Our trip occurred in the 1st year that DEC required registration in the
To top it all off our meal planning involved pasta (more on that later) and
a large loaf of Italian bread, which never seemed to fit in anyone's pack. So
we took turns hand carrying the loaf of bread. Jim, especially, managed to shed
carrying duties whenever the group approached other people - not wanting to
appear like a bread carrying newbie.
At about 2 miles in we passed the
Finally, the inevitable happened - Matt gave his yellow sled a good jerk to
clear a small dip in the trail and when the sled landed it cracked and split.
Len unloaded his backpack and donated his sled to Matt, doubling up his broken
sled on top of Len's.
We reached the clearing at Scott's Clearing, cut wood for a fire and cooked
our dinner. The logic behind the choice of Angel Hair pasta for dinner was that
the thin noodles would not require a long boiling time. The failure of this
choice is that difference between cooked Angel Hair pasta and over-cooked Angel
Hair pasta is about 3 seconds. Our meal was mush followed by a dessert of
chocolate pudding that never quite set.
Since this trip we have attended Leave No Trace classes, but this was during
our ignorant phase so we dumped the leftover pasta onto what remained of the
fire. The pasta smouldered and the fumes stunk up the lean-to. As we climbed
into our sleeping bags to sleep the temperature began to drop and the trees
started popping as the water inside them froze - a phenomena that I associate
with temperatures in the low teens.
A word about sleeping bags, if I may. This was Len's 1st trip and Mark
hadn't done a lot of winter camping so Matt loaned the both of them quite a bit
of gear. Matt let Mark use his winter sleeping bag. Depending on your point of
view he was either being a nice guy or he wanted his younger brother to carry
the heavier sleeping bag and hadn't checked the weather forecast. The end
result was that Matt had a light weight sleeping bag and a fleece blanket liner
for a night where the temperature was rapidly tumbling towards the negative
side of zero. Through a stroke of good fortune I had looked at the weather
forecast prior to leaving and seeing the potential for night time temperatures
in the negative teens I decided to bring two sleeping bags - the 1st time I
ever had done that.
During the night we heard the trees popping and Matt moaning as the cold settled
in. Matt would wrap the blanket around him as best he could and sleep for 15-20
minutes and then re-position trying to cover up again. Mark was comfortable
once he got his head covered by the mummy bag and Len was revealed to be a
snorer of prodigious talent in the cold temperatures. Layered inside of two
"zero degree" bags I slept great - except for hearing Matt. Overnight
the temperature bottomed out at -15 degrees.
As first light broke Matt uttered his memorable "I am not going to lie
to you" line - confessing he would rather be awake than trying to sleep.
This later prompted a poem on the the trip.
We brought two stoves for heating breakfast water - Mark's butane stove
which he neglected to bring into his sleeping bag for warmth, so it was useless
and Matt's white gas stove which sprouted a leak and resultant fire. We had
minimal water for the morning and only snacks for breakfast, but we decided to
try to hike onward anyway. At least the activity of hiking would warm us
Previous attempts to seek
We decided to head back after Jim stepped through some snow into water and
soaked his foot. Upon returning to the lean-to we grabbed our pack and high
tailed it back to the ADK Lodge where we drank copious fluids. On our drive
home Matt, Mark & Jim stopped at a McDonald's in