Pharaoh Lake Wilderness hike

On July 6, my 2 sons and I headed up to the Putnam Pond Campground, in the Adirondack Park to begin a 3 day back pack in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area. Last year my youngest son, Timothy took a leave of absence from his work and hiked the Appalachian Trail. Springer to Katahdin May 1 to Oct 5. In July we joined him for 4 days in Virginia and afterwards we decided that the three of us should continue to plan on doing a trip like that once a year. The criteria for this years hike was, no early mornings, easy mileage, with a nice campsite at the end preferably on a pond so that they could fish, trees for Tim's and my hammocks, (Sean sleeps in a tent), and within easy driving distance from Williamstown, MA. The Pharaoh Wilderness seemed to fit the bill and I planned a nice loop out and around from Putnam pond. Three 6 mile days and a 2 mile hike out on the last day, with one mountain. All hikes would end up at a pond.

We found a nice campsite on Crab Pond the first night. We were out on a point on Pharaoh Lake the second night and on Grizzle Pond for the third. In the thumbnails the first picture is the Crab pond campsite taken from my hammock. The second is a picture from the other side of Pharaoh Lake looking towards the #2 campsite and the third and fourth are Tim's Hennessey and my Clark with the new Warbonnet Mamajamba tarp on Grizzle Pond. I got a good test Friday night when the clouds opened up for a real hard downpour and all remained dry under my new tarp.

The heat and the bugs really slowed me down, so the time on the trail ended up being a lot longer than I had planned for. The campsites made up for all the agony and the campfires kept the bugs at bay. The boys got a lot of casting practice in and actually managed to catch a few undersized fish. it was a good thing none of us planned on trout for dinner.

There is a fuller description of our trip, with videos and pictures on my blog which you can access at this link:
http://sleepybrewing.blogspot.com/20...ilderness.html

Looks like a beautiful place to hang!

pics look great man sounds like a good time :D

Looks like a very hammock friendly area, nicely spaced trees with no understory.
And, perfectly spaced trees to the side for you tarp side pull-outs.
Nicely done!

My favorite backpacking location. Went there 2 years ago and had a handful of nights on the shores of Pharaoh Lake. The view from Pharaoh Mt. was breathtaking.

Nice report.

I camped on the rocky point in your second picture late last fall. What a beautiful area!

Nice !

What map set did you use?

Also could you list the route?

Thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tjm

Nice !

What map set did you use?

Also could you list the route?

Thank you.

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I used my TOPO map set that has the entire ADK park on a CD. I could find my maps and email them to you if you would like. It was a pretty straight forward route...from the south trail head, over the foot bridge, keep going north past the beaver dam until you get to the south end of Pharaoh Lake, then take the fork to the left over the spill way, and just keep going to the 3rd (I think) shelter which is on the little point that extends into the lake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tjm

Nice !

What map set did you use?

Also could you list the route?

Thank you.

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I used the National Geographic Adirondack Park Map # 743 which covers the Eastern region. This map lists 2 shelters on that side of the pond, however the first shelter no longer exists and the second shelter, the one we stayed at is now called Watch Clock Rock Shelter, formerly Pharaoh lake #5. You need to go past the shelter to get out on the point. Nice places to hang to the right of the trail after passing the shelter. No trees on the point but there was a fire ring where we set up. We came in from Putnam Pond Campground and over Pharaoh Mountain. The trails were all well marked. I was leary about leaving my car on the road for 4 days and so elected to use the Campground parking. It was $6/day