Henderson to Hermitage
This trip report is a combined canoe/backpack we did, Ellen and Coldriver
Bob over 4th of July weekend in the high peaks wilderness area. We
started out at 2 am Thursday night to drive to our start point at Lake
Henderson. As we were driving through Old Forge at about 6 AM a young
deer was trotting up the middle of rte 28 through town, I was driving at
that point and I slowed down to shout at it and it turned to come towards
my open window. At that point I opened my door to shoo it off the road,
if was cute but it wasn't going to see it's next birthday unless it
got off the road. We continued on to our start point. At the trailhead
we got our packs together and put the canoe in at Henderson lake to a
beautiful blue sky and warm temps. The lake was beautiful, we paddled to
the opposite side and then came a more difficult passage. We portaged
about 2 miles, Bob had the canoe on his shoulders (a 2-seater Old Town
good for about 50 lbs) and I had the "big" pack. It wasn't a bad trail,
it was mostly up hill to Upper Preston, parts were muddy and parts had
alot of boulders but we made it through in about 1.5 hrs. At that point
we were at upper Preston lake, it is another beautiful lake, there is
a somewhat crooked pier there and some DEC boats at the put-in. There
is a cabin across the lake owned by National Lead that looks nice,
you can see it when you start across the lake. It was a nice canoe
accross upper preston than another short portage to lower preston which
is another spectacular lake. From Lower Preston you can see the Seward
Mountains. The lakes were quiet, pretty and each had a couple of loons
swimming on them but they kept their distance. From lower Preston we
had another short portage to Duckhole Pond. This is a gem of a lake
with beautiful views and a small but forceful waterfall on one side. We
paddles accross Duckhole to join our friends, George, Dianna, their son
Keith and Tracy the wonder dog at one of the two lean-to's there. They
had been there since the previous day and were well settled. We spent the
afternoon resting, fishing and canoeing. We had a great dinner, venison
hotdogs and venison steaks and some Chardonnay compliments of George,
well really some credit should go to Tracy who carried it in. That
night we all slept well, heard some loon activity, awoke to a splendid
morning. Once again, we dined high on the hog with venison sausage and
pancakes with real maple syrup, compliments of Bob & I. With our energy
restored, Bob and I continued our trip to Noah Rondeau's old stomping
grounds on the Cold River and the George & Dianna trio went in search
of an old lumber camp for the morning. We would meet up with them again
the next night. Cold River is much bigger than I expected it to be and
I thought it was a very pretty river. We stayed at Ouluska lean-to that
night. Oh yes, we were lucky enough to see a bald eagle flying back and
forth over the water and suddenly take a dive into the water to catch
his meal, it was awesome! We walked to Big Dam, saw one heck of a large
timber under water for what was left of the dam, we walked onto the flow
where the logs were collected on the river before they were let go to
ride the current downriver, it was very interesting. The view on the
flow of the Seward range, the slide and Ouluska pass was fantastic. The
next morning back to duckhole, our friends went out ahead and were met
up with them at the Lake Henderson Lean-to. The portage between Upper
Preston and Lake Henderson was a bit easier because it was now mostly
downhill. But we were tired when we arrived because all in all we covered
about 13 miles that day. We all cooled off in the falls by the lake,
and boy was it cold but very refreshing. We had an enjoyable last night,
we sat around the fire and celebrated Bob's 62nd birthday (4th of July
baby) and the next morning we all headed back to the trailhead. It was
a super fantastic trip, it was Bob's seventh time in by canoe, he keeps
saying he'll never do it again (that carry is getting a little harder
each yr) but he keeps doing. I can easily see why, it's very irristable,
so beautiful you don't want to leave. Our weather was absolutely perfect
and we really had no problems. I have pictures but haven't downloaded
into a usable format but maybe I can post some later.  __________________