ADK weekend 2019

It’s been a few weeks now since I made the journey up to the Adirondacks and went hiking with the CARC crew.  This year I was accompanied by a rookie to the region, my daughter, Mackenzie, who decided to hike with us.  We got an early start and arrived at the Adirondack Loj by 9am.  The rest of the group were not far behind and the planning began.  This year, as we have done every year, we said we would make day 1 an easy shorter hike, but that never happens.  We generally split up into a few groups, the fast hikers that want to bang out peaks and miles, and the rest of us that are a little less ambitious.  I wanted to hit a peak this year and we chose to head toward Algonquin and maybe hit Wright peak on the way.  The trail was flat and easy as we left the parking lot and we made good time.  We soon came to the fork and turned toward Algonquin, the trail soon becomes rocky with a few stream crossing, but was still fairly flat. 

That didn’t last long as we soon began a steady climb.  The trail winds through the forest, slowly changing from hardwoods of Beech and Maples to Spruce and Firs mixed with Birch.  I always love the transition, it smells wonderful and the change lets you know you are starting to get higher in elevation.  Eventually the trail begins a steeper climb.  Temps were warming up and we were feeling the heat.  Trying to stay hydrated, we drank water and continued on.  The turn off for Wright peak was a good break spot and Mackenzie and I took a breather.  Some of our group kept going up Algonquin but we decided to go up Wright.  It is a pretty steep climb for the last half mile, eventually coming out of the trees to some beautiful views.  When we arrived at the summit there were only a handful of people there.  We sat and enjoyed the view, taking pictures and drinking.  The steward came over and chatted for a bit then moved on. 

Once we felt rested, we began the hike back to base camp, at the Loj.  The return was uneventful, but long and I was pretty tired and thirsty when we got back.  Our timing was pretty good though as we all arrived back at camp within an hour of the other groups.  Out and back we hiked a little over 10 miles. 

Day 2 brought a little more humidity and chance of showers.  We planned a shorter hike just in case there were thunder storms.  About 8 of us hiked up Snow Mtn, which is about a 6 mile round trip from route 73 in Keene.  It is a pretty steady and unrelenting climb from the parking area to the summit.  The trail was not rocky, which was a nice change, and we made good time to the top.  We sat in the sun and ate lunch and watched to clouds race by for a while before making the hike back to the car. While Snow Mtn is not a high peak it had some great views of Giant  Mtn. and the valley heading into Keene.   

The return was all downhill and my knees were not happy by the time we made it back to the car, but it was a fun hike and we didn’t get rained on.

It was another fun weekend with some great hiking.  I really enjoyed having Mackenzie along this year and hope she goes with me next year as well.  We got pretty lucky with the weather, with only getting rain Saturday night after we were all back in camp.   

In the clouds and wind for New Year's Day Hike

I continued my tradition of hiking on New Year's Day this year with my daughter, heading back to Mt. Greylock in MA.  The weather was warm, in the low 40's, and windy when we arrived at the Cheshire Harbor trailhead.  We started hiking at 10am and made good time up the familiar trail reaching the summit just before noon.  We were able to bare boot about 3/4 of the way up before putting on the microspikes and continuing.

It was gusty winds and icy at the top and we were in the clouds, so there was no views.  We walked around the beacon and then made our way back to the trees and out of the wind.  Luckily, it was not very cold and the wind didn't bite us. 

We decided to take the Gould trail down and then cut over on a side trail back to the Cheshire Harbor trail to finish.  The Gould trail had snow and ice down to the trail junction so we kept the spikes on until then.  As we made our way back toward Cheshire Harbor we descended in to a deep ravine with a stream to cross.  The sides were steep and we had a few switch backs along the way.  The snow was still thick in spots on the trail and made a tricky descent.  The stream was running high and we had to search a little for a good place to cross, but soon found a spot and were climbing out of the ravine.  Soon we were back on our way out and to the car. 

It was a fun hike and I found the conditions at the top, fun and exhilarating to experience.  We hiked a total of 7 miles in about 4 hours.  We only saw a few other hikers, though the parking lot had a number of cars when we returned.  It felt good to get out and hike as it's been a while.  I'm looking forward to hiking more in 2019 as last year I didn't get out as much as I would have liked.