One Good Day on the Trail Deserves Another

by Bill Ingersoll

It is our last day on the trail, and we awake to gray skies and a few rolls of distant thunder. The light is dull and even, and the ponderosa pine forest that surrounds our campsite is hushed by the still air that precedes the coming shower.

It is a cold morning, just a touch below freezing. I expect that any precipitation that will come will be of the white variety, and quite frankly after five days of hiking dusty trails a little snow would be a welcome diversion.

Today’s hike – the last leg in our 48-mile trip – will begin with a 1,200-foot climb in the first mile. I have been dreading this day since we first came down that same route almost a week ago. There had been few switchbacks, and it had been brutal even as a descent. Of course, we were still pretty raw on that day. We had only just arrived in New Mexico hours beforehand, and as we climbed out of Rain Creek Canyon to a height-of-land near 7,400 feet our lungs struggled to process the thin air. It did not bode well, but actually by the next day we all felt strengthened, and indeed during the course of the week we demonstrated that strength to ourselves as we toured for many long miles through Aldo Leopold’s beloved Gila Wilderness.

So today I am ready to go, and I decide snow is the best thing that could happen to us. For once there will be moisture in the air, and the sun will not be beating on our backs as it would otherwise be doing. Doug and Paul agree, so we roll up our tents and set off.

The snow is already falling. As warm as it has been this week we do not expect it to stick, but nevertheless I am delighted to see little patches of white on the ground, as well as on the mountain mahogany and the tender boughs of the Douglas-firs. The moisture in the air – back home in the Adirondacks we would call this a heavy dew – brings out the musky smell of damp wood. This gentle snowfall beguiles away the time, and the 1,200-foot climb that we had been dreading all week is over in 45 minutes.

It is a thousand feet straight down into the Rain Creek valley. The mountain is steep, the slope well over 45 degrees I estimate. I am ever grateful for the long switchbacks, novelties for us New Yorkers, for they make this descent very easy on the knees. Someone has undertaken considerable effort to “bench” this trail into the side of the mountain. In a few places, loose stone taken from beside the trail has been used to build it up. The trail is so narrow and the slopes so steep that I puzzle over the logistics of how this trail was built. What tools did they carry? Did they work in the heat of the day? The trail is well built and in great condition, and we estimate that the work we are admiring was done within the decade.

Our zigzagging route has us walking probably a mile without taking us very far in any one direction, but it does get us to the floor of the valley. Rock spires that were far below us a little while ago are now high above us up in the hills. We cross Rain Creek’s dry cobbles and ascend to the trailhead on the mesa.

We are startled to find a man there, waiting for a ride home. He is surprised to see us, too, and he asks us to remind him of the time and date, as though to forget the time and date is a sign of a good wilderness trip. This display of willful ignorance, together with the coarse, graying beard that was growing long before his hike, unlike our own week-old beards, makes Paul suspect he is an ex-hippie.

He has just come off of a trip over West Fork Saddle, and when we learn that he is from Silver City we pump him for local information. We ask about the drought, and about the trails in the Gila. To our minds they are in great shape, but he pooh-poohs this and swears that the Forest Service hasn’t done a lick of trail work in 20 years. It is the complaint of all locals everywhere, I suspect, that the government isn’t doing what it is being paid to do; in New York the scapegoat is the DEC. Our rousing defense of the quality of the Gila’s trails isn’t enough – he’ll hear none of it.

Then I say, “Well, where we come from there’s blowdown everywhere. You no sooner clear out one dead tree from a trail and another one falls behind you.” I am exaggerating, but of course not by much.

And his response: “Ah, so you’re from the Adirondacks then.” Our friend is not as willfully ignorant as he lets on.

Saturday, June 3 is National Trails Day, which began 14 years ago as a program of the American Hiking Society. It has become a near universal event, with many hiking and trail-related organizations hosting their own Trails Day activities, ranging from easy hikes and walks, to work trips for the experienced trail users who feel they ought to give something back to the trails they love.

It is not just about hiking, either; mountain bikers, equestrians, paddlers, and nature lovers are Trails Day participants, too. What it all comes down to is the trails – those paths through the woods that draw us outdoors time and time again, but which all need regular maintenance. National Trails Day has proven to be a tremendously effective vehicle for getting people outdoors – either for work or for pleasure.

Major Activities Planned in Our Region
The Adirondack Mountain Club is hosting its annual Trails Day bonanza in Inlet, where volunteers will be ranging out across the region on nine separate work hikes. Afterwards, volunteers will be treated to a buffet and music at the Ole Barn Restaurant. For details, visit www.adk.org.

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, in collaboration with Adirondack North Country Association and Central Adirondack Association will be celebrating the official opening of the 740-mile kayak and canoe trail that links the watersheds of northern New York, Vermont, Québec, New Hampshire and Maine. The event, which will be held at Riverside Park in Saranac Lake, will include a dedication, exhibits and interpretive activities. For details, visit www.northernforestcanoetrail.org.

The ADK Schenectady Chapter and Friends of the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail are planning general trail maintenance along Schenectady’s section of the Bike-Hike Trail. They’ll provide refreshments, T-shirts to the first 24 people, door prizes and some tools for use. For details, visit www.geocities.com/mhbway.

Grafton, Thacher, Schodack Island and Moreau state parks are celebrating Trails Day with trail enhancement, cleanup and volunteer recognition barbecues. For details, visit www.nysparks.com.

On Sunday, June 4, Cedar Grove: The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill is hosting “Trails with Tales” featuring a special program by Russell Dunn and Barbara Delaney (authors of the new book, “Trails with Tales: History Hikes through the Capital Region, Saratoga, Berkshires, Catskills & Hudson Valley”), exhibits, guided walks, free tours and refreshments. Plus, hikes at Olana State Historic Site in Hudson. For details, visit www.thomascole.org.

For more information on other events in upstate New York, contact your local hiking or bicycling clubs; outdoor retailers; local or state parks, forest or other public land agencies; the American Hiking Society at www.americanhiking.org; or our Calendar of Events.

Bill Ingersoll of Barneveld is the wildlands stewardship chair for the Adirondack Mountain Club conservation committee, and the conservation chair for the Iroquois Chapter. He will be leading a work hike to the Mays Pond trail for this year’s ADK Trails Day event.

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