Spent a couple days at my folks before going camping with my friend Jeff in the ADKs.
Thursday was low key, drove from Belleville, via Lowville, thru Old Forge to Inlet NY and Limekiln campground. From there I entered the Moose River Plains after airing down my tires from 30psi to 20. The roads are in good shape, but there are protruding rocks, so airing down makes the ride more comfy.
Took about an hour to get to Wakely Dam from Limekiln, and Jeff had already found a primo site by the time I got there. We didn't move around, just stayed at that site over the weekend. On the drive in, I saw quite a few of the heavy duty hunter lodge kind of tents. The ones that almost look like buildings and have mini wood stoves in them. We heard the occasional gun shots around dawn and dusk from the hunters. Guessing it was muzzle load season for deer hunting. Usually just 1 shot at a time.
Thursday was cold, so we didn't hang outside that evening and I just turned in early after chit chatting in Jeff's van. Friday, Jeff and I went off to gather firewood from deadfall along Cedar road. Found some good hardwood branches and a long pine/spruce tree that I was able to haul out. My electric corded chainsaw cut it up and only took 4 amps hours off of Jeff's 12volt battery bank (half what it would take to boil 1 liter of water). So much more efficient than cutting by hand. Hauled it back to the site and split it up that afternoon.
Saturday morning, we hiked up Cellar Pond trail. Easy climb, and suprisingly warm when the Sun was on us. Jeff got some good drone footage up by the pond. That afternoon, I did the following short loop with my fat bike. The blue sections i was super slow. trying to navigate a very overgrown jeep trail. Oh and I forgot to turn my watch on when I first biked down to the NPT turnoff. I didn't get on the NPT trail part marked (No Motorized Vehicles). I know bikes aren't allowed there. I should have taken a photo of my legs after I finished. they got quite scratched up. I won't be biking that loop again, but I got a little lost last time, so I did it to redeem myself. Yay me? again you should see how scratched up my legs are. Sacrifice to the blood gods for my "victory" I suppose.
After I got back I setup the shower tent and tried Jeff's suggestion of heating the tent with the Planar Heater. That trick made for a very comfortable shower. It was at least mid 80's in the shower if not in the 90's (30C?) . More photos in the slideshow link above. It's definitely glamping. A comfortable shower when it's 50F/10C outside is voodoo type stuff to me, and I only used 3 liters of water. I did remember to flush the Geyser with some antifreeze before putting it away, seeing how it was dropping below freezing each night. The Geyser shower thing does have a pump to push the water through the sponge.
Sunday, Jeff wanted to go exploring by vehicle, but I wanted to do more biking/hiking, so he drove off to explore dirt roads north of Old Forge, and I stayed at camp and just did a down and back on my fat bike. Only 3.5 miles down and then back up. My drop post on my fat bike wasn't staying up. A mix of it being old and me still being too fat. Working on it. holding steady lately at 280, but I want to get down to 220 eventually. I hope to lose 20-30lbs before Spring hits. hard to do during Winter, but I'll try.
After the bike ride Sunday afternoon, I just enjoyed some reading and cuddled up to the Solo Stove, after I did another Geyser sponge shower. I did harvest a bucket of cold water from Cedar Lake for the shower on Sunday. Should have done that the day before too. I have a collapsible bucket and it was easy to do.
Monday we packed up in some cold drizzle and drove home through some heavy rain. In Warrensburgh NY, we stopped at Oscar's Smokehouse and got some high end bacon. I've not confirmed that myself yet, but I trust Jeff's opinion.
Btw the truck's adaptive cruise was glitchy this trip. Both going to my parents and on the way home, but I think i fixed it today. More on that later. But having no cruise at all about half the time was annoying, but not the end of the world either.
This was a really good camping trip. Happy to have gone.
