Flowed Lands - Allen

May 21, 2010

Marc and Hilary came over to my place after work and we piled our gear into Marc's car for the drive down. We stopped for supper at the hotel restaurant in Canton, and then continued to our destination of a vintage hotel in Long Lake. We met the remainder of our team, Debbie, Matthew, and Wendy in the pub, and worked out the last bit of logistics for the expedition over a couple of beers.

May 22, 2010

Woke up at 05:00 in the Adirondack Hotel of Long Lake. Drove to the last Upper Works trailhead, stopping at a gas station for a meal of coffee and frozen muffins prior to starting the most difficult hike of my life. The day was warm, and the mosquitos were fierce as we crossed the boggy lands along the Calamity Brook trail. We were carrying full packs and arrived at the Flowed Lands after a couple hours of easy hiking. The area was quite crowded and the campsites full. We worked our way around the lake until we came to the Opalescent river. I was concerned about the crossing, since I had heard that the bridge was out (which it was), but there was an easy crossing on some rocks. We hiked on about another kilometer until we came to the last campsite and it was empty. It was a beautiful spot right down by the water and we set up camp right away. After pitching four tents and a hammock, we set off towards Mount Allen. The trail was fairly easy for the first bit, a gentle downward slope along the river. We came to the trail junction and a large carved sign in a tree marked the unmarked trail to the mountain. The way was actually very well marked for the first while until we left the private property and entered state lands. Nevertheless the trail was easy to follow as it was well trodden, and also well cleared of deadfall. We stopped for lunch along a small brook at the base of the mountain, refilled our water bottles as it was very hot now, and then began the climb. The going was tricky as it followed a lot of slab rock which was incredibly slippery. The hot sun also beat down rellentlessly as we slavered upwards. We crossed a small stream and I found a hat in it, which I hung in a small tree in case the owner had lost it on the way up earlier. We continued on and met a group of about five people coming down. Sure enough, one fellow was missing a hat and I told him to look ahead for the hat in the tree. It took another hour of hard climbing to finally reach the summit where we were rewarded with a great view of the Great Range. We took a short break and then got going again because we knew we had a long way to go to get back to camp. The way down the slippery slabs was almost as difficult as going up, but we got down with no mishaps. Then was the four hour slog back to camp on reasonably flat approach trail. We had to stop again and refill water bottles as we had all run out. This took some time, but fortunately Hilary had packed a water filter. We raced along the unmarked trail determined to get back to the marked trail before darkness hit. We made it with lots of time to spare, but still had several km to go. I found a compass lying on the trail and pocketed it, figuring I would give it away to someone on the navigation course I was helping out on in a couple of weeks. We got back to the Flowed Lands and encountered a group of people (illegally) camped on the trail. It turns out it was the folks that we had met on Allen. It also turned out that they had lost a compass, so I returned it to them. Feeling good about doing a good deed, I got my second (or was it the third?) wind and raced back the last kilometer to camp. As soon as I arrived, utter exhaustion sank in and I flopped on the ground as darkness fell and the rest of the group arrived. After supper cooked under headlamp we all felt better but still tired. A 13.5 hour hike makes this a personal record. Hit the sleeping bags as soon as we could because we knew tommorrow is another big day.

Matthew and his enormous 115 liter pack.