ALGonquin Bob
Well-known member
S.I.
The weekend of February 26, I led a small group of people on a hike. We stayed at the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Camp Peggy O’Brien cabin on ADK’s Johns Brook property, just across the bridge from JBL. Our group consisted of 2 university students -Pete and Rico, my co-leader John, and my friend Joe. I know – 5 is a small group for a cabin that sleeps 12, but we were optimistic when booking it. After hiking the 3.5-miles to reach the cabin, we were greeted by the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition magazine laying on the large wooden table inside. Nice. Our plan was to hike 1 or 2 of the 4000-footers nearby, and we settled on doing the Wolfjaws. Since I’m already a Winter 46er and had just been up there six weeks previous with a friend and recently done those and 2 other peaks, it really didn’t matter to me; I went with what John suggested, as he is slowly working toward his 46. With only 5 of us in there, we had our choices of where to sleep. I like it cool, and took a lower bunk (Emmons). Others liked it warmer and selected an upper bunk. Apparently nobody wanted a sauna experience, so the two top beds on the triple bunks (“Marcy” and “Algonquin”) went unused. We enjoyed a good dinner and some fine reading, and then hit the vinyl (mattresses). We didn’t set alarms, but I said if you wake up and it’s light out, wake me up. That works pretty well, unless you need an early start. The unmarked trail behind the cabin meets up with a path that goes to the Ore Bed and Wolfjaw trails, and we were soon on our way.
CLUELESS
As we began our ascent of the WJ trail and approached the lean-to , we came across 2 young men who said they were from Quebec. We chatted briefly about where we were headed, and they said they had hiked in from the AuSable Cub (AMR) the day before, climbing to the top of the Wolfjaw col, then descending to the lean-to. Odd route, but maybe they thought there was a fee to park at The Garden (it’s free in Winter). We told them where we were going, and the young pair said they were going to hike Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong, and Gothics before returning to their car that day. I thought we had a late start, but they had severely overslept for an itinerary like that. I casually asked if they had a map, and they said “No”…. but they had a digital image of a map in their camera. Right. Joe gave them his photo-copied map of the area. I asked if they had a headlamp or flashlight, and they said “No”. Wrong. I told them that the local incident reports are full of hikers needing rescue for lack of a light, and they had no business being up there without a light source. I gave them one of my headlamps. They also told us how cold they had been the night before (they apparently had the wrong sleeping bags for Winter) and that they had to build a fire to keep warm. I mentioned that fires were illegal there and pointed out the “No Fires” sign on the lean-to. They responded that they buried the ashes in the snow in front of the LT and tossed the burned wood farther away – a mess for someone else to clean up in Spring. They left a pile of cut firewood in the lean-to. Yes – cut firewood. They didn’t bring a map, headlamp, or proper sleeping bags, but they remembered their big bush saw. All this in a 5-minute conversation. I suggested they alter their plans to a more reasonable route, described the Beaver Meadow descent route, and asked them to please not attempt Gothics that day.
LOWER EXPECTATIONS
We were “moving kind of slow” to the junction, and the dynamic duo passed us on the ascent. One had on snowshoes and the other did not. He said he was going bareboot because his snowshoes had no traction. The pretty-looking bent wood footwear strapped to his back would have looked great screwed to the wall of our cabin as a quaint decoration, but the rawhide webbing didn’t offer much in the way of a grip for climbing without any sort of crampons added. I assume that his grandfather lent that gear to the young man. We decided to do Upper first, and as we were still climbing, the 2 young men were coming back. They said they stopped at the top of Upper WJ and turned back when they saw how big the next peak was, and were hiking back to their car. At that point, I could have asked for the return of my headlamp, but I figured they would be back some day, and at least they would have a light source for their next misadventure. I let them keep it.
"FALSE" PRIDE
The tracks of “The Great Unprepared” stopped on the false summit with a good view of both the true top of UWJ, and the imposing summit of Armstrong. That was a lot of work for not achieving so much as one summit, but they survived to attempt another day and, hopefully, a bit wiser.
GLISSADES HAPPEN
We continued to the summit – the slab with a thin rope to help hikers ascend was covered with deep snow and I had walked half-way up before I noticed that I was on the slope that was much more difficult in December when it had only a thin covering of snow and ice, requiring much more effort then. We topped out and returned. John missed a turn when glissading back down and slammed his chest into a tree, so we didn’t go on to Lower WJ that day, but returned to the cabin. As it turned out, John’s injury was only minor bruising, so all was well. The youngsters and oldsters in my group had a great time just hiking in the snow, so we had a successful winter weekend trip. We concluded our big day with a good hot meal at Camp Peggy O., and hiked out the next day. Another good meal at The Noonmark, and our trip was complete. In reflecting on our meeting with the young Canadians, I realized that unprepared hikers like them are out enjoying the wilderness every weekend. They had all of their (inadequate) gear with them, so if they were caught in the dark or lost on the Range Trail, they could have set up camp, but at least we saved them the misery of an unexpected night out. It’s obvious that most people who are that unprepared still manage to survive their mistakes; the rest of them get a mention in the monthly DEC "Incident Report". Just another weekend in the Adirondacks.
The weekend of February 26, I led a small group of people on a hike. We stayed at the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Camp Peggy O’Brien cabin on ADK’s Johns Brook property, just across the bridge from JBL. Our group consisted of 2 university students -Pete and Rico, my co-leader John, and my friend Joe. I know – 5 is a small group for a cabin that sleeps 12, but we were optimistic when booking it. After hiking the 3.5-miles to reach the cabin, we were greeted by the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition magazine laying on the large wooden table inside. Nice. Our plan was to hike 1 or 2 of the 4000-footers nearby, and we settled on doing the Wolfjaws. Since I’m already a Winter 46er and had just been up there six weeks previous with a friend and recently done those and 2 other peaks, it really didn’t matter to me; I went with what John suggested, as he is slowly working toward his 46. With only 5 of us in there, we had our choices of where to sleep. I like it cool, and took a lower bunk (Emmons). Others liked it warmer and selected an upper bunk. Apparently nobody wanted a sauna experience, so the two top beds on the triple bunks (“Marcy” and “Algonquin”) went unused. We enjoyed a good dinner and some fine reading, and then hit the vinyl (mattresses). We didn’t set alarms, but I said if you wake up and it’s light out, wake me up. That works pretty well, unless you need an early start. The unmarked trail behind the cabin meets up with a path that goes to the Ore Bed and Wolfjaw trails, and we were soon on our way.
CLUELESS
As we began our ascent of the WJ trail and approached the lean-to , we came across 2 young men who said they were from Quebec. We chatted briefly about where we were headed, and they said they had hiked in from the AuSable Cub (AMR) the day before, climbing to the top of the Wolfjaw col, then descending to the lean-to. Odd route, but maybe they thought there was a fee to park at The Garden (it’s free in Winter). We told them where we were going, and the young pair said they were going to hike Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong, and Gothics before returning to their car that day. I thought we had a late start, but they had severely overslept for an itinerary like that. I casually asked if they had a map, and they said “No”…. but they had a digital image of a map in their camera. Right. Joe gave them his photo-copied map of the area. I asked if they had a headlamp or flashlight, and they said “No”. Wrong. I told them that the local incident reports are full of hikers needing rescue for lack of a light, and they had no business being up there without a light source. I gave them one of my headlamps. They also told us how cold they had been the night before (they apparently had the wrong sleeping bags for Winter) and that they had to build a fire to keep warm. I mentioned that fires were illegal there and pointed out the “No Fires” sign on the lean-to. They responded that they buried the ashes in the snow in front of the LT and tossed the burned wood farther away – a mess for someone else to clean up in Spring. They left a pile of cut firewood in the lean-to. Yes – cut firewood. They didn’t bring a map, headlamp, or proper sleeping bags, but they remembered their big bush saw. All this in a 5-minute conversation. I suggested they alter their plans to a more reasonable route, described the Beaver Meadow descent route, and asked them to please not attempt Gothics that day.
LOWER EXPECTATIONS
We were “moving kind of slow” to the junction, and the dynamic duo passed us on the ascent. One had on snowshoes and the other did not. He said he was going bareboot because his snowshoes had no traction. The pretty-looking bent wood footwear strapped to his back would have looked great screwed to the wall of our cabin as a quaint decoration, but the rawhide webbing didn’t offer much in the way of a grip for climbing without any sort of crampons added. I assume that his grandfather lent that gear to the young man. We decided to do Upper first, and as we were still climbing, the 2 young men were coming back. They said they stopped at the top of Upper WJ and turned back when they saw how big the next peak was, and were hiking back to their car. At that point, I could have asked for the return of my headlamp, but I figured they would be back some day, and at least they would have a light source for their next misadventure. I let them keep it.
"FALSE" PRIDE
The tracks of “The Great Unprepared” stopped on the false summit with a good view of both the true top of UWJ, and the imposing summit of Armstrong. That was a lot of work for not achieving so much as one summit, but they survived to attempt another day and, hopefully, a bit wiser.
GLISSADES HAPPEN
We continued to the summit – the slab with a thin rope to help hikers ascend was covered with deep snow and I had walked half-way up before I noticed that I was on the slope that was much more difficult in December when it had only a thin covering of snow and ice, requiring much more effort then. We topped out and returned. John missed a turn when glissading back down and slammed his chest into a tree, so we didn’t go on to Lower WJ that day, but returned to the cabin. As it turned out, John’s injury was only minor bruising, so all was well. The youngsters and oldsters in my group had a great time just hiking in the snow, so we had a successful winter weekend trip. We concluded our big day with a good hot meal at Camp Peggy O., and hiked out the next day. Another good meal at The Noonmark, and our trip was complete. In reflecting on our meeting with the young Canadians, I realized that unprepared hikers like them are out enjoying the wilderness every weekend. They had all of their (inadequate) gear with them, so if they were caught in the dark or lost on the Range Trail, they could have set up camp, but at least we saved them the misery of an unexpected night out. It’s obvious that most people who are that unprepared still manage to survive their mistakes; the rest of them get a mention in the monthly DEC "Incident Report". Just another weekend in the Adirondacks.
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