Last year, I did this hike about this time of the year with a friend and I was greatly impressed with these two little mountains. Doing something once doesn't make it a tradition. But doing it twice? Well, it's a tradition now, along with the hike I'm doing next weekend.
Yesterday I lead 11 other people on a hike for ADK. It was what I consider to be a relatively easy hike for the area, but it is over 10 miles and over 2000 feet of elevation (most of it very gradual). As a result, it had to be rated an A hike, but I really wanted to call it a B/B+. Doesn't matter though, I got 11 others interested in it, and we set off shortly after 8 from the AMR lot. I was surprised at how full the lot was, and it was even fuller when we got back at the end of the day. Lots of people out there hiking!
Today was my last required co-lead to become a level 2 (and since I meet the requirements, level 3) trip leader for ADK. We did Black Mountain by Lake George. This is a lovely hike in general, and one that I will willing do over and over.
I spent this past weekend at the Cascade Welcome Center outside of Lake Placid taking a Wilderness First Aid class. I haven't practiced medicine in any way since my EMT expired about 2004. I once did take a Wilderness EMT class in the early 2000s at NOLS in New Hampshire, and I honestly thought that was the best class I ever took as it taught you how to improvise.
This coming holiday weekend, I'm going to be doing an ambitious hike to red-line a few more trails. First, I am going to hike in to Panther Gorge from Elk Lake on the afternoon/evening of July 3. Right now the weather looks like thundershowers, but nothing too bad. This is going to be the first time I have ever hiked this trail, and the 8.75 miles will be interesting as it is going through Marcy Swamp, that supposedly has a lot of boards and low bridges that sometimes are out. I'll be doing this with a full pack, twice.
I lead my first ADK hike as a trip leader up Goodnow mountain. I love this mountain because it has such variety on the trail. The very initial 100 feet or so is a quick steep up to stairs and a short bridge, and then it levels out for a good long while. For the entire stretch of the "flat" part of the trail, you can see the reforestation project SUNY ESF is doing on the mountain. When you leave the flat trail and turn to start heading uphill some more, you cross the study area, and they have a sign explaining what they are doing.
Saturday, after a full day of training trailhead stewards, I headed up Baker in Saranac Lake. This is my second peak for the Saranac 6er challenge with St. Regis being my first.
Red-lining when we're talking hiking is the desire to hike every mile of every trail, and mark them off on the map with a "red line". I have a desire to do this with the high peaks region, and as I look through the trails that I don't have marked off, a little bit is stuff I didn't have a GPS for or lost the track. Others are just little things that aren't the main routes anywhere. Saturday, I went in through Loj and went to do a couple of those that are just not the main path, and one that I just didn't have the GPS trace for.
Sunday was supposed to be a co-lead for ADK for Phelps mountain. Unfortunately the event was cancelled, but I went with some other ADK members I got connected to through the hike planning. I believe this was my first high peak in July of 1993, so it will always be a peak I'm fond of, and it's one of the easier high peaks. Not saying it's easy, but it's not highly difficult and technical either.