Hiking New England

A quick overview of what I have been doing in my free time in July:

Snowy Mtn, July 8th

Elevation: 3,899'

Mileage: 7.4

This was a fun but steep hike that Caitlin picked out, up in the Adirondacks near Indian Lake. It ended up taking us about 5 hrs round trip and raining on us most of the way down. It was also my first hike with Riley by myself (Jason usually takes responsibility for him) so I was pretty impressed that he behaved himself so well. At the top there was an old fire tower that Caitlin braved and I got about 5 flights up before Riley dug his feet in and refused to go higher. Afterwards we gorged on indian food and watched fireworks ... great day!

Escarpment Trail, July 18th
Elevation: 900'
Mileage: 4.5

This one was tricky because we never were actually sure if we were on the escarpment trail. We followed the map to the entrance near North Lake campground and saw every sign except for escarpment. Pretty humid and foggy that day and not much elevation change but it was a good hike. We found wild rasberries and Riley got to do a lot of swimming. We were probably out about 3 hrs.

Black Mtn, July 21

Elevation: 2,646'

Mileage: 5.6

Beautiful day and a pretty easy hike. I liked that the trailhead was only an hour or so from Albany, and I liked seeing Lake George from the top of a mountain rather than surrounded by cheesy miniature golf courses. Our guidebook said there was an optional loop decending down the other side of the summit, so we went along a pretty overgrown, steep trail for 5 or 10 min before deciding to turn back and go down the way we came. The whole hike took us just under 3 hours and we got a special treat of pb&j sandwiches at the top made with our very own local farm share blueberry rhubarb jam. Yummy!

Cascade & Porter Mtn, July 22
Elevation: 4,098' and 4,059'
Mileage: 6.2

We got two 4K footers in this day (out of 46 that exist in the Adirondacks). Sounds impressive but it was the same trail until about 300 feet before the summit. Very muddy trail that started off steep and never really let up. Probably also seemed difficult since we had just hiked the day before ... This was definetely my favorite hike of the summer so far. Beautiful day & I could have sat at the summit for hours. The trailhead was close to Lake Placid so it took us a couple hours to reach it. Also going on that day was an ironman competition so we had some slow going to get there. Even on days we plan to hike we can't get going until afternoon so it was a feat to be up and back before it got dark. This hike took just under 4 hours. Afterward we stopped at the Troy Brewpub for some much needed beer.

Mt Greylock, July 29
Elevation: 3,491'
Mileage: 11

This is the highest mtn in Massachussettes. For some reason I wasn't concerned because the elevation isn't daunting ... having said that, this hike kicked my ass. I think it must have been the humidity, which I would estimate was 100%. I was soaked in my own sweat before we even started climbing. The hike itself was very pretty, though the view from the top was anticlimactic. There is also a road that runs to the top and a resort, so we didn't spend much time there. It was also the first hike we've been on that intersected the AT, which made me think of my friend Kristin who hiked it in '05 and how insane she must be. We did end up doing a loop for this hike, as well as a detour to some falls, which added on quite a bit of time and took us about 6 hours to finish. I was so hungry at the top that the 2 (one each) pb sandwiches barely scratched the surface. We were definitely under prepared for this hike foodwise. On the way back I couldn't resist a swim in money brook which seemed to concern Riley, who is not used to us jumping in the river with him ... all in all a good hike but I was definetely regretting the mileage at soccer the next night!