Cold River Seclusion

 Rarely do I stop at the Calkins Brook lean-to for my first night. I decided to do so on this trip that way I could way slowly the next day up & down the CCC road to the Cold River and potentially explore a bit off trail. There was a couple also spending the night. One of their friends knew of me, not sure how. We talked about this trail and others. They were slowly extending their trips into more adventurous types. The next day their plan was to do the old horse trail south of the cold river, I had this on my agenda as well. The next day I was up early and headed out. I checked out the short cut to Seward Pond which Cold River Bob told me about. I did not explore it though. Will save that for a day trip from Calkins. I did check out the old trail to Boulder Brook for a bit. Saw some artifacts along the way. I buchwhacked along the brook just up on the ridge paralleling the trail until I came to a large depression full of water. I wondered if this was dug out by the CCC when making the road as it did not appear natural, but who knows. I then made a quick right turn and rejoined the trail. As usual i stopped at the spring to fill up. I was not sure if my lean-to friends had passed me by while I was off trail.

Since it has been a while, I checked out Latham Pond. The trail to Latham is really growing in. A few spots the blowdown required me to find an alternate course. I was interested in guessing where the Lattimores had their first camp. I figured it would be uphill from the pond a ways on a large level spot. I assumed that the trees would not provide me any clues from 100 years ago. I made my best guess as to the spot and sat for moment. There was an obvious path straight down from here to the pond. I doubt it was from the Lattimores, but if my guess was correct they probably used it too. Near the connector to the lower pond, there was a small campsite. Possibly just a spot for shore lunch. I paused for a bit before heading back to the main trail.

I was happy to see the flooded section was now a dry meadow. In fact the water cource which the beavers had dammed up was nowhere to be seen. I wonder if the spring floods had rerouted it. I opted to stay at Cold River #3 instead of going to Moose Pond Stream. I figured the couple would like to have some seclusion, as did I. Plus it is really difficult to pass up CR#3.

The sky was cloudy and in the distance was some rumbling. Soon the sky opened up for a short period. Was glad to be in the lean-to.

           

After a wonderful night at my favorite spot, I headed upstream on the Cold River to check out the lean-tos. I of course waited until after the glorius sunrise over the river. I did spend some time exploring uphill behind the Seward Camp looking for the old trail. The woods were open so it would have been easy going except for the blowdown. Easy enough to manuever around. I found some of the old stoves from the camp as well as a crosscut saw blade. Across the drainage behind some rocks was a cache of jars similar to those found at the Seward Camp. The old camp was growing in so thickly now, no one will stumble across it. Even the artifatcs are getting buried. The spring and cauldron still evade my discovery. Next time I will bring a better metal detector and head farther up the drainage on the level of the camp.

Back at camp I relaxed a bit before dinner and bed. The next day I checked out the old horse campsite with the picnic tables. I then headed downstream exploring the old trail. the plan was to get at least to the junction of Boulder Brook and the Cold River. Also to maybe find the ridge of what appeared to be CCC planted pines. The path was easy enough to follow, and even when it disappeared it was soon apparent again. Some old logging artifacts along the way. not sure exactly what they are. Oddly enough I soon came to a backpack against a tree. A called out, and the owner was a little ways away probably squatting over a cat hole. I felt bad disturbing his morning ritual. he was headed in the opposite direction of me. Not sure where he started. The river bent around significantly here, and when I came to its bank, the flow direction had me confused for a bit because of the bend. Looking at the map it then made sense. I was close to the Boulder Brook junction. The river was wide and shallow here. Easy to walk along the sandy edge downstream a bit. It almost looked at though one could cross the river here to connect with the Pine Point trail on the other side. Around the bend and past Boulder Brook would be where we saw the pine ridge from the other side. Knowing this was relatively easy to here, this would be a good way to get there next time. Also will need to go upstream of Boulder to where the spur trail ended. Probably a nice fishing spot and maybe a campsite location.

[Looking towards the bend where the Boulder Brook enters the Cold River]

After my exploration of the old trail, I follwed it back to the horse camp and then took a cutoff back to the CCC road. It wasn't late, but I also did not want to get home late. Stopped again at the spring, and at the executive wahsroom. I also explored the caches Bob told me about. they were much shallower than the beer cave and both were empty.

As I was crossing Calkins Brook where the old bridge was washed out, a couple on the other side waited for me. They asked if I was Cold River Bob. I chuckled and said no, but I had talked to him recently. A brief pause at the lean-to and then the short 6 miles out.

3 days on a busy Raquette Lake -canoe trip

 

After the NPT trip, I loaded up thr car with canoe and fishing gear and headed up to Raquette Lake. There are two lean-tos close to each other in Lonesome Bay. The parking area was quite full, I did find a spot and hopefully the car will be there without a ticket when i return in 3 days. 

I paddled up the western side of the lake past the bustling summer camps and the quiet lakeside cottages. At the former, kids were running, playing and swimming. At the latter adults were sitting quietly lakeside reading, playing cards and other relaxing activities. Not many boats active on the lake. Those that were seemed to be for transport. A few tour style pontoon boats were slowly cruising around the different bays. 

In Lonesome Bay a few small craft with people fishing near the weeds. I spotted the first lean-to and found it vacant so I set up camp. The lauch area was steep and eroded, but near the lean-to was wide and flat. Some wood was nearby so I collected it for the small fire later. I wandered around a bit noting artifacts from older camps in days gone by. The 2nd lean-to was accessible if one opted to cross over a wet swampty section. It would be more desrireable to paddle which I would do the next day.

So for the next 2 days I relaxed at camp and stayed a night in each lean-to. The first night I listened to taps being played over the loudspeaker at one of the cam,ps across thr lake followed by "lights out". I complied and went to bed. While at the second, a family pulled up in a pontoon boat on a quest for a geo-cache in the area. They found the location, but the cache must have been removed.  Later in the evening a fisherman landed a decent bass in the weeds just off the bank near the lean-to landing.

Morning of the third day, I set out early on the calm glassy lake to head back. A loon was my guide for the first 50 yards. The lake was eerily quiet as I seemed to be the only one awake; quite the contrast. The draw of the paddle and the small wake from the canoe were all that disturbed the surface of the water. As the sun rose inbt he distance I made my way back to the launch to my awaiting ticket-less car.