Confused on way out of Spruce Lake

[Justin]

Well I went to Spruce Lake for a day hike on Saturday(9/16/06) for my first time there. I came in from the end of Perkins Clearing/Jessup River Road. As I hiked in, I was keeping an eye out for where the trail from where I parked meets up with the NPT. I never saw where in fact the trails come together. Now, I do believe there are two seperate approaches to connect with the NPT from where I parked. However, I never saw a split in the trail. Anyway, I made good time in reaching the first lean-to at Spruce Lake, and continued on to # 2 and # 3, and also did some more shore exploring on the way back to # 1. Very beautiful Lake! On my return to the truck, I again was looking for the trail split where you can either turn left (east) towards where I was parked, or turn right (south-southeast) towards Piseco. Again I never saw a split in the trail. I soon relized I was walking south-southeast for way too long. I came to a very lovely brook that was flowing north, (jessup River maybe), and I then knew for sure I was about 1-2 miles down from where I should have turned off the NPT towards my truck. With the sun setting, I decided to to continue towards Piseco (another 4-5 miles) rather than turn around and head back to try and find the split I didn't see in the first place. I did not see a split on the way in, and I did not see a split on the way out. Oh the tricks the mountains can play on you. So like I said, with the sun setting, I stuck with my decision to hike out to Piseco and call my girlfriend for a ride back to my truck at the end of Perkins Clearing/ Jessup River Road. Needless to say, my girlfriend was not very happy about all of this. But I did make it out ok and only have a few blisters. It was the closest I came to being lost in a very long time. Alittle scary! But I made my decision and stuck with it, and everthing turned out ok. Now I am wondering why I missed this trail spilt, (or spilts) both on the way in and the way out? Has anyone ever had this same confusion there? Am I just an idiot? I can't wait to go back and see where I went wrong.

[AntlerPerak]

Which way did you go in from Perkins, via Pillsbury or did you follow the old roads along the Jessup River? As I recall there are a lot of old roads in there, none marked. It gets a bit confusing in there. The trail from Pillsbury to Samson Lake is fairly well marked but several unsigned roads are encountered. The old route shown on topos to Whitney Lake are not marked and to find it is one of those best guess deals.

I never attempted the roads along the Jessup, however I remember where the N-P crosses the outlet of bloodgood lake there was an unsigned road that followed the Jessup back to Perkins. The N-P followed that road a short distance south then left it before crossing the river. Other than N-P markings none of this was signed. So how did you get to the N-P?

[Justin]

When you get to Sled Harbor and the road to Pillsbury and the Cedars, stay left on the main road all the way back. You basically have to stay srtaight on the main road since alot of the intersecting roads have barriers after following them for 100 yards or more. I believe most of this land is not State owned (IP Lands?) If you stay on the main road you will cross the Jessup one last time, and the barrier and the trail registration box is another .5 -.7 mile, about 12 mile- 15miles from RT 30. You walk the trail for a half mile or so and then you pick up the NPT. Now I have three different maps all showing something different. Barabera McMartin's "Discover the West Central Adirondacks" helps explain some of this, but things may have over grown and what not, so it was hard to use her guide. On the hike in, about 3/4 mile in there is an arrow on a tree that points right and states : To Spruce Lake. It's looks like you could walk straight ahead on the path in front, but there are no markers. I would imagine that it could be a connector trail to the NPT if you were headed toward Piseco. As I turned right at the arrow toward Spruce, I never noticed when I picked up the NPT headed toward Spruce.

[AntlerPerak]

I had not been in that section. I did the Pillsbury-Sampson- Cedar loop a couple of times but had not followed your route. The new ADK Mountain Club Central Guide, (2006), has the above routes in it. I had borrowed it from a friend earlier this year. You may want to check and see if the spruce Lake route is in there. I would have thought it would be in the west central but they did stick the Pillsbury-cedar routes in the central.

[Justin]

I had a conversation about this with a friend of mine today. I was glad to hear from (Mike), since I haven't heard from him in a long time. He told me that he did the same thing that I did on the hike out from Spruce Lake, when he was there with 3 others on a backpacking trip, and parked at the same spot I had parked. He and his party weren't lucky enough to have darkness approaching fast like I was, so they were able to turn back, and find the "hard to spot" trail that leads back towards the parking lot.

I know Mike, his pals, and myself, could just be a bunch of dopes, but I feel better knowing I'm not the only one that got turned around here.

So if you read this, and have not yet hiked into Spruce Lake from this way, Please be very careful. This can be a tricky spot. --JF