king tut
New member
While sitting at work Friday, I looked at the weather forecast, and it looked fantastic! I sent an e-mail to my friend Hilary, saying "want to go hiking tomorrow?" She said yes, so I said "where do you want to hike?" She said, "want to go to the Dak's?" Since I had never hiked there, I said "Sure, as long as we can go hike the biggest hunk of rock out there!" So we made plans and took the ferry across the Lake at Charlotte and stayed somewhere out in NY, who knows where, I wasn't driving.
We planned on getting up nice and early, since the hike was going to be a long one. We decided to do the hike from Adirondak Loj, making it a 15 mile roundtrip venture. After an early breakfast, we got on the trailhead around 6:45 in the morning and began the 7.5 mile slog up the Mt Van Hoevenburg Trail. The trail ascended at a rather easy grade for about 2 miles or so when we got up to Marcy Dam. There were some nice views from Marcy Dam looking up to Wright peak, I believe. After a brief stop, we continued up the trail and walked for another hour or so when we got to Indian Falls and had our first view of the Macintyre range. It was a majestic view of the mountains that was a little bit obscured by the low hanging morning clouds that had yet to burn off in the summer sun.
After a short break, we headed up the trail and tackled the last couple of miles to the summit of Marcy. The trail was moderate up until the last mile where it started to come up above the treeline and the first views of the summit appeared. The last 1/2 mile was above treeline and the steepest climb of the day. While it was the hardest part of the climb, it was not that difficult. We reached the top of the climb around 11 in the morning, about 4 hours after the start of the hike. There were only about 7 or so people on the top when we got there, and we took about an hour to take in the views, eat some lunch, take a nap, and relax. The views from the top were phenomenal. 4000 foot peaks for as far as the eye could see. We could even see Lake Champlain from the top the mountain. The mountains were very beautiful and majestic, with lots of really cool looking slides on many of the mountains. This was Hilary's 17th peak of the ADK 46's, and my 1'st. While we were on top, Hilary worked very hard at persuading me to bag a couple of more peaks on our way down. I said, "we'll see".
We headed down the mountain around noon time and descended down the above tree line portion of the mountain as we passed about 30 people coming up the trail. We were very happy to have been on top before the hordes ascended the summit! We descended around 3 miles or so and decided to take the herd path up Table Top Mt. This was a 4400 foot peak that was climbed via a .6 mile herd path that was not too much fun to climb. We got to the viewless summit in about 40 minutes of climbing and then polished off the bag of M & M's that we had been working on throughout the day. After a few minutes on top, we headed back down the herd path as I randomly swore loudly as I banged my shin, scratched my arm, and beat myself up going down this "trail". I was not in my "happy place" mentally as I came down this summit.
We got back on the main trail as Hilary discussed climbing Mt Phelps on the way down as well. Her legs were starting to cramp up, and I advised a little caution as I did not want to carry her down the third peak of the day. After another hour of hiking down, we reached the trailhead to Phelps and realized that the climb was going to be another 2 miles roundtrip and over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Her legs were getting real wobbly, so we decided to skip the third peak of the day and get back to the parking lot.
We took our time and got back the parking area a little before 6 o clock, making it around an 11 hour day. We were very happy to see the parking lot as we had just hiked over 16 miles and just under 4,000 vertical feet. We headed back to her parent's house, showered, and then had a few beers as we watched the sun set over the Daks. As I had my beers and some cheese, I reflected on what had been an amazing day of hiking in some of the most beautiful mountains that I have seen in some time. The endorphins from the hike flooded my brain and I was in a state of utter happiness as I watched the sun go down and a little while later my head the hit the pillow as I passed out from utter exhaustion. My brain was reminded of how good life can be.
http://www.parazz.com/albums/kingtut
We planned on getting up nice and early, since the hike was going to be a long one. We decided to do the hike from Adirondak Loj, making it a 15 mile roundtrip venture. After an early breakfast, we got on the trailhead around 6:45 in the morning and began the 7.5 mile slog up the Mt Van Hoevenburg Trail. The trail ascended at a rather easy grade for about 2 miles or so when we got up to Marcy Dam. There were some nice views from Marcy Dam looking up to Wright peak, I believe. After a brief stop, we continued up the trail and walked for another hour or so when we got to Indian Falls and had our first view of the Macintyre range. It was a majestic view of the mountains that was a little bit obscured by the low hanging morning clouds that had yet to burn off in the summer sun.
After a short break, we headed up the trail and tackled the last couple of miles to the summit of Marcy. The trail was moderate up until the last mile where it started to come up above the treeline and the first views of the summit appeared. The last 1/2 mile was above treeline and the steepest climb of the day. While it was the hardest part of the climb, it was not that difficult. We reached the top of the climb around 11 in the morning, about 4 hours after the start of the hike. There were only about 7 or so people on the top when we got there, and we took about an hour to take in the views, eat some lunch, take a nap, and relax. The views from the top were phenomenal. 4000 foot peaks for as far as the eye could see. We could even see Lake Champlain from the top the mountain. The mountains were very beautiful and majestic, with lots of really cool looking slides on many of the mountains. This was Hilary's 17th peak of the ADK 46's, and my 1'st. While we were on top, Hilary worked very hard at persuading me to bag a couple of more peaks on our way down. I said, "we'll see".
We headed down the mountain around noon time and descended down the above tree line portion of the mountain as we passed about 30 people coming up the trail. We were very happy to have been on top before the hordes ascended the summit! We descended around 3 miles or so and decided to take the herd path up Table Top Mt. This was a 4400 foot peak that was climbed via a .6 mile herd path that was not too much fun to climb. We got to the viewless summit in about 40 minutes of climbing and then polished off the bag of M & M's that we had been working on throughout the day. After a few minutes on top, we headed back down the herd path as I randomly swore loudly as I banged my shin, scratched my arm, and beat myself up going down this "trail". I was not in my "happy place" mentally as I came down this summit.
We got back on the main trail as Hilary discussed climbing Mt Phelps on the way down as well. Her legs were starting to cramp up, and I advised a little caution as I did not want to carry her down the third peak of the day. After another hour of hiking down, we reached the trailhead to Phelps and realized that the climb was going to be another 2 miles roundtrip and over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Her legs were getting real wobbly, so we decided to skip the third peak of the day and get back to the parking lot.
We took our time and got back the parking area a little before 6 o clock, making it around an 11 hour day. We were very happy to see the parking lot as we had just hiked over 16 miles and just under 4,000 vertical feet. We headed back to her parent's house, showered, and then had a few beers as we watched the sun set over the Daks. As I had my beers and some cheese, I reflected on what had been an amazing day of hiking in some of the most beautiful mountains that I have seen in some time. The endorphins from the hike flooded my brain and I was in a state of utter happiness as I watched the sun go down and a little while later my head the hit the pillow as I passed out from utter exhaustion. My brain was reminded of how good life can be.
http://www.parazz.com/albums/kingtut
If the mtns started to look like that, you might also need some Visine!
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