Today I guided 2 people up the three mountains of the Tupper Lake Triad. The weather was looking questionable with a forecast of on and off showers all morning and possible thunder storms in the late afternoon. I was hopeful that we'd be able to get off the peaks before the thunder happened, and we did. We didn't stay dry though, about 1/2 of our hiking was in drizzle to light rain, but it was a fun experience for all.
One of my personal goals is to hike every mile of trail in the High Peaks Wilderness. This is known as Red Lining, and I've hiked most of the miles to get to the peaks, but there is still a lot of low trails that I haven't hiked yet. This hike was to hit some of the low trails. The long term benefit of this is that I gain experience of those trails, so if requested to guide in that area, or someone wants to do something other than peaks, I can speak from experience and not just what I read in the guide book.
Guided a hike up Goodnow Mountain. It was a lovely day for a hike. Temps were around 70 at the base when we started and around 80 when we got back down a bit after noon. Humidity was reasonable, and the skies were nearly cloudless. With a small exception for the end of our stop on the peak, the bugs were not an issue. Really a perfect day to be in the woods.
I got a text from a hiking friend on Thursday asking if I wanted to go hiking this weekend, and what I thought about the forecast for Saturday. Well, yes, I'm always up for a hike if I am free, and she pointed out a hike I've been wanting to do to knock nearly 7 miles of new trail for the Red Line challenge. The weather, well, it looked to be on and off showers throughout the day with potential thunder showers in the afternoon.
After a full day of training, I headed up to do Hurricane from the north side. The road to Crow Clearing was in pretty good condition, a couple small divots/washouts that were not hard to get over even in my tiny car. The first mile in on the gulf brook trail was in great condition. Only one blow down that people were going around, but was easy enough to get over.
We started the day as a group of 13 to get the 3 peaks in one trip. The NOAA Mountain Point forecast told us that it was going to be very windy in the morning with some snow around noon, but calming down and clearing up later in the day. With that knowledge, we decided that it was best to go in via Lake Arnold and hit Grey first. It was the right choice.
Yesterday I lead a hike for ADK up Allen. I don't normally want large groups for winter hikes, they can cause issues with mismatched speeds and such, but knowing that there was feet of snow that likely needed breaking, 11 of us went out to do the hike.
Yesterday, I went up Seymour. This is one of the more remote mountains to hike up here, being just over 14 miles for a single peak. That said, it's not a horrible hike until the climb. Thankfully, the road in was open all the way to the summer lot, and the lot was able to be parked in. I did put chains on my car at the winter lot as I was having a bit of trouble, but the chains worked well and I got in and out of there with no issues.
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!