NYBRAD
New member
8/23- 24
After starting with Mt Marcy 6 years ago on a date as boyfriend and girlfriend, we finally finished the 46 together!
We decided to make two commitments that day on the highest point in NY.
Get married, and finish the 46 together.
Both have rewarded us with a greater awareness of what “life” is all about in our eyes.
The year we got married, we bagged nearly 30 peaks. We thought we would be finished by the end of the following year. It was not to be.
Much to our surprise, at least mine anyways,
we were blessed with our first Child, who we decided to name Colden, after our love of the Adirondacks.
For the next 3 years it was hard for both of us to take trips at the same time. Occasionally we would get to go together, but most of the time I would go up with friends and do peaks that we had already done, and she would go up with her friends and take day hikes to places like Connary Ponds, and full moon ski parties at Cascade Ski center.
Also during that time, I acquired some close friends that had gotten bit by the “Winter Bug”.
Before long, I had done about 20 winter accents including some that Marlene hadn’t done in the summer yet.
I was having my doubts about finishing together with Mar, and also having problems telling her that I was doing peaks she hadn’t done. I knew she really wanted to finish at the same time.
I came clean and spilled the beans, and saved Cliff, Marshall and Skylight. And this past weekend we fulfilled our commitment becoming 46er’s together.
Here’s the trip report,
We drove up Saturday with plans of hiking from Upperworks to a nice spot just into state land on Calamity Brook in the dark. But after all the rain we decided to spend the night at Lake Eaton State Campground, a place I visited as a kid every summer. We got to check out some sites for our next adventure, “Family Camping”. Boy, I can’t wait. I’m glad we just purchased a canoe.
With four days and four peaks to go, we leisurely hiked into flowed lands Sunday morning and made our way over to Beaver Point lento on Lake Colden. The weather was great, warm and Sunny, but the trails were a mess. The mud was like I have never seen it. Even worse than mud season. So we decided to hang out and swim, and eat a good dinner early with all the bear problems. Behind the privy’s, we discovered what looked to be a bait and shoot, or trap area all taped off with “ RED Danger Police Tape, and some signs warning of a “Bear Research Area”
There are plastic bags filled with doughnuts all over the woods attached waist high to trees.
After talking with the rangers it turns out that they have trapped and collared 3 bears at the site.
The funny thing is, we never had a problem the 3 nights we spent there. My wife says the ranger told her that after tagging, the bears haven’t touched the bait.
We were the only people who didn’t see a bear over the next few days in the area.
Not even after a very nice and well behaved but under prepared family of 6 showed up with dog and all spent the night with us in the lento eating Chinese take out and leaving crumbs of pop tarts and dog food all over the place. It smelled like CHEF KING in the lento. I convinced him he might want to hang his garbage and food in a bear bag. He didn’t have one, so we used his packs. He also didn’t have a tent and it was pouring, the lentos were full so I guess he got lucky. With his wet dog sleeping occasionally on us we tried to get some sleep.
Monday morning we headed for Gray with rain threatening. Trails were still a mess and about to get worse. Gray took about 45 minutes from Lake Tear and about 35 minutes back. All and all not in bad shape. The clouds were thick and we had no views. We could only imagine them.
Skylight fell in about the same time up and back. With it raining now, we skipped the rock thing.
Again we could only imagine the view we were missing on the open rock and now the winds were picking up. We bailed behind a ledge, ate lunch in the thick blowing clouds, and then took off for camp as the rain really started to come down hard. We arrived at camp, spread our stuff out to dry, and just as it was getting dark, that really nice family arrived shivering.
Tuesday greeted us to improving weather and improving accommodations. We had the lento to ourselves. We made it to Uphill lento in about 45 minutes and started up the Redfield path as recommended by Mavs for Cliff. We didn’t see any green tape on the Redfield path but we did cut over and avoided the ridiculously wet corduroy section and did see green tape marking the cut over on the Cliff path. Cliff fell in one hour almost to the minute. A little less on the way down. We couldn’t believe it. I was figuring 4 hours round trip. We found Cliffy rather enjoyable considering we did Redfield just after hurricane Floyd. We tried Cliff that day as well, but it was nearly impassable. We made it to the cliffs and had to turn around. The trail work that has been done since is evident and should be greatly rewarded. Thanks Pete and all the others.
Except for the infamous belly crawl and the wet cliffs that all had trees for hand holds, it wasn’t that bad. By now, mud was really not even an issue due to it being everywhere. Great views in most directions with a little searching.
Without a rest we headed back to camp, for lunch and a change of socks and set off for our final peak. Marshall is now one of my favorite peaks. The open woods and numerous water falls along Herbert Brook is amazing. It reminds me of the Gill Brook trail but better. The sun must have been just right, because the colors of greens in the mosses and ferns with all the rain was breath taking. The slabs had water running but we picked our way up though some dry areas. The farther up the brook the more your forced into it. The mud along the steeper section of open slab is really deep. The mud gets only worse once the trail takes the fork to the right and then you find yourself in the tiny brook, then around a swampy area and up a few bumps and rocky ledges to the top. It took us a bit longer than expected, about 1 hr 45 minutes up and a little over an hour back down. Great views of Iroquois and Colden. A few pictures and a little celebration and back down the brook to camp we went.
The next morning we hiked back to the car parked at UW and followed the same bear tracks from Beaver Point Lake Colden, all the way to the Raspberry patches near the parking lot. And I could see why. The berries are in just about full bloom!
http://community.webshots.com/user/iceclimberx15
After starting with Mt Marcy 6 years ago on a date as boyfriend and girlfriend, we finally finished the 46 together!
We decided to make two commitments that day on the highest point in NY.
Get married, and finish the 46 together.
Both have rewarded us with a greater awareness of what “life” is all about in our eyes.
The year we got married, we bagged nearly 30 peaks. We thought we would be finished by the end of the following year. It was not to be.
Much to our surprise, at least mine anyways,
we were blessed with our first Child, who we decided to name Colden, after our love of the Adirondacks.
For the next 3 years it was hard for both of us to take trips at the same time. Occasionally we would get to go together, but most of the time I would go up with friends and do peaks that we had already done, and she would go up with her friends and take day hikes to places like Connary Ponds, and full moon ski parties at Cascade Ski center.
Also during that time, I acquired some close friends that had gotten bit by the “Winter Bug”.
Before long, I had done about 20 winter accents including some that Marlene hadn’t done in the summer yet.
I was having my doubts about finishing together with Mar, and also having problems telling her that I was doing peaks she hadn’t done. I knew she really wanted to finish at the same time.
I came clean and spilled the beans, and saved Cliff, Marshall and Skylight. And this past weekend we fulfilled our commitment becoming 46er’s together.
Here’s the trip report,
We drove up Saturday with plans of hiking from Upperworks to a nice spot just into state land on Calamity Brook in the dark. But after all the rain we decided to spend the night at Lake Eaton State Campground, a place I visited as a kid every summer. We got to check out some sites for our next adventure, “Family Camping”. Boy, I can’t wait. I’m glad we just purchased a canoe.
With four days and four peaks to go, we leisurely hiked into flowed lands Sunday morning and made our way over to Beaver Point lento on Lake Colden. The weather was great, warm and Sunny, but the trails were a mess. The mud was like I have never seen it. Even worse than mud season. So we decided to hang out and swim, and eat a good dinner early with all the bear problems. Behind the privy’s, we discovered what looked to be a bait and shoot, or trap area all taped off with “ RED Danger Police Tape, and some signs warning of a “Bear Research Area”
There are plastic bags filled with doughnuts all over the woods attached waist high to trees.
After talking with the rangers it turns out that they have trapped and collared 3 bears at the site.
The funny thing is, we never had a problem the 3 nights we spent there. My wife says the ranger told her that after tagging, the bears haven’t touched the bait.
We were the only people who didn’t see a bear over the next few days in the area.
Not even after a very nice and well behaved but under prepared family of 6 showed up with dog and all spent the night with us in the lento eating Chinese take out and leaving crumbs of pop tarts and dog food all over the place. It smelled like CHEF KING in the lento. I convinced him he might want to hang his garbage and food in a bear bag. He didn’t have one, so we used his packs. He also didn’t have a tent and it was pouring, the lentos were full so I guess he got lucky. With his wet dog sleeping occasionally on us we tried to get some sleep.
Monday morning we headed for Gray with rain threatening. Trails were still a mess and about to get worse. Gray took about 45 minutes from Lake Tear and about 35 minutes back. All and all not in bad shape. The clouds were thick and we had no views. We could only imagine them.
Skylight fell in about the same time up and back. With it raining now, we skipped the rock thing.
Again we could only imagine the view we were missing on the open rock and now the winds were picking up. We bailed behind a ledge, ate lunch in the thick blowing clouds, and then took off for camp as the rain really started to come down hard. We arrived at camp, spread our stuff out to dry, and just as it was getting dark, that really nice family arrived shivering.
Tuesday greeted us to improving weather and improving accommodations. We had the lento to ourselves. We made it to Uphill lento in about 45 minutes and started up the Redfield path as recommended by Mavs for Cliff. We didn’t see any green tape on the Redfield path but we did cut over and avoided the ridiculously wet corduroy section and did see green tape marking the cut over on the Cliff path. Cliff fell in one hour almost to the minute. A little less on the way down. We couldn’t believe it. I was figuring 4 hours round trip. We found Cliffy rather enjoyable considering we did Redfield just after hurricane Floyd. We tried Cliff that day as well, but it was nearly impassable. We made it to the cliffs and had to turn around. The trail work that has been done since is evident and should be greatly rewarded. Thanks Pete and all the others.
Except for the infamous belly crawl and the wet cliffs that all had trees for hand holds, it wasn’t that bad. By now, mud was really not even an issue due to it being everywhere. Great views in most directions with a little searching.
Without a rest we headed back to camp, for lunch and a change of socks and set off for our final peak. Marshall is now one of my favorite peaks. The open woods and numerous water falls along Herbert Brook is amazing. It reminds me of the Gill Brook trail but better. The sun must have been just right, because the colors of greens in the mosses and ferns with all the rain was breath taking. The slabs had water running but we picked our way up though some dry areas. The farther up the brook the more your forced into it. The mud along the steeper section of open slab is really deep. The mud gets only worse once the trail takes the fork to the right and then you find yourself in the tiny brook, then around a swampy area and up a few bumps and rocky ledges to the top. It took us a bit longer than expected, about 1 hr 45 minutes up and a little over an hour back down. Great views of Iroquois and Colden. A few pictures and a little celebration and back down the brook to camp we went.
The next morning we hiked back to the car parked at UW and followed the same bear tracks from Beaver Point Lake Colden, all the way to the Raspberry patches near the parking lot. And I could see why. The berries are in just about full bloom!
http://community.webshots.com/user/iceclimberx15
Last edited:
![Yellowstone National Park [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kGuJ72qjL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Canyon, North and South Rims [Grand Canyon National Park] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419Y-ycyVUL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Teton Day Hikes and National Park Map [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DB0jvRnbL._SL500_.jpg)
