ADK Tabletop OR Our Last Climb of the Season OR WE ARE TWENTIER’S!!!

It was SUCH a good day yesterday.  I was a little worried about this climb.  It’s late in the season and it’s COLD up in them thar hills!  But I really REALLY wanted to get one more mountain in this year.  (We HAD been shooting for TEN, but after the tri-fecta of Donaldson, Emmons and Seward humbled us, we realized it wasn’t going to happen…still, nine peaks for the summer would be outstanding and we were LOVE OUTSTANDING.)

My running partner and I had planned to do a half-marathon yesterday.  However, (time for me to come clean) my training has been non-existent and I really wanted to save this weekend for a peak.  So, when she wrote to me and her sister-in-law to say we’d been shut out of registration for the race (it filled in mid-September), and I had not registered, I wasn’t too sad.  (Sorry, C!)  I wrote back an email and said, “Hey, wanna go hiking?” Sis-in-law (one of THE sweetest people I’ve EVER met) said, “Sure!  I’d love to go on a little hike!”  C fired back: ”Ms. Whiz doesn’t do “little” hikes…She does brutally long, foot-blistering, toenail-killing hikes two hours north of here.  I’m not hiking with her.  She’s crazy.”  Hmmph.  (Now you know why she’s my kick-ass running bud.)  Needless-to-say, they did NOT join us.  (I can’t think why not–at ten miles, our hike came in 3.1 miles UNDER what we WOULD HAVE RUN.  But whatever.  Grin.)

So, the particulars of the hike:  Total miles: 10  Total Altitude: 4427′.  Difficulty ranking: 5 (on a scale from 1-7).

We left here at 6:30 and got onto the trailhead at 9:30.  (Sidebar: before we left, I made everyone grab a fleece, a pair of gloves and a warm hat.  My hubby didn’t think it necessary.  In fact, he did NOT take a fleece, but only a sweatshirt.  More about THAT later.  Grin, again.)  As we drove up, the skies were dark and threatening, not something we’ve ever encountered before.  As we got closer, the rain started falling.  Again, not something we’d ever encountered.  I wasn’t looking forward to spending nine hours in the rain.  (We were, however, prepared for it.)  Temps were in the 40′s and dropping as we got closer.  It was 35 degrees when we signed in.  BRRRRRR.  We put on ALL of our gear as we got out of the car.

We signed in right behind a group that was speaking in Spanish.  I was curious about where they were from, so I asked.  They were so shocked.  They didn’t even answer me, but one guy said, after giving me the once over, “How is it that you speak perfect Spanish?”  (I don’t care how old I get, I NEVER get tired of people being stunned by my Spanish.  It’s one thing I do really REALLY well.)  I told him and then he answered me.  They were from different parts of Spain, getting ready to go up Algonquin.  This time, *I* looked THEM over.  They were all decked out in fancy new duds.  They were worried because they’d heard it was a hard climb (it is) and steep (tru dat) and icey (yup).  They wondered if it was worth it.  I said it totally was, but that they should be careful.  I added that my youngest had done it when she was eight.  This seemed to motivate them. 

We took off and found that the accounts of boot-sucking mud were true.  Bleah.  My oldest looked at me and said, “I dunno, Mom.  If it’s gonna be this way the WHOLE way…”  In my heart, I agreed with her, but I was hopeful.  Starting out at the Loj is like starting out on a highway.  There are SO many people and we can really churn up the mud.  Actually, I was surprised that there were as many folks as there were, this late in the season.  But again, that’s the Loj for you.  (And may I say, I STILL love this part of the hike SO MUCH.  It’s 2.3 miles of relative FLAT.  I LOVE being able to warm up before hitting the “Oh-my-god-it’s-sooooo-steep” part.)  Thankfully, the mud cleared up a bit.

We made it to Marcy Dam in a little over an hour.  We had a tiny break (Christmas photo op!) and then kept going.  We were looking for the turn off to Table Top.  People say it’s not marked, but it IS.  We made it there in about an hour.  My husband uttered words that I’ve NEVER heard him say, “Wow!  We’re making GREAT time!”  I was overjoyed.  Compared to the other bone-crushing hikes we’ve done this summer, this one was, yes, I’m gonna say it, EASY.  Ok, NOT easy, but compared to the others, it was a cake walk.  At least up to this point.  However, that was all about to change…

We made the turn up the mountain and OH. MY. GOD.  It got HARD in a heartbeat.  For one, we were hiking up a CREEK BED.  Remember that “boot-sucking mud” problem I mentioned earlier?  Yeah, well, scratch that.  We now had mud AND water.  LOTS of it.  Not to mention the trail went STRAIGHT up.  Oh, and did I mention that the wind started to pick up?  It was quickly getting VERY cold.  (It was 25 degrees at the top, by my count.)  So, we had mud, water, steep, wind.  What could make this concoction better?  How about some snow and ice?  Oh, yeah, baby!  My youngest daughter was beside herself, especially when she slipped and went RIGHT into a puddle.  You’ve heard “madder than a wet hen?”  Doesn’t BEGIN to cover it.  “WHY! ARE! WE! DOING! THIS?!?!?!?!” she sputtered.   A patch? I suggested.  (Didn’t help.)

At this point, my oldest daughter said, “I’m so GLAD Mommy made us bring these gloves.  Warm hands are happy hands.”  I said, why don’t you say that louder so your father can hear?  To which he replied, “I heard, I HEARD.”    I’m also glad we had lots of extra socks for the kids.  We switched socks at the top, so at least their feet could be dry again for a LITTLE bit. 

Oh!  And note to self: bringing athletic tape is ALWAYS a good idea.  We were able to solve a shoe malfunction with it this time.  Too bad we didn’t bring extra pants.  The littlest one and I had so much mud on ours by the end, I think they could’ve stood up by themselves!

It took us an HOUR to do the half mile to the top.  And then for what???  There was not really a view, sadly.  I love being on the mountain and I LOVE spending the time with my family (we came up with ALL kinds of plans for my youngest’s birthday party, not to mention the history lesson my husband gave to my youngest.  It covered something like, “Where did people come from and the beginning of everything…”  He covered the Big Bang, most of the basic chemical elements being formed, and Rome through the U.S. Civil War.  Ten miles is a LONG way–it didn’t feel long though.), but climbing up a mountain to see a bunch of trees is not what I signed up for.  Oh well.  Ya gotta do it to be a 46er.  So, now we’ve done it.

Total time to the top was 5 hours.  We only stayed long enough to change socks and shove sandwiches into our faces.  Then it was back down.  We made it back to the car in 4 hours.  Whoo-hoo!  Usually it takes us one hour longer than the miles we’re hiking, but this trip, we had one hour less!  Nice!

Oh, and thankfully, the rain never materialized.  It did SNOW on us a tiny bit, but that’s totally bearable.  You can see the flakes in the photo below.

It was a great outing and I’m so happy that we are now 20er’s!  It was a lovely way to end our season!

That’s all, folks!

Donaldson and Emmons: Our Hardest Peaks Yet OR We Are 19er’s!

The last day of summer is today.  Then it’s back to the classroom.  We went out with a bang though: we had planned an ambitious three peak-a-palooza on “unmarked” trails Saturday, September 5th.  (I say unmarked, but by now, most of the high peaks are fairly well trailed.)  Our friend, John, invited us to come up to his cabin to hike up Donaldson, Emmons and Seward with him and his daughter.  We jumped at the chance to do this monster 17-miler!  Billy Goat Boy and his dad also came.

To do this hike, we had to get up at 4:15 am to be ready to leave at 5:15 am, to be on the trail at 5:45 am.  It is better to START in the dark than to FINISH in the dark.  And let me tell ya, IT WAS DARK.  The kids were a little less than enthused about getting up that early, but they did it.  It was about 50 degrees F at the beginning, no wind, clear skies.  We signed in and we were off, John’s daughter setting a mean pace for us.

My husband told me the first part of the hike (3+ miles) was flat.  He LIED.  It wasn’t flat.  It was mostly downhill.  That meant coming back was going to be UPhill.  But we moved as fast as we could.  After that, we took a left turn and the hike was STRAIGHT UP, for a longass time.  It took us five hours to get to the peak of Donaldson.  Everyone else was moving at warp speed, but my littlest one and I were struggling up.  I am so proud of her.  She has the shortest legs (I’m second) and it’s NOT easy for her.  She did it and she ROCKS.

It was a gorgeous day and the views were fabulous.  However, we didn’t get to enjoy them, because we had to really get to it and push it, if we were going to do two more peaks.  It was about this point I thought, “This isn’t fun.  I don’t like this.  If I’m going to expend all this energy and goad my little girl up the mountain, I want to be able to lie in the sun and eat m & ms at the top, dammit.”  She will get stronger and faster, but right now, she couldn’t keep up with the others. 

So, on the way to Emmons, my husband and I decided that we were going to call it quits with two peaks.  After that, the hike got more fun.  We were able to slow down (a LITTLE) and smell the roses (as it were).  My two older children must have wings on their feet, cuz they were flying along with the others.  We caught up to them and told them we were going to head back down after Emmons.  Our son was fine with that and decided to come with us.  Our oldest though, wanted to go on with the rest of the group.  I was really torn about this, as this has been a family thing we do.  It didn’t feel right to me to have her leave, but I also didn’t want to stop her.  And frankly, I’m overjoyed that the mountains have so gotten under her skin that she felt compelled to get that third peak in.  I’m really REALLY proud of her.  So, the group split.

We went back to Donaldson and enjoyed some sun/m&m time at the peak.  Then, we made our way back down the mountain.  The up I can do, the down is what gets me.  I think I need new boots.  My feet slip too much in the ones I have and it is hell on my toes.  I have blisters the size of dimes on the bottoms of each of my big toes and I’m going to lose each of those toenails.  Owwwwww.  But it was so worth it.

We didn’t see much wildlife, just some toads.  But we did find a  bear track and bear scat.  That was pretty exciting.  I do hope I’ll be lucky enough to see a bear someday.  (From far away and going in the opposite distance, but still…)  Seeing the evidence of their existence was pretty cool.

We didn’t have any troubles getting down the mountain.  It took a long time, but no trouble.  I was a little worried about my oldest daughter because I KNEW she’d be coming down the mountain in the dark.  The trail was there, but in the dark I wondered how obvious it would be.

When we found the “flat” trail (the last three miles), we were really tired and sore.  The parking lot seemed forever away.  My daughter and I started composing a little song:

Oh my toes are sore and my ankle’s turned, but I want some more cuz I ain’t been burned, my hands are cramped from holding my poles and my pants are full of mud and holes!  There’s a parking lot out there somewhere, but we can’t find it, oh somebody come and rescue me before I have a hissy fit, fit, FIT!  Oh I have about 84 blisters, but let me tell ya mister, I went on a 15 mile hike, but I’d rather ride my bike!  There’s so much more to say, but I wanna be an ADK!  46ER!!!

I don’t really know how far the hike was.  LONG.  LOOOOOOOONG.  John’s daughter thinks our part of the hike was 15 miles and their part of the hike was 17 miles.  I do know the elevations: Donaldson: 4140′, Emmons: 4040′, and Seward: 4361′.  On the ranking scale of 1-7, they are ALL 7′s.  I am so proud of us!  We are 19er’s and our oldest daughter is a 20er!

We got back to the cabin at 7:30 and it was still a little light.  We took a quick swim and then made dinner.  I had decided not to start worrying about the other group until 10:00.  They got back at 9:00.  My oldest was exhilirated, but later, she admitted it felt weird to hike without us and that it felt strange at the peak without it.  Also, at the top of Seward, she said there was a memorial for an 8-year-old boy who died in 2006.  She said it was very sad.

The next day we took a little hike around the pond and we found a tree that beavers had been working on.  There were  two great logs on the ground and Billy Goat Dad said, “Hey!  These would be great souvenirs!  Wouldn’t one of these be great in your classroom?”  He was right!  And he was nice enough to carry the logs back for us!

It was a PHENOMENAL weekend and I am so grateful that John invited us!  Now, it’s on to school!

I GOT A FEVAH! ADK Lower and Upper Wolf Jaw OR We Are SEVENTEENER’s!

We are SEVENTEENER’s now!  This is our second (well, actually THIRD) peak of the day!  At the summit of Lower Wolf Jaw.  There was lots of gorgeous sunshine.  Temp was 55 degrees F when we started, 60 degrees at the end.  Early in the day, there was lots of wind (I HATE wind), but it died by the end of the hike.

The weather was supposed to be really nice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I packed up the car on Thursday and headed up to the mountains.  My husband followed us up after work (he played hooky on Friday).  We set up camp and the next morning, we were ready to tackle our third hike in three weeks.    A word about my kids here?  Three hikes in three weeks = 31 miles.  WOW.  I am amazed by their stamina.  Our plan: to go up Upper and Lower Wolf Jaw.  To do this hike, you have to park in a lower lot and then walk to and through the Ausable Golf Club.

The golf club.  It was pretty funny, walking through this club to get to the trailhead.  It was gorgeous!  We thought, wow, Muffy and Thurston must think WE make a silly sight!  The sign was not EXACTLY friendly.  Basically, “Hey unwashed masses: you stay on the roads and don’t mix with us.”

Wow!  So pretty!  (Even if it’s a different kind of pretty than we expect on a hike.)  We’ve never had a hike start this way, that’s for sure.

My youngest, celebrating after scrambling up a rock face.  I have to say, this just doesn’t look like much in this photo, but it was SCARY and HARD.  (Down was WAY worse.)  I keep trying to get a shot to show how challenging it is, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.  Take more word for it, this is NOT easy.  All I can say is I love hiking because it works EVERY part of the body (today muscles are hurting that I didn’t even know I HAD) AND parts of it terrify me.  I love working through that fear.  In my youngest’s words, “I feel like I really accomplish something.”  TRU DAT!

Here we are, WE DID IT!  Flex those muscles!  The hike was 11 miles and took us 13 hours.  I think that’s our formula: however many miles it is, it will take us that many hours, PLUS TWO MORE.

My husband and I had an interesting conversation during this hike about “peak bagging.”  My husband said the forums are full of discussions with “purists” who do not “like” “peak baggers.”  This makes me upset.  We started out doing these climbs as peak baggers, but it’s grown into so much more.  Yes, we’re going to try to do the 46.  Yes, I want that patch.  But because of this journey that we’ve begun, I’ve become aware of the ADK, which I never knew about before.  I cannot drive by a mountain without wondering, “What is it like up there?  How hard would it be to climb it?”  I want to climb other peaks in other places.  And all because of peak bagging.  So there.

ADK: Big Slide! We Are FIFTEEN’ERS!

Climbing to the summit of Big Slide Mountain.  Details: 8 miles round trip.  Time for hike, 8 hours.  Altitude: 4240 feet.  Temp was about 65 degrees F when we started, about 80 degrees when we ended, a few very light breezes and lots and LOTS of sun.  No dramatic story this time, just a FABULOUS hike.  The views were outstanding.  I would definitely repeat this hike.

We’re waiting for the shuttle at Marcy Field because the lot at the Garden was full. It’s about 7:30 am, on Saturday morning, August 1.  (When they say to get there early, I guess they mean earlier than 7:00 am).  We went up the night before to camp (so much fun!) and still couldn’t park there!  Oh well.  It was a gorgeous day!   We were lucky to be joined today by our friends, Billy Goat Dad and Billy Goat Boy.

 

Walking through the (very full) parking lot.  It didn’t bother me TOO much to have to take the shuttle.  And I’m glad they had one or we would’ve had to go to a different peak.  It cost $3 per person to take the shuttle.  You also have to pay the $5 parking fee.

My son poses by the trail sign for our hike. Distance to top is 3.9 miles. My husband wanted us to go a different route that would have made the trip a loop of 11 miles total. After last week’s 12-mile, 3-peakapalooza, we said no thanks, opting for the 8 mile there-and-back total. Notice the bright yellow bear sign. Number 6 says, “Avoid using the trails at night.” Yoikes. After last week’s trek through the dark, it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Doing my part to help clear the trail.

Remember, a hike is stinky until you get to your first big rock scramble OR your first view…Pretty early on we started getting amazing views, as we began to walk along the ridge. It was pretty exciting to realize this would be what we’d be seeing on our way up. We got to walk along the ridge for a good long while. It was so wonderful. One of the reasons I truly love hiking the 46 is that for most of them, the ONLY way to get the views we get is to WALK up the mountain. That means that we get to see something truly spectacular and not many people get to join us. We only saw 7 people on the way up.

 

One of the other things that made this hike so great were that there were blueberries EVERYWHERE! My daughter recognized them. Here, she and Billy Goat Boy stop to pick a few.

I took a picture of these berries because I don’t know what they are. Anyone?

After hours of climbing (and some ridge walking,) we were so happy to see the sign  that says, “Big Slide Mt., 0.29 miles.” Yeah! Of course, what it doesn’t say is that it’s 0.29 miles almost STRAIGHT UP!!!

My daughter demonstrates how to walk up a ladder. (Thank you trail builders for this awesome ladder!)

This is one of the scariest (and coolest) things I’ve seen in a while. I think this is why the mountain is called “Big Slide.” That is a pretty big slide! (And it’s scary to get where the girls are. I just tried to not think about it!) About a foot beyond little one, it drops away to nothing!

WE ARE FIFTEEN’ERS! (We’re each holding up 3 fingers and there are 5 of us…you do the math. Grin.)

Group shot.

My daughter jumps a crevice on the way back down the mountain!  She rocked this mountain!  Where I would gingerly pick my way up a rock face, she would just RUN up it.  Sigh.  It’s nice to be so young and strong!

 

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! We did it! Almost 8 miles in 8 hours. Once again, I am SOOOOOOOO proud of the kids!  We saw NO other children on this peak.

We weren’t done with the day. We went to Chapel Pond for a little swim. A little cool lake water felt very good on those achy muscles!

At the pond.  This was so relaxing.

Back at camp.  People always assume I’m a camper.  I don’t know why.  (They also think I’m a vegetarian…)  In any case, maybe they know something I don’t?  I’ve always said I don’t like camping.  But this weekend I decided I like it!  (Especially since my husband did all the planning and most of the packing!)  This truly was the perfect weekend.  We had time together as a family, both hiking and while at camp.  The weather was gorgeous.  We got to crawl around on an amazing mountain and since we were camping, we didn’t have to hurry up or hurry back home.  That meant we got to spend lots of time enjoying the views and exploring.  (We saw the most wildlife we’ve ever seen, including a mouse at the summit, toads, a hawk, sparrows, a red eft, and a garter snake.)  We got to pick blueberries and raspberries.  We got to swim in a lovely lake.  We ate great food and enjoyed great company.  We got to make s’mores and sing around a campfire.  It was just awesome.  I am so lucky.

Macomb, South Dix and East Dix OR WE ARE FOURTEENERS!!!

Another title might be: Forced Marches Can Be Fun OR How to Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Short version: GREAT (if not a bit scary) hike.  12 miles, 13+ hours.  We started at 8:30 and finished at 9:45.  It was mostly sunny to mostly cloudy (by the end), around 70 degrees F and NO wind.  Trail was good to very good, a little muddy in some spots, but not bad.  This is the first time we’ve really had much experience with black flies.  They sort of chased us off the top of Macomb, but it wasn’t horrible.  We did three peaks.  PEAK-A-POLOOZA!!!  It’s been our longest hike to date.

Longer version, and trust me, it’s LONG.  Did I mention it was TWELVE MILES?  Well, it was.  So shush.  Go get something cool to drink and enjoy the pix.  We enjoyed making them.

My youngest two kids both got brand new boots for this season.  I am so glad they did!  This is NOT a hike to do with crummy equipment.  Truthfully, it’s NOT a hike to do if you’re a beginner (doing ONE would be ok, but THREE?  No).  The trail is NOT marked and there are some places where it can be pretty confusing.  Taking a GPS and a map is essential.  The hike is long, it’s isolated, it’s challenging and you need to make sure you take enough water and food.  (Incidentally, we took about 18 liter of water for the five of us.  It was the perfect amount.  We also had the water purifier, just in case.  There were plenty of places to get water on this trip, at this time of year.)  Anyway, back to the boots.  They broke them in by walking around at home.  This was the first hike with them.  They worked great!  (BTW, we got the gear from Upside Over, an excellent kids’ hiking gear store in Saratoga, NY.)

 

This hike (Macomb, South and East Dix) is known for its solitude.  It’s true.  We only saw 7 hikers total (a father-daughter pair, a family of four [obviously experienced hikers, judging by their gear] with two young boys [although not as young as my youngest--it was great, after they passed us, we heard them say, "Mom, can we have camelbacks too?"] and one lone young, male hiker) in the 12 miles we covered.  SO WHAT GIVES WITH ALL THE CARS IN THE LOT???  We barely squished our van in the LAST spot.  We left notes on each of the cars next to us, apologizing.    They were both gone when we got back.

  

We always have to pose in front of the sign before we start any hike.  It is tradition.  Notice this sign says, “Distance to lean-to, 2.3 miles.”  That’s to get to the BEGINNING of the hike.

 

Signing in.  Notice how it is DAYLIGHT.

 

I knew when we started this was going to be a good hike.  This trail (the marked one to the lean-to) is really lovely.  It is wide and, more importantly, FLAT.  Those are the good hikes, the ones that let you start with a nice warm up, as opposed to the ones that start kicking your butt by immediately going vertical.  I was thinking, somewhere in here, that this hike was going to be lovely, but not especially notable.  I thought, “We probably won’t have much of a story to tell.”  Here’s a hint though, this is a good trail to have if you have to come back IN THE DARK.  (That’s what’s known as FORESHADOWING…)

 

Crossing one of the bridges over one of the MANY creeks.  Whenever I see one of these bridges, or logs thrown down for hikers or branches (or TREES) cleared, I give a huge, heartfelt thanks to the many folks who maintain these trails.  *I* can barely get up and down a mountain with my pack of water and m&ms.  When I think of folks hauling hatchets and chainsaws up to maintain trails…well, all I can say is THANK YOU.

 

We had a bit of confusion trying to find the trail to the peak of Macomb.  My hubby had to run around and check the surrounding trails (while I am thinking, “How is he going to KNOW?  None of them are MARKED.”  But he DID it.  He is a god.).  We sat and waited at the lean-to while he did this.  Nice lean-to.  That day’s occupants were off galavanting on the mountain.  They were there when we returned, reclining on sleeping bags.  I yelled, “SLACKERS!” as we marched past, much to their (and my kids’) delight!  In this shot, my youngest shows off her badges of honor: her pant legs.  These got a LOT worse?  Better?  MUDDIER.  As the day went on…

 

 I love this picture because you get the first view of Elk Lake in the background.  You also get to see just how freakin’ steep the slide is!!!  We are now at the 3.4 mile mark in the hike and at the beginning of the slide.

 

Welcome to the slide!  The children indulge me as I say, “Smile for the camera, kids!”  And then they are OFF.  I did not give birth to children, I gave birth to billy goats.

 

And here I come.  Slow and steady doesn’t BEGIN to cover my pace.  A word about me here.  I am afraid of heights.  So, logically, after reading that statement you would conclude, “Her fear of heights would lead to her stay AWAY from this kind of hiking.”  But you’d be wrong.  I love it.  But maybe for weird reasons? 

My heart is POUNDING in my chest whenever I do one of these kinds of climbs and NOT just because I’m out of shape!  No!  It’s pounding because of the terror I feel.  I don’t dare look down or up.  I just look at my feet, think about my placement and (above all) never stop moving forward.  Occasionally, I stop to plant my feet and look at the view.  That’s when I channel Eleanor Roosevelt (“Do one thing every day that scares you.”) and remember how great it is to do this and then I keep going.  It’s a good way to remind yourself that you ARE alive.

 

The slide is about 0.3 miles to climb.  It SEEMED like a LOT longer.  At times, the kids had to crawl up.  Remember how I said I was thinking there wouldn’t be anything notable about the climb?  Well, THIS WAS NOTABLE!  It was undoubtably the kids’ favorite part of the hike.  Mine too.  I think.  Yeah, now that I’m done, it was my favorite.  (Although, while I was doing it, I was wondering if anyone had ever died on this one?)  Incidentally, every other site I’ve seen says this is the perfect slide for beginners because it is a “no-slip” slide.  In retrospect, I guess that’s true.  It was hard, but not impossible and I do think beginners would do fine.

I don’t know how to measure grade.  All I can say is this one was officially STEEP.  (Have I mentioned that?)  Yes, we HIKE the ADK, but there are some mountains you can’t do without actually CLIMBING.

 

Breathtaking.  Just gorgeous.

  

A word about my poles.  They are Black Diamond Zero-slip Flicklock System and they are AWESOME.  Best $118 I have spent in a while!  (Thank you Hubby for reminding me to do it.)  I am writing this the day after our 12-mile, 13+-hour hike, and I am sore.  But I am NOT as sore as I have been in the past.  Poles HELP.  Basically, they change me from being a bi-pedal creature to a gorilla.  I was able to put weight on my arms and that really spared my knees and arches of my feet a LOT.  My upper body is more sore than usual, but that’s a good thing (I got an upper body workout AND my legs feel better too!).  Sadly, I didn’t realize my toenails were too long and by the end of the hike, my little toes were SCREAMING in pain.  This morning they are already turning purple and I know I am going to lose them.  HOW many marathons/miles have I run???  Stupid rookie mistake!!!

 

Oh, good.  More rocks to scale.

 

My youngest was SO PROUD of herself (and rightly so!).  After she finished the slide, she was PUMPED.  She turned to me and said, “You know, Mom, this is why I LOVE hiking. (Remember, this is the little girl who is capable of whining for many MANY miles about how much she HATES hiking.)  I look at something like this slide and I think to myself, ‘I CAN’T DO THAT!’  And then I do it and I’m so proud of myself!  Sometimes I can’t believe I can do stuff like this.  But I DO.”  I believe you’ve learned the lesson, my little Grasshopper.

 

This was the bolt picture at the top of Macomb.  Sadly, it was really bright and I was oxygen-deprived from the slide.  I didn’t have the where-with-all to notice that I DIDN’T GET THE SHOT OF THE @$#^@%@ BOLT!!!  But it’s there.  Trust me.  (You’re going to have to, because we’re NOT going back!!!)

 

WE ARE TWELVERS!  (Our son said we now have to show the numbers with our right and left hands.  The right hand is the 10′s place and the left hand is the 1′s place.)

 

The black flies were getting obnoxious at the top of Macomb, so we didn’t spend a lot of time at the summit.  We began our push to South Dix.  Yeah!  More rocks!!!   I think it was at this point we realized it was about 2:00 pm and we still had a LONG way to go.  But we’d DONE the hard part.  According to my husband, “The rest of these peaks are just (JUST) a ridgewalk.”  Even so, he was dubious about continuing.  I said, “We are CONTINUING.”  I was thinking, “I am NOT doing this again to get those other two mountains!”  We knew at that point though, that we’d be coming back in the dark, although I think we both were hoping (by some miracle) there would be an extra hour of daylight today OR (by an even bigger miracle) we’d be able to move faster (not likely considering both my husband and I were beginning to hobble at this point).

 

My son, trying to push a boulder down the mountain.  Figures.

 

At the summit of South Dix.  Remember that father-daughter pair we saw?  They were coming back from East Dix and he took our picture.  (As we continue with our climbs, the mountains are becoming less and less traveled and we don’t see a lot of people.  So, I’ve been getting creative about rigging the camera to do the “auto” take.  It was nice this guy would do it.)  WE ARE THIRTEENERS!!!

 

At the summit of East Dix.  We are FOURTEENERS!!!  YEAH!  WE DID IT!  (And my husband and I are both thinking, “Can we get back down safely?”)

 

On the way down, we opted to take the Lillian Brook Trail instead of going down the slide.  Neither my husband nor I knew how long it would take to get down and we didn’t want to be on the slide in the dark or in the rain (the clouds didn’t look too bad, but the fog was rolling in and rain is always possible!).  So, we decided to go on this trail, which was also unmarked.  It’s an interesting feeling to be going down a mountain, hoping you’re on the right trail, especially when you’ve already done many miles, you’re tired (and often hurting) and you think to yourself, “I CAN see how people make dumb mistakes up here…”  I was (foolishly) hoping the climb down would be a little easier this way.  I was SO WRONG.  The topo map was impressive and the descent was HARD.  Look at my son going, “Oooooh, Mom, don’t fall.”

 

So, we were on the Lillian Brook trail and we were just hoping to get on the marked trail back to the parking lot before it got dark.  We did have flashlights, but were not looking forward to stumbling around in the mud and the rocks at night.  The good news is, we DID find it and before dark.  The bad news was, we still had 3 miles to go!  I have to admit, I was more than a little scared.  It was creepy.  But I couldn’t show it.  I had to be brave for the kids.  We heard rustling in the underbrush but never saw anything.  I’m glad, because if we had, I think I would’ve pooped my pants.  Not even kidding.

 

Remember how I said as I was hiking I was thinking, “Well, there probably won’t be much of a story to this hike?”  Boy was *I* wrong!!!  Hiking for over an hour in the dark made our story.  We had flashlights, but five tiny flashlights against the big woods are small comfort.  (Next time we will have HEADLAMPS.)  I was worried about bears, because we were hiking at dusk, when ALL the literature I’ve read says, “Avoid the trails at dusk, when the bears start to come out to look for food.”  I told that to the kids and my youngest said, “I did NOT want to know that.”  But the kids didn’t freak out, they didn’t complain and they didn’t whine.  What did they start to do?  They sang.  It was great.  It really made time fly (and probably scared away the 100s of bears that were out there.)  I told my husband, “Hey, we’re almost like the Von Trapp family.”  He said, “Yeah, ALMOST.”  Ha!

 

I was leading the troops (trying not to curse every time I stumbled in the dark and crushed my bruised pinky toes against a rock, even though my good friend Chris says that people can endure more pain when allowed to curse, but my children hate it when I do and I love them, so I didn’t) and my husband was bringing up the rear.  I almost marched right past the sign in box.  Everyone yelled, “WE’RE HERE!  WE’RE HERE!  WE DID IT!!!”  And then the kids broke out into the “Hallelujah Song.”  Appropriate.  (Notice it is NOT daylight here!)

 

More tradition: the photo of dirty boots at the end of the hike.  We were SO incredibly dirty!  My oldest daughter and I had prune feet, due to the athletic tape we’d wrapped our feet with to give us more arch support.  Does anyone have any suggestions for arch support?  (And don’t say, “Don’t do 12 mile hikes.”)

 

OH YEAH!  RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!  We were SO pumped!  (Even though we couldn’t MOVE!)  Put another successful hike in the books for us!  We are three mountains closer to becoming 46′ers!

P.S. We have a family joke.  No matter what story we tell, we end it with, “And then I found ten dollars.”  The kids say that this ensures the story will be exciting.  We had just finished and we were excited and the kids were joshing me about “not having a story” for this hike.  We were reviewing the day’s events and whooping it up and high-fiving and then my oldest daughter looked to her left in the parking lot.  She picked up something and said, “And then I found ten dollars!”  Sure enough, she’d found a ten dollar bill!  What a day!

Taking a Break–Cascade–Again

The family at the summit

Hooray for a three-day weekend!  Today we hiked Cascade again.  (This was the fourth time for my littlest ones and me.  In fact, my youngest daughter said, “Can’t we just hike Cascade 46 times and be done with it?  It says we have to hike 46 PEAKS.  Cascade is a PEAK.  Let’s just keep repeating it.”  She likes it because it’s “easiest.”  I wouldn’t say it’s “easy,” but definitely easier than the others.  We wanted to do this one because we wanted to take our exhange student and we weren’t sure how much she could handle.  (She did great, for the record–it was not a cakewalk and she breathed hard the whole time, but I applaud her spunk.  After a few, “I hate this,” “OMG, this is so hard,” “I’ll just wait here and you come back and get me” comments at the beginning, she knuckled down and did it.  She even did Porter as a second peak!)

It was a perfect day.  60 degrees and overcast, no wind, and no humidity.  The kids are getting older and faster.  We did the whole hike in just under five hours.  That’s 45 minutes faster than the last time we did it as a family.  Pretty soon I will not be able to keep up with ANYONE.

The black flies ARE out, but they weren’t too bad.  A little deet and short breaks kept them at bay for the most part.  One did bite me.  It’s the first time I’ve experienced a black fly bite and now I understand what the fuss is about.  It hurt!  It would be horrible to have many biting.  My son used his bug net because they seemed to like his face a lot.  But truly, it wasn’t bad.  There weren’t any at the summit.  Once we left the top though, they did come back and two women stopped us as we went to the base, “Do you have ANY bug spray?”  Yup, sure do.  “Oh THANK YOU!”

It was a GREAT day and a much needed break.

ADK 46 Street and Nye–Oh well…

Not EVERYTHING can be “WOW!”  At least we are now 10ER’S!!!

This is IT???

Generally, after one of our hikes, we have our family photo, taken at the top of the peak, inspirational views in the background.  Well, this time, here is our family photo, taken at the peak.  And that’s the view.  Somehow I feel…cheated?  Our youngest even said it, in the car coming back.  “That was kind of a let-down.  I mean, you do all the work to get to the top.  At the very least you should be able to SEE something.”

It wasn’t a total wash.  I’ll get to the positives later.   For now, here are the stats:

Peaks: Nye (altitude 3895 ft) and Street (altitude 4166 ft).  We started the climb at 10:00 am.  It was sunny, 67 degrees F and humid.  The bugs were almost non-existent (THAT is a positive!).  It took us 4 hours, 6 minutes to get to the split (about 4 miles), 7 minutes at the split, 10 minutes to walk to the top of Nye (ho-hum), 43 minutes to get to the top of Street (2/3rds of a mile), 22 minutes at the top (such as it is) of Street (we had to eat SOMEWHERE), 34 minutes back to the split, and 2 hours, 40 minutes from the split back to the bottom (that INCLUDES a nice 20 minute break at the stream crossing–that says a LOT about this climb!!!  It has an ugly part that goes UP, UP, UP!!!).  Total mileage: 8.8.  Total time, 8 hours, 43 minutes.

When we began this little adventure last summer (with a goal to climb all 46 peaks) I wasn’t sure where to go to get information.  I had climbed Cascade and wanted more.  But I didn’t know peaks to climb and in what order, so I bought James R. Burnside’s book “Exploring the 46 Adirondack High Peaks.”  I like the book for lots of reasons: it gives the altitude and mileage of each peak, he’s got some great background information and I enjoy the anecdotes he includes about his climbs.  Plus, he’s a 46′er and I give him TOTAL props for that! 

However, with due respect to the author, it was written in 1994 and it’s somewhat outdated now, especially with the availability of almost up-to-the-minute climb reports posted on the internet.  I still recommend the book to people (for reasons listed above), but we don’t go to Burnside for climb info.  It just isn’t helpful.  (Plus, I have gotten almost apoplectic about some of his difficulty ratings: Giant is a B+???  Say WHAT?  I don’t THINK so!!!  It’s harder than THAT!)  For instance: he talks about how many folks said “Nye was quite an easy climb.  The hurricane of 1950 changed all that.  Since then, climbers have described the mountains as ‘a booby trap of hidden blowdown,’ ‘a nightmare obstacle course of deadfall and debris,’ and a ‘truly horrible place.’…As a consequence, most climbers today rate Nye and Street as the most difficult of the 46 high peaks to conquer…One will not find much compensation when reaching their summits, either…The view rating for Nye, however, remains rock solid: it is firmly imbedded at the bottom of the scale.” 

He rates this climb as an A+ and says it’s the most difficult of the 46.  Oh that it were so!!!  I don’t agree.  This climb was MUCH easier than Giant.  I will say that when Burnside climbed it, the trail was NOT maintained and it “is” now [at least a bit], so he can’t be faulted for that.  But, as climbs go, it was not overly demanding for our family (children ages 13, 10 and 8 and two parents in relatively good levels of physical fitness, ages 41).  But, like I said, the book was written 14 years ago and a lot can change in that amount of time.  However, I WILL agree with the view rating.  As far as the peaks go, there WAS NO VIEW on Nye.  Period.

One of the FEW views on the way UP.

One thing I will say about the blowdown evidence.  It was THERE.  And it was fascinating.  I’ve seen blowdowns (from the tops of OTHER peaks, where there is a VIEW).  I’ve always wondered, “What would it be like to be IN there?”  Now I know.  And I also have new and FOND appreciation for all those WONDERFUL, AMAZING, SUPER, LOVELY volunteers and employees who maintain the trails of the peaks.  THANK YOU.  This was our first experience with “bushwhacking.”  We were all a little nervous about it, but, as it turns out, all was fine.  (I think we got lucky.  And I don’t think we can count this as true bushwhacking.) 

It's maintained a little.

It wasn’t that big a deal, thanks to the efforts of someone who does do SOME maintenance on the trail.  So, we didn’t have the nightmare that Burnside talked about, but it was NOT as good as the other (formally maintained) trails.  It was really interesting to see where the trees had been blown down on the mountain, pushed over like toothpicks.  In several places, there were massive birches that were mangled and thrown down.  And it was also cool to answer the kids’ questions about, “What are those tiny plants?” by telling them that they are pine trees trying to come back.  The trees were only about 3 inches high and they covered the forest floor.  Later on, we could see the trees at about a 4 foot height.  It looked like a Christmas tree farm.  That was cool.

So, we started this hike and about 45 minutes into it (approximately 1.5 miles), I was thinking, “Oh, this isn’t going to be hard at ALL.”  We had rolling hills through the forest and the path was mostly going DOWN.  There was a little bit of mud, but nothing terrible and the trail was good.  We were worried about finding the cairns that pointed us to the stream crossing, but we found them easily, no problem. 

First crossing cairn.

Crossing the stream was fun.  Good thing, since we had to do it several times!

Crossing the stream.

After crossing the stream at the first cairn, there was a path that went straight up, but unlike the other peaks, we weren’t scrambling over giant boulders.  We walked up on tree roots.  It was almost like walking on stairs. 

The root stairs.

Even though it was really steep, I thought, “Not bad, not bad at all.”  Then we crossed the stream a second time.

A double log crossing!

After this crossing is when things got REALLY interesting!

The path began to go STRAIGHT UP.  It was unbelievable.  It took us FOREVER.  I wondered how far it was, so I looked at the distance and I’m amazed.  It probably wasn’t even a mile.  It seemed like we were doing this part for hours.  We hiked along and then IN a little stream.  It was muddy and did I mention?  STRAIGHT UP.  Ugh.  We had to take little tiny steps and stop often to get our breath.  Our littlest one was NOT in a good mood (note to self: sending husband and children to amusement park for 12 hours the day before an ADK hike is a BAD idea).  We let our little one be the pace-setter.  Of course, then she fell.  ~sigh~  But we got through it.  Maybe not happily, but hey.  It’s a character builder.

Our little one, building character.

As we were hiking, we saw fewer people on this mountain than we have ever seen.  We were passed by one family going up–an UBER fit dad with two kids [KIDS!] scrambling behind him–they were probably 12 and 13, a boy and a girl.  They did NOT look like they were having fun–dad was practically RUNNING up the mountain and the girl yelled, “D-A-A-A-A-D!”  He just barked back at her, “Pick it up!!!”  I guess it works for some.  I was just happy to see other kids out there.  They passed us again, going down, as we were going up.  They were MOVING.  We also saw a grown son and his father; they passed us going down.  Later we saw a very large group (maybe 9 folks) and that was it.  We were literally the ONLY people on the top of that mountain (at least that we know of) and with GOOD reason as you’re about to see…

Looking at beaver dams.

The other interesting thing we saw were the beaver dams.  There were a LOT of them and they were impressive!  We also saw all the trees the beavers had gnawed and moved to make the dams.  THAT was cool!  Our eldest found a giant tree that the beavers had chewed and asked, “They couldn’t have moved THAT tree!  Did they KNOW it was going to fall right there?”  I’m not sure if they “know” or not, but I do know beavers are “nature’s engineers.”  Sadly, we didn’t see any beavers.  That would’ve been cool.

The only wildlife we actually saw were lots of toads.  We heard many birds while we were near the bottom of the mountain, not so many up top.  And we LOVE finding all the mushrooms.  There are so many different kinds!  Our favorite are the “puffballs,” the ones when you poke them, release a brown powder (spores?).

We are very grateful to all the internet reports we read.  They were very descriptive and helpful.  One of them mentioned some old metal equipment after we crossed the stream AGAIN.  Sure enough, we found the equipment.  The kids were so curious.  What was it for?  HOW did they get it there?  And WHY did they just leave it?  I just don’t know…

Rusted equipment on the ground.

We finally made it to the split.  My husband told us to, “Look for a tree with an ‘N’ and an ‘S’ carved into it.”  I almost laughed!  With ALL these trees, how could a person POSSIBLY find a tree with letters carved into it???  However…

Tree with carved letters.

There were also a couple of nice cairns there, but I didn’t get a photo of them.  From this point, it was just a short walk to the “top” of Nye.  Everybody say, “Ooooooooooh.”

We are NINERS!

Notice the sign in this picture.  That’s it.  That’s what you get.  If you turn and look in the other direction, there’s a smaller sign, one that’s a yellow circle that just says, “Nye.”  Whoo-hoo. 

An example of blowdown.

I have to mention here that a person doing these particular mountains should be doubly careful watching.  Normally, when I hike, I am looking down at my feet so I don’t slip/trip/fall.  This hike had a double whammy because there WERE many trees across the path.  Three out of five of us (my husband, elder daughter and son) all got nailed in the head by a tree.  They can tell you, it is NOT a pleasant experience.

The "view" from the top of Street.

We did get to see some of the ranges from the top of Street, but it wasn’t easy!  We really had to work to find them!

We are 10'ERS!

Yee-haw!  Double digits, baby!!! It’s always fun trying to take a family picture when there is no one around.  We were able to balance the camera on our backpacks for this one!

The sign on top of Street.

Again, you have to look pretty hard for the sign on top of Street.  We didn’t know it was there until we were almost ready to go.  My husband carries his GPS, so we know we are at the top based on coordinates and altitude.  We looked for a sign, but only saw it only as we were leaving!

On the way down.

Coming down was FAST.  Once again, we let the little one lead.  In her typical fashion, she BOUNCED down the mountain.  She was going so fast I was breathing hard, trying to keep up (sadly, dear readers, I think this is only going to get WORSE, as she gets stronger and I get, well…older!).  She was MOTIVATED to get down!  I have to say, our pace DOWN says what kind of a climb UP it is.  It was truly that difficult.  Another good thing about this mountain is that unlike the paths on the others, this one is not full of boulders.  On the others, you’re scrambling up and then jumping or sliding down.  This one was full of roots or mud and both those things are softer and a bit easier on the knees than banging/scraping on boulders.  I felt like I was zooming down the mountain and yet, I’m not nearly in as much pain today as I was last week!  Our little one had found her legs by this time though and was very happy.  She said, “Hey Mom, you remember whiny me?”  I said yes.  She said, “She’s gone now, but she’ll be back for the next hike!”  Ugh! 

More blowdown.

You know, maybe these mountains aren’t as dramatic as the other peaks we done.  Ok, there’s no “maybe” about it.  They aren’t.  If I had done these mountains first, I don’t think I would’ve caught peak fever and passed it on to my family.  After expending so much energy and seeing so little, I would have questioned climbing the others.  

                                                                                                                                                                            It’s true.  You do Street and Nye because you have to in order to be 46′ers. 

                                                                                                                                                                                    

     But you know something?  All things being equal, I’d do it again.  It was a GORGEOUS day, we had the privilege of being outside and mucking around in a nice forest.  And best of all, we got to do it TOGETHER, as a family.  There is NOTHING better than that.  So, yeah, the view was less than impressive, but the climb was TOTALLY worth it.

Two down only 36 to go!