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!