ADK Hiker
New member
The days leading up to this final peak were filled with a lot of nervous energy. For some reason I was very anxious about this final summit to complete my 46er quest. The night before we stayed in Lake Placid. It again was a night with little sleep. We woke up early so that we could begin at sunrise.
Arrived at the trailhead, and my husband was taking his sweet time. I started down and said, "lets get moving". My emotions were so strong I just had to get myself going. The beginning of the hike and the ascent of Marble mountain were a good warm up, and kind of calmed me down. The trail was really dry, with little to no mud to deal with. We seemed to scream up the mountian pretty fast, and quickly arrived at the junction for the herd path to Esther, #45. My husband commented, " holy cow you must be on a mission today", because I was moving so fast. And it was true, I had one and only one mission in mind that day, to complete my 46. Esther was a really easy round trip for us. Once on top we took our usual photos and again my mission resumed. Back at the main trail we began the final ascent to my 46th peak Whiteface. Really soon we arrived at the retaining wall and discovered we were about 1.5 hours ahead of schedule. My family was told to arrive on the summit at 11:30 and here it was now only ten. So, we had to get out our phones and call them up. We told them, "we are like twenty minutes from the top, you need to come now". Now here we were twenty minutes from the summit and had to kill about 45 minutes. So we took some photos, climbed up the rock a little, were startled by a humming bird, and had some food and water. I guess I really was moving quite fast this particular day. After a short time, we slowly began to make our way to the summit. We met some people and chatted brielfly with them. The weather to this point was just gray and cloudy, no real rain. As we were nearing the summit, my stomach was beginning to churn. The emotions were just filling my body and soul. I noticed my mother in law near one of the summit rocks. She had just turned around from looking down the trail. As I climbed the last few steps I noticed my children standing on the summit. They immediately began yelling, "mommy, mommy, mommy". This was one of the best moments of my life. They brought my 46er request of Gatorade for me. We took our celebratory photos and just soaked in every moment. There was absolutely no views what so ever. Our summit photos are mist and cloud covered, but still awesome to me. This will be a moment I never forget. We also went into the castle and shared some more time with my family that had come so far. After about an hour we started the decent down the trail. Good time was made on the way out as well. Later in the evening we went out for a celebratory dinner, talked about our hikes, and just took in the whole experience.
I would like to thank all of you for enjoying this experience with me. This has been one of the greatest times of my life. I look forward to following all your journeys with you as well. This is just the beginning of my hikes. There will be more of these and others as well.
Arrived at the trailhead, and my husband was taking his sweet time. I started down and said, "lets get moving". My emotions were so strong I just had to get myself going. The beginning of the hike and the ascent of Marble mountain were a good warm up, and kind of calmed me down. The trail was really dry, with little to no mud to deal with. We seemed to scream up the mountian pretty fast, and quickly arrived at the junction for the herd path to Esther, #45. My husband commented, " holy cow you must be on a mission today", because I was moving so fast. And it was true, I had one and only one mission in mind that day, to complete my 46. Esther was a really easy round trip for us. Once on top we took our usual photos and again my mission resumed. Back at the main trail we began the final ascent to my 46th peak Whiteface. Really soon we arrived at the retaining wall and discovered we were about 1.5 hours ahead of schedule. My family was told to arrive on the summit at 11:30 and here it was now only ten. So, we had to get out our phones and call them up. We told them, "we are like twenty minutes from the top, you need to come now". Now here we were twenty minutes from the summit and had to kill about 45 minutes. So we took some photos, climbed up the rock a little, were startled by a humming bird, and had some food and water. I guess I really was moving quite fast this particular day. After a short time, we slowly began to make our way to the summit. We met some people and chatted brielfly with them. The weather to this point was just gray and cloudy, no real rain. As we were nearing the summit, my stomach was beginning to churn. The emotions were just filling my body and soul. I noticed my mother in law near one of the summit rocks. She had just turned around from looking down the trail. As I climbed the last few steps I noticed my children standing on the summit. They immediately began yelling, "mommy, mommy, mommy". This was one of the best moments of my life. They brought my 46er request of Gatorade for me. We took our celebratory photos and just soaked in every moment. There was absolutely no views what so ever. Our summit photos are mist and cloud covered, but still awesome to me. This will be a moment I never forget. We also went into the castle and shared some more time with my family that had come so far. After about an hour we started the decent down the trail. Good time was made on the way out as well. Later in the evening we went out for a celebratory dinner, talked about our hikes, and just took in the whole experience.
I would like to thank all of you for enjoying this experience with me. This has been one of the greatest times of my life. I look forward to following all your journeys with you as well. This is just the beginning of my hikes. There will be more of these and others as well.
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Too bad the weather wasn't better for your finale. Great accomplishment!
