Lost Girl In The Adirondack Mountains

[Little Rickie]

Lost Girl In The Adirondack Mountains

A 15 year old girl got lost while pursuing her dream of climbing a mountain in the Adirondacks and spends a stormy night in the woods. No femme fatale the resourceful Young lady made a large fire. The search party sees the fire at night and meets her the next morning as she hikes out.

The lost girl is not charged for the expenses of the rescue or is fined….they name a mountain after her. Esther Macomb made the first recorded summit, of now Esther Mountain, by getting lost while pursuing her dream to climbing Whiteface Mountain in 1839.

Dream Farmer (DF) and I walked in her historic steps this last Sunday. DF call me the week before and said he might be free this weekend. So was I. I got us tickets to the 46r awards, a campsite at Whispering Pines Campground and our adventure began when he pulled into my driveway 9:45AM on Saturday.

We loaded his crap into my van and took off. We haven’t hiked together since last August and I haven’t been to the Adirondacks since last fall when a bunch of us hiked Snowy Mountain even we talk on the phone all the time. My Boy Scout and personal stuff have taken up a lot of my weekends this last year or so.

What a beautiful day for a leisurely ride up north with my hiking buddy. This has all the makings of a great weekend and it was!

To be continued…

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Your stuff and his crap, right? hahaha

Keep it comin' Rickie! I know there's more...

 

[Little Rickie]

I hate to pay tolls so I took Rt 104 to 81N. Just past the entrance ramp onto
81 is a truck stop dinner that we tried for the first time. Fantastic! Good food, good service and good prices. If you're driving Rt81 sometime check it out.

After lunch we were off to Watertown. Shortly after exiting 81 and on the way to RT 3 I got struck by mental lighting. Even after an extensive packing list and checking it many times I forgot my hiking boots! Duh, they weren’t on the list. *******. Lighting struck about two miles from Wal-Mart. $36 stupid stinking bucks later I got a pair of boots. DF commented on how the looked just like top of the line boots and I'll be surprised on how good they will work out. Ya right. He needs glasses but is afraid he looks to old wearing them and the young chicks would get turned off. I keep telling myself these boots are better than sneakers.

We stopped for coffee, gas, vodka, firewood and a bug head net as we were thinking the black flies will be in full force. Nice relaxing drive. I feel good and am enjoying myself. Even the crappy little campsite we got didn't rock me. I mean what can you expect for $19 and what do a couple of old goats need anyway? We got vodka. WTH

I started a smoky fire right away to keep the bugs away, set up my tent, sleeping gear and repacked my daypack for an early start on Sunday. Then it all started going down hill from there. DF offered me a beer. Then there was the fresh fruit juice with the vodka. DF was breezing it with the two chicks in next campsite over (the nice one) and I couldn't talk intelligently (not that I can anyway) I needed to eat something NOW!.

I brought: polish sausage, potatoes, green pepper, olive oil, seasoned salt & cayenne pepper. I wrapped up everything in tin foil (I could have chewed the bark off the fire wood by now) and tossed it in the fire. Now I need to hydrate quite a bit. I hate drinking a lot of water before sleeping but now I got an empty two quart wide mouth fruit juice bottle in my tent waiting for nature to call at 3:00AM.

DF didn't get lucky and came back to make his dinner. I got the coffee pot ready for the morning and we chased away some more bugs. What a great day.

I woke up at 5:00AM. Some Chinese guy was yelling his head off in the group camp site behind us. I don't know what this is about. Maybe it's a sunrise greeting or something. DF can get up and not make a sound to start the coffee and some guy sounds like he's barking orders like he's a drill instructor. I finally got out of bed by 5:15.

After a second cup of jo we're on to Wilmington by 6:30AM. DF wants a breakfast sandwich so we stop at a connivance story and meet the party lady…

to be continued

 

[una_dogger]

I love the story of Esther. Loved your interpretation.

 

[Little Rickie]

continued

While DF was enjoying the view from the bathroom I was thinking of buying some beer and ice for after the hike. Not much is better than that first cold one after a good day of hiking. Wrongo bozo, its 6:30 Sunday morning! Rats! So I pivot and buy some V8 & OJ. I still got vodka. I’m banter some with the checkout lady, who looks like she has a few hard miles under he belt and showing some ware and tear, about not being able to buy beer and mention having Bloody Maries. She perks up real quick and says what a great way to start the day. She thinks we are having Bloody Maries for breakfast before we start the hike. While I like the idea, I assure her it’s for after the hike and tease her about needing to go to an AA meeting. She says, “I don’t need no AA meeting. I’m not in denial about my drinking. I know I drink and I like it.” What a piss. What can I say? I was laughing for the next five minutes while a DF talked about seeing the Great Range from the bath room. I don’t know if he got into it while I wasn’t looking or he was too close to the Chinese guy but I’m glad I was driving.

We started the hike from the Atmospheric Center since I’m a wimp and can’t handle the extra 800 feet of elevation. The day looks good, real good. It clear, cool, dry and no bugs. I turtled my way up the trails while watching the altitude gain on my GPS. We gabbed, stopped, and started snacked and sipped water. Time passed quickly and plesently. Did I mention this before? This is a beautiful day for a hike. The best conditions I’ve had for a long time. We passed the concrete blocks of the old ski lift foundation and the little houses the ski patrol kept their rescue sleds in. Cool.

I noticed a lot of trees with a wavy pattern in the bark. I know it’s invasive but couldn’t remember its name, zebra maple, stripped maple? I hadn’t seen it this far north before. There was a lot of it and it seem to thrive better at 3,000 feet than at 2,000. Some of them were more than 6” in diameter.

Before you know it we’re on a rocky out cropping look out over Wilmington. Looked like a good spot to camp and watch the sun come up. The huge cement block must be the top of the old ski trails. Off we go. By now we’ve been passed by a lady who was strolling up to Whiteface for something to do. Not even sweating. She’s a trail runner and this was just something to do. Just ahead of us was a couple with a dog. We could hear the dog but didn’t catch up. As the hike went on we got leapfrogged many times. What can I say my slow pace is the only way I can get my lard butt up the mountain and I thank DF for his patience.

Soon we are at the intersection of Whiteface and Esther. I’m pumped. The hike has gone well so far. The weather is holding up and so are my cheap new boots. That’s going to change before this hike is over...
__________________

 

[DreamFarmer]

I've been looking for a "Esther" trip report. That title threw me off.

Well done so far.

That was a heck of a day to be out there.

How about the part about that same noisy group at our site continuing to drive around the loop dragging the trailer by the safety chains after it fell off the hitch. There had to be a lot of people getting woken up early.

 

[Little Rickie]

The hike to Esther seemed longer than I expected. Every time my GPS made it look like we were about to peak and I'd start looking for the summit sign we'd drop down a little. I didn't know there were three small rises before the peak. The mountain she was teasing me. The trail got tight and the temperature dropped some so I put on my long sleeve shirt. The sky got a little dark but cleared up. Soon we summated and were discussing what mountains we were viewing. I think we had a good view of the great range to Marcy? Algonquin and company are blocked by Whiteface?

I felt good, ate drank and we started back. At the trail junction we took another break and all sorts of people started showing up and hung out. Some of them were not well prepared. Most didn't have enough to drink. We gave away all of our water except for our last. I had a quart DF had a half quart. Good thing it was cool for our walk down and I wasn't sweating as much as usual. Some were still going up even though they were low on water. No day packs or rain gear, sneakers and one guy in flip flops. WOW!

Do you remember those really good looking boots? Well by now they suck. The soles didn't do much to protect my feet. My dogs are sore and barking. Even the little rocks were painful. I kept telling myself they were better than sneakers. I stopped at the rocky lookout and put on a second pair of socks. That helped some but the last hour was painful. The last hour or two of a hike is usually tough on me anyway. The hike down seemed steeper that the hike up. I distracted myself with visions of me sitting in the shade with my boots off sipping a Bloody Mary.

The toughest section of the hike is the small rise to the parking lot. I hadn't snacked for the last three hours because as I didn't have enough water to wash it down with so I bonked at the very end. I was tired and stopping every few feet but had Bloody Maries on my mind.

Back at the van I grabbed my chair, flip flops and a bottle of water and set up in the shade. After hydrating and letting my feet dry I wobbled over to the van and opened up the bar. Got my drink, bagel, sharp cheddar cheese and settled in for the best part of the day. I was feeling pretty mellow. It's been a good day in the mountains. No blisters!

 

[DreamFarmer]

All right, I guess I can tell you now.

You know that 40 pound dumbell that I showed you ?

It went to the top of Esther that day with one of us....and it wasn't me!

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Nice job you two!

Unbelievably low reply to view ratio on this thread...must be a bunch of ambulance chasers her on VFTT..but no one wants to get involved.

 

[Little Rickie]

Nice job you two!

Unbelievably low reply to view ratio on this thread...must be a bunch of ambulance chasers her on VFTT..but no one wants to get involved.

I gotta figure out how the change the title or repost it with the Mt name and date of the hike.

I thought a Paradox type title would entice more people to post. O well.

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

I gotta figure out how the change the title or repost it with the Mt name and date of the hike.

I thought a Paradox type title would entice more people to post. O well.

Well the title has gotten over 700 people to look at it!

 

[Little Rickie]

Well the title has gotten over 700 people to look at it!

Nope. That's just me checking who posted 680 Xs. I'm such a loser with no life. Haven't got much else to do.

 

[Little Rickie]

I've been looking for a "Esther" trip report. That title threw me off.

Well done so far.

That was a heck of a day to be out there.

How about the part about that same noisy group at our site continuing to drive around the loop dragging the trailer by the safety chains after it fell off the hitch. There had to be a lot of people getting woken up early.

So when are you going to chime in with your part of the report?

 

[Paradox]

I gotta figure out how the change the title or repost it with the Mt name and date of the hike.

I thought a Paradox type title would entice more people to post. O well.

HEY! I resemble that remark!