High Falls Loop

Our route

Ryan and I just completed the High Falls Loop, with a side trip to Big Shallow Pond.  We originally planned going in the afternoon, hiking a short distance to a shelter at High Rock.  We would spend the night there and then explore the Five Ponds the next day.  We were going to make our way back up to Januck's Landing shelter and spend the night there.  Finally, we were going to hike out the morning of the third day.  There are lots of "going to's" in that paragraph.  But more on that in a bit.

The first couple of miles were like this.

Ryan is a great hiking companion.  He's only 14, but he seems to really enjoy nature and has never been afraid of hard work.  We missed the girls in the family, but were certain Riley wouldn't have had a good time.  The trail did not continue to be a "walk in the park".  We were warned about the beaver activity in the area.  It was no understatement.  In fact, if you look at a lot of maps of the trail, they'll list the loop as about 15 miles.  I found someone online who had tracked the loop with a GPS.  She listed it as 17.72 miles.  I think the trail is getting longer because of all of the re-routes the beaver ponds are creating.

This is the trail.

We saw a lot of these.  They cover acres of land.

Trekking poles are not a luxury item.

View from the campsite
at High Rock

On with our story...   So we reached our first planned site in an hour.  It was only a little more than 4 miles into the trip, but we were cruising.  It was .2 miles off the trail.  The site was beautiful.  High Rock doesn't have a shelter, but the camp site was fantastic.  There was a great breeze coming off the Oswegatchie River.  As I said before, we were "going to" spend the night here, but it was way too early for stopping.  We took a short break and walked down to the river. 

Oswegatchie River

We made our way to our big break with the loop.  We turned south and decided to check out the shelter at Big Shallow Pond.  There was no exact distance to it on the map, but we figured it was around 2 miles.  There were more beaver ponds to navigate, and after crossing a nice plank bridge, we saw a campsite set up, but no people - at least not until we came back out the next day.  The side trip seemed closer to 3 miles.  The terrain was more challenging.  We were pretty tired when we came to the shelter.  We traveled about 10 1/2 miles to get there and did that in less than 4 hours. 

The shelter was amazing.

When you're a 14 year old boy, you're in love with fire.

Kermit

Okay, it's time for a little gear talk.  I mentioned the Warbonnet Blackbird hammock in a previous post, but I didn't post any pictures.  So now I will.  What you'll see is the Mamajamba tarp over the top.  There is an optional door kit for both ends.  The tarp is great because you can pitch it according to the weather.  If it's cold or raining hard, it can be pitched in a sharp "A" going all the way to the ground.  If it's calm, or only a light rain is expected, it can be pitched broadly allowing for more openness.  I have a 900 fill 20 degree down top quilt and bottom quilt.  The effect is that you're wrapped all the way around.  It can be warmer than a sleeping bag (because there is no compressed down that you're body is smashing the insulative properties out).  The under quilt is attached underneath the hammock and can be opened on either end for more or less airflow, depending on the temperature.  There is storage inside of the hammock and the whole setup is less than 3 pounds.  Fantastic!

Also, we're in love with the JetBoil Sol Titanium cook set.  It's really light (not as light - or cheap - as an alcohol stove), but over a 4 or 5 day trip, I don't think it's much different when you take fuel into account.  It packs down to the size of a can of oil (do they still sell oil in cans?).  The great thing about it, is that it's really efficient.  Water boils almost instantly.  We're into freezer bag cooking.  We have a dehydrator at home and we'll make extra food at dinner and then dehydrate it.  We'll stash it in the freezer until we're ready for a trip.  It makes the food very light, and when we're ready to eat, we just add hot water and let it rehydrate.  On this trip we had some spaghetti and some other bean and hamburger concoction that Candie made.  We had instant oatmeal for breakfast.  Some granola and Snickers for snacks.

We love this shelter and will go back.  There are carvings on the walls dating back to the early 1960's.  There is a shelter sponsor who checks on it regularly and keeps it in top shape.  I think his name is Sam (from the shelter journal).  He does a fantastic job. 

Big Shallow - a view from the shelter

We hiked out and back to the loop.  On our way, we met a father and son who were at that empty camping site we'd seen the day before.  They were fishing from the plank bridge without a lot of luck.  They had canoed up the Oswegatchie to the camp.  Ryan and I definitely made a mental note.  It looks like a fun river to canoe. 

We worked our way to the High Falls side trail.  There used to be a hotel back this way.  I believe it burned down in the 1920's or 1930's.  The area also supported the logging industry.  We ran into some long abandoned gear. 

Solid Iron

The falls were fantastic.  Ryan explored while I soaked my feet.  We got some water out of the river and ate lunch at the shelter.  We were then on our way.

High Falls - Oswegatchie River

The next 4 or 5 miles were moderately strenuous.  There were some ups and downs and a lot of rocks.  We were re-routed around several beaver ponds and went through some very dense forest.  It was buggy, but beautiful. 

The Green Tunnel

We planned to stop at Januck's Landing shelter and stay the night.  That would have left a easy 4 mile hike back to the trail head.  We got to the shelter and there was one plastic box in it.  We hiked down to the water's edge (Cranberry Lake) and there were people just arriving by boat.  It was a big group and they were all singing the Beverly Hillbillie's theme.  In my head, I was humming Dueling Banjos and thinking about the movie, Deliverance.

There was a camp site close by, and we actually started to set up camp, but then decided it wouldn't be a great place to spend the night.  The group was already loud.  We're getting into backpacking because of the remoteness of it. 

We hiked back to the trail head and called it a day.  We were both pretty tired.  We estimate that we completed about 23 miles in 26 hours.  That's with 13 hours at the shelter at Big Shallow.  Still, it was a fantastic trip.  I love spending time with Ryan like this.  He's a really interesting person and I'm very proud of him.

Although, he can be a goofball

I almost forgot.  Flora and fauna...  We saw a ridiculous number of snakes - including one that swam across a pond.  They were all garter snakes, but cool nonetheless.  We saw beaver, frogs, toads, and a bluebird.  At night we heard loons and bullfrogs.  The forest is mixed hardwoods and conifers.  I read in a shelter journal about the wonderful fungi - and this coming from a biologist.  There was no doubt about that - and some beautiful flowers.

Thanks for reading!