LL village to Placid this march-ish

[sacco]

thinking of doing the northern most stretch of the NPT in march-ish with skis.

i'd like to do it when the ice is still thick enough on LL to ski the lake, but i'd like longer days.

hawk, why do you think it's better to go from averyville south, rather than north from the village?
i was thinking if you start from the village you get to start with the lake which should be a nice easy going intro day for any newbie skiers, and all those lean-tos spaced out along the lake could come in handy and give you a lot of flexibilty on the first day.

val, if you're thinking of taking up skiing this might be a perfect trip for ya nice flat snowmobile-packed trails on the lake. haven't looked into it in years, but i know you used to be able to rent X-country skis pretty cheap.

so when's the latest the ice is usually good ?

[redhawk]

I like to get a little conditioned. The section from Lake Gurant up to Shattuck Clearing is about the hilliest I think.

Plus we skins know that going south is always downhill!! Haven't you ever seen a globe?

Hell, maybe I'll try xcountry skiing too. I'm supposed to hook up with Dan at back2basics and do some down there. However, at the moment we are missing a prerequisite, SNOW!!

[fvrwld]

I'll have to play it by year. Once I get on some X-country skis I'll have a better idea. I use to do a lot of downhill skiing so I hope that tranlates over to X-country. There is only 3 months between then and now and so much to do. Winter is too short.

How long do you plan on taking to do this?

Plan on safe ice untill mid-late March. (March 15 is the day that the state wants shanties off the ice)

[Rick]

This sounds like a great trip. Are you planning on 5-6 days or so? The snow should be fairly consolidated by then and with Sacco's idea of the long days, and to be alone on plumleys and then the CR L/Ts
I might lke to come out as well.

[redhawk]

Val, we can do some xcountry skiing at Dan and Kims to get in shape.

[sacco]

How long do you plan on taking to do this?

Plan on safe ice untill mid-late March. (March 15 is the day that the state wants shanties off the ice)

i dunno, 3-4 days?


let's shoot for either the last weekend in feb (26/27)
or the first weekend in march (5/6)


hawk, according the ADK guidebook duck hole to averyville is the toughest part to ski. (no first hand experience, just the guidebook)

[sacco]

rick, do you really think 5-6 days are needed?

i was thinking we could make great time up the lake atleast.

[Rick]

These are just my random thoughts, I am absolutely not trying to create an agenda, but rather trying to figure timing on parts of the trail I know.
I do realize snowmobiles shouldn't be back there, but I hear that they are back in there at times and their trails on some of the old tote roads the NLP follows might come in handy.

If we can ski the lake (we might need skins and definitely klister if the ice is clean) I agree we can make great time - perhaps get to Plumleys by night (9-mile day).

Then a half day to get to the Shattucks or the first set of Cold River L/T's I think also we can make great time between The first set of CR L/Ts and Ouluska Pass, along the old tote road, assuming sleds might have come in through there and created a bit of hardpack for us. Oulsuka pass might be a spot for night 2 (11-Mile Day).
From Ouluska to WBTT will be slower going and then faster on the WBTT to Duck Hole for night 3 (6-mile leisurely day?).
I think the last bit around 13~14 miles might take 2 days at most, one day if conditions are great. I think it will be a push though. I can map out the elevation profile on Topo and see what it looks like.

Are you thinking pulka or backpack? If the snow is not consolidated or there are much newer snowfalls, it would make for a longer difficult trip.

[sacco]

what about this?

day 1 village to plum. (9)
day 2 plum to CR2 or ouluska (9) or (11)
day 3 CR2/ouluska to duckhole or moosepond (6) (8) or (10)
day 4 duckhole or moosepond to averyville (9) or (13)

i know the last day's gonna be quite a push this way, but atleast it'd be with the lightest packweight, and no setting up camp at the end of the day.
ofcourse it'd be real nice if we could start the last day from moosepond rather than duckhole.
i agree that weather/trail conditions will be a huge factor on mileage that can't really be planned for.
on the bright side, i love night skiing so i don't have a problem going late into the evening.

don't know about pulks. depends on what we end up agreeing on for days. 4 days or less i think i can stay under 25lbs total so i'd probably just backpack it.
5 days or more and i think i'll use a pulk

[Rick]

The nice thing is we won't need tents as we would likely have the place to ourselves. Just a tarp over the leanto front (or to emergency bivy under) or a bivy sack.

[sacco]

i will definitely not be bringing a tent.
i should have a bivy by then, if not then i'll just tarp it.

[Rick]

If the trail isn't broken out between Ouluska and WBTT, I think we could end up trudging along with our ski's in horrible fashion. Where my weakness is with my BC skis in deep snow where I sink in and can't get any purchase. I have had this happen on backpacking trips where I take my ski's off and posthole the rest of the way and end up camping wet and cold. An thoughts?

[sacco]

i dunno...

the ADK guidebook does say the last stretch is a lot easier to snowshoe than to ski...

maybe it would be better to plan for 5 days and try to start the 4th day from moose pond rather than duck hole.

hopefully we'll have a good trail report from whcobbs. he'll be going through this section the weekend before, i believe.

[Lee]

Any chance you folks could go a little later (March 12 - 20). I would be able to go along during that period.

I prefer snowshoes to skis, but could do either. Snowshoes are more flexible (but skis are a lot faster).

-Lee

[sacco]

might be able to do that. love to have you along lee