The 46 High Peaks: Mt. Marcy Weekend

   
    Friday, 9:10 a.m. Blueberry muffin, gone. Weather forecast for the weekend: awesome. Cursory check for hotels in the Lake Placid area: Vacancy. Check with Heather, and the schedule is free and clear. Northwoods Inn booked for Friday and Saturday!
     I got out of work early at 11 and did a quick pack. Our hiking gear was barely cold from our 3 week west trip, only a few weeks prior. Everything was pretty much ready and accessible. We packed what we needed, and left what we didn't, and set off for the north.
    We arrived in Lake Placid around 4:30p.m., checked in to the hotel, and made our way along the "strip" to locate some food. During the drive we decided what mountain we would climb, Mt. Marcy. Based on the forecast( awesome ), we knew we had a full day of hiking, without any concern for the weather. This would be our longest hike/climb so far at 14.8 miles. Time to carb-load! We settled for a pizza place, complete with Russian servers. The pizza was o.k., but it was quite edible, and we were glad to be eating. Since this trip was off the cuff, we didn't have time to load up on trail food( cliff bars, gels, anything with easily absorbed calories), so it was off to EMS to load up. We hit the hay early to be up at 5:15a.m. to start our day.
    Alarm, 5:15a.m. We were up and ready to roll quite quickly. We filled our water containers and packed our packs with food and supplies the night before. A quick breakfast was on our minds, and would not happen unfortunately. The bagel place adjacent to the hotel was not open until 7a.m. WHAT?!?! Settling for a clif-bar for breakfast was the only option. Not good when you are likely to burn 3 to 4000 calories in a long day of hiking. We made our way down to the Adirondack Loj road, which was nearly covered in fog. As soon as we descended down into the valley and parked, the fog was gone.

   We got right down to business and started moving along the trail. The first 2.3 miles into Marcy Dam is a well-worn and fairly easy trail( by Adirondack standards). Some ups and downs, but nothing too difficult. My pace is usually quite fast first thing in the morning, Heather takes a bit more "warming up". I generally get 15-20 yards ahead of her, stop until I see her behind me, then continue on. We hit Marcy Dam around 7:20 a.m., and were making excellent time. Stopping for about 5 minutes or so for a quick rest and to get the packs off of our backs was a welcome respite. Speaking of packs, my camera backpack ( F-Stop Loka) was performing admirably. This was the first big Adirondacks hike using this system. The only thing that I really need is a water bladder for it. I had 2 liters of water with me, but when I don't have a hydration system, I tend to drink less, which of course dehydrates me. But I digress. While sitting at the broken dam ( soon to be repaired? ) there was a young man with a nice looking dog that came and sat near us. We would definitely be seeing more of this dog later....

    We hiked along the Van Hovenburg blue trail, encountering a few of the trails we had done prior, most notably, Phelps and Tabletop. The hike was a steady ascent. This trail is very well worn and maintained. I kept an eye on my altimeter as we climbed. The grade was gradual enough that by the time we got to within 2 miles left to the summit, we still had a few thousand feet of climbing to do. Which meant it was going to get steep fairly soon. And it certainly did. Even though it got steep, it didn't seem to bother us. I think from my recent foray into cycling, my legs are becoming accustomed to the burn. The last mile was the steepest section of the climb. Heather ditched her hiking poles, and we both went into scramble mode, using our hands and feet to get up slight pitches. It was some good climbing, and really a good overall mind/body workout. We

certainly had to rest a few times to get our breath back, as the air was becoming a bit thinner than we were used to, 3000 feet below. Cairns and yellow paint marks, marked the trail, as we were now above tree-line. As we crested the summit, the adrenaline kicked in and we had were greeted with an insane 360 degree panorama of all the mountain ranges of the high peaks and beyond. The weather was extremely clear and warm, with just a very slight breeze. We could literally see the green mountains of Vermont to the east, and Lake Champlain.
       While we were on the summit, we chatted a bit with the summit steward. The summit stewards are hired by the ADK to educate people about the rare alpine vegetation, and provide any other information they can. They basically greet hikers and tell them to stay off the vegetation. Two female hikers came up to the summit with a dog on a leash, asking "Is this anyone's dog?". Remember the dog earlier in this story? Well this dog apparently got loose and went on a hike by itself. It went 4 miles up the trail before the two ladies took him and led him up to the summit. His leash was completely tattered, no doubt from getting snagged, but looked like he was in fine shape. The summit steward radioed down about the dog, just as we started descending. We meant to ask people if it was their dog on the way down, but the approach section of the climb needed our undivided attention.

       The hike down was a bit slower than the hike up. Our knees started to really feel the brunt of the down-force on each step. Hiking poles help immensely in this instance. Mine are really old. In fact they are about 5 years old, since one of our first big weekends up in the high peaks. On one particular tricky part I had to put a bunch of pressure on them, and they basically collapsed. Sending me forward and wrenching my arm backwards. Not good. I wanted to leave them on the trail, but of course that would have been against the leave no trace policy. I packed them in my pack and suffered the rest of the hike without them. We passed a bunch of people heading up, indeed it was the perfect weather for this sort of thing. A party of 4 young men went past and one looked rather familiar. Sure enough it was the same guy that was down at Marcy Dam early in the morning. "Have you seen a dog?". To his relief we told him about his dog and where we saw it last. I am sure they had a great reunion somewhere along the trail.
       We finished the hike around 4:30 p.m. tired, sore and ready for a really good meal. We only ate snacks throughout the day, since we never packed a lunch( and of course no breakfast ). It was a solid 9 hours of hiking with some breaks in between and a total of 14.8 miles. Later that night we hit the Lake Placid Brew Pub. Big juicy burgers and a few beers later and we were both very happy and content. Very excited to have High Peak #14 under our belts.
      Being up in the Adirondacks is really like no other place. Having spent so much time out west this summer, the 'daks are just very special. There is an old ethereal type feeling up there that is hard to describe. Some people travel very far to experience that type of feeling. Not many know that it can be felt very easily in our own back yard....