Mud, rain, tress, and rocks are some of the most common sights I have seen while hiking my first few Adirondack high peak mountains. The weather has been less then ideal for 2 out of 3 of the hikes but the added weather element makes me feel more tough!
Sure days off are typically spent sleeping in and eating good food, but i believe that resting is for night time, so go hiking! My trusty hiking partner Andrew Whitlow, who has now climbed 39 out of the 46 high peaks, has done a great job of showing me the ropes of what climbing these mountains is all about. I could and should probably write a blog about each peak but for now I will just write short summaries!
1. Big Slide (4240 feet)---sunny, clear, and warm, great views during the entire hike and at the top,lots of hikers, muddy, super awesome first high peak!(hike time=4 hours)
2. Santanonni Peak (4607 ft)----hard hike, followed by Panther and Coucheachraga on same hike, wet and muddy unmarked trails, pretty landscape, ate Rollo's at the top, dinky peak marker, foggy at top.
3. Panther Mtn (4442 ft)---more unmarked and wet hiking, more Rollo's, water running low coming down, saw the same family several times, swamp crossing!
4. Coucheachraga Mtn. (3860 ft)---last peak for the day, no great views, slippery and rocky, had fun trying to pronounce name correctly, ran into 2 more hikers just starting out day, crazy decent, acquired very first scrapes coming back, ran the blue trail to main road, mud mud mud! (total hike time for 3 peaks=9.5 hours (avg. hike time from book for 3 peaks=16 hours)
5. Colvin(4057 ft)---Followed by Blake, long walk on main road to trail head, nice scenery along the way, no rain until about an hour in, unceasing rain for rest of hike, no great views at top, ate a few peanuts and nothing else, fast pace but a lot easier then last hike.
6. Blake Peak(3860 ft)--- super rainy but clean mud, challenging rock faces, fun hike, led a few times, didn't get left behind this time! ran the road back, only saw 3 hikers all day. Hike time for 2 peaks =5.5 hours; avg. hike time from book=12 hours
6 down----40 more to go!!!
So does this mean your coming back to work at Cherokee next year? You've gotta finish the 46 at some point.
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures, Jessica! Maybe someday I'll be up to you and Andrew's skill level...though I'm pretty sure it's going to take me a bit longer to be a 46er. 5 down, 41 to go ;)
ReplyDeleteyes, Anthony i think i just may have to come back, no sense in stopping now!
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