First 'Daks summits 8/10 - 8/12

[michael]

all I can say at the moment is - WOO-HOO!!
A grand 3 days in the Park.
Monday Day 1: Algonquin-Iroquois-Wright
Tuesday Day 2: Cascade-Porter
Wednesday Day 3: Giant-Rocky Ridge

Highlights: hiking over Ali-G to Iroquois in the fog and willing the clouds away - and it worked! it was raining when we left the Loj and all the folks coming down were muttering about fog and rain and no views.
But we were optimistic - we came 7 hours from Maine, what else could we be?
We spent an hour and a half on Iroquois enjoying cold beer and watching clouds lift west to east, and then finally a last gust and roar from the west and the clouds lifted en masse revealing in increments a whole new panorama of peaks, valleys and slides of which we had never seen before. I mean what a fantastic introduction. Muy, muy bueno!!
My buddy Dave has a knack for lingering on summits and so we were the last to leave Iroquois that day. As far as we could tell anyway.
Day 2 found us camped out at Meadow Brook and we asked the office guyabout a breakfast joint nearby and he sent us to DJs Rustic in Saranac - oh yeah!! I dig the Rustic...
This day we were anticipating less than fantastic weather so we had a short hike planned to Cascade and Porter. Well as you all know the weather has not sucked at all lately so surprise surprise we were the last ones to leave the summit that day as well being chased off around 5pm by one of the many thunderheads that cropped up that day.
Yesterday we got a super late start and instead of exploring the Gothics area we ended up across the street on Giant and Rocky Ridge. Dave tweaked his knee on the way down from Giant and we hobbled off the mountain around 9:30pm.
More to follow....

 

[Tom Rankin]

We spent an hour and a half on Iroquois enjoying cold beer and watching clouds lift west to east, and then finally a last gust and roar from the west and the clouds lifted en masse revealing in increments a whole new panorama of peaks, valleys and slides of which we had never seen before. I mean what a fantastic introduction. More to follow....

They weren't selling beer on Iroquois Saturday!

I think you could pretty much charge whatever you wanted for a cold one up on Haystack, Marcy, Colden...

Hope your friend is better.

Glad you enjoyed your first (of many?!) trips to the DAX!

We're coming to BSP soon, maybe we'll wave as we pass each other on I-95!

 

[michael]

They weren't selling beer on Iroquois Saturday!

Cold was a relative term. But tradition is tradition and those PBRs tasted mighty mighty fine up there.
Being unfamiliar with the various microbrews of this area (is Saranac still considered micro brew?) we went with the old standby.

What other breweries are there in Upstate?
We made the mistake of stopping at the Great Adirondak Brewing Company for breakfast, but i shan't go into that here....

Do you have a preference?

 

[Tom Rankin]

What other breweries are there in Upstate?
We made the mistake of stopping at the Great Adirondak Brewing Company for breakfast, but i shan't go into that here.... Do you have a preference?

I've never been there for b'fast but GABC makes some good beers. I prefer Lake Placid Pub and Brew, because it serves pub fare (cheaper, smaller meals) and has generally faster service. Not to mention my 24 oz. mug hanging on the wall! (Funny - Lake Placid has 2 Brew Pubs, New York City has - hold for it - 1! )

Saranac can still bust out a good beer from time to time. NOT a micro-brewery IMHO, and NOT brewed in the ADKs.

After that, the nearest brewpubs are in Glens Falls, Davidson Brothers, and Cooper's Cave, both very good.

See my sig for MUCH more information!

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Nice. What a great intro to New York! Hope your friends knee is ok. And I hope that he hurt it on the final descent of Giant, not the descent toward RPR! Might have made for a wicked climb back up.

Tom is the right guy to ask about beer...click on his link to Views & Brews.
Do you know about the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery? It's just across the street from Mirror Lake on the East side of town. They have 46er Pale Ale, Ubu, and a pretty good IPA. Available in bottles and growlers.

I don't particularly care to eat at Great Adirondack S & S, but always enjoy stopping in at the bar for a couple samples and a pint or two...and to get a growler filled. They have some good beer there!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Available in bottles and growlers.

Don't get me started! I asked for a growler refill, and they told me they were running low on IPA, so I could not get one. But could I get my 24-oz. mug refilled, say, 3 times? Sure!

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Don't get me started! I asked for a growler refill, and they told me they were running low on IPA, so I could not get one. But could I get my 24-oz. mug refilled, say, 3 times? Sure!

OK...if you promise not to get me started on the fact that they will not fill growlers from other breweries, and you have to exchange yours for ones that have been in there cooler for who knows how long.

 

[michael]

other highlights and considerations

We were asked by several folks how we found the hiking as compared to say, the Whites or Baxter.
Funny question I thought but I had to think about it. Still thinking about it all at the moment.
I think we found it quite the same as when I first started seriously hiking. Exciting and new. Lots of vertical and for me, if there is vertical, there is sweating involved. And i was a sweating, but happy hiker for three days.
I thought that the rocks had more 'stick' to them and enjoyed the long ledgy pitches on Giant. The remoteness of Iroquois and talking to the guy that hiked up a Gruman canoe to the 'Basin on Giant. Saw him from the ledges above cutting across the water. Talk about commitment!
In general though, we were both like kids in a candy store! So many options.
Initially this was to be a two night/three day backback trip but turned into a car camp affair, which was just as fine. No shortage of summits to visit.

Planning to get the rest of the crew out here in September. This was a recon trip of sorts and now that we know some of the where and hows of this area we will be more inclined to get our butts out here.
We found that leaving around 4pm from the Freeport/Yarmouth area gets us to the Charlotte ferry in time to grab the next to last boat and we can be in Lake Placid by 10-11ish. Leave on Friday walk in at night to wherever and hike all day Saturday, out on Sunday and drive will be the plan.
Can't wait!!

 

[Jay H]

Sounds cool, hope you continue to enjoy the ADKs and hope you get better weather next time. Your ADK trips sound like my trips to the Whites!

If you are asking for microbrewery recommendations in the northeast, TFR is your man... I can dole out ice cream spots, but I am dumbfounded when it comes to beer as I don't drink.

Jay

 

[J.Dub]

We made the mistake of stopping at the Great Adirondak Brewing Company for breakfast, but i shan't go into that here....

Did you get the Thirsty Man Special, like I did? It comes in a convenient carrying case...

"Beer: It's not just for breakfast anymore."

 

[michael]

I like the way you roll J.Dub

 

[michael]

OK...if you promise not to get me started on the fact that they will not fill growlers from other breweries, and you have to exchange yours for ones that have been in there cooler for who knows how long.

at least you have a semi-legitimate Growler policy in NY.
Maine I think has growlers but you have to get it out the back door and use some kind of special handshake and secret password.

I can see the plan coming together now for my next trip out...Growlers on the Gothics!

 

[michael]

Nice. What a great intro to New York! Hope your friends knee is ok. And I hope that he hurt it on the final descent of Giant, not the descent toward RPR! Might have made for a wicked climb back up.

So as we were hiking this day we both had commented on how at various times in our collective hiking careers we had both experienced pains in the knee joint area and as we were descending and near the bottom of the saddle between Giant and RPR he lets out a gasp of pain. Oh boy. So, after a few minutes resting we continued down but it was still nagging him. I said I would continue on to the summit if he wanted to wait for me at the bottom of the saddle and we'd work it out from there, once I got back. He liked that idea better than the kick in the shin I offered to take his mind off the knee pain but he replied something about '..if I have to crawl on my hands and knees...' etc and so on and so we pressed on and the pain was not there on the uphill, just the down hill.

Well what to do once up on RPR and it still hurts? Well after an extended stay on Rocky we headed down and Dave was sans pain - sweetness! but just about 15 minutes from the junction below Giant, the pain came back and we had to nurse him down the mountain. Got to the 'washbasin' just after dark and sat and talked with the canoe guy for a bit while he rested the knee and happy to report we were off the mountain by 9:30pm.

He was fine the next day, jumping around on rocks in the Ausable flume area. Just another age related fatigue issue I 'spose.

But Dave is the man! If he wasn't an experienced hiker and all around outdoorsman I/we would not have pressed forward to RPR. But we had the skills and though it certainly elevates the rick factor, for us it was not beyond our comfort zones. I cannot feel others pain for them so relied on his experience to guide us. We had the gear for a late night out and we were not opposed to walking down at night so, well, we - he - suffered through it.

 

[michael]

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They call me Hawkeye

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me michael

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captivated by slides

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slabs on Cascade