck.

We were hot when we got done - a long, fast hike.

We stopped at Mickey D's on the way home to gorge on junk food.  There was very little traffic this Tuesday afternoon.