Katie really wanted to do this hike. I, on the other hand, was trying to get out of it. I had some genuine ailments, and would have happily stayed home. In fact, my right knee area and some of the muscles or ligaments around it were STILL sore a week after our first High Peak. I was very nervous that my leg would start hurting badly very early in the hike and that I would be hurting the whole time. Fortunately, this was not the case. Since Katie also already wrote a post, I will leave out some shared details. Read her post also.
The website we use to plan our hikes estimated that this hike would be 4.1 miles to the summit, giving us an 8.2 mile round trip hike. The ascent was to be about 2000 feet. One blogger commented that the first few miles are fairly easy, so I thought it sounded like a walk in the park. Definitely an easier trip than Big Slide was.
I had to attend a mandatory sexual harassment meeting at my company's corporate office that morning so I got that out of the way at 9am and then we took off for the Adirondacks. This was a further drive as we had to go almost all the way to Lake Placid. After finally locating the Adirondack Loj parking area, we got out of the car, strapped on our boots and took off.
The first two miles were awesomely easy. It felt like it was mostly flat, though my map software confirmed that we were ascending very slowly and moderately. At the end of two miles, we arrived at Marcy Dam. The next mile(or slightly more than) was more uphill. It was also very rocky and difficult to walk. We passed 4 college-aged boys who were swimming in the brook. The place they were swimming in was a small pool where rocks held a lot of the stream water. We thought to ourselves that it would be a nice place to cool off on the way back down. We eventually reached the Phelps Mountain 1.0 mile sign. This sign is misleading. It gives the impression that you are close to the top. This is false.
The last mile is pretty rough. Very steep and quite exhausting. Katie was really dragging on this part and I kept losing her. I would get so far ahead and then realize I couldn't see her. I would wait for her to catch up and it was a nice breather. Not nice for her because she never really got to stop, considering that by the time she caught up to me I was ready to go again.
At the summit, two groups of French Canadians lingered. Both arrived before us and both left after us. The only people we saw on our hike today were all French Canadians. I don't know why they love our High Peaks so. My legs were fairly Jell-O by the time we reached the top, but downhill is almost worse for me. I take very large steps downhill and move very fast. I frequently lose Katie downhill because she has more trouble descending. I accidentally catch up to some French Canadians who are peeing in the woods and catch them with their pants down. They are quite embarrassed, and I'm too winded to say much so I just keep trucking.
We do decide to take a break at the small pool on the way back down. This time there are two college girls in their underwear just hanging out IN the pool. The water is freezing and after just two minutes with my feet under it, I have to pull them. I dry them on my already soaking wet shirt and we get out of there. We again make great time on the last 2 miles as they are really just a meandering stroll up and down some small hills. We pass some American hikers right at the end.
All in all, this hike took us a little under 5 hours. Big Slide was 6 and a half hours, and about the same distance so I'd venture to say that this was a much easier hike, but you couldn't tell it by the looks of us. I was just as sweaty and my legs were pretty torn up again. Katie has blisters on her feet and clearly felt the effects more than I. In any case, we've conquered 2 and we're setting our sights on more. Next week won't be the next hike since we'll be in Jamaica, so it may be a while before the next one, but I'm ready!
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Phelps Mountain- Katie
So today was hot. And humid. In Lake Placid we had been seeing some rain as of yesterday which was worrisome but it ended up okay. We had to start today with a detour to Saratoga for Ben's annual sexual harassment meeting. I walked around town and had some coffee while I waited. After a quick breakfast of 2 breakfast burritos (really) for Ben and one for me at one of our old favorites we hit the road. This trailhead was a bit farther into the 'dacks from the highway and we didn't arrive and set off until after noon.
As we were expecting this hike started off very calmly. Mostly flat terrain of just dirt with lots of bridges over streams or muddy spots. We booked it at the beginning with 18 minute miles for the first 2. You reach Marcy Dam after about 2 miles of this lovely stuff. The dam was mostly dry. The original bridge was swept away in Hurricane Irene and they are still working on repairing it.
At this point the trail splits again and you can either go to some camping spots or Phelps and Marcy. After crossing a stream you start working slowly uphill away from it. After a mile or so along this trail comes the diversion to Phelps summit. The sign says one mile and you start thinking yay so close this won't be so bad. Oh, but it is. That mile took us over 40 minutes. Unlike last week, I was panting and out of breath more than Ben. I will blame it on the fact that it was the first time I was wearing a backpack to distribute some of the water weight.
As soon as you pass the sign it is immediately steeper. And the trail has far more rocks and giant tree roots to climb on and around. This lasts what feels like forever and then the landscape changes to more of an alpine atmosphere. Since that habitat only exists around 4,000 ft and up, I figured we were close. I was wrong. At some point some French Canadians that had started after us past us, bummer. Ben had to keep waiting for me to catch up but I was drained. So the air changes and the trail switches to bedrock with pine trees scraping at you. There are some small clearing but the summit was still quite far away. Then you reach some rock scrambles which I was less excited about this week. After some serious water drinking and by my sheer determination to not give up, we finally made it to the top. Just kidding! It was a false summit but it was only about 100 scratchy overgrown feet to the real summit.
I don't know which view is better both were wonderful. Different views of some of the same mountains. Ben pretends to have a sense of direction and guesses which mountain is which but I am pretty sure he is always wrong. But he says Big slide's summit was better.
So after some rest and refueling we headed back down. People always seem to linger at the top but we tend to get the heck out of there. I was feeling much better so we made great time down for a while. Much less jelly knee than last week. However after a 3.5 of a mile speeding down it was getting slippery so I started to slow Ben down again. Seriously, with his enormous gait he can just lumber downhill. I was swinging off trees like a monkey, which is dangerous when some of them have pointy little branches.
Once we were back down at the stream where we had seen some boys swimming on the way up, we decided to stop. I thought I would go all the way in but haha that water is cold. I just wanted to get some of the mud off the back of my legs and cool off my feet. But we sat on a steep muddy rock and I touched a sap tree so getting clean became a very difficult task. I ended up dropping my sock in the water and walking back with one wet and one dry boot. My wet foot felt nice and cool and just looked ridiculously pruny when we were done. The hike out was uneventful the rest of the way. General pain from walking for hours. I got a blister in the same exact spot as last week so I know where to protect next time.
We did talk to a DEC ranger that was monitoring the dam about the fact that the GPS had said we had gone 4.75 to get to the summit. Online we had seen a total of 8.2 to 8.4 miles listed at the round trip distance so I thought it would be shorter this week. Apparently the distances on signs that people assume are official haven't been updated in the computer era. They were calculated years ago by running a wheel over a map of the trail >< So I will never trust anyones distance again and will just be guessing from this point on awesome! In actuality this clocked in at a total distance of 9.5 miles with about 2,000 feet of ascent. We have a 3
Anyways that is enough for today here are some pictures!
At this point the trail splits again and you can either go to some camping spots or Phelps and Marcy. After crossing a stream you start working slowly uphill away from it. After a mile or so along this trail comes the diversion to Phelps summit. The sign says one mile and you start thinking yay so close this won't be so bad. Oh, but it is. That mile took us over 40 minutes. Unlike last week, I was panting and out of breath more than Ben. I will blame it on the fact that it was the first time I was wearing a backpack to distribute some of the water weight.
As soon as you pass the sign it is immediately steeper. And the trail has far more rocks and giant tree roots to climb on and around. This lasts what feels like forever and then the landscape changes to more of an alpine atmosphere. Since that habitat only exists around 4,000 ft and up, I figured we were close. I was wrong. At some point some French Canadians that had started after us past us, bummer. Ben had to keep waiting for me to catch up but I was drained. So the air changes and the trail switches to bedrock with pine trees scraping at you. There are some small clearing but the summit was still quite far away. Then you reach some rock scrambles which I was less excited about this week. After some serious water drinking and by my sheer determination to not give up, we finally made it to the top. Just kidding! It was a false summit but it was only about 100 scratchy overgrown feet to the real summit.
I don't know which view is better both were wonderful. Different views of some of the same mountains. Ben pretends to have a sense of direction and guesses which mountain is which but I am pretty sure he is always wrong. But he says Big slide's summit was better.
So after some rest and refueling we headed back down. People always seem to linger at the top but we tend to get the heck out of there. I was feeling much better so we made great time down for a while. Much less jelly knee than last week. However after a 3.5 of a mile speeding down it was getting slippery so I started to slow Ben down again. Seriously, with his enormous gait he can just lumber downhill. I was swinging off trees like a monkey, which is dangerous when some of them have pointy little branches.
Once we were back down at the stream where we had seen some boys swimming on the way up, we decided to stop. I thought I would go all the way in but haha that water is cold. I just wanted to get some of the mud off the back of my legs and cool off my feet. But we sat on a steep muddy rock and I touched a sap tree so getting clean became a very difficult task. I ended up dropping my sock in the water and walking back with one wet and one dry boot. My wet foot felt nice and cool and just looked ridiculously pruny when we were done. The hike out was uneventful the rest of the way. General pain from walking for hours. I got a blister in the same exact spot as last week so I know where to protect next time.
We did talk to a DEC ranger that was monitoring the dam about the fact that the GPS had said we had gone 4.75 to get to the summit. Online we had seen a total of 8.2 to 8.4 miles listed at the round trip distance so I thought it would be shorter this week. Apparently the distances on signs that people assume are official haven't been updated in the computer era. They were calculated years ago by running a wheel over a map of the trail >< So I will never trust anyones distance again and will just be guessing from this point on awesome! In actuality this clocked in at a total distance of 9.5 miles with about 2,000 feet of ascent. We have a 3
Anyways that is enough for today here are some pictures!
And here is the link to the rest. Phelps Mountain Photos
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Pictures from Big Slide
This is a rock scramble aka how do you get up a flat rock face that is almost as tall as you?
Here is the full album from Katie's actual camera if you want more-
Big Slide Photos on Picasa
Friday, August 23, 2013
1 of 46 - Big Slide Mountain
So Katie and I decided to take on Big Slide Mountain for our first of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks today. This peak is the 27th highest at 4240 feet (according to the ADK 46r website, but a sign at the top has it as 4270 feet and my phone said we were over 4300 feet so who knows). The trek to Big Slide is no easy task and I had to 'mis-inform' Katie of the total distance of the hike to ensure her that we were fully capable of completing it. Here's the short (just kidding) story.
We kicked off our day with breakfast at our favorite, Triangle Diner in Saratoga Springs. After breakfast we immediately hit the road for Keene Valley, NY, home to quite a few of the high peaks. We found our way to the Garden Parking area and paid the parking fee, and just in time. There were only 3 remaining parking spots out of the 60 available. We hit the register and took note of a sign warning us that Black Bears are very prevalent in the Adirondacks and that we should take caution, then started our way up the trail. We began our hike just after 11am.
There are 2 ways to hike to Big Slide Mountain from the Garden Parking Area. One is a leisurely stroll past a series of campsites that stays relatively level, but slowly climbs, then crosses a brook 5 or 6 times and intensifies uphill. This is a little longer, but ultimately an easier hike than the other choice. We ended up coming back this way, but this was not our choice. The other choice involves hiking up to the summit of three smaller peaks called the Three Brothers, with some dips in elevation between each, then climbing to the summit of Big Slide. This, the harder of the two options, was our risky choice.
We set off on the trail for the First Brother and the climb was immediately steep. Katie led the way at a blistering pace and we were huffing and puffing in no time. I was dismayed to find that we needed to stop for breathers and water breaks several times during the climb of the First Brother. We had read online that the climb to the First and Second Brothers were steep and somewhat technically difficult but knowing that we still had a significant amount of ground to cover, it didn't feel like a good sign to need so much early rest. Two French Canadian girls had started on the trail about 5 minutes before us and we did not feel that we were catching up to them for some time.
A short while before the peak of the First Brother there were some particularly challenging sections involving rock scrambles. These are areas where you literally need to climb up rocks that are not quite vertical, but very challenging. They aren't boulders that you hop to or climb up, they are just giant slabs of bedrock with some cuts or cracks in them that give you some hand and foot holds that you must climb. Often there are tree trunks or branches that one can utilize to help pull yourself off, or you can stand on the roots, but not on all of them. Either way, these rock scrambles were very demanding as you are basically moving vertically only and they drastically slow down the pace. Not to mention the fact that when you reach the top of one, you are very winded and sometimes need a rest.
The peak of the First Brother lay just beyond several of these rock scrambles. At this point, we had caught up to the French Canadian gals because while they may have been quick hikers, they were not quick scramblers. We actually were not entirely sure that we had made it to the First Brother as there are no clear markings anywhere near the top, and there are several viewing areas that make you feel as though you are at the top just before you actually get there. In fact, we would not be sure as to the exact location of the first two brothers until we made it to the Third Brother.
After taking a quick break and snapping some photos at what we felt fairly confident was the peak of the First Brother, we moved on. There was a short descent off the bedrock summit leading down into the woods, but we were mostly just walking the ridge on to the Second Brother. After descending probably no more than 100 feet, we were climbing again. Before the summit of the Second Brother there was again several difficult rock scrambles that left us completely out of breath and begging for mercy. At the summit of the Second Brother, we sat for a slightly longer break. The gap between the first and second brother seemed so short we were not really sure that we were there, we just knew that we were exhausted.
At this point, I felt quite concerned about our prospects of making it to the top of Big Slide. We were completely wiped out. The climb to the First Brother was about 1300 feet over 1.3 miles and that's a fairly brutal ascent(to 2800 feet from the base level of 1500). The Second Brother is not considerably higher than the first at around 3000 feet. I did not know it at the time, but the Third Brother is around 3500 feet. We sat and caught our breath at the peak of the Second Brother(not knowing for sure that it was the Second Brother) and the two French Canadian girls passed us again.
Fortunately, the trail seemed to level off for a brief while. We actually seemed to descend a little and the going felt easy. It wasn't long though before we were climbing again. We had to climb another 500 feet or so to summit the Third Brother. We were chugging down a lot of water and I became a little concerned about our overall supply, especially considering that at the peak of the Second Brother, we were less than a quarter of the way through our hike. The climb to the Third Brother actually felt a lot more moderate than the first two, which is funny because looking at the MapMyWalk app elevation tracker, it wasn't more moderate at all. It was nearly the same rate of ascent as hiking to the First Brother. It's probably because there weren't any rock scrambles along the way so it was mostly just walking, even if it was uphill.
Shortly before we reached the Third Brother, I noticed that I could see my breath. The temperature on the forecast was a wonderful 72 degrees for most of the day, but at our elevation, it seemed much cooler. With the amount of effort we were putting into the climb, I was boiling hot and not only could I see my breath, but I could see steam wafting in front of my face that was apparently coming off the top of my head. Katie didn't notice it at first, but then finally saw hers. We kept climbing and Katie was again leading the way at this point. I almost always lead when we hike because I tend to like to hike a little faster and get a little bit ahead, but the Brothers were really taking their toll.
In fact, twice while scrambling rocks to reach the summit of the Second Brother, I had felt painful cramps in my legs. I carry the pack when we hike and considering that I weigh around 225 on my own, my legs are lifting around 245 pounds with every step. By the time we reached the Third Brother I had experienced several painful cramps in my legs and they already seemed like they could take no more. I again felt very nervous about our prospect of reaching the summit.
We sat down for a prolonged break at the Third Brother. There aren't really great views to speak of at this summit as it has quite a few trees, but if you move out to a rock ledge, you can get a view of our final destination, which we snapped a picture of and will post to Facebook or this blog. Big Slide is named for a massive rock slide that took off the Eastern section of the peak. You can definitely see this slide area in the sheer rockface on the Eastern side of the mountain. We ate a bunch of our snacks, and again worried about our total water consumption as we had finished two of our four water bottles and still had a good ways to go to reach the pinnacle. As I sat and ate, steam poured off my head and back(which had been covered by a backpack to the point). Katie tried to capture the human steam machine on camera, but I doubt the photo showed much. Still, I was a sight to behold.
After the Third Brother, there is a considerable descent. We descended from around 3500 feet to a little over 3200 feet. After meeting this lower altitude and a good distance, we slowly began to ascend again. I kept checking my MapMyWalk App in bewilderment. The website we used said that we would reach the summit after 3.8 miles but we were already at 3.5 miles and I didn't feel like we had climbed much. Plus, we were supposed to connect to the other trail that comes in from the South. Finally we reached the crossroads. From this point, which was 3.7 miles into our trip, a sign indicated that it would be 0.29 miles to the summit of Big Slide. Since I had assumed that we would arrive at this critical juncture much sooner, I had though that Katie would want to complete the loop and skip the summit. But seeing that the distance was just another .29 miles, we were empowered.
We enthusiastically began to climb the final ascent. I don't know the exact elevation from this point but I would estimate that we were somewhere around 3700 feet at this point. This means that the final .29 miles involves a 500 foot climb to the peak. That definitely seems about right in retrospect as the last bit was easily the most punishing of the whole hike. A very steep climb beginning with some large rocky steps smothered in tree branches. A section of 'ladder's covers an extremely steep area of bedrock. The angle of the bedrock is too steep to climb with assistance and apparently the trail could not avoid it, so we climbed these ladders. They were more like wooden staircases(I have a picture of these too), and they were not vertical as they laid on the 60 degree slope.
My legs were feeling pretty rough before we began the final ascent, but the punishment inflicted on them in this last .29 miles was unimaginable. Each step forward was several feet upward. and often required taking a very large step(when my legs get tired, I prefer to take many quick small steps rather than fewer slow large steps, this was not an option). A while before we got to this final section, my legs began cramping upon every large step I took. I would feel a sharp jolt of pain that could only be rectified by taking smaller steps. Halfway up the final ascent, the pain was unbearable.
At the top of the ladders, we had to keep climbing up very steep bedrock until we made it to a series of large boulders next to a sheer rockface. I looked around not sure which way we needed to go until I saw a sign posted about 12 feet off the ground pointing the left that said 'Trail'. It was on top of the rocks... We scaled the boulders and then climbed up on top of the rocks and followed the sign. A short distance further we arrived at the rockface where the 'Big Slide' has occurred. We took some select photos and looked up. The top was only another 100-150 feet or so. We were very much almost there. I had occasionally heard the voices of our French Canadian hiking buddies and knew we weren't far behind them either.
The last 100-150 feet of climbing, however, was possibly the toughest yet. A lot of this last bit of climbing was open rock scrambling. Before we went on this hike, I had seen some descriptions of hikes that said it included some rock scrambling and I didn't really know what it meant. I assumed it was more along the lines of jumping from rock to rock or boulder to boulder. That's not really it at all. It's more like coming across a wall that sits vertical in some places and at 50-80 degree angles elsewhere that you must find a way to climb. After climbing one, then two, then three of these rock scrambles, I was very tired of them. Imagine my disappointment when the very summit we were working to reach required two last scrambles.
My feelings about the summit of Big Slide Mountain? The views are nice. It was not windy at all, like Sleeping Beautfy Summit. It was not very large. Thanks to the rock slide, there isn't a lot of area at the top to hang out. We sat down and gorged ourselves on snacks and tried to replenish our energy. We snapped as many photos as we could. You could see plenty of other high peaks from up there. I couldn't name them because we haven't climbed them but based on where we were, I knew that some of them were Giant Mountain, Roostercomb, Mount Marcy(the highest of all, I could guess which one that was), and several others. If we finished this crazy journey, and do all 46, we will be at the top of all of them at some point. It's a daunting challenge, especially looking at the angle of ascent of many of them from this peak.
The way back down felt manageable at this point. I'd had some time to rest, time to snack and we felt decent about the amount of water we had remaining. The rest was all downhill anyway! Again, this was a mistake. I had convinced Katie that it was wiser to make a loop and head out the other trail so we did not have to summit the Three Brothers again. The only disadvantage was that this route back adds around 1.8 miles to the trip. So our 4 mile trip out left us 5.8 miles to get back. My legs were already completely shot and for a very, very long time, we would be heading downhill. If my legs weren't already so wobbly, downhill would feel great. But each big step down threatened to send me tumbling.
After coming down a very long way, we came to a brook. Our trail took us over this brook several times and the serenity and beauty of it were amazing. We eventually found our way to some campsites and a sign. It said 3 miles to Garden Parking. The reason I chose the loop route is that from this point, our terrain was largely flat. MapMyWalk says it was actually mostly a descent from there, but it didn't feel like it. That last 3 miles, though, we booked it. All day long we had been averaging 40+ minutes per mile. The grueling climbs slowed us down dramatically. Even the long downhill area we only pulled off a 39 minute mile. This last stretch we averaged 25 minutes per miles. Long before the end, my legs were cramping in pain every minute. I was actually certain they would just give out on me at some point. But I knew how close we were and it was getting dark out so we did all we could to get out and fast.
We had a quick dinner at the NoonMark Diner before booking it home. I am so glad to be done with our first high peak and am about to fall asleep. I hope you enjoyed this ridiculously long entry, I'll try to get some pictures online as soon as possible.
We kicked off our day with breakfast at our favorite, Triangle Diner in Saratoga Springs. After breakfast we immediately hit the road for Keene Valley, NY, home to quite a few of the high peaks. We found our way to the Garden Parking area and paid the parking fee, and just in time. There were only 3 remaining parking spots out of the 60 available. We hit the register and took note of a sign warning us that Black Bears are very prevalent in the Adirondacks and that we should take caution, then started our way up the trail. We began our hike just after 11am.
There are 2 ways to hike to Big Slide Mountain from the Garden Parking Area. One is a leisurely stroll past a series of campsites that stays relatively level, but slowly climbs, then crosses a brook 5 or 6 times and intensifies uphill. This is a little longer, but ultimately an easier hike than the other choice. We ended up coming back this way, but this was not our choice. The other choice involves hiking up to the summit of three smaller peaks called the Three Brothers, with some dips in elevation between each, then climbing to the summit of Big Slide. This, the harder of the two options, was our risky choice.
We set off on the trail for the First Brother and the climb was immediately steep. Katie led the way at a blistering pace and we were huffing and puffing in no time. I was dismayed to find that we needed to stop for breathers and water breaks several times during the climb of the First Brother. We had read online that the climb to the First and Second Brothers were steep and somewhat technically difficult but knowing that we still had a significant amount of ground to cover, it didn't feel like a good sign to need so much early rest. Two French Canadian girls had started on the trail about 5 minutes before us and we did not feel that we were catching up to them for some time.
A short while before the peak of the First Brother there were some particularly challenging sections involving rock scrambles. These are areas where you literally need to climb up rocks that are not quite vertical, but very challenging. They aren't boulders that you hop to or climb up, they are just giant slabs of bedrock with some cuts or cracks in them that give you some hand and foot holds that you must climb. Often there are tree trunks or branches that one can utilize to help pull yourself off, or you can stand on the roots, but not on all of them. Either way, these rock scrambles were very demanding as you are basically moving vertically only and they drastically slow down the pace. Not to mention the fact that when you reach the top of one, you are very winded and sometimes need a rest.
The peak of the First Brother lay just beyond several of these rock scrambles. At this point, we had caught up to the French Canadian gals because while they may have been quick hikers, they were not quick scramblers. We actually were not entirely sure that we had made it to the First Brother as there are no clear markings anywhere near the top, and there are several viewing areas that make you feel as though you are at the top just before you actually get there. In fact, we would not be sure as to the exact location of the first two brothers until we made it to the Third Brother.
After taking a quick break and snapping some photos at what we felt fairly confident was the peak of the First Brother, we moved on. There was a short descent off the bedrock summit leading down into the woods, but we were mostly just walking the ridge on to the Second Brother. After descending probably no more than 100 feet, we were climbing again. Before the summit of the Second Brother there was again several difficult rock scrambles that left us completely out of breath and begging for mercy. At the summit of the Second Brother, we sat for a slightly longer break. The gap between the first and second brother seemed so short we were not really sure that we were there, we just knew that we were exhausted.
At this point, I felt quite concerned about our prospects of making it to the top of Big Slide. We were completely wiped out. The climb to the First Brother was about 1300 feet over 1.3 miles and that's a fairly brutal ascent(to 2800 feet from the base level of 1500). The Second Brother is not considerably higher than the first at around 3000 feet. I did not know it at the time, but the Third Brother is around 3500 feet. We sat and caught our breath at the peak of the Second Brother(not knowing for sure that it was the Second Brother) and the two French Canadian girls passed us again.
Fortunately, the trail seemed to level off for a brief while. We actually seemed to descend a little and the going felt easy. It wasn't long though before we were climbing again. We had to climb another 500 feet or so to summit the Third Brother. We were chugging down a lot of water and I became a little concerned about our overall supply, especially considering that at the peak of the Second Brother, we were less than a quarter of the way through our hike. The climb to the Third Brother actually felt a lot more moderate than the first two, which is funny because looking at the MapMyWalk app elevation tracker, it wasn't more moderate at all. It was nearly the same rate of ascent as hiking to the First Brother. It's probably because there weren't any rock scrambles along the way so it was mostly just walking, even if it was uphill.
Shortly before we reached the Third Brother, I noticed that I could see my breath. The temperature on the forecast was a wonderful 72 degrees for most of the day, but at our elevation, it seemed much cooler. With the amount of effort we were putting into the climb, I was boiling hot and not only could I see my breath, but I could see steam wafting in front of my face that was apparently coming off the top of my head. Katie didn't notice it at first, but then finally saw hers. We kept climbing and Katie was again leading the way at this point. I almost always lead when we hike because I tend to like to hike a little faster and get a little bit ahead, but the Brothers were really taking their toll.
In fact, twice while scrambling rocks to reach the summit of the Second Brother, I had felt painful cramps in my legs. I carry the pack when we hike and considering that I weigh around 225 on my own, my legs are lifting around 245 pounds with every step. By the time we reached the Third Brother I had experienced several painful cramps in my legs and they already seemed like they could take no more. I again felt very nervous about our prospect of reaching the summit.
We sat down for a prolonged break at the Third Brother. There aren't really great views to speak of at this summit as it has quite a few trees, but if you move out to a rock ledge, you can get a view of our final destination, which we snapped a picture of and will post to Facebook or this blog. Big Slide is named for a massive rock slide that took off the Eastern section of the peak. You can definitely see this slide area in the sheer rockface on the Eastern side of the mountain. We ate a bunch of our snacks, and again worried about our total water consumption as we had finished two of our four water bottles and still had a good ways to go to reach the pinnacle. As I sat and ate, steam poured off my head and back(which had been covered by a backpack to the point). Katie tried to capture the human steam machine on camera, but I doubt the photo showed much. Still, I was a sight to behold.
After the Third Brother, there is a considerable descent. We descended from around 3500 feet to a little over 3200 feet. After meeting this lower altitude and a good distance, we slowly began to ascend again. I kept checking my MapMyWalk App in bewilderment. The website we used said that we would reach the summit after 3.8 miles but we were already at 3.5 miles and I didn't feel like we had climbed much. Plus, we were supposed to connect to the other trail that comes in from the South. Finally we reached the crossroads. From this point, which was 3.7 miles into our trip, a sign indicated that it would be 0.29 miles to the summit of Big Slide. Since I had assumed that we would arrive at this critical juncture much sooner, I had though that Katie would want to complete the loop and skip the summit. But seeing that the distance was just another .29 miles, we were empowered.
We enthusiastically began to climb the final ascent. I don't know the exact elevation from this point but I would estimate that we were somewhere around 3700 feet at this point. This means that the final .29 miles involves a 500 foot climb to the peak. That definitely seems about right in retrospect as the last bit was easily the most punishing of the whole hike. A very steep climb beginning with some large rocky steps smothered in tree branches. A section of 'ladder's covers an extremely steep area of bedrock. The angle of the bedrock is too steep to climb with assistance and apparently the trail could not avoid it, so we climbed these ladders. They were more like wooden staircases(I have a picture of these too), and they were not vertical as they laid on the 60 degree slope.
My legs were feeling pretty rough before we began the final ascent, but the punishment inflicted on them in this last .29 miles was unimaginable. Each step forward was several feet upward. and often required taking a very large step(when my legs get tired, I prefer to take many quick small steps rather than fewer slow large steps, this was not an option). A while before we got to this final section, my legs began cramping upon every large step I took. I would feel a sharp jolt of pain that could only be rectified by taking smaller steps. Halfway up the final ascent, the pain was unbearable.
At the top of the ladders, we had to keep climbing up very steep bedrock until we made it to a series of large boulders next to a sheer rockface. I looked around not sure which way we needed to go until I saw a sign posted about 12 feet off the ground pointing the left that said 'Trail'. It was on top of the rocks... We scaled the boulders and then climbed up on top of the rocks and followed the sign. A short distance further we arrived at the rockface where the 'Big Slide' has occurred. We took some select photos and looked up. The top was only another 100-150 feet or so. We were very much almost there. I had occasionally heard the voices of our French Canadian hiking buddies and knew we weren't far behind them either.
The last 100-150 feet of climbing, however, was possibly the toughest yet. A lot of this last bit of climbing was open rock scrambling. Before we went on this hike, I had seen some descriptions of hikes that said it included some rock scrambling and I didn't really know what it meant. I assumed it was more along the lines of jumping from rock to rock or boulder to boulder. That's not really it at all. It's more like coming across a wall that sits vertical in some places and at 50-80 degree angles elsewhere that you must find a way to climb. After climbing one, then two, then three of these rock scrambles, I was very tired of them. Imagine my disappointment when the very summit we were working to reach required two last scrambles.
My feelings about the summit of Big Slide Mountain? The views are nice. It was not windy at all, like Sleeping Beautfy Summit. It was not very large. Thanks to the rock slide, there isn't a lot of area at the top to hang out. We sat down and gorged ourselves on snacks and tried to replenish our energy. We snapped as many photos as we could. You could see plenty of other high peaks from up there. I couldn't name them because we haven't climbed them but based on where we were, I knew that some of them were Giant Mountain, Roostercomb, Mount Marcy(the highest of all, I could guess which one that was), and several others. If we finished this crazy journey, and do all 46, we will be at the top of all of them at some point. It's a daunting challenge, especially looking at the angle of ascent of many of them from this peak.
The way back down felt manageable at this point. I'd had some time to rest, time to snack and we felt decent about the amount of water we had remaining. The rest was all downhill anyway! Again, this was a mistake. I had convinced Katie that it was wiser to make a loop and head out the other trail so we did not have to summit the Three Brothers again. The only disadvantage was that this route back adds around 1.8 miles to the trip. So our 4 mile trip out left us 5.8 miles to get back. My legs were already completely shot and for a very, very long time, we would be heading downhill. If my legs weren't already so wobbly, downhill would feel great. But each big step down threatened to send me tumbling.
After coming down a very long way, we came to a brook. Our trail took us over this brook several times and the serenity and beauty of it were amazing. We eventually found our way to some campsites and a sign. It said 3 miles to Garden Parking. The reason I chose the loop route is that from this point, our terrain was largely flat. MapMyWalk says it was actually mostly a descent from there, but it didn't feel like it. That last 3 miles, though, we booked it. All day long we had been averaging 40+ minutes per mile. The grueling climbs slowed us down dramatically. Even the long downhill area we only pulled off a 39 minute mile. This last stretch we averaged 25 minutes per miles. Long before the end, my legs were cramping in pain every minute. I was actually certain they would just give out on me at some point. But I knew how close we were and it was getting dark out so we did all we could to get out and fast.
We had a quick dinner at the NoonMark Diner before booking it home. I am so glad to be done with our first high peak and am about to fall asleep. I hope you enjoyed this ridiculously long entry, I'll try to get some pictures online as soon as possible.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Hadley Mountain
I wanted to write up a quick post to give some credit to Hadley Mountain. Don't get your hopes up. I said quick post, not short post. I'm incapable of writing any short. Hadley is not a big mountain. Heck, it's barely even part of the Southern Adirondacks. It takes a mere 30 minutes to get there from our Clifton Park home. For Katie and I, though, this represented our first 'real hike'. Most of our hikes to that point were short and flat. Hadley is a fairly short hike, only 2 miles to the summit and 2 miles back. In that short span, though, one must ascend around 1600 feet. The grade is very steep at times and on solid bedrock. Other times you must climb rocks 1-3 feet tall like a giant rock staircase with very tall steps. So here's our story.
Katie and I had a quick breakfast and headed for the town of Hadley. Hadley Mountain was out a winding dirt backroad that seemed to go on and on. When we arrived, several other vehicles were parked in the parking area. We hit the register and began our climb. It was immediately very steep. We were walking a very brisk pace at the beginning. The first 10-15 minutes I assumed that it would level out a little, maybe wind around the mountain a bit so the ascent would be a bit easier. Not only did it not level out, it intensified.
Our early pace quickly slowed and I found myself needing to stop to breathe several times, leaning up against large boulders on the side of the path, or sitting right on them. Katie didn't want to rest at all because, as she explained, it would make her want to stay resting. Most of the early part of this hike is on solid bedrock, not grass or dirt. Some parts of the rock have water flowing down them and can be slippery if one is not careful. This was no deterrent as we trekked onward.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only 20 minutes, we both needed to stop for a break. We found a nice spot with two large boulders for sitting, where another small group was already taking a break. An older gentleman and what must have been his two young grandkids. The kids were walking around and climbing on things as the old man rested. I silently wished that I was still the age where my 'break' consisted of walking around with seemingly endless energy. The young boy informed us that we were about halfway up(this was untrue, it was probably closer to 1/3 of the way).
We started up again before this group and so got a head start towards the top. Eventually the trail leveled out for a short distance and I was certain that we were at the top, or near it, but this was a very bad guess, this was probably between halfway and 2/3rds of the way up. The grade quickly intensified again and became possibly more grueling than the lower half. While I remained ahead of Katie, I would often sit down for a minute to rest while she caught up to me. At one point, my heart was beating so hard I was sure that I was either about to have a heart attack or that my lungs were going to collapse. Neither happened. We continued upward.
Long before we reached the summit, my legs long since turned to Jell-O, I declared that I had lost the will to live. This turned out to be an exaggeration. We finally reached the summit(a good 10 minutes ahead of 2 spry children that always seemed to be gaining on us and their breathless grandfather) and sat down for an extended rest. I gobbled down M&Ms and we completely depleted our water in no time. It was very hot(90 degrees-ish), not nearly windy enough at the summit, and the fire tower was closed above the third level. We snapped a bunch of pictures and took in the views, then got some backup water from the same very kind grandfather, and headed back down.
I assumed the descent would be a breeze compared to the ascent, but I hadn't really considered how bad my thighs and calves were destroyed. With Jell-O legs, it's hard to walk down stairs. Imagine that those stairs are 2 foot tall rock steps and a 45 degree grade and it gets much worse. While we made it down the hill considerably faster than up, it was still a battle. I was immediately jealous of all the seemingly very casual not-sweaty hikers I saw descending the hill as we climbed. How could they all be so nonchalant? So full of breath? I complained my way all the way to the parking lot and was grateful to be sitting all the way home.
This short 4 mile hike changed my perspective of hiking. To that point, we hadn't really climbed anything, just walked around in the woods. Now we were freaking mountaineers! Hadley Mountain inspired me to take on bigger and more difficult challenges. I'm in better shape now and I imagine that Hadley would be much easier on me a second time around, but I've got bigger and badder mountains in my sights. Thanks to Hadley, I feel invincible.
We will test that theory tomorrow on a MUCH bigger(almost twice as tall) and much more difficult hike(more than twice as long over difficult terrain). I'm sure I'll spend the day complaining my way up and down the mountain, maybe or probably even regretting my decision to conquer something so difficult so early in our hiking career. But the reason I want to go so big so fast is that I know that if we can do Big Slide, we can do any of the High Peaks. The confidence I gained from Hadley encouraged me to go big, and the confidence I'll get from Big Slide will set the bar very high indeed. Who knows what's next.... Everest maybe?
Katie and I had a quick breakfast and headed for the town of Hadley. Hadley Mountain was out a winding dirt backroad that seemed to go on and on. When we arrived, several other vehicles were parked in the parking area. We hit the register and began our climb. It was immediately very steep. We were walking a very brisk pace at the beginning. The first 10-15 minutes I assumed that it would level out a little, maybe wind around the mountain a bit so the ascent would be a bit easier. Not only did it not level out, it intensified.
Our early pace quickly slowed and I found myself needing to stop to breathe several times, leaning up against large boulders on the side of the path, or sitting right on them. Katie didn't want to rest at all because, as she explained, it would make her want to stay resting. Most of the early part of this hike is on solid bedrock, not grass or dirt. Some parts of the rock have water flowing down them and can be slippery if one is not careful. This was no deterrent as we trekked onward.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only 20 minutes, we both needed to stop for a break. We found a nice spot with two large boulders for sitting, where another small group was already taking a break. An older gentleman and what must have been his two young grandkids. The kids were walking around and climbing on things as the old man rested. I silently wished that I was still the age where my 'break' consisted of walking around with seemingly endless energy. The young boy informed us that we were about halfway up(this was untrue, it was probably closer to 1/3 of the way).
We started up again before this group and so got a head start towards the top. Eventually the trail leveled out for a short distance and I was certain that we were at the top, or near it, but this was a very bad guess, this was probably between halfway and 2/3rds of the way up. The grade quickly intensified again and became possibly more grueling than the lower half. While I remained ahead of Katie, I would often sit down for a minute to rest while she caught up to me. At one point, my heart was beating so hard I was sure that I was either about to have a heart attack or that my lungs were going to collapse. Neither happened. We continued upward.
Long before we reached the summit, my legs long since turned to Jell-O, I declared that I had lost the will to live. This turned out to be an exaggeration. We finally reached the summit(a good 10 minutes ahead of 2 spry children that always seemed to be gaining on us and their breathless grandfather) and sat down for an extended rest. I gobbled down M&Ms and we completely depleted our water in no time. It was very hot(90 degrees-ish), not nearly windy enough at the summit, and the fire tower was closed above the third level. We snapped a bunch of pictures and took in the views, then got some backup water from the same very kind grandfather, and headed back down.
I assumed the descent would be a breeze compared to the ascent, but I hadn't really considered how bad my thighs and calves were destroyed. With Jell-O legs, it's hard to walk down stairs. Imagine that those stairs are 2 foot tall rock steps and a 45 degree grade and it gets much worse. While we made it down the hill considerably faster than up, it was still a battle. I was immediately jealous of all the seemingly very casual not-sweaty hikers I saw descending the hill as we climbed. How could they all be so nonchalant? So full of breath? I complained my way all the way to the parking lot and was grateful to be sitting all the way home.
This short 4 mile hike changed my perspective of hiking. To that point, we hadn't really climbed anything, just walked around in the woods. Now we were freaking mountaineers! Hadley Mountain inspired me to take on bigger and more difficult challenges. I'm in better shape now and I imagine that Hadley would be much easier on me a second time around, but I've got bigger and badder mountains in my sights. Thanks to Hadley, I feel invincible.
We will test that theory tomorrow on a MUCH bigger(almost twice as tall) and much more difficult hike(more than twice as long over difficult terrain). I'm sure I'll spend the day complaining my way up and down the mountain, maybe or probably even regretting my decision to conquer something so difficult so early in our hiking career. But the reason I want to go so big so fast is that I know that if we can do Big Slide, we can do any of the High Peaks. The confidence I gained from Hadley encouraged me to go big, and the confidence I'll get from Big Slide will set the bar very high indeed. Who knows what's next.... Everest maybe?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
ACUTE MOUNTAIN SICKNESS! - Ben
I just convinced Katie to call this blog Acute Mountain Sickness, because that seems to be an apt description of the way she feels about taking on bigger hikes.
We have very slowly worked our way up from dinky 2-4 mile hikes in somewhat urban back woods to 7-8 mile hikes up the sides of mountains. The bigger and longer we go, the more motivated I am to take on bigger conquests. The sense of accomplishment at the peak and again at the end of the hike drives me. It makes me want more. Not just to do the same thing again, but to do something even more challenging. When we first started, I would get winded on the easiest hikes. Now I feel like I could take on anything and I definitely want to.
Katie suggested we start this blog in order to profile all the hiking we do and I agreed that it was a good idea. We have a relatively short list of hikes so far, but we are planning ahead and aiming high. With my goal of taking on Big Slide Mountain(over the Three Brothers) this weekend, we've been wondering aloud whether we have what it takes to get all of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks. For those unaware, the 46 High Peaks are the 46 peaks in the Adirondack range over 4000 feet tall. Some are fairly easy (less than 6 miles round trip with less than 2000 feet elevation change) while some will break our backs and test our patience(12-15 miles with over 3000 feet elevation change). I think we can do it, and hopefully I'll be able to get Katie all the way onboard.
From here on out, we'll make a post every time we summit another of the high peaks, or any other long and interesting hikes for that matter. If I finish convincing Katie that 3 Brothers/Big Slide Mountain is a good first trip, then look for our post in a few days. Otherwise, we'll probably summit the relatively easy 2-fer of Cascade Mountain and Porter Mountain, which will start us off with 2 of 46.
From our hikes so far, I'd say Sleeping Beauty was the most rewarding. It was basically the longest hike we've done so far with a moderate climb and the view at the top was awesome. Hadley Mountain was the most difficult. I do feel like I'm in better shape now than when we took on Hadley, but we'll figure that out when we take on a real mountain. Plotter Kill was one of the most beautiful places we've been, even though (in retrospect) the terrain wasn't very challenging (it felt like it at the time). Here's to hikes that make Hadley Mountain feel like a stroll on the beach!
We have very slowly worked our way up from dinky 2-4 mile hikes in somewhat urban back woods to 7-8 mile hikes up the sides of mountains. The bigger and longer we go, the more motivated I am to take on bigger conquests. The sense of accomplishment at the peak and again at the end of the hike drives me. It makes me want more. Not just to do the same thing again, but to do something even more challenging. When we first started, I would get winded on the easiest hikes. Now I feel like I could take on anything and I definitely want to.
Katie suggested we start this blog in order to profile all the hiking we do and I agreed that it was a good idea. We have a relatively short list of hikes so far, but we are planning ahead and aiming high. With my goal of taking on Big Slide Mountain(over the Three Brothers) this weekend, we've been wondering aloud whether we have what it takes to get all of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks. For those unaware, the 46 High Peaks are the 46 peaks in the Adirondack range over 4000 feet tall. Some are fairly easy (less than 6 miles round trip with less than 2000 feet elevation change) while some will break our backs and test our patience(12-15 miles with over 3000 feet elevation change). I think we can do it, and hopefully I'll be able to get Katie all the way onboard.
From here on out, we'll make a post every time we summit another of the high peaks, or any other long and interesting hikes for that matter. If I finish convincing Katie that 3 Brothers/Big Slide Mountain is a good first trip, then look for our post in a few days. Otherwise, we'll probably summit the relatively easy 2-fer of Cascade Mountain and Porter Mountain, which will start us off with 2 of 46.
From our hikes so far, I'd say Sleeping Beauty was the most rewarding. It was basically the longest hike we've done so far with a moderate climb and the view at the top was awesome. Hadley Mountain was the most difficult. I do feel like I'm in better shape now than when we took on Hadley, but we'll figure that out when we take on a real mountain. Plotter Kill was one of the most beautiful places we've been, even though (in retrospect) the terrain wasn't very challenging (it felt like it at the time). Here's to hikes that make Hadley Mountain feel like a stroll on the beach!
Getting Started- Katie
So it has been a pretty busy summer for us newlyweds! Somehow I convinced Ben, who does not like walking, to go hiking. We started with just our free water bottles from Mazda, an old backpack, sneakers for Ben and Timberlands for me. We are now quickly upgrading. We both wear "athletic" material shirts aka breathable which is such an improvement. And we can both finish our nalgenes and some more water on a longer hike.
As to what we have hiked it looks like this so far-
Schenectady-
Lisha Kill
Indian Kill
Plotter Kill
John Boyd Thatcher State Park- Indian Ladder
Albany Pine Bush Preserve (both with and without our mini minion)
Ausable Chasm- This is technically a tourist trap (no other trail has protective barriers) but they do have a longer side path to an old dry chasm which is off the beaten trail and pretty awesome.
Hadley Mountain
Sleeping Beauty
I would say the most rewarding so far has been-
1. Sleeping Beauty- view of Lake George
2. Plotter Kill- Sweet waterfalls
3. Indian Ladder- Standing next to waterfalls and view of Albany
So far these have been easy really. Most were just around 3 miles and mostly flat. Except Hadley Mountain which is a 3100 ft elevation gain in 1.5ish miles which means you go up and only up. But this weekend we start to really challenge ourselves as we start on the ADK 46-ers.
http://adk46er.org/peaks/index.html
Since one of the requirements to get an official patch if we complete all 46 is documentation- here we are! I will go back at some point and include some photos and more descriptions of our early hikes. But for now I am off to work!
As to what we have hiked it looks like this so far-
Schenectady-
Lisha Kill
Indian Kill
Plotter Kill
John Boyd Thatcher State Park- Indian Ladder
Albany Pine Bush Preserve (both with and without our mini minion)
Ausable Chasm- This is technically a tourist trap (no other trail has protective barriers) but they do have a longer side path to an old dry chasm which is off the beaten trail and pretty awesome.
Hadley Mountain
Sleeping Beauty
I would say the most rewarding so far has been-
1. Sleeping Beauty- view of Lake George
2. Plotter Kill- Sweet waterfalls
3. Indian Ladder- Standing next to waterfalls and view of Albany
So far these have been easy really. Most were just around 3 miles and mostly flat. Except Hadley Mountain which is a 3100 ft elevation gain in 1.5ish miles which means you go up and only up. But this weekend we start to really challenge ourselves as we start on the ADK 46-ers.
http://adk46er.org/peaks/index.html
Since one of the requirements to get an official patch if we complete all 46 is documentation- here we are! I will go back at some point and include some photos and more descriptions of our early hikes. But for now I am off to work!
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