The plan for the day was to start early and go up the Beaver Meadows trail to get Gothics and Armstrong.  If we felt good about it, we would continue on to Upper Wolfjaw and Lower Wolfjaw if we were feeling it.

This weekend, I tackled the Great Range of the Adirondacks High Peaks.  Thursday, just after work I headed up to the Gardens parking lot.  I had a fear that there would be no parking as it was marked as full about 9 in the morning, but when I arrived around 530, there were a dozen or so spots.  I hiked in about 3 miles and set up camp on Howard Hill, just shy on the trail from the DEC interior outpost (aka rangers).  I was surprised when I hit the trail to see a party of 10, about half of which were pre-teen, getting on the trail to go to Johns Brooks  Lodge, an int

The great range of the High Peaks is one of the most rewarding things to hike in the park.  The range itself is 7, mostly close peaks with a side peak of Sawteeth that also hits the 4000 mark.  This is not one of the easier hikes to do.  I know from experience as I've done 4 of the peaks back in College, and we had an Alaskan with us that was used to backpacking and hiking in Alaska, and she had trouble with our trails.