Today, I had an opportunity to take a short post-deer season hike with Tredhed to Bennett Lake in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest of Opportunity. We were up at the cabin doing some snowmobile trespassing prevention activities and had some time to kill before we had to head back to town. The short hike to Bennett Lake was perfect.
With the weather feeling more like October than mid-December, we arrived at the Creek Rd. trailhead (photo 1) a little after noon, signed into the register (photo 2) and hit the rocky uphill section of the trail (photo 3). The 300' climb went quickly as the old road wasn't too steep.
One of my objectives for today's hike was to try and locate the old paint mine adjacent to the trail. As described in "Discover the Southern Adirondacks", pg. 241, when we came to the hard left turn on the trail, adjacent to the southern end of Bennett Lake, we noticed the mine pit right alongside the trail (photo 4). In the surrounding woods there were several old barrels and steel cables. Mission accomplished!
Happy to have found the old mine, we headed down to the lake on the unmarked spur trail. Despite it being "gray season", the view from the designated campsite was pretty good (photo 5, 6) . The beavers had the water level up a little bit as one of the many fire rings was a little damp to be very useful (photo 7).
The 30 min hike back to Creek Rd. went by pretty quick. Tredhed and I made an effort to pay more attention to the signs of previous civilization as we passed many stone walls and foundations. It had been a while since either of us had been up this way and once again, it didn't disappoint us. Another glorious day in the woods.
With the weather feeling more like October than mid-December, we arrived at the Creek Rd. trailhead (photo 1) a little after noon, signed into the register (photo 2) and hit the rocky uphill section of the trail (photo 3). The 300' climb went quickly as the old road wasn't too steep.
One of my objectives for today's hike was to try and locate the old paint mine adjacent to the trail. As described in "Discover the Southern Adirondacks", pg. 241, when we came to the hard left turn on the trail, adjacent to the southern end of Bennett Lake, we noticed the mine pit right alongside the trail (photo 4). In the surrounding woods there were several old barrels and steel cables. Mission accomplished!
Happy to have found the old mine, we headed down to the lake on the unmarked spur trail. Despite it being "gray season", the view from the designated campsite was pretty good (photo 5, 6) . The beavers had the water level up a little bit as one of the many fire rings was a little damp to be very useful (photo 7).
The 30 min hike back to Creek Rd. went by pretty quick. Tredhed and I made an effort to pay more attention to the signs of previous civilization as we passed many stone walls and foundations. It had been a while since either of us had been up this way and once again, it didn't disappoint us. Another glorious day in the woods.
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