Esther and Whiteface.

Dear Beau: this morning’s little walk down memory lane almost made me late for work but gave me the pep in my step when I did depart. Thanks for sharing. Dear New Eyeglasses: I love you so… until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon when my nose finally realizes that you’re up there, and then I can’t stand the feeling of the “pressure”. It’s like having an itch on the bottom of your foot but hiking boots laced up. Dear Kitty Kitty Cocoa Puff: I’m thankful that you are no longer barfing. Let’s make an agreement, aim for the floor and not the brand new white bedspread- okay?

“Mountain Monday” consisted of two new peaks, numbers twenty and twenty-one for me on my quest to hike all 46 high peaks of New York. Paula had previously hiked these two but didn’t mind repeating them so that I could “catch-up” to her number (22) and we decided to take a different trail in so that she’d get some new views. But no views were seen due to the weather; very muggy and cloudy skies.

Within our first mile, it began to ran; enough so that we had to pull out our raincoats. I was happy that Paula didn’t suggest turning around- I don’t mind being out in the rain and had never really hiked in those conditions. If I ever want to hike the Long Trail in Vermont, I better get some experience because that’s a wet trail! Before I knew it, we were at the peak of Marble Mountain and I shed the raincoat.

We first thought about hiking to Whiteface but quickly changed our minds in hopes of having better views later on in the afternoon. So at the cairn, we took a right and headed up and over Lookout Mountain to reach the summit of Esther Mountain. No views but no rain. We turned around to head back out to Whiteface.

 

The trail evens out quite a bit before heading back upward, but it was wet! Even without gaiters, we went through the mud, hopped rocks and avoided making the trail wider. Insert pats on our backs. At one point I looked forward and saw the rock wall of the road above us…and thought I had to climb it. Insert mini panic moment. Paula quickly reassured me we’d be going AROUND the rock wall and not up it. So around we went and made the last trek to the summit.

No views at the Whiteface summit either; we could barely see twenty feet in front of us. We decided to go into the research center’s observatory, sit down to eat a quick snack, then head down to the road to walk the short distance back to where the trail picks up. No more rain and actually a little sunshine as we were walking our last two miles out; a very successful day in the Adirondacks if I do say so myself.