Chapter 1

The Plan

As I mention in my last post, I’m more of a weekend warrior than the constant adventurer, no stranger to some sort of outdoor excursion, but not always the most prepared. So few years ago, my cousin hiked the AT (and later the PCT too), and he asked that I join him for a weekend in Connecticut. I lost a toenail, got diaper-rash, was given a trail-name (though I don’t know if I earned it), and learned I ain’t cut out to be no Jesse James. It was a fun experience for all that. I got an inside perspective on thru-hiking without having to be a thru-hiker myself. I was worried that I would slow the group down and only frustrate them with my day-hiker mentality and physique. They were trail-hardened pilgrims, the incense of their holy rites strong enough to suffocate the inside of a Honda CRV with their fervor, and I had soft feet smelling of Irish Spring with a week-old beard to try and blend in. On the second day one of my knees began to trouble me. What I found was sympathy rather than exasperation. One girl lent me her knee brace bemoaning her own troubles starting out.

It was this episode that led to my cousin and me discussing the relative virtues of thru-hiking compared to section hiking. I was of the opinion that by section hiking was easier; after all your perseverance need only go for so many days instead of months. My cousin, to my surprise, had a different view. He swore he would never section hike, explaining that he had gone through weeks of knee pain and soreness that I was just beginning to experience. Section hikers, he pointed out, would go through it every time they set out for more than a few days of hiking. It’s worth noting that being ‘trail-hardened’ is not merely being in shape or not. I have no clue if there is a physiological explanation or not, but anecdotally there seems to be this phenomenon where your body adapts to to the strain on your joints. In any case, his opinion changed my perspective: if you did it all at once you would be doing yourself a favor. Canoeing and hiking are different activities obviously, but I couldn’t help but wonder if principle was the same.

So why paddle in sections and risk torture anew each time I go? Quite simply I have student loans, a mortgage, and a job; I can’t just disappear for 30+ days. The NFCT is considerably smaller undertaking about one-third the length of the the AT’s roughly 2200 miles. Furthermore the elevation changes of hiking up and down mountains and hills are mercilessly experienced by hikers, for those following a river it’s as easy as letting the river take you along (except when you are going against current of course). Whereas an AT section hiker flying to any given state would want to get the most bang for the buck and hike as much as possible, I on the other hand can easily drive to most sections of the NFCT and chip away at it weekend by weekend.

Forty days seems to be the median time required to complete the NFCT, and twenty weekends of canoeing over the course of a few years seems totally within reason. That being said I wanted to tackle a significant portion at once to make more of an adventure of it, and take a big chunk out of the beast. I settled on two weeks to take off for the start of my journey. Memorial Day seemed a good weekend to start (excepting the potential crowd and traffic) as it would give me a free day off and straddles the line of spring and summer, where the water shouldn’t be too low but I won’t be too cold. As it turns out, a good friend of mine is getting married on June 12th, which puts a hard stop to on the 9th as I need to fly on the 10th (Delta moved my late night flight on the 10th to 9 AM in the morning which takes away that extra padding I was hoping for). May 29th will be strictly a travel day, as it will take seven hours of driving to get to Old Forge. All said and done I have ten solid days for canoeing, the eleventh will be a safety day.

So here’s the itinerary:

• Day 1: Old Forge to Raquette Lake (20 miles)
• Day 2: Raquette Lake to Long Lake (23 miles)
• Day 3: Long Lake to Stony Creek (22.5 miles)
• Day 4: Stony Creek to Saranac Lake (20 miles)
• Day 5: Saranac Lake to Union Falls Pond Dam (21.5 miles)
• Day 6: Union Falls Pond Dam to Picketts Corners (19 miles)
• Day 7: Picketts Corners to Plattsburgh (22.5 miles)
• Day 8: Plattsburgh to North Hero Island, Lake Champlain (22 miles)
• Day 9: North Hero Island to Swanton, VT (15 miles)
• Day 10: Swanton to Sheldon Springs Hydro Electric Project (15 miles)

Averaging 20 miles per day may be a little ambitious in a canoe for me (in a kayak I would be more optimistic), but as it stands this is my goal. Right now I’m trying to do five miles every week day, and some longer trips on the weekends in order to prepare. Unfortunately I don’t have my canoe yet so I’ve been paddling in the family kayak. Although not ideal, I’ll be using a kayak paddle anyway, especially for flat water sections, so for strength and conditioning it will be fine in the meantime, but I can’t get an accurate idea of the average speed my boat will do. Once I do have my boat I’ll be able to get a better idea of what she’ll be able to do and adjust my plan accordingly.

As for now this is what I have planned for this year. I would really like to get across Lake Champlain in this leg of the trip, as it makes pick-up easier and I won’t have to drive into New York to resume where I left off. If my schedule was different and the pandemic weren’t ongoing, I would also have liked to do the Quebec portion of the trip, as it would make day trips much less of a weekend drive. But first thing is first!

Next Time

If you got this far, thanks for reading! This is helpful motivation for me knowing some people are following along, as well as helping organize my thoughts and plans for the trip, but hopefully it is somewhat entertaining for you! Astute readers will notice I said I don’t have a boat. That was no typo! Next post, I’ll be talking about my boat or lack thereof and other gear. Cheers!