Hiking NY: French Louie Loop in the Adirondacks

A couple of weeks ago, Brad and I went on a quick weekend backpacking trip together! He's moving away for university next month, so this will be the last hiking trip together for awhile. I let him choose between a few trails, and he picked this one in the Adirondacks. It was a moderate difficulty and we were intending to spend 2 nights and 3 days doing leisurely...however rain was moving in on the 2 day so he opted to just power thru the last few miles and get back home!

This trail circles around several lakes so it can definitely get muddy. Thankfully it had been dry up to that point so the trail was pretty good for us. And the temps were perfect! Usually there are black flies here around this time, but our struggle was with mosquitoes and no see ums. Even despite being covered in bug spray! But hey, no ticks at least. 

Our first day we arrived around 4pm and hiked a short 3.5 miles to our first campsite. There was a lean to we aimed for however it had one occupant already. We technically could have shared with him, but no one likes their privacy invaded! So we set up our tent a short distance away. It was close enough to a lake to easily get water 

Our dinner was delicious soft tacos! They were taco beef and cheddar (even had salsa!) that we ate, then some Twinkies for dessert. 

In summer here the sun comes up around 530am so needless to say we got up early! After a quick breakfast then packing up, we hit the trail to continue the loop. At this point we hadn't thought about finishing early yet, so we were sort of taking it easy . We knew the storms were due to move in after 2pm. 

Around noon we stopped at a vacant lean to for a break and lunch of tuna/chicken salad and crackers. It was starting to get overcast so that was when we decided to keep an eye on the timing and stay flexible with the weather. This was our lunchtime view!

Around 5pm we were coming up on our potential camp site, and the weather was holding up so I gave Brad the option of stopping to camp and finishing in the morning OR doing the last few miles and getting home late. He decided he wanted to finish so we bid farewell to the campsite and headed for the car!

For the most part we stayed dry until maybe an hour till the car. It rained lightly so we put our pack covers on but the rain felt good for us to cool off! By then our feet were screaming however.

We got to the car around 7pm after 12+ hrs of hiking, and just in time! Once we got on the road for the 4hr drive home it stormed the entire way home.

We ended up doing around 18 miles the second day for a total of around 21.5 miles on the loop and 2100ft elevation gain.

It's so refreshing to disconnect in nature for a few days, but it's always nice to sleep in your own bed again! Until next time.