esther and whiteface make 46!

in just under eight hours of hiking adam and i finished esther and whiteface bringing us to the finish of our quest to complete all of the 46 adirondack high peaks! i'll be writing the rest of my trip reports and submitting them to my correspondent ASAP in order to officially become an adirondack forty-sixer!
we started from the atmospheric sciences research center. while this trailhead shaves some distance off the total hike it leads you up a less than beautiful first mile of loose rock on a very steep trail up marble mountain. luckily, once you reach the summit of marble the trail becomes much more enjoyable albeit no less steep. the trail was also very wet and muddy. waterproof boots were well appreciated, especially after seeing so many folks on the trail in just running sneakers.

just one portion of the "trail"

there's not much i can say about esther that hasn't been said before. the herd path to the summit is relatively flat and painless, but is very muddy. while there is no view, there is a plaque which offers some gratification for the walk.
back on the wilmington trail we headed for the summit of whiteface, passing ski trails and a lift, soon coming to the intersection with the scenic highway to the top of the mountain.

encountering whiteface veterans memorial highway

undoubtedly this is a strange high peak experience to encounter so much "civilization" on a summit. the final part of the hike is quite steep and you emerge onto the summit (and into a gaggle of tourists) from behind the tower on the peak. it is an interesting mix of folks - lots and lots of them. you can tell who drove up the mountain mainly by their lack of muddy clothing and that they do not sit on the rocks (too dirty).

no lack of company on the summit

we certainly underestimated the mighty winds of whiteface and were woefully underdressed. it was cold enough to see your breath. adam had a difficult time "uncorking" our little bottle of champagne. despite the conditions we spent at least a half an hour on the summit. the clouds were below the summit making it feel like you were on top of the world.

the "view"

a little more than two knee breaking hours of descent and we were back at the car, in disbelief that we had ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!

more photos from this hike are here.

more photos documenting (most of) our 46r trips are here.

skylight - #44

we are only one dayhike away from becoming 46rs after this weekend's backpacking trip. we spent three days camped at flowed lands and climbed mt skylight. so many people say this is their favorite high peak and after seeing the summit on a clear day i can understand why.






many more pictures here.

sawteeth mountain.

what better way to celebrate your one year wedding anniversary than to hike 14 miles and summit a high peak?
we started from the st hubert's parking area at the ausable club at 8:45, signed in at the amr gate and began walking the lake road. i hate to say it, but there is little interest to this road after the first time you walk it. we arrived at the dam around 10:00 and were glad to start hiking an actual trail. taking the trail beside rainbow falls up, we reached the summit around noon. it was windy and quite cold up top but offered a fine view of the great range.

15 minutes later, with frozen fingers and full bellies we began the descent to ausable lake via the scenic trail. this is a steeper trail and added almost a mile to the trip. there were many lookout points perched on the cliffside scramble down offering views to the southeast that weren't available from the summit. the final portion of the scenic trail that follows the lakeshore was a rugged crawl over glacial erratics. it took us nearly three hours to descend from the summit back to the dam.

the mind-numbing walk of the lake road followed and we were back at the car by 4:45, making it an even 8 hour day.
(more photos here.)

allen mountain.

let me begin by quoting from summit post's description of allen mountain.

"The twenty-sixth highest peak in the Adirondacks, Allen is touted as being the most difficult of the original 46 to get to. This is most likely because of the long hike in that is needed to get to its trailhead normally requiring at least an overnight stay. Allen also stands quite far from any other regular trail and has a rather obtuse route to the top due to most of the direct route residing on private land. Add to this the effects of clear-cut logging in that area and the devastating blowdowns from Hurricane Floyd in 1998 make for a most strenuous passage."

with this in mind, we knew this would be a ball-buster of a hike. i know that some folks on the path to becoming 46rs will wait until the end to complete allen mountain. i would advise everyone against that.

(sign marking the beginning of the allen mountain herd path. photo taken by adam.)

to be fair, it is an interesting hike and there are good views from the summit. so much of the hike up allen mountain is approach, miles and miles of mostly flat approach. i began to wonder when we would finally start going up. once you start gaining elevation though, it is an unrelenting 2,000 feet in two miles mostly on a slide where running water and slippery moss making the going slow. that final two miles took two hours. 

(a view down the slide climbed to summit allen. photo taken by adam.)

researching prior to the trip, we decided to hike in from camp at livingston point on flowed lands. it shaved a few miles off the distance, making our round trip about 16 miles. it also prevented us from having to ford the hudson and opalescent rivers without bridges and cross the slightly nightmarish lake jimmy "floating" bridge. what we didn't factor is that our approach via the hanging spear falls trail adds the descent & ascent of the falls into the trip. that ascent of the falls on our return to camp was extremely mentally and physically challenging. while it didn't bother me as much, adam was nearly brought to madness by the  portion of the maintained red trail between the allen herd path and flowed lands. it's overgrown, with alders and blackberry bushes as high as your shoulders crossing the path. adam chose to wear a sleeveless shirt and now looks as though he was whipped across the upper arms. the black flies, mosquitos and heat probably didn't help maintain sanity either.

(one of the views from allen's summit. photo taken by adam.)

all in all it took us almost 12 hours, including a half hour stop on the summit and many, many short breaks. 
i could not be more happy that allen mountain is behind us.

colvin & blake.

i am not in the habit of skirting the truth or fibbing to you here on this blog. it is because of that fact i will honestly tell you that i am more sore right now than i have been post-hike in quite some time. to put it bluntly, mt colvin and blake peak kicked my ass.

i am sure there are high peak warriors that will snuff at this and the fact that it took us 10 hours to cover the 14-point-something miles round trip. adam and i are in pretty decent shape. we go to the gym (fairly) regular. although it is entirely true that gym-shape does not equal trail-shape, we were not unprepared for this trek.

it was a beautiful day, clear and sunny. there was only one couple we passed on the same route as us which is highly unusual in the high peaks. we saw multiple deer and they were not afraid of us.

(view of lower ausable lake from the summit of mt colvin. note the black fly top center)

we also hiked two mountains. we hiked mt colvin twice actually because you have to backtrack the way you came to get back to the trailhead.
i think it was the col between mt colvin and blake peak that wiped me out. the colvin side was pretty steep with two ladders positioned along the way. i fell/slid at one point, scraping up the side of my right arm. slick mud and steep descents don't mix, especially on tired jello legs with black flies dive bombing your eyes and ears.

(me descending into the col between colvin and blake. *photo by adam)

the summit of mt colvin was gorgeous with amazing views of the entire great range and giant mountain. the summit of blake peak was...well...unremarkable. it is entirely shrouded in scrub trees. there isn't even much of a marker to give you the comfort that you FINALLY made it. granted, i was so wiped out when we summited blake that i couldn't care less about views. i wanted to sit, get out of the beating sun, not hear incessant fly buzzing and gather the mental and physical energy to hike the 7+ miles back out.

(me entirely exhausted on the summit of blake peak. *photo by adam)

high peaks completed as of june 15th, 2012 = 41

seymour mountain.

can you believe it has been almost two years since the last time we climbed a "new" adirondack high peak? the year of 2011 was dominated by a historic september event which took a whole bunch of planning. additionally we were banking our vacation days for the honeymoon that followed.
with that behind us, it is now time to resume the quest to finally finish hiking all of the 46 adirondack high peaks. we chose to start back up with a day hike of seymour mountain, the peak we left behind in our july 2009 backpack into the seward range.

we drove up to corey road and slept friday night at the seward mountain trailhead. we started the hike at 7:30 on a clear and sunny day. two hours and approximately 5 miles later we arrived at the location where we would leave the marked trail. a cairn marks the beginning of the unmarked, unmaintained herd path up seymour mountain.
while the hike on the marked trail was mostly level and dry, the bushwhack up to the summit was grueling. our progress slowed to a crawl. it took us two hours to climb the approximately 1 1/2 miles to the top of seymour mountain, reaching the summit at 11:30. it was steep, muddy, and "picky"; necessitating the mentally and physically exhausting search for the right foot and hand holds.

seymour mountain's summit is fully wooded but there are multiple rock outcroppings where excellent views to the north and east can be found. we spent over an hour on the north facing overlook, eating lunch and snapping pictures before heading back down the knee busting descent.

it took us just under 2 hours to climb back down the herd path at the junction with the marked trail. the unusually hot spring weather was starting to take a toll on our dog, crosbi (and also on us to be fair). we took many, many rest stops on the trip back to the trailhead to let the dog nap and to soak our feet in the cold, clear brooks, spotting small trout along the way. we arrived back to the parking area at 5:00, battered but successful.
adam and i are now at 39 completed high peaks, with crosbi at a respectable 21.

(for more pictures, visit my seymour mountain flickr set here.)

the final countdown.

if you've been following along for a while, you may have noticed that i am only 8 mountains away from having hiked all of the 46 highest peaks of the adirondacks.
realistically, this will probably take another year or two to complete based on how lackadaisically adam and i have taken on this challenge, but we are certainly in the home stretch.  this has got me thinking about which mountain i want to be the final hike; the one on which we can declare that we are 46'rs (although not technically until we are "sworn in").
i am currently thinking that i want the last 46r to be a day hike, that way we can plan it on a whim based on good weather.  it would be ideal if it was a clear day for that meaningful hike, rather than pouring rain.  i also don't want to save "the worst for last" (i'm talking about you, allen mtn).

so here is the listing of the high peaks remaining to be climbed in order of height:

•Skylight
•Whiteface
•Allen
•Esther
•Seymour
•Sawteeth
•Colvin
•Blake

anyone out there have any suggestions?
which would you save until last?

saddleback and basin.

after completing my jury service, catching up at work and having a disappointing wedding photographer issue, a multi-day walk in the woods was a welcome escape.
leaving crosbi at home, adam and i left from the garden trailhead on friday morning.  a short walk later, we arrived at the ore bed camping area.  although no one was in the lean to, we chose to set up our tent up the hill for privacy.  the lean to and tent sites are adjacent to a small slide at the base of upper wolf jaw.  we spent much of the first day exploring the slide, it's trickling stream of water and mossy rock waterfalls.  it was reminiscent of a japanese garden.

the next morning we left camp at 8:30 to hike saddleback and basin mountains.  after two hours of steep climbing up the ore bed trail, we summitted saddleback around 10:30. 
i had anticipated and mentally prepared for a grueling day as the common lore says the hike between saddleback and basin is more of a sketchy climb than a hike.  i can honestly tell you that the "sketchy" part is very small, perhaps about 175 yards.  i was ready to be "climbing" for the whole mile in between the two mountains, when in actuality the climbing portion is only a little stretch immediately after descending the summit of saddleback.  it is certainly a climb and not a hike, and we were glad to have left the dog home.  crosbi is nimble, but at 5 foot 4 inches tall, i had to stretch for hand and foot holds in places.

after the short scramble, we hiked the beautiful trail on the col between the mountains, somewhere along the way losing adam's sunglasses and summitted basin around 11:45.  the views from basin are spectacular as you can see all of the adirondack high peak royalty close up; haystack, marcy, colden and algonquin.

we rested for almost an hour, eating lunch and snapping pictures.  on the return hike to saddleback, adam found his sunglasses hanging from a tree and i suffered some elbow scrapes after not having an appropriate foot hold climbing down a rock face.  we covered the mile in about an hour and after another short break on the summit of saddleback, we were back at camp around 3:30.

this was probably the most rewarding trip and the best weather we have had on an adirondack backpack this season, if not in the last few years.  not a drop of rain, allowing us to sleep without the rain fly both nights.  there were few to no bugs and almost no mud on the trails.  even more surprising, no one else camped at the ore bed site the whole weekend, leaving us to have the area to ourselves.  an all around perfect trip.
38 high peaks down, 8 more to go!

rocky peak ridge.

yesterday we hiked rocky peak ridge, our thirty sixth adirondack high peak.
we chose to start from Rte 73 on the Zander Scott trail rather than from Rte 9 due to the shorter distance.  while this choice offers less mileage, it certainly doesn't compromise elevation: 3,100+ vertical gain to rocky peak ridge.  as soon as you sign in the trail register expect to start climbing!
i'll fully admit that i usually don't get my "hiking legs" until about 11:00 in the morning, making the first two hours of the climb mentally and physically challenging.  it is not generally wise to start chipper conversations with me during the morning portion of a strenuous hike; you might get what adam calls my "morning bear" face.
despite my grumpy mcpooperface attitude early in the day, the hike was rewarding right from the get-go.  in less than a half hour there are overlooks affording awesome views towards the dix mountain range.  it was a little cloudy on the first half of our hike and we were lucky enough to catch a rainbow at our first pit-stop.

passing giant's washbowl (which has a couple really awesome camping spots), we continued climbing nearly to the summit of giant mountain.  adam and i have already hiked giant mtn, and were happy to only hike one mountain on this day.  turning right, we descended down the shoulder of giant and climbed back up to the top of rocky peak ridge.

at first the summit was cloudy with only sporadic views, but within 15 minutes the low flying clouds disappeared and the sun shone!  we spent over a half hour on the peak eating, resting, snapping photos and enjoying the nearly 360 degree panoramas.

we took our time hiking back down, stopping frequently to enjoy the views.  it bears noting how the sun changes a previously cool hike into a dry scorching one!  a total of eight hours on the mountain and eight miles hiked.  it was a perfect day, although my knees would have disagreed at the end of the day.
only ten more mountains left before we can score our patches!

one step at a time.

adam, crosbi and i are back home and in "recovery" from a backpacking trip into the trail-less santanoni range of the adirondacks to hike couchsachraga, santanoni and panther peaks.  we stretched what some hikers do in a day into a three day trip.

leaving from the trailhead to duck hole around 10:00, we hiked to our intended tent spot near the santanoni lean-to.  while the distance to the campsite was just under five miles, it took us over three hours to get there.  once you leave the gravel road, the entire trail is completely muddy.  the ADK guide called it "unrelentingly wet" and that is almost an understatement. 

at times the "trail" was actually a stream which was preferable to the times that it was just acres of boot sucking mud.  the hike in (with loaded backpacks) was a non-stop game of "where's my next step".  if you guess your step incorrectly, you're going to sink up to your shin (or higher!) in thick mud.  after setting up camp, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and went to sleep early to prepare for the long day ahead.

we left camp around 8:00 the next morning to a sky that was grey but bright.  we anticipated rain and were (of course) prepared.  we arrived at the cairn marking where the herd path to times square began shortly after leaving the tent site.  after a little over two hours of climbing, we arrived at times square.  choosing to hike couchsachraga first due to it's furthest distance from times square, we headed up and over it's multiple false summits.  summitting couchie at 12:30, we snapped a few pictures and moved on.  it was obvious at this point that there would be no sweeping panoramic views on this hike as it was completely overcast.

on the way back to times square it began to rain and would continue to do so, on and off, for the remainder of the day.  without much in the way of a break, we moved onto santanoni, summitting around 3:00.  by this time, all of us were feeling tired but there was no time for rest.  crosbi's feet were beginning to bother her from the relentless mud and she took any opportunity available to lay down.
again, we returned to times square and turned to the final mountain, panther.  gladly, we saved this one for last as there is little elevation to gain from times square.  we summitted and turned to go back to camp around 4:30.  the climb down from times square was excruciating on the knees.  we were so glad to see the cairn marking the herd path's intersection with the marked trail!
returning to camp around 7:00, we were surprised to see so many tents having been set up while were were gone!  we wound up sharing our site with a couple who had packed in that evening, planning to do our exact trip the following day.

in the morning, we wished our camp mates a safe trip but only after learning some disconcerting news.  apparently, two gentlemen hiked in the day before and upon arriving at the santanoni lean-to camping area, they dropped their packs to look for a good tent site.  one of the men returned to the packs, but the other did not.  on our hike back to the truck, we passed DEC rangers and heard helicopters coming in to start a search for the missing man.  we were questioned but could offer no real assistance.  the worst part is that the missing hiker is apparently diabetic and left his medicine in his pack!  i keep checking the internet to see if i can find out what the outcome is, but i can't find anything.

other than the sobering moment regarding the missing hiker, we had a great albeit very exhausting time.  three more high peaks in the bag, bringing us to a grand total of 35!

it's not the heat, it's the humidity.

it's warm. like sitting in melted butter warm. like only some girl who likes snow would whine about kind of warm.
to me, it's hot outside.
did i mention we don't have air conditioning?
remember, i live in upstate new york...on purpose. this weather is sapping the little bit of motivation i have. almost everything seems difficult to the extent of being impossible.  anything that touches me is likely to trigger great discomfort or potential violence.
in light of those negative affirmations, here are some positive things for you to read:

•due to a gross miscalculation on my part (hold on...it's really going to be a positive statement), i realized that we have actually hiked 32 of the 46 adirondack high peaks. somehow three peaks (south dix, dial and nippletop) got lost in the shuffle.  i never claimed to be very good at math, but figured i would have kept better track of something like this.  we're currently planning a backpacking trip and if the weather holds out, we'll be bagging three more peaks.  that 46r patch doesn't seem so far off after all.

•i'm starting to narrow down the design for my shoulder tattoo. if you're interested you can check out the first color draft over here. please give me feedback if you feel so inclined. i am open to any suggestions; except perhaps those that include unicorns, rainbows or tribal/chinese characters.

•i am actually running on the treadmill at the gym.  i was strictly confining myself to the elliptical and the stationary bike due to my hip injury.  i am now running about 4 miles each gym visit.  i am starting to add some incline and hope to be able to maintain a 6 mph pace soon.

any positive news to share on your end?

you can't predict the weather.

we hiked big slide and the brothers today. we didn't originally plan on it, but wound up taking the loop; going up big slide from john's brook and back down the three brothers.


















the weather was perfect until shortly before we summitted big slide. of course. it was sort of like standing in a cloud on top of big slide.



on the way down the brothers the weather improved and the sky cleared affording us the views that this hike is so known for.

a big surprise.

seven years ago adam and i hiked our first adirondack high peak together. as it was adam's first high peak, i chose cascade mtn. i think cascade is a great "intro to the high peaks" hike. at less than three miles up and with a full 360 degree view, it's an awesome pay-off for a smaller amount of effort.

so when adam chose cascade mtn for a day hike yesterday, almost exactly seven years later, i thought it was sentimental and sweet.

little did i know that he had bigger plans!
once at the top, adam got down on his knees (in shorts! on the granite top of an adirondack mountain!). trying not to choke up and simultaneously trying to keep crosbi in control on the leash, he pulled out a blue bandana and unwrapped a little black box. words were a blur, but there was a proposal and there was an affirmation (albeit a bit delayed from shock).

what an awesome day!

a day early, a mountain short.

it never fails, the first backpacking trip of every season teaches me a little more about humility and priorities. the former being that i am not, nor every will be, a super day trip warrior. the latter is that i hike mountains for the joy and redemptive quality of being in the backcountry. no badge or moniker will be my motivation for pushing past my limits.
we left friday and drove two hours to tupper lake for the coreys trailhead into the seward mountain range. three hours and 5+ miles later we arrived at our tent site near the ward brook leanto. the ward brook trail was mainly level with some serious muddy areas, but the time was due to all of my trailside backpack strap fiddling.
after a full night of rain, we left camp saturday morning to hike seward, donaldson and emmons. the loop was probably under 9 miles, but it took us twelve hours. the mud was legendary (especially between the peaks on the ridgeline) and the scrambling was pretty intense (especially on seward). anyone with knees would think this was a challenging hike.
at the end of the day, we hiked seward and donaldson twice and (thankfully) emmons once. by my calculations, including all the accents and descents, that's 5,630 feet of elevation changes. the weather held out and was mostly sunny the whole day, although this had little affect on the extra mud created by the previous night's rain. there were views at each of the peaks and along the ridgeline, but none were without obstruction. due to the difficulty of the hike and the incessant blood sucking insects, we took significantly fewer photos than usual. an unexpected find was a memory box hidden atop of seward as a memorial to a boy named jon (1998-2006). the pictures and family messages on the outside of the box had me in tears.
suffice it to say, we decided that we would not summit any more mountains this trip. if you looked at me, you would have thought i ROLLED back down seward; bruises, cuts and insect bites. we were both battle worn and tired. we hiked out on sunday, choosing to leave seymour for a later day hike (with crosbi).

dix mountain.

it was a perfect fall day. and we completed a perfect hike.

















sure, it was long but 10 of the near 14 miles are relatively level. which means that the other 4 feel as though they are nearly vertical, but whatever.
adam, crosbi and i started at the rte. 73/round pond trailhead for dix mountain around 8:00 AM. with two cameras in tow, we stopped frequently but summited by 1:00 PM. the day was clear and you could see 360 degrees from the peak. we only passed one other party (at least until we were almost out...).

















there were many beautiful places to camp within five miles of the trailhead. the sites at round pond, which is less than a mile from rte. 73, were surprisingly enticing and you could not hear the highway. the leanto is RIGHT ON the trail, but i am not fond of staying in leantos anywho.

















i would certainly consider coming back here for a few nights stay.

a hike completed. thoughts abounding.

we successfully completed a hike of tabletop mountain yesterday. the hike itself is pretty uneventful. the bushwack is not difficult but is (as always in the adirondacks) very muddy. we were lucky to have the rain hold off until we were almost back to marcy dam.

if you were wondering, i did not go back to the AMR gatehouse to re-claim my hiking poles; especially after reading this article. i have decided to 'let them go'.

the incident on friday has (not surprisingly) generated a bit of debate.

i thought quite a lot about all of this during my hike up tabletop. nothing like a bit of hiking to get your thoughts bouncing around.

it seems that the debate always gets hottest when it involves adirondack land use, who has the rights to be there and what they should be allowed to do. secondly, people usually get their panties in a twist about dogs and ATVs on trails in the adirondacks.

i guess the unique nature of the adirondack park and it's private/public mix makes this type of debate expected. but what i don't get is why people are so mean about it. aren't we all neighbors? i realize i don't live inside the blue line folks...but someday i (and my dog) will, much to the displeasure of some. i am not going to stop hiking in the adirondacks. i will keep my ADK membership. i will continue to do what i can to preserve the adirondacks and my right to access it.
i just hope we can find a way to all share this place without elitism or intimidation.

a short backpack. a long story.

for our first backpacking trip of 2008 we decided to re-hike a high peak and try to grab a new one.
you see, we want to (eventually) get our 46'r patch. we aren't commandos though, and still want to enjoy the journey. i love the adirondacks and am mindful to not focus on the numbers.
adam and i started hiking together very quickly after we started dating in 2002. i had been hiking the high peaks and backpacking for a few years before we met, so i had to "introduce" him. luckily for our relationship, he was quickly hooked on the adirondacks also.prior to this trip, adam and i had hiked 22 of the 46 high peaks in the adirondacks. the problem is, we started hiking high peaks before we felt the need to become official 46'rs and we didn't document our hikes very well. it wasn't until the summer of 2004, and our hike up phelps mt., that i started journaling our trips. so that meant we would have to re-hike five high peaks to officially have them count towards our 46'r journey.which brings me back to this trip. even though i had hiked mt marcy twice and adam once, we picked it to re-hike for 46'r documentary purposes. gray peak is a trail-less bushwhack, but very near mt marcy. we figured we'd pick this one up as well, which would bring our count to 23 a piece. not to forget about our awesome dog, crosbi; she had not hiked either mt marcy or gray, so her total would be 11 peaks after this trip.


07.11.08: DAY ONE. THE HIKE IN.
we started from the upper works trailhead around 7:30 AM after an hour and a half drive from home. we opted to sleep at home rather than camp at the trailhead to savor one last night of bed sleep.
many other backpackers had signed into the register before us and were also going to basecamp in the lake colden area.













as usual, i couldn't help but notice the bear warning signs. this year there was an extra twist though, as they made note of the bear canister failures from 2007. we currently carry two bear canisters, each of different brands. our newest canister, made by Bear Vault, is the brand that has failed. awesome.











the day was overcast and humid, which isn't preferable for carrying a 35-45 pound pack full of stuff, but we managed to hike the calamity brook trail into lake colden in about three and a half hours.
we set up camp just as it started to rain, cooked some lunch and took a glorious nap. upon waking, the rain had stopped and the sun was just peeking out. we were visited by two different rangers that day at camp. each was looking for our bear canisters, which are now required by law in the eastern high peaks. the second ranger noted that the bears were at lake colden just the night prior and had taken another backpacker's bear canister. he told us to place a bunch of pots and pans on top of the 'weak link' canister. that way, if a bear made an attempt to break into it we could hear the clatter, get up and "scare him off".
with those thoughts in our heads, we sipped some tequila, ate dinner and went to bed.

07.12.08: DAY TWO. GRAY, MARCY and TESTS OF SANITY.
woke up after a great night of sleep, with no noticed bear activity. had breakfast, pumped some water and got back onto calamity brook trail around 8:30 AM.
the day was great; mostly sunny and around 85 degrees. it was still humid, but you can't have it all. the trails were very muddy and i was glad to have my gaiters.

we made it to lake tear of the clouds around 11:30 AM. here is where we found the cairn marking the official start of the bushwhack up to gray peak. adam hurriedly pumped more water as the black flies were savage and neither of us had our head nets.













it's very difficult to describe how awful and maddening black flies are unless you experience them personally. all things considered, they are tiny and very poor flyers. but they make up for this in their numbers and sheer commitment to drinking your blood. black flies will hover until they find a deet-free spot on your clothing. from there they will latch on and crawl until a spot is found to bite. you probably won't feel them bite, but you will later find a bloody spot, which will soon become inflamed and will itch like the seventh level of hell. oh, and don't forget the incessant buzzing and the fact that they get in your ears, nose and eyes. if you stop or slow down, they will find you.
lake tear of the clouds seemed to be where all of the black flies in the entire world are born...
the trail up gray peak was steep and required a bit of scrambling, but was over in less than a half hour. we summited around 12:15 PM and had fantastic views south and west.









we could see mt marcy from our perch and decided not to go back down the way we came and summit marcy by the marked trail. instead we agreed to venture on the unmarked, herd path from gray peak to mt marcy.
to summarize that next hour, we experienced an epic struggle with miniature, high altitude hardened evergreens and blood sucking insects. none of the trees were taller than five feet, but were so dense that you could not see your own boots. the "path" was less than six inches wide and easy to lose; mostly because you couldn't see it through the shin-scraping, eye-poking trees. anytime you stopped to find your way, the insects found you and forced you to quickly move on. there was lots of swearing and getting our packs snagged on branches. i will be unable to wear a skirt to work for some time; lest people think i like to be hit with switches across my thighs. although adam isn't worried about not wearing skirts, he did lose his kershaw knife somewhere during the battle of the gray peak trees.
we did eventually find our way above tree line on the shoulder of mt marcy. it was a quick, but steep jaunt to the summit, arriving at 1:30 PM. it's never lonely on the top of mt marcy and there were many others sharing our experience. we cooked a meal, mended our blisters and let crosbi savor a quick nap after her first summit of the highest peak in new york state.









we agreed that attempting to summit mt skylight was out of the question for the day and got back to camp by 6:15 PM. after a refreshing 'bath' in the opalescent river, we had dinner, again drank tequila and went to bed.

07.13.08: DAY THREE. THERE IS NO DRY. ONLY WET OR GO HOME.
sleep was not so great due to a tent-hogging dog and an aching hip flexor.

drizzle woke adam up around sunrise and he secured the rain fly. we woke up again around 9:00 AM to the sound of heavy rain and the realization that our tent was in a depression in the ground. simply put, we were flooding. a frenzied tent move in the pouring rain and a damp discussion on the unlikely prospects of improved weather followed. it was decided that we would pack up and hike out.
after waiting for the rain to let up, we loaded our soggy gear and got on the trail a little after noon. the rain held off for the next hour or so, but then unleashed it's fury. we hiked in the pouring rain for two hours. the trails were first muddy, then flooded. it was so uncomfortable that it was funny. i mean, when you stop to pee and pull soaking wet underpants back on, you either laugh or go crazy. we stopped avoiding water; simply because it was impossible to not walk through puddles and our feet were fully saturated anyway. adam noted, "it feels like my boots are filled with cottage cheese". quickly followed by, "some cottage cheese would be good right now".
we kept ourselves sane by thinking of the delicious, fresh meal we would prepare once we got home.
(if you are curious...we decided on nachos with refried black beans, vegetarian meat sauce, guacamole and all the fixin's)

EPILOGUE:
while it may seem that this was a horrible experience, it was not. it certainly won't rank in the top ten backpacking trips, but it was none the less a good time.
we are already planning our next trip, but are going to leave upper works and the calamity brook trail alone for a bit. we will never, ever again camp at that site at lake colden even if were assured that it wouldn't rain.
and we will always bring our head nets.