I’m sticking with what my mother taught me; if I don’t have anything nice to say…
No, I’ll be honest: this was my least favorite hike to date.
Not because of the mud. Not because of the distance. Because it was difficult and mentally a tough trip. This was a thirteen hour day and close to 17 miles. My toes were numb during the last 1.8 miles out on the gravel road, as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I am beyond thankful for Mother Nature and the weather that we had; we went into this hike expecting rain with absolutely no views. Despite the humidity, there was not a drop of rain and plenty of blue sky. We even had gorgeous views on top of Panther!
Favorite quote of the day: Can we go somewhere and hike on marshmallows or something?
Favorite food of the day: Hummus sandwich on Ezekiel bread with sriracha, lettuce and tomatoes.
New friend of the day: David Lord from Horseheads- you’ll be seeing us real soon in the magazine!
Favorite sight of the day: the car.
Favorite scare of the day: the giant rock I was hanging from, by a root, and all I could see below me was a cliff. At this point, we had a good 5-6 miles to go and I was ready to cry from mental exhaustion. Thank goodness for Paula who convinced me to just slide down on my butt; sounds simple enough but at that point, I needed someone to talk me off the ledge, literally.
Favorite self-trait: I’m really good at balancing across mud swaps on tiny logs.
I don’t know if I’ll ever become a Winter 46er because of this hike- I never want to think about re-doing this! On the other hand, there is a lot of potential for the ADK butt-slide…
12 more peaks to go!
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What a day! Thanks for the energy bits!
Well done! I must admit this hike scares me. I could’ve done without the humidity on Sunday, but otherwise we really lucked out with the weather (I climbed Algonquin, Iroquois, & Wright).
The weather really turned out to be perfect! Good job! I wish I had done all three my first time up Algonquin but didn’t- had to go back for Iroquois- not the best decision- it’s a long day!