Chapter 3

Old Forge to Raquette Lake

I did it! Day 1 complete! Approximately 22 miles. And boy do the portages hurt. Still trying to work out the kinks, but my bag has to be 80 to 100 lbs so I’m not sure I can really do them in one trip without really beating myself up.

Anyway it was chilly in Old Forge this morning. The mist was coming off the water and some were forming mini cyclones. Once I got into First Lake wind picked up and was a little choppy. It started sunny but the rain clouds rolled in and has been basically raining since.

According to the log books there are groups ahead of me doing the NFCT, they both started on the 27th. One is Katina Daanen, who wrote the book that I’m using! I’d like to try and catch up and meet her but I doubt I’ll close the gap. The other is a group of 12 going as far as Vernont.

Met some nice people. Some purveyors of a boat fill station let me use their restroom as I entered Fifth Lake. And gentleman at Eighth Lake campground offered to drive my bags to the boat lunch, I told him it was cheating though. Met a college gal working as a boat inspector for the summer to keep the waterways free of invasive species. And a group portaging Brown Tract carry like me with this monstrous 20+ foot wooden canoe that sat 5 of them in it. I don’t know how they’ll manage with all the beaver dams in Brown Pond Tract!

Creature sightings: deer I thought were statues outside a cafe in Old Forge, wayward seagulls, osprey, ducks and ducklings, loons, a couple swifts, a hawk. And lastly a pileated woodpecker who scared me as much as I scared him when he was pecking away at something outside my lean to.

I tried uploading some photos from today but it isn’t cooperating. I’ll go back at another.

Cheers!