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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Slithering Over to Serpentine Ponds

With the Red Horse Creek fording behind me, it is now time to start looking forward to the remainder of my bushwhack back to the trailhead over the next two days. Today’s goal remains to reach Hidden Lake off to the west, where I plan on spending the night before continuing out the next day.

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: The Great Red Horse Creek Fording

Sun penetrates the canopy, glistening off the droplets hanging from the surrounding foliage, leftovers from overnight rains. Birds joyously sing from the tree tops, apparently greeting the dawn of a sunnier and drier day. The Red Horse Creek continues roaring, refreshed from a day of off and on rain. Such is the beginning of my

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Rain Delay at Trout Pond Lean-to

Rain delay days in the Adirondack backcountry can sometimes be a drag. This is especially true when caught within a small shelter where you must stay in a prone position most of the time. Fortunately, this is not the case in the Trout Pond lean-to, where I spend my rain delay day after exploring some

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Return to the Red Horse Trail

Now with the western end of Little Rock Pond in sight, it is time to start thinking about returning to the Red Horse Trail for a few days. The trail remains just due west, so bushwhacking there should not require any fancy navigating, as long as I avoid a slim wetland in between the trail

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Bushwhacking Along Little Rock Pond

My sixth day in the southern Five Ponds Wilderness Area of the Adirondack Park starts out sunny with largely clear skies at an old camp site in the southwest corner of Beaverdam Pond. This is a welcome change from the previous two mornings that started out wet and unseasonably cool at both Negro Lake and

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Searching for Remains of Beaverdam Pond’s Old Camp

It feels good standing along Beaverdam Pond’s eastern shore in the southern Five Ponds Wilderness of the northwestern Adirondack Park. The wet and nearly uninterrupted forest portion of my bushwhack is now behind me, my focus now turning to find an acceptable campsite along the pond’s southern shore. The farther west the site, the better,

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: A Wet Bushwhack to Beaverdam Pond

My fifth day bushwhacking to the waterbodies east of the Red Horse Trail in the Five Ponds Wilderness of the northwestern Adirondack Park starts out just like the previous one: good and wet. The previous day’s soaking, supplemented by near continuous rain overnight (at least every time I woke), makes for a third soggy day

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Road East of Negro Lake

Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: A Wet Hike Along Old Roads to Wilder Pond

It is a wet morning, following on the heels of a very soggy night near the old campsite along Negro Lake’s north shore in the southern Five Ponds Wilderness Area. The rain fluctuated throughout the night, sometimes on, other times off – much like my sleep. Despite the rain, I still heard a barred owl

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Exploring the Old Cabin Site on Negro Lake

Bushwhacking all the way from lower Higby Twin Pond to Negro Lake’s old cabin site in the Five Ponds Wilderness constituted a long day, despite getting there by half-past noon. Following the old road north of the lake allowed for making good time and eventually led me to the peninsula where the old cabin site

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Ponds East of Red Horse Trail 2015: Back On The Old Road North of Negro Lake Again

Following along an old road north of Negro Lake in the southern Five Ponds Wilderness was my easy route to a peninsula along the lake’s shore where once stood an old cabin site. Unfortunately, I bailed on the old road where it crossed a wetland and instead bushwhacked around it, now forcing me to relocate

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