The route: 20km trail from Wanakena to Sand Lake, overnight at Sand Lake lean-to and back the next day.
Originally we’d planned to do the High Falls loop but we were enticed by what we read about Sand Lake: that it’s just about as remote as you can get in the Adirondacks and a really pretty campsite by the sandy shore, surrounded by deeply wooded hills.
August 26, 2018
It’s only a 2.5 hour drive from Ottawa to Wanakena, a very small town at the edge of The Five Ponds Wilderness. There’s not much in town, but we did find a small shop called Otto’s Abode, where a really friendly and helpful guy sold us a map of the area. He told us about a short cut to the trail to Sand Lake, which made the trek there more doable, since we were starting later than ideal: 10am.
It was raining pretty hard as we turned into the parking lot for the High Falls loop trail, but fortunately it soon ebbed and we were on our way.
The trail is fairly wide and flat to start, but after 3kms we find the cairn indicating the shortcut trail. As the Otto’s guy said, though the trail is not in the map, it is easy to follow, well maintained, and even has blue trail markers to follow. Quite narrow though, under a canopy of trees blocking the sky. It rained off and on as we hiked the 4.7kms to the trail junction with the High Falls loop.
By now it was noon and we were hungry. We turned right and soon we found the left turn and trail markers for the Sand Lake trail. There was a flat spot by the trail where we had lunch of PB and apple on bread, followed by lots of chocolate. As we ate, a father and his two young sons hiked past, the only people we’d see over the two days. They were really friendly, asking us all sorts of questions about our hike. When we told them we are Canadians they thought that was so funny because just that morning they were talking about how they never meet Canadians on this trail. They’re from Canton.
From the junction, it’s 4kms to the Big Shallow lean-to. And along the way we had to navigate across four beaver dams. 
I got a good soaker along the way. Aside from that it’s a nice, narrow trail through the forest and across a few brooks. The brook water looks quite red- I wonder why.
About 1km further from Big Shallow is Little Shallow lean-to.
As we hike these trails we often have to swat mosquitoes which is surprising for late August. But I guess it’s a pretty wet area.
We have over 6kms from Little Shallow to Sand Lake. As I hike along, there is suddenly a distinct thud beside me. I look down and realize a large, half eaten frog has just fallen from the sky, almost landing on my head. Creepy.
A little later I hear a crash behind me: Kim has slipped off a log and landed in the middle of a stretch of water logged trail. She’s sprawled in her back, arms and legs flailing as she tries to get up, but soon exclaims she can’t get up and she’s sinking deeper. I decide that instead of taking a picture I better help her up. Probably a good choice as she was temporarily crabby after the fall. Because of the rain the trail was slick. 
The last 4kms to Sand Lake the trail is pretty easy going, thankfully. We arrived at 4pm to a very pretty campsite – and thank goodness it was empty! The lean-to is in great shape and there’s a picnic table and bench. The lake a is a good size with sandy shores. After I boiled water and got our couscous dinners soaking, I stripped down nude for a very refreshing dip in the cool lake. If I’d brought my swim hat and goggles I could’ve gone for a real swim. 
Except for some short periods of rain here and there, it mostly stopped raining. We sat on the edge of the lento for dinner of couscous with cranberries, garlic, onion, beet powder, broccoli, avocado, walnuts, dried chickpeas, and nutrition yeast. Yum! 
We took some chocolate to a log by the lake and indulged as we admired the view.
Afterwards, we decided to make a little fire. We gathered pine needles, leaves as dry as we could find, and little twigs. It wasn’t really working, as everything was quite damp, so we added a few paper towels which did the trick. I spent the rest of the evening reading my book by the fire as Kim constantly tended to it. She was transfixed!
We set up the bug net part of our tent in the shelter and were very cozy inside around 8pm, after I found a suitable spot for our bear barrel aways away.
Drifted to sleep to Pure Quiet. Woke in the night to pee and noticed a full moon and again I was struck by the quiet.
August 27, 2018
Woke around 5:15am feeling refreshed. It was still dark out, so at 5:30 I used my headlamp to find the bear barrel, untouched.
It was a warm, still morning. In the dim light, I could see the lake was calm and steaming, with the full moon over head. I stripped down and went for a refreshing swim, then made coffee. We sat on a log by the lake eating cooking and drinking coffee while reading the lean-to’s visitor journal. 
The last visitor was a week ago. I made an entry, then we got packed up and were on our way out just past 7am. 
We hiked quickly and retraced yesterday’s steps. Saw moose prints and beat scat but no animals. The only incident was that we were low on water. Every stream we passed looked too red so we rationed, which made Kim anxious. But fortunately it was a beautiful day and we hiked the 20kms in under 5 hours, including a lunch break of PB and Apple on bread, and some chocolate.
On our way home we stopped at a cute cafe in Star Lake across from the CK gas station. Both have wifi and we were very impressed by the gas station amenities.
Near Oswegatchie we stopped at Adirondack Rustics and it was a great store! Lots of handmade wood furnishings and some art. I bought Elsa a book about animal poo.
live and learn outdoors 