We were looking to get in a quick overnight trip before black fly season.  Looking at the weather report for the weekend, things didn’t look very promising, with high winds, rain and freezing temperatures forecast for the weekend.  So Skip and Jim decided on a short Friday night overnight trip with plans to extract before the bad weather arrived mid-day on Saturday.

Jockeybush Lake is a 1.1 mile hike up a 200′ grade with two small stream crossings.   Access to the trail head  begins across from Lake Alma on Route 10 with parking is adjacent to yellow and brown trail sign. The trail follows a stream that flows from the Jockeybush Lake into West Sacandaga River.

A beautiful rocky stream with several small waterfalls comes down from the right about halfway to the lake.

Since we were only staying overnight we packed light and decided to hike sans snowshoes.  At the beginning of the trail we found compressed snow left from previous snowshoe hikers.

I packed in a pair of waterproof, 20″ NEOS Trekkers which I proposed to use for the stream crossing.  The overboots were just a little small to fit over my hiking boots however, after an initial use Skip found he could easily slip them over his boots.

As we gained some elevation there was more snow cover.  Hiking involved trying to stay on the packed trail or risk a quick post hole.  Although we didn’t need snowshoes the lack of gaiters meant our boots filled with snow overflow and soaked our socks.

The south east end of the lake has a beaver dam across it, allowing one to cross to an area of large, flat rocks. The view of the lake from this spot is wonderful, however we found it occupied by a couple and being buffeted by winds sweeping down the lake. We followed an unmarked, but easy to follow trail around the north shore of the lake to a location where large granite ledges provided a scenic view.

While Jockeybush Lake was covered by ice it was slowly melting back from the shoreline.

We utilized a fire ring near the shore for cooking our brats, but set up our tarp on an open area back in the woods.  We lowered the windward sides as much as possible. Despite 20 mph wind gusts during the night the shelter stayed intact and upright.

During the evening we heard a horned owl from across the lake, but otherwise slept great.

The next morning we discovered the fuel canister that Skip had packed for heating our water was empty.  So we had water and granola bars for breakfast and hiked out.  The hike out was easier and quicker due to the snow setting up in the cold temperatures overnight.

After my aborted winter camping trip to Gull Lake I wanted an opportunity to use the Eureka Kaycee 0 degree sleeping bag that had been provided to me.  So Monday night while Eric and Kathryn were at piano lessons and swimming I packed up my gear and hiked into the woods across the road to find a campsite and stay overnight.

I took my book and cell phone.  I didn’t read, but I had a lengthy conversation with Barbara.

I was hopeful of a good night’s sleep as I turned in at 8:30pm.  It was peaceful laying out and listening to the sounds of Canada Geese settling down near my neighbors pond.  Unfortunately, I dozed fitfully as my other neighbor had a dog that barked until 1:30am.

Temperatures dipped into the upper teens during the night.  Overall the sleeping bag test went well – except the sleeping bag got a little chilly.  I had to pull my down vest into the bag for additional insulation.

The next morning I awoke at 6:30, packed up my gear, hiked back to the house, showered and went to work.  It was kind of neat sleeping outside during a week night.  I will likely try to do it again some night this summer.

Mitchell Ponds is located southeast of Old Forge, NY at 43.6709°N 74.7485°W, elevation at 1,919 feet in the Moose River Plain.  The western access from the Moose River Plains Road is across an old road that travels 1.7 miles to the foot of Mitchell Ponds.   This trail is an easy hike up and over a hill and is marked with yellow discs.  There is a crossing over a large beaver dam on this route.  A walk of another 1 mile along the shore of the ponds takes one to a large campsite on a peninsula between the two ponds with scenic cliffs on one side of the peninsula, definitely a long walk so you do have to make sure to bring your camo weather proof hunting backpack to bring everything you need for the day!

Previously we had discussed Mitchell Ponds as a winter camping destination, but the gate to the Moose River Plain Road is closed during snow conditions limiting it to snow mobile access.  So we decided on a late October trip – sort of a winter camping preseason “warm-up”.   The crew included Skip, Chris, Rob (with June-the-food-stealing-dog), Mark, Matt and Len shown below. With deer hunting season open in the Northern Zone hiking next to Skip’s florescent yellow provided a measure of safety, we know that during this season most people buy ar-15 rifles online so we wanted to stay as far away from hunters as possible. You never know what you’re going to encounter when you’re in the woods, so you should also bring a handgun with you that is extremely fast to draw and can shoot rapidly. Check out this review at https://ballachy.com/glock-44-review/ to see if this the right handgun for you. Rob was dressed in his typical wool sweater and wool pants – his only pants, it would turn out.  Mark and Matt wore their BeyondClothing wind shirt and pants, respectively, and Len showed everyone that shorts have no season.

These experienced winter campers were joined by Eric, giving him the distinction of being  the youngest person to participate in a WinterCampers.com event.  Eric packed his own knapsack with snacks, drink and clothing.

We hiked in as two separate groups with Skip, Eric and Jim taking the more leisurely stroll in.  There was snow on the exposed surfaces such as this snowmobile bridge.

We caught up to the 1st group at the large beaver dam. The trail had a flagging tape barrier to warn speeding snowmobiles of the lack of a bridge.  We were warned by the winter camping gang flashing their WC warning sign.

It was steep coming down to the beaver dam, the dam was wet to walk across and quite high – about 8′ in height on the downstream side.

Hiking in with Eric meant frequent stops to replenish the snacks being consumed.

The last mile of the trail follows the shore of  Mitchell Ponds and was rough and quite wet in places.  It passes large rocks at the base of the cliffs, including one large  slanted rock that could be used as a shelter of sorts. The trail winds around the pond, becomes indistinct and finally crosses the outlet on the west side.

On the hike along the pond Rob’s dog, June (aka June-the-food-stealing-dog) went swimming and her harness became caught on submerged brush.  Rob fell into pond rescuing his dog and was soaked to mid-waist.  He squished on the remainder of the hike and changed out of his clothes once he got to camp.

The campsite on the peninsula up on a ridge.  It is a nice site and can accommodate several tents – good thing because while Skip, Eric and I brought a Black Diamond Megamid pyramid tent to share everyone else brought their own individual tent and had already grabbed the available flat sites.

Eric packed along vampire teeth from his Halloween costume and inspects Mark’s tent.

Rob changed out of his wet clothes and went pant-less for the remainder of the evening scaring most of the woodland creatures away and even causing a few winter campers to avert their gaze as he lounged about the camp fire.

We had a nice fire that served as a focal point for the discussion group consisting of  Skip, Rob’s drying boots, Len, June-the-food-stealing-dog, Mark, Rob and Chris.

We enjoyed a nice sunset and the ponds glowed with the warm light.

We had plans to bushwhack onto the cliffs above Mitchell Pond, but didn’t make it there.

Everyone turned in early (8:30pm) anticipating a good night’s sleep.  I was worried about keeping Eric warm through the night and was constantly awake and checking on him.  I needn’t have worried as he slept fine – mostly crowding on top of me – and Eric, Skip and I slept in until after 7am.

The rest of the crew had arisen earlier, ate breakfast and were in a rush to get out so they left.  Skip stayed with Eric and I as hiked together along Mitchell Ponds until we got through the wettest areas.   At that point Skip hiked on to meet up with other hiking partners for a further adventure on Sunday afternoon.  Eric and I walked out holding hands along the old snowmobile trails and chatting about items of interest to a 7 year old.

It started to sprinkle as we reached the beaver dam crossing and it was raining as our car came in view.  We dumped out packs in the trunk of the car, grabbed the snacks and drinks we had left in the car, turned the heater on and drove home.