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Adirondack Mtn West Canada Lake Wilderness

Well done, I enjoy reading the captionsunder the pictures, and the selfies add to the whole story. Thanks for the French Louie picture story and the pack review, both very informative.
 
Great scenery and story. I really enjoy your trip reports. I respect your level of commitment for getting out there to places others would pass by due to their difficulty. You definitely give me inspiration. Now I just need to get out there a bit more.

BTW, thanks for the info on your pack. I have an old canyoneering pack frame that is designed to be used with a dry bag that I was given years ago. It's pretty much like what you've shown. Of course, I wasn't smart enough to think about using it in this way but I will now.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...Be well.

snapper

PS - On this particular trip, how much walking do you think you did versus paddling?
 
PS - On this particular trip, how much walking do you think you did versus paddling?
Difficult to say for sure but using the dividers on the map and following the route I took it would be conservative to say that I covered 28 miles on foot. Even harder to know the paddled distance but I'm guessing it was near the same, so maybe 50/50 or 56 miles over the five days. Much of my travel was day tripping from a base. I did not carry the Mayfly 28 miles.
Interesting you should ask about trail mileage; on Saturday there was a race on the NPT from Wakely Dam to Piseco, which I think is in the realm of thirty miles. I was told that the best time for this annual event is under 7 hours.
 
Fantastic! I'm not sure I would have been able to hangout under several thousands of tons of rock, but it was very interesting to see!
 
Conk,

As always, great photos and descriptions.
How was the former trail from Pillsbury Bay to Pillsbury Lake? We cleared much dead fall on the Cedar Lakes side, but just ran out of time on the other side of the beaver flow. Our plan was to return via Pillsbury Lake. We lost the trail remnants around .3 miles from your Pillsbury put in, it was pretty thick in there!
I'm guessing when the last of the dam goes out, there won't be the same dramatic change like Duck Hole or Marcy Dam...

Cedars Lakes really is best seen from the seat of a canoe, don't you think?
 
Conk, How do I view your pics? Every time I click on the link I get a 404 Not_Found error.
 
Conk, your trip reports always amaze me. You see the big picture (stunning vistas) and the small (captivating flora and fauna) with equal respect and clarity. Bushwhacking sure has it's rewards, eh?Thanks Conk.
 
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How was the former trail from Pillsbury Bay to Pillsbury Lake?
Of the three abandoned trails in the Cedar/Pillsbury/Whitney triangle, I only traveled from Pillsbury Bay to Pillsbury and from it's intersect south of the beaver meadow, west to Whitney. I did not traverse the trail from the east side of Whitney to the French Louie trail.
The bay to meadow was very clear except for a couple downed spruces just before emerging into the meadow. I cannot recall anything that caused terrible difficulty south of the meadow to Pillsbury, and I traveled that section twice. On the way to Whitney from the meadow, there is quite a bit of horizontal lumber until the Pillsbury Outlet crossing, after that, things are relatively good to Whitney, except for one fallen birch that had me searching for several minutes. There are many dense spruce/balsam pockets in these environs and being off trail, even though old and abandoned is not very bushwhack friendly, especially with a canoe.

To the question of viewing pics. I really don't know what to say. I'm not computer savvy.
 
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The bay to meadow was very clear except for a couple downed spruces just before emerging into the meadow. I cannot recall anything that caused terrible difficulty south of the meadow to Pillsbury, and I traveled that section twice. On the way to Whitney from the meadow, there is quite a bit of horizontal lumber until the Pillsbury Outlet crossing, after that, things are relatively good to Whitney, except for one fallen birch that had me searching for several minutes. There are many dense spruce/balsam pockets in these environs and being off trail, even though old and abandoned is not very bushwhack friendly, especially with a canoe...

Thanks, Conk. On that other forum (you know the one) Justin has mentioned that those abandoned trails were cleared when he went through last fall.
So it sounds like Pillsbury to Cedar Lakes is good to go once again. BTW, those few trails were last officially maintained in 1973!
 
Great stuff, Conk. I backpacked the WCLW many years ago. I still remember that view down South Lake from the east shore and thinking “Man, you need a boat.” Many’'s the time I have dreamt of a repeat with an Alpacka pack raft, but a pack canoe would be even sweeter.

I dug up my long winded 2003 backpacking trip report from the late, great PATC Forum, and posted in on the other forum. In the trip report, I wrote “Oh, to have a canoe on these lakes”
 
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What I want to know:

Did the Mayfly make it to the summit of Pillsbury Mtn*? I see it made it's way into a lean to.




*It looks as though a tributary of the Miami originates near the summit, though I'd question it's navigability.
 
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