Mats Roing
New member
Players in the field:
Juniper
Unfrozen Caveman
Marc Howes
Mats Roing
After arriving at Spencer and Maddy's basecamp Friday evening and having fun around the campfire, socializing, carbo-loading, swimming, meeting new people and deliberating what to hike Saturday, the four of us decided to do Marcy, Tabletop and Phelps via the standard highway. None of us had ever done any of the peaks.
Saturday morning was kind of slow going after the fun the evening before. The forecast which scared away many hikers was totally bogus.....couldn't have asked for a better day of hiking.......Pulled in by the ranger station at the parking lot in Marc's car. Not sure what the TH is called but it had at least hundred cars there and lots of people.....an alpine start of 09:40am was logged and off we went hopping, skipping and jumping......sun was shining and 40 minutes later we passed the bridge by the dam.....another register to sign in at.....and the trail started to show signs of gaining elevation. We decided to do Marcy first since furthest away and probably the best views. Trail was in moinst condition - ie running water in it most of the time. Trail was in great condition and not much mud issues like I've heard of in these mountains. At 3,600 feet or so we foud the herdpath cutoff to Tabletop and we continued up towards Marcy.....lots of nice people we met......we decided that hiking in the ADK is awesome
Soon we saw some views and after some more hopping and skipping we were at the top......12:25pm so it took us 2hrs45min here......just amazing views and we had a picnic with a variety of stuff and popped a Foster's oil can for celebration of a new 4K peak for all of us. Marc the most experienced logging his 19th ADK peak. For Juniper and me it was the first We could even see the Pressie Range from the summit......it was way back in the horizon but very distinctively pressie range.....it was soo clear! Camel's Hump looked kind of close in the clear weather. We had company by a forest ranger up on the summit who tried to persuade us to hike over and tag Skylight. We resisted his sweet talking about Skylight and stuck to our original plan and skipped down the trail...
Sun was still shining beautifully when arriving at the Tabletop cutoff and off we went.....trail got a bit more narrow here...it was like hiking in a narrow ditch with water and mud....around 4,000 feet we met a group of schoolkids maybe 12-year range who had a Tabletop Outing......wasn't too bad although no risk for speeding tickets...after it flattened out closer to the summit it was more emphasis on mud and I saw one of my shoes go for a dive.......I wasn't the only one and we all seemed to have acquired the uniform ADK brown color on our shoes......we extended our stay on the summit to fully take in the beauty of this summit.....which means we stayed there in the neighborhood of 30 seconds before enjoying some more mud splashing on the way down. Not sure if it's faster going up or down Tabletop.....we came back to the main trail and continued down across the bridge. We did a fairly good job taking photos during the hike.....with Juniper being the most active photographer. Some hikers we saw for the third time on the way down.....we recognized each other and it was a nice experience. We passed some on the way up and then saw them on the summit or met them on our way down....then we passed them again after coming off Tabletop.
We discussed in length the pros and cons of doing Phelps but decided against it since we realized we'd be late for the 6pm dinner if we went up Phelps. Since it was so seldom we are in the ADK, we wanted to prioritize meeting and getting to know the ADK dudes and dudettes. Came back to the TH at 4:34pm so a roundtrip time of 6hrs54min. All except for Juniper had finished their water in the warmth.
After a beautiful drive back to Spencer and Maddy's house we tried to clean our brown legs before joining in for dinner. Sun was shining.....more and more people gathered, putting more food on the tables under the tent. Pete Hickey showed up also.....don't know much about him but he had some funny stories to tell.A couple of kid pools were filled with beer and ice.......a better asortment than most bars I would say....maybe 50 different beers floating in there. The fire started to grow bigger......eating, drinking, swimming in the pool, Brian and Marc Howes were happily enjoying building the fire.......the crowd moved further and further away......5 cords of wood was no match for them......amazing.....simply amazing....fire was 12 feet across towards the end.........glass melted easily in the hot fire.....
OK, this was a little more than the hike itself......the hike was just a small jewel in a big crown which the ADK gathering was......and it was an awesom hike
Thanks Spencer and Maddy who hosted it and all the great people we met
Juniper
Unfrozen Caveman
Marc Howes
Mats Roing
After arriving at Spencer and Maddy's basecamp Friday evening and having fun around the campfire, socializing, carbo-loading, swimming, meeting new people and deliberating what to hike Saturday, the four of us decided to do Marcy, Tabletop and Phelps via the standard highway. None of us had ever done any of the peaks.
Saturday morning was kind of slow going after the fun the evening before. The forecast which scared away many hikers was totally bogus.....couldn't have asked for a better day of hiking.......Pulled in by the ranger station at the parking lot in Marc's car. Not sure what the TH is called but it had at least hundred cars there and lots of people.....an alpine start of 09:40am was logged and off we went hopping, skipping and jumping......sun was shining and 40 minutes later we passed the bridge by the dam.....another register to sign in at.....and the trail started to show signs of gaining elevation. We decided to do Marcy first since furthest away and probably the best views. Trail was in moinst condition - ie running water in it most of the time. Trail was in great condition and not much mud issues like I've heard of in these mountains. At 3,600 feet or so we foud the herdpath cutoff to Tabletop and we continued up towards Marcy.....lots of nice people we met......we decided that hiking in the ADK is awesome
Soon we saw some views and after some more hopping and skipping we were at the top......12:25pm so it took us 2hrs45min here......just amazing views and we had a picnic with a variety of stuff and popped a Foster's oil can for celebration of a new 4K peak for all of us. Marc the most experienced logging his 19th ADK peak. For Juniper and me it was the first We could even see the Pressie Range from the summit......it was way back in the horizon but very distinctively pressie range.....it was soo clear! Camel's Hump looked kind of close in the clear weather. We had company by a forest ranger up on the summit who tried to persuade us to hike over and tag Skylight. We resisted his sweet talking about Skylight and stuck to our original plan and skipped down the trail...Sun was still shining beautifully when arriving at the Tabletop cutoff and off we went.....trail got a bit more narrow here...it was like hiking in a narrow ditch with water and mud....around 4,000 feet we met a group of schoolkids maybe 12-year range who had a Tabletop Outing......wasn't too bad although no risk for speeding tickets...after it flattened out closer to the summit it was more emphasis on mud and I saw one of my shoes go for a dive.......I wasn't the only one and we all seemed to have acquired the uniform ADK brown color on our shoes......we extended our stay on the summit to fully take in the beauty of this summit.....which means we stayed there in the neighborhood of 30 seconds before enjoying some more mud splashing on the way down. Not sure if it's faster going up or down Tabletop.....we came back to the main trail and continued down across the bridge. We did a fairly good job taking photos during the hike.....with Juniper being the most active photographer. Some hikers we saw for the third time on the way down.....we recognized each other and it was a nice experience. We passed some on the way up and then saw them on the summit or met them on our way down....then we passed them again after coming off Tabletop.
We discussed in length the pros and cons of doing Phelps but decided against it since we realized we'd be late for the 6pm dinner if we went up Phelps. Since it was so seldom we are in the ADK, we wanted to prioritize meeting and getting to know the ADK dudes and dudettes. Came back to the TH at 4:34pm so a roundtrip time of 6hrs54min. All except for Juniper had finished their water in the warmth.
After a beautiful drive back to Spencer and Maddy's house we tried to clean our brown legs before joining in for dinner. Sun was shining.....more and more people gathered, putting more food on the tables under the tent. Pete Hickey showed up also.....don't know much about him but he had some funny stories to tell.A couple of kid pools were filled with beer and ice.......a better asortment than most bars I would say....maybe 50 different beers floating in there. The fire started to grow bigger......eating, drinking, swimming in the pool, Brian and Marc Howes were happily enjoying building the fire.......the crowd moved further and further away......5 cords of wood was no match for them......amazing.....simply amazing....fire was 12 feet across towards the end.........glass melted easily in the hot fire.....
OK, this was a little more than the hike itself......the hike was just a small jewel in a big crown which the ADK gathering was......and it was an awesom hike
Thanks Spencer and Maddy who hosted it and all the great people we met
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