Pristine, sunny views
along the
Northville-Lake Placid Trail

Fast John can sleep comfortably on nails; "g" desperately yearned for his Therm-A-Rest Ultra Light, inflatable sleeping pad. To chop an extra 1/2+ lb off his pack weight, he regrettably trekked with his foam pad and awoke hourly as a result. Part of the problem was his body's craving for calories at 3:00 AM. "g" had correctly anticipated his huge need for carbs at the end of his first day of enduance trekking with a pack, and at 4:30 AM retrieve their food cache from the outhouse. Draped in his down bag, he cranked up his mini stove and cooked his secret weapon against hunger - a piping hot bowl of Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup. After munching in the dark in the glow of his LED headlamp, "g" took in the sights from inside the lean-to. The sun hadn't come up yet, the birds were just beginning to chirp, and there was an occasional haunting sound of a distant loon. The ground was wet and frozen. Fast John snored away. And, still... "g's" body continued to cry-out for more calories. At 4:50 AM... out came the fixings for Hot Rice Cereal (a concoction of dehydrated Basmati rice, oatmeal, powdered milk for protein, margarine and pancake syrup). The dike was finally plugged.

At about 5:45 AM, Fast John rolled out of bed and shared a mug of hot mint tea with "g". With the ground sparkling and soaked in crunchy ice flecks, the Boys with Ultra Determination hit the trail - walking for the first mile to get limbered up!

The first several miles took the Boys around a bog on a well marked detour. Blow-downs were everywhere. The many wooden trail planks over wet/frozen trails were iced-over, making them ankle breakers for sure!

By the time the Boys had run five miles, the sky was clear, the sun was strikingly bright, and the temperature hovered around 35-40 degrees. They were in the utra-groove!