A Giant - Esther weekend

Actually Esther at 9.4 miles (15.2 km) return was a longer hiking day than Giant's 6 miles (9.7 km). Especially the way we did it this weekend: for Esther, we parked at the Reservoir which adds 2.6 miles to the return trip. Esther is the kind of herd path that is impossible to lose, and best of all, it follows the ridge with just small up and downs to get to the summit once we turned off the main trail to Whiteface.

Inga posing on Esther's summit. The clouds were thick,
there was a little bit of sleet, views non-existent, but that
was all  secondary to making it up in the first place.

The trail was very wet, with muddy puddles on flatter parts and running water most everywhere else. The picture below doesn't quite do that part justice. In any case, we did our best to walk right through it all and not make new detours that further erosion. Happy to wear my backpacking boots, which are water proof. Even though I never bothered putting on gaiters, the wet stayed out despite "testing" a few rather deep.

This 6.5 hour excursion, featuring over 3,000 feet of elevation difference, I did with a 40 lb backpack - for training purposes; made the gluteal muscles take note as well as the knees, while merely 'massaging' the feet and ankles.

Summit plaque commemorating Esther McComb's first
ascent in 1839 at 15 years old. Just for the joy of it.

After another easy camping night at the ACC Montreal's Keene Farm property - this spot is like a home away from home having spent many nights both in the hut and camping - we embarked on the shortest route up Giant.

Jan provides gorgeous scale on open ridge
below Giant's summit.

This is a very pretty and varied hike, passing 2 mountain-side lakes (Giant Washbowl is aptly named), and rising steadily by over 3,000 feet almost right from the roadside parking area near Chapel Pond. The sunny weather made us appreciate the alternating shady wooded sections and wide open ridges with gorgeous sweeping views. The summit affords beautiful views of the Dix Range and over to the Great Range. We took 2:30 hours up and 2:10 down - with much lighter packs. Well, Jan could certainly do this faster, so I always go first to set the pace :)

View from Giant's summit across into
the Dix and Great Range.

Esther is our 19th 46er. Giant was our first in 2007 just ahead of our trip to Argentina and our first foray into the higher altitudes with a trek to Aconcagua's Plaza de Mulas. That feels like such a long time ago considering our varied trekking and mountaineering ventures covering much mountainous ground in North and South America and even a challenging foray along Germany's Rhine river. Still the Adirondack's High Peaks are our best training and proving grounds, where miles and miles of steep, technically demanding climbs - usually more difficult than anything we've encountered on most other routes - help us get trail fit for our further afield adventures.

High Peaks serve up the best back country tests

(Scroll down for photos.) Last weekend we shouldered our 40+ pound backpacks and set off on a 3-day back country excursion in the Adirondack High Peak's wilderness. As usual, we carried our tent, sleeping bags, kitchen, the mandatory bear barrels with food, essential toiletries, first aid and clothing to suit every weather with a couple of extra bits just in case.

Friday night we made great time driving to Lake Placid (3 hours), got  dinner at the local brew pub and checked in at the Alpine Air motel, as it was too late to find a camp site. The next morning, we set off from the South Meadows area, about 2 miles from the Adirondack Loj, and hiked to Bushnell Falls via the Klondike Trail and John Brook Lodge. The 7 miles (just over 11 km) took about 5 hours: the hiking has some attention-getting uphill sections and enough blown down trees covering the trail to slow us down a bit. Of course, we took a couple of fine breaks along the way. Furthermore, the first bridge has been washed out for a while (Hurricane Irene I think), so we  forded the river which tends to slow things down a tiny bit, too. The good news: crews were rebuilding the bridge and it should be finished by now!

Bushnell Falls area has two lean-tos a few hundred yards and a river apart. We went to Number 2 which has a designated camp site beside a mountain stream;  we were all set. After setting up and settling in we took an hour to head back to the actual Bushnell Falls, a few hundred yards from our camp, and down a steep, muddy embankment. The falls are pretty and Jan made a sport of climbing around them in her ancient sandals ... because up close and personal is always better. A fun excursion spent trying to take interesting quality photos of moving water.

We settled in to our sleeping bags even before dark and soon fell asleep happy to be out there, on our own, self-sufficient, in gorgeous wilderness.

The next day, we set our sights on Haystack, the 3rd highest 46er with 4,960 feet. We had heard that there would be snow - up to 4 feet - above 3,500 feet. It was hard to image given the summer weather we had been having. But then, there was much late winter snow that we had enjoyed in Ottawa, too. Indeed, once we passed Slant Rock we began to spot snow and as we ascended further, deep snow covered the trail. The spring melt water had been burrowing pathways across the trail underneath the snow pack. We broke through in places as the snow bridges were becoming less stable. The hiking toward summits is steep and slow. It took about 3 hours to get up Little Haystack. Just as we arrived dark clouds started rolling in. The change in weather was fast with visibility quickly reduced; when we reached the summit of Haystack, we could see just a few feet ahead and certainly no longer all the way across to Little Haystack, nor could we see any part of Mount Marcy.

Quick summit photos taken, we set out for the return to camp. A ranger had suggested that instead of crossing Haystack, descending its south side and returning along a path said to be quite difficult at the best of times - and likely treacherous with the snow and ice resulting in much challenging post holing - that we could take Shorey's Shortcut for variety. The way we hiked it, this is not a shortcut at all, quite the opposite, but it was different. Indeed, if we thought we struggled uphill through the snowy path, the downhill on Shorey was even more challenging. We applied all our snow travel skills, digging in heel first and post holed frequently as the snow bridges frequently gave way. Due to the trail's steepness with large boulders strewn everywhere, I went in more than hip-deep in a few spots struggling to gain solid ground again. With the rain falling, the snow and run-off beneath, we both got wet through and through. Perhaps needless to  say, the descent took as long as the way up. That is one of the things about the High Peak's: you can't assume that down is faster given the technically difficult terrain.

We made it back to camp safely after about 7 hours covering about 8 miles (13 km) and traversing about 2,000 vertical feet. By now we were completely soaked through and knew we'd get cold as soon as we stopped moving. We quickly decided to use the lean to until we would go to sleep in our tent. We boiled up water for tea as we changed into dry, warm clothes. Then we made dinner and tried to find a way to dry out our hiking boots that were wet inside and out. (see solution below)

With the challenges of the day, so rises the elation. Especially, since we were well equipped and had the sole use of the lean-to, we could review with relish the day's adventures and accomplishments.

The next morning, the rain let up. We packed up, wet clothes off the line making for some extra weight, and set off for the return to our car. The hike out felt easy in comparison to hiking Haystack. We enjoyed the effort and felt awesome after our last ford at South Meadows.

Jan explores her camera's settings. Result: beautiful!

Lunch near Klondike Lean-to on hike in.

Bushnell Falls and Jan.

First big snow.

Jan navigates the snowy path ably.

Clouds move in fast over Haystack.

Haystack summit, really! Just us and the thick clouds.

A tea light for every boot. This actually worked pretty well
to dry them out for a few hours.

Improvised clothes line to store our dry clothes for the night.

Back in the meadow steps from our car. Happy.

Adirondacks brilliant on July weekend

We had an awesome weekend of hiking, climbing and a little bit of updating of equipment (new climbing harness!) on our latest training trip to the Adirondacks for the July long weekend (Canada Day July 1 and Independence Day July 4).

Here we are on the summit of Wright Peak. At 4,580' it is the 16th highest in the High Peaks, and one of few that features an alpine zone, with some amazingly resilient alpine vegetation. There is also a Summit Steward program in place to protect them via education of hikers and generally fascinating conversation.

We also made it out climbing one afternoon at the slabs of Notch Mountain off Highway 86 near Copperas Lake. It's one of our favourite spots. And as such a great place to introduce my niece to climbing. She did very well and coped with the stress and excitement of climbing up, rapping down and belaying very well. We pretty much gave her a 4-hour intensive climbing clinic followed by a great swim at Chapel Pond on Highway 73 past Keene Valley, near Giant Mountain.

As for trip training, I carried some big loads all 3 days. The biggest without doubt was the climbing day when I had 20+ kilos of climbing hardware and gear in my pack. Thank goodness that was only a short 30 minutes hike in!

Talking Trails Debuts

This is the start of something beautiful.

3 months
5 countries - more or less
2 intrepid trekkers - Inga and Jan (that's us after 4 days backpacking in the Grand Canyon, AZ)

Curiosity and challenge. Adventure and adrenaline. Who knows. We're here. And we're heading south, really far south.