Saturday, I started what I had hoped to be a week long trip to the high peaks (see Allen for why it wasn't).  The hike in to the flowed lands was nice.  Took about 2.5-3 hours with a 60 pound pack.  The weather was wonderful and the trail is a well traveled and easy to moderate trail.  I got to the Calamity lean to and found a campsite a short ways away and set up camp.  By 10 AM, I was on the trail to go up Marshall.

Decades ago, when I was in my late teens, I loved hiking and backpacking.  I had the aspiration to do the AT, PCT, and CDT all as true thru hikes.  I really loved hiking and backpacking.  Then I got a job and well, that stuff has fallen by the wayside.  One goal I have kept though is to become a 46'er.  What is a 46'er?  Well, that's someone that has climbed the 46 tallest peaks in New York, specifically, it's all 46 peaks over 4000 feet (1219 meters) as originally surveyed.  A couple have been found to be a bit shorter, and a couple shorter ones were foun

So my next trip is going to involve camping and forming a base camp to hit a total of 8 mountains.... well, actually, potentially forming 3 base camps.  This is to hit everything that comes out of the Upper Works/Tahawas area of the park.  The plan is to hike in to the flowed lands or lake Colden and set up camp.

Yesterday I started off at Roaring Brook trailhead and had a second attempt at Rocky Ridge Peak, and the thought that if it was clear, I'd also top Giant again.  Overall, the hike up Roaring Brook was not that bad.  It is 0.4 miles longer than the Ridge Trail, and about 500 more feet in elevation gain, but overall until the last half mile of the trail it wasn't that bad.  The last half mile until it hit the Ridge Trail though was a bit rough, not not really horrible overall.  When I got up to the split for Rocky, that trail was a PITA.  The top 1/2 of the trail down

My first attempt at Rocky Ridge was in combination with Giant peak.  It was my first hike of the year up in the 'Daks, and I encountered a lot of snow and ice on the trail.  In short, I was not really ready for that hike.  I've done 4 more mountains since, and am in slightly better shape now than I was then.  I have decided to take a different route to the top...

I got up to the mountain about a quarter of 7 and was on the trail by 7.  It was on and off drizzle/rain for the first hour or so.  Being that it was forested, I didn't get horribly wet.  The wind was also rather consistent and strong the whole hike up.  As you can see in the stats below, this was a relatively short hike, GPS tracked it as 5.44 miles, officially it's supposed to be 6.2 miles.  This is probably because I turned down the sensitivity of the mapper.  I decided to do Porter first as it is the smaller of the two.  The trail was a stream the whol

The quest has been completed at 1:02 PM, September 5, 2020.

Saturday, May 23, I did go up to do Whiteface and Esther.  I started at Marble Mountain, which is an old ski mountain, and the trail literally goes up the old tow path for a lift.  It was steep and rocky.  Once at the top, great views though.  At that point I joined the Wilmington trail and it was a slightly less steep climb to the point the trail for Esther comes off.  At about 3500 feet though, about 0.6 miles from that point, it became mostly snow/ice instead of mostly mud/water.  Thankfully I had my spikes, and I wore the most of the rest of the hike up.&nb

If I'm really good, Monday I'll be doing another 2 peaks.  More likely than not, it will be next weekend though.  These two will be Cascade and Porter from Marcy Field.  The old approach to the peaks has been closed due to it's immense popularity and issues with parking.  Cascade was the sacrificial peak as it was only 4.8 miles round trip and not a horrible hike either.  We'll find out what the new one is after this eason as the approaches to Cascade are now significantly longer.  I'll be doing the one from Marcy Field which takes me over Blueberry mountain an

This coming weekend, I will go out and attempt the northern most peaks of the high peaks, Whiteface and Esther.  These are both north of Lake Placid, and Whiteface was actually a major venue for the 1980's Olympics.   There is an observatory and a road to the top too.... I'll be hiking in from the old Marble Mountain ski area, going to Whiteface first, and then hitting Esther, which is an unmarked trail/herd path, on the way down.

Whiteface: #5 4867 ft

Esther: #28 4240 ft