Once again, it's been quite some time. But I'm back and I'm going to continue looking at moemar. :)

4:30a.m., Monday morning, Jody and I set out for the long drive up to the Adirondaks. We were all set, headed for Perkins Clearing. Perkins Clearing is our usual let in to the trails in the Adirondaks. It is an old logging road belonging to IP. Heading to West Canada Lakes, we were both pretty excited. After driving for 6 hours we came to a closed road. It turns out that the entrance through Perkins Clearing is a seasonal road that remains closed until May.

We pull alongside the road and took a look at he map. We found a trailhead a little north of our intended destination. It was for Puffer Pond; 2.2 miles from trailhead to the lean-to. With a slight grade, we figured it would be a rather enjoyable hike. Turns out the weather caused a majority of the trees to fall. Of course they all fell on the trail making it difficult and painful to hike through. We finally made it to the pond, after wading through a creek, and it turned out to be a fantastic spot. The pond was a little dirty and housed a few beavers. The lean-to area was a mess with fallen trees, great for making ridiculously large fires. The hike tired us out, working through all that mess on the trail. We turned in early the first night.

On day two, we decided to hike to Hour Pond. The trail was, again, ridden with blown down trees. It was tough but very well worth it. Crossing two newly built bridges and freshening up in Hour Brook; this was the better part of the actual hiking. We never did make it to Hour Pond; we were worried we wouldn’t make it back before dark.

The rest of the evening was filled with owl hoots, random branch breaking behind the lean-to, and massively large newts crawling through our camp. Our plan was to wake up at 5a.m. and head out. It turned out we didn’t rise until 7a.m. Out by 7:40a.m., we flew through the trail, our legs now somewhat numb to painful scraping and stabbing of the trees. This was one of the more scenic trails I have hiked and I would certainly love to go back. Hopefully the next time we do the trail will be cleared of its painful obstacles.

But I still managed to get a Devils game in. For christmas, my students bought for me, two tickets to the Islanders/Devils game last night. The seats were excellent! Directly behind Brodeur on a few rows from the ice. The game was a struggle but we pulled it out in the end. Granted we clinched a playoff spot, but it wasn't easy. Now let's pray Sutter has something up his sleave for the playoffs.