CL50 Attempt – Hiking 30 Miles of the Cranberry Lake 50

At the end of July, Jona and I took a few days off from work to hike the Cranberry 50. As you can tell from the title, we didn’t hike the whole 50 miles but instead hiked 30 miles from the town of Wanakena to Chair Rock Flow. 

If you’re not familiar, the Cranberry Lake 50 is a 50 mile hiking trail around Cranberry Lake in the Western Adirondacks. It is an area that I’ve never explored so I was excited to see a new part of my favorite place. On Friday morning, we drove the ~3 hrs to Wanakena, a tiny town, to begin our trek. We parked at the trailhead in Wanakena and started a short road walk to Cathedral Rock fire tower near SUNY ESF Ranger School. We decided to add-on the fire tower because it was just a short climb off the main trail.

On Day 1, we covered about 18 miles which included the trip up Cathedral Rock. Elevation was about 1524′ for day 1. It was a nice, easy trail to hike. However, my heavy overnight pack made walking that far extremely tough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, we walked and walked some more. We kept a pretty decent pace despite heavy packs. I have to say I definitely learned my lesson about over-packing for a backpacking trip. Even though I thought everything I had was essential, it was too heavy!

The first half of Day 1 was through the woods on the Peavine Swamp Trail, which was also a ski trail. There was nothing too interesting along this portion of the trail, just tons of super annoying deer flies. Thankfully I had my bug net. We came to the next parking area that leads us to the West Connector trail, upon which we popped out at a parking lot for boat trailers. From here, it was followed by a few miles on the roads in the small town of Cranberry Lake. The skies looked pretty ominous at this point, and we had hiked about 12 miles already. Combined with my heavy pack and the threat of a storm, I hit a low point and wished for a way out. Eventually, we came to the next trailhead for the East Connector Trail, took some Advil, ate some m&ms, then got my second wind. We hiked the remaining 7ish miles to Brandy Brook Flow and set up camp at the first tent site we spotted.

 

 

 

 

 

We set up camp, filtered water (brought my MSR pump with me along with some  Aquatabs), cooked dinner (Annie’s mac & cheese w/a smoked tuna packet!) and then made it an early night. I remember zipping up my tent before it was completely dark, which was fine by me. We had another long day of walking on the agenda.

Day 2 started out bright and early-we were on the trail by 7am. It rained briefly in the AM, so I finished my breakfast in my tent. We walked East Inlet flow, which had some really nice camp sites. I could smell campfire and was immediately jealous of those enjoying their morning on the lake.

 

 

The rest of the day remains a blur. We walked, walked some more, and then stopped for lunch and a rest break (Jona had developed pretty bad blisters on her heels by this point) at Dog Pond. She took a nap while I relaxed.

 

 

 

On Day 2, the terrain was a lot more rolling. It may have felt challenging because we had just hiked about 18 miles the previous day. Our packs did not feel any lighter despite eating some of the food out of them. I had tried to filter water in the AM after breakfast, but my filter clogged! Thankfully I had a backup plan, my Aquatabs! They worked great and did not leave my water tasting strange.

 

We walked about five more miles on the Otter Brook Trail to Chair Rock Flow when our spirits were particularly low.  There is a tent site along the trail right on the water at Chair Rock. A boat was docked at the site with a few people on it. We waved and walked past. Jona turned to me and said, “do you want me to ask them for a ride back?” I looked at her and said, “yes.”

We don’t regret our decision to go back early. Had the boat not been there, we would have finished the Cranberry Lake 50 in rough shape. Jona’s blisters had gotten bad, there were some forming on my feet, and my back was aching terribly from my heavy pack. The family that picked us up made room for us in their boat, drove us back to their camp and fed us chips, salsa and IPAs. We soaked our feet in the water on their dock for a while before the mom drove us back to Wanakena (about a 15 min boat ride from where we were). 

 

 

 

 

On day 2 we hiked about 16 miles with just under 2,000′ of elevation. We arrived back at our car safely, changed out of shoes and drove to Raquette River Brewing Company in Tupper Lake for a beer and some pizza. We may have ended our endeavor early, but our beers were well-deserved.

 

 

 

I would like to go back to Wanakena and complete the entire Cranberry Lake 50 hike eventually. The trail was beautiful. There were plenty of scenic campsites to enjoy. Next time I’d pack lighter.

Gear Used

Osprey Atmos AG 50 pack
Osprey Hydraulics LT Reservoir 2.5L
Backpackers Cache Bear-Resistant Cannister
MSR Miniworks EX Filter
Aquapure Tabs
Jetboil Zip
Altra Lone Peak 3.5 Trail Running Shoes
Black Diamond Distance Z Trekking Poles
Kelty Grand Mesa 2 Backpacking Tent
Thermarest Prolite Ultralight Sleeping Pad 
Kelty Cosmic Down 40 Sleeping Bag
Princeton Tec Headlamp