After hiking in from Bear Pond Road via the Upper South Pond Trail, I start the off-trail portion of my five-day trip by bushwhacking south, visiting Upper, Middle and Lower South Ponds before the day is done. Setting up my campsite for the night is made more difficult by off and on rain, before turning to a full-on downpour during the early evening hours.
Carpet Spruce Swamp: Hiking On What Passes For The Upper South Pond Trail
My bushwhacking trip through one of the remotest parts of the Five Ponds Wilderness begins on the Upper South Pond Trail. The rough and rugged trail crosses the Middle Branch of the Oswgatchie River and meanders through a wild Adirondack forest on its way to a wilderness pond. My first encounter with moose droppings on this trip occurs on the trail just before approaching Upper South Pond, near where I leave the trail behind and begin bushwhacking south toward Lower South Pond.
Carpet Spruce Swamp: A Wet Drive Down Bear Pond Road
Not everything works out the way you plan it. This is just as true with bushwhacking trips into the backcountry of the Adirondacks as anything else. Some trips are highly spontaneous, moving from conception to implementation with the speed of a mosquito finding a bulging vein on a warm summer evening. Others take their time
Trip Plan: Carpet Spruce Swamp of Middle Branch Oswegatchie River
During the late summer of 2011, while hiking across Isle Royale, I planned an outing into what might be one of the remotest and least often visited (by humans anyways) parts of the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, a mysterious knee injury in the spring of 2012 put this trip onto the back-burner until this year. Now I
