timmus
Well-known member
It was 2:30am when John and I parked the van at the Garden. Frank (Dr. Wu) got out of his car, after a 10 minutes of sleep… Gail joined us, also tired from a short night. Then I got pleasantly surprised to see Brian (bushwhacker) arrive. Five was just the perfect size group for this kind of trip. There was a note from Tom (randomscooter) in the trail register, saying that he would not be able to make it at the summit (now I know why).
Gail led us very fast through the dark woods, and John and I were going slowly behind. I was very glad that my «husband» could join me for this special ascent of my 46th ADK 4000 footers.
The several lookouts on the Brothers were all excellent reasons to take a break; the moon was shining on the Great Range, and we could see a lot of shooting stars. It was cold but as much as expected. As we were going up the third Brother, I could see the first lights of dawn. We speed up a bit, and stop for a last break on the top of the last brother. This is when I almost killed myself drinking white gas (I had aluminium water bottles that day). We laughed and continued hiking.
We made it on time, and when I stepped on the summit, I got a movie star treatment, with the camera flash and congrats. It was awesome! It was a bit cloudy, but as soon as the sun came up, it all cleared up and the magnificent views appeared in front of our eyes. We opened the sparkling wine (couldn’t find small bottle of champagne), and celebrate. We stayed there for three hours, eating nice breakfast, making coffee and relaxing. And sleeping for some…
I forgot to mention that the evening before, I had an unexpected visit by Pete Hickey. He brought me his Prayer Flags , so I can have them at the summit. That was very nice of him, and I was excited to tie them up.
The views from Big Slide are beautiful, but what was even more amazing was to watch the shadows moving on the mountains. The colors were changing every minutes, and sun was warming us more and more. I couldn’t decide myself to leave the summit, because I wanted to make this moment last forever. But then I remembered that some of us were very tired, so we packed everything and headed down.
I was going first, and I missed the junction just below the summit. So John, Brian and I went 300 feet down the trail leading to JBL. It was not fun climbing it up. Gail did the same thing, while Frank took the right way. But Frank didn’t know we were behind him. So he asked to a hiker going up how far he was from us, and when the man said he haven’t seen a group of four, Frank thought he might have fall on his head and been unconscious for a couple of days ! We all regrouped at the Garden parking lot, and thought it was pretty funny.
We finished the hike at noon, very tired but very delighted. There was a surprise for me on the top of my van, a nice bottle of «La Fin Du ADK-46», from HarryK. How cool is that! Thanks to Gail, Frank and Brian for coming, thanks John for being up there with me, plus for all the times he took care of the kids while I was hiking the 46, and thanks to Pete and HarryK for the small attentions that made my day even more special. It sounds cheesy to thank people, but this whole experience was very important for me, and made me learn a lot about myself. Now let’s see what I will learn from trailwork and climbing the HH…
Pics are coming soon...
Gail led us very fast through the dark woods, and John and I were going slowly behind. I was very glad that my «husband» could join me for this special ascent of my 46th ADK 4000 footers.
The several lookouts on the Brothers were all excellent reasons to take a break; the moon was shining on the Great Range, and we could see a lot of shooting stars. It was cold but as much as expected. As we were going up the third Brother, I could see the first lights of dawn. We speed up a bit, and stop for a last break on the top of the last brother. This is when I almost killed myself drinking white gas (I had aluminium water bottles that day). We laughed and continued hiking.
We made it on time, and when I stepped on the summit, I got a movie star treatment, with the camera flash and congrats. It was awesome! It was a bit cloudy, but as soon as the sun came up, it all cleared up and the magnificent views appeared in front of our eyes. We opened the sparkling wine (couldn’t find small bottle of champagne), and celebrate. We stayed there for three hours, eating nice breakfast, making coffee and relaxing. And sleeping for some…
I forgot to mention that the evening before, I had an unexpected visit by Pete Hickey. He brought me his Prayer Flags , so I can have them at the summit. That was very nice of him, and I was excited to tie them up.
The views from Big Slide are beautiful, but what was even more amazing was to watch the shadows moving on the mountains. The colors were changing every minutes, and sun was warming us more and more. I couldn’t decide myself to leave the summit, because I wanted to make this moment last forever. But then I remembered that some of us were very tired, so we packed everything and headed down.
I was going first, and I missed the junction just below the summit. So John, Brian and I went 300 feet down the trail leading to JBL. It was not fun climbing it up. Gail did the same thing, while Frank took the right way. But Frank didn’t know we were behind him. So he asked to a hiker going up how far he was from us, and when the man said he haven’t seen a group of four, Frank thought he might have fall on his head and been unconscious for a couple of days ! We all regrouped at the Garden parking lot, and thought it was pretty funny.
We finished the hike at noon, very tired but very delighted. There was a surprise for me on the top of my van, a nice bottle of «La Fin Du ADK-46», from HarryK. How cool is that! Thanks to Gail, Frank and Brian for coming, thanks John for being up there with me, plus for all the times he took care of the kids while I was hiking the 46, and thanks to Pete and HarryK for the small attentions that made my day even more special. It sounds cheesy to thank people, but this whole experience was very important for me, and made me learn a lot about myself. Now let’s see what I will learn from trailwork and climbing the HH…
Pics are coming soon...
!
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