Adirondack Sports May 2024

MAY 2024 43
HIKING & BACKPACKING continued from 41
◀ WEST CANADA LAKE BRIDGE.
▶ TRAIL SIGNS.
◀ MEADOW AND STREAM.
▲ WINTER ON THE TRAIL.
PHOTOS BY JEFF CASE
▶ SEWARD LEAN-TO.
out to be a more than 33-year avocation.
I began to plan and train. Planning
was fairly easy. The Adirondack Mountain
Club published a slim volume at the time,
separate from the High Peaks guidebook,
that dealt with the trail and planning. That
was pretty much straight-forward. Gear
was suggested and all I had to do was
purchase it. But what about the physical
training? Books on the subject of backpacking
were scant at the time, and the
internet wasn’t even thought of. One of
those books suggested that one pound of
weight on your feet equaled five pounds of
weight on your back. Hmm, it occurred to
me that if that premise were true, by walking
with weight on my ankles I would be
able to train for walking with weight on my
back. Hence began my training with ankle
weights, and thereafter a weighted vest.
Before long, the day to leave finally
came, and I found myself walking down
the trail with about 40 pounds on my
back. Beautiful scenery and nearly perfect
weather contributed to what seemed to be
a fairly easy 7.3 miles on the first day. Not
bad for a start. The next day gave way to
11.3 miles. Then 11.1 and so forth. Before
I knew it, I was covering more miles than I
thought I ever could. The exertion of each
of those long days was whipping my body
into shape. Muscles were getting stronger
and firmer. Hills and steep grades at
first were agonizing – an exercise in deep
breathing and sometimes gasping for air.
I told myself “I’m never gonna die of a
heart attack, because if I was, I’d be dead
by now.” Before long they became what I
came to call “butt burners,” because of the
calories they were burning.
The intense exercise was only part of
the equation. The other part was unexpected:
A drop in appetite. I had packed
snacks and treats of all sorts, along with
nutritious ready-to-eat meals. But at the
end of the day, I wasn’t hungry. Maybe it
was the summertime heat. Maybe it was
the exhaustion. In any case my calorie consumption
dropped with my appetite. The
result was the pounds began to come off.
The days on the trail grew to be beautiful.
The scenery was delightful, sometimes
spectacular. There seemed to be new things
to see and enjoy around every bend in the
trail. Before long I reached the halfway
point, the seventh day, and Blue Mountain
Lake. This brought with it a day off to go into
town and pick up a package of food mailed
to the post office. Without a heavy pack, the
long walk into town was almost like a ballet,
skipping along the tops of rocks effortlessly.
When I returned to camp I began to notice
it; my clothes were getting loose, noticeably
loose, welcomely loose.
The second week began with a difficult
climb up and over Blue Ridge in the
Fishing Brook Range, on the way to Long
Lake. This brought another day off and a
trip into town to retrieve a package, and
surprisingly, to send a package of unneeded
food home. By this, the 11th day of my
trip, I felt like a new man. When I ventured
into town, I did not crave sweets and salty
snacks at all. I wanted yogurt and cheese,
and vegetables and meat. Then soon
enough, on the 14th day I reached Lake
Placid, triumphant in having successfully
completed my end-to-end trip.
Once I returned home, I weighed
myself and found that I had lost 15 pounds.
My clothes were all baggy and loose, and
I felt like a million bucks. Because I had
increased my muscle mass, my calorie
expenditure continued at a higher rate
than normal, so I continued to lose several
more pounds. Additionally, I was more
conscious of my eating habits, and I’m
sure that contributed to my weight loss
and overall fitness level. I made a determined
effort to keep my activity level high,
and my calorie consumption low, and that
has paid off over time. Now, I regularly
tout the benefits of taking the challenge
of hiking the trail as ‘a perfect two-week
fitness vacation.’
It wasn’t long after completing that
first end-to-end trip that I began longing
to repeat the experience. Little did I know
then that it would turn into an annual trek,
with just several exceptions, that would
culminate in 30 completed trips to this
date. An added bonus is that over 20 years
ago the Adirondack Mountain Club invited
me to write and edit the guide to the
Northville Placid Trail, part of the Forest
Preserve Series of guidebooks. All in all,
given the modest expense, the experience
of seeing the Adirondacks in person, and
the health and fitness benefits, this may be
the ideal vacation. Perhaps this centennial
will find you on the NPT, a two-week fitness
vacation to better health!
Jeffrey Case (jeffrey_case@hotmail.com)
spends his time with his wife Dora at their
homes in Salisbury, Md. and Syracuse.
When he can’t be on the NPT or bagging
one of the 46, he can be found riding his
StreetStrider or walking his dog, Molly.