Yes, I did that.

I apologize for all the confusion with my domain switch over.  Had I known it was going to be such a pain I wouldn't have done it!  Believe me, it's as confusing for me as it is for all of you.  I'm concerned there's just one box that needs to be checked or one setting that needs to be turned on to make it all easier for you guys.  If anyone knows anything, please let me know!  I appreciate everyone's patience, it appears as though right now what you need to do is unfollow me and the re-follow me.  I'll totally understand if you can't be bothered (I don't blame you), but I will miss you!  :)

This weekend I used my free Fright Fest ticket from when I donated blood and went with my BFF Alison (my hiking buddy).  Unfortunately we got there late, and it was rainy, but we still had fun.  Fright Fest is the Halloween event that The Great Escape puts on (a Six Flags theme park in Lake George).  I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted, but it's always a lot of fun.  The Great Escape can easily be a money sink and it's not really a big hit with many local people, but I won't lie, I love it.  If you know what to do you can save a lot of money.  For example, you can't bring food into the park, but you don't need to stay in the park to eat either.  You could pack a lunch or snacks and leave it in the car and leave to eat, or you could just go to a local restaurant and come back.  With a paid admission you can always leave and come back.

Right now they're actually having a really good deal, a season pass for $50 when you buy four.  For a family or a group of people willing to go in on it together, it's a really great deal.  In the summer time there's a great water park (which is getting new water slides next summer, hooray!) and there's just a lot of fun things to do there.  I don't know, like all other touristy things in my area, I'm all about it.

Anyway, here are some pictures I got...

Now - I like to ride rides, but I'm a complete wuss when it comes to roller coasters and anything way high up, for example I would never ride that roller coaster on the right (The Boomerang) nor would I even come close to considering getting on that tall tower on the left (Sasquash).  In fact, that ride gives me anxiety just looking at it, haha  However I did something really big and I went on the Pirate Ship!  I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about when I say that ride name, but here's a picture of one in case if you don't know (via Google):

Yup, living on the edge here!  I'm a water park kid, I'll slide down any waterslide, but you won't catch me hanging upside down on a roller coaster.

Of course I also braved the ever so dangerous Merry Go Round...check out those zombies!!!!

I think because of the rain a lot of the zombies were hiding out inside.  I seem to remember in years past there were a lot more of them wandering around and scaring the crap out of me.

Another part of the event is Skull Manor the haunted house.  I've gone through it several times over the years and they do a pretty good job of updating it so it's not quite the same each year.  They also do a good job of jacking up the price to get into it each year too (hint to any locals who've found my blog, if you have a Price Chopper Advantage card you can get in for $7 instead of $9!).  I'm always nervous going in, aside from one part, it was pretty calm this year.  Or maybe I'm just getting used to it?  We were also the last group to go through, and we were with this mom and two middle school aged girls who were hysterical.  And the characters were kind of taunting the one girl the whole time, which kept them off us older folks, haha

So what are some other things I've been doing??

This morning I did this:

I went to the gym and yes that's right, I said THIS MORNING.  As in, BEFORE THE SUN CAME UP.  In fact, this was AFTER I had done a 45 minute work out, it was still dark out!!!

I'm trying something out, I think that working out in the AM will work out better for me and it wasn't terrible today (even though my allergies were beating the snot out of me and I had a sinus headache from the minute I woke up) - there were even other people there, can you believe it?!  I'm hoping to keep up with it, I strive to be one of those people.  The downside to this?  I was basically starving all day, I'm not sure if I can truly point my finger at working out in the morning as the cause of that...but I'm going to for now. ;)

This afternoon while at work I bought one of these:

You know, one of the Erin Condren Life Planners.  The planner that me and several of my bloggy friends have been drooling over.  The planner that's $50 a pop.  Thanks to my bloggy friend Stephanie for posting a great deal via zulily.com, I got my life planner for $25!!!  I'm so thrilled and I cannot wait to get mine in the mail (although it seems it's going to take a while).  

When I got home, I had this waiting on my porch!

My Swapoween package arrived!  And no, the cream cheese sandwich did not come on my porch, haha.  However, you will have to wait until later in the week to see the contents! ;)  Thanks Megan for the great package!!!

Lastly, I did not take this picture, but it was on the Lake Placid's Facebook wall this morning:

Yup, you're looking at snow on that mountain there.  That mountain that looked like this less than a month ago...

High Peak hiking season is officially over and it's really sad.  We knocked out 4 in two months, which isn't terrible considering our schedules, but we wanted to get 6 in so we didn't reach our goal.  There's still good hiking to be had down here in the Lake George area, so hopefully we'll get some good ones in before it's REALLY the end of the season.

Tell me, what time of day do you prefer to work out?  

The Great Adirondack Moose Festival

A couple of Saturdays ago my guy friend and I ventured out to Indian Lake to attend the 2nd Annual Moose Festival.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I knew most if not all the events were going to be totally free and the Adirondack Museum which is about 15 minutes from Indian Lake was also free that day so if the festival was a bust we could at least visit the museum.  Indian Lake is a hamlet in the middle of the Adirondack Park (almost quite literally dead center).  It's about an hour drive from Glens Falls.

We got up early and headed out around 9 to make it there around 10:15ish.  Coming into Indian Lake there is Byron Park which just appears to be a small playground/boat launch and possibly a beach?  We stopped there first because they were having logger demonstrations, a small quilt show and more importantly a logger breakfast!

I'm always super jealous of people that can make such awesome pancakes as mine always come out either super thick or not done.  I don't quite get what my problem is.

Anyway, the pancake breakfast was $2 and well worth it!


While headed to the breakfast we were told to come back and try the sawing exhibit but it had gotten pretty busy when we were done, so we just snapped some pics.  I loved that the guy looked like a hardcore logger, haha



It was a pretty dreary day, but Abanakee Lake was so calm, it was like a perfect mirror.




The Moose Festival was simply a celebration of moose.  There are about 1200+ moose in the Adirondacks and the population is growing.  Indian Lake has several popular moose hang outs, although the closest thing I saw to a live moose that day was all the wooden cutouts that were scattered around the town.


In town there were a few tents set up with vendors giving out information and selling moose crafts.  It started to rain at this point and it was hard to stay comfortable because it was still warm (especially in the tents) but we didn't want to get wet so we were wearing our hoodies.  A few of the shops in town were having sales so we stopped in one or two of those.  We stopped in the Chamber of Commerce to pick up a map of the self guided tour and decided to ride out the rain until the moose lecture at the theater which wasn't until 1:00.


To anyone that doesn't do so already, I highly suggest always visiting the visitor center or chamber of commerce at any town you may not be familiar with.  There's always such a wealth of information and the people are always super excited to tell you about the area.  Maybe someday I can get a gig in one...

The self guided tour was a nice drive, the topic of discussion for most of it was percentage of leaf change and how we thought the moose probably ventured off to another town to avoid the paparazzi.

We came back into town to attend a lecture given by the Department of Environmental Conservation on...you guessed it, moose!  It was a really great lecture, but then again I love everything moose so I'm sure to me it would be. :)  We also found out that there's a moose hanging out in Glens Falls as we speak!  I've yet to see him though.  This moose was hanging out outside of the theater where the lecture was…



After the lecture we skipped over to the Indian Lake Tavern where they were having some beer/wine sampling.  At this time the sun had come out and the rain stopped!  The only beer I hadn't tried of the three that they were serving was a special brew that the Lake Placid Brewery had made and the name escapes me.  Both of us were unimpressed, it tasted like a mix of Bud Light and Coors Light.

Around 1:30 we decided we had done all the moosetivities there was to do and decided to head to the museum.

The Great Adirondack Moose Festival was a great small town event that I'm sure will gain more popularity as time goes on (and as our moose population grows!).  I could definitely see this becoming something that I would attend each year.  It was held both Saturday and Sunday, although it seemed that most events were held Saturday.  I liked that we were able to enjoy the museum in the same day as I'm not sure that 2-3 hours of moosetivities would have warranted an hour drive north.

We did NOT go to any of the local restaurants and I wish we did.  We were hungry on the way back and we could've stopped in Indian Lake or North Creek for food but instead we went home and had Golden Corral?!  Not very good adventure planning on my end, but there's always next year!  We did stop along the drive to take more pictures.


I thought this sign was totally random, it was a state sign that talked about The Adirondacks and you’re only able to read half of it because of everything growing around it.  It’s the first time I ever saw a state landmark sign talking about the park.

On the way back we saw BALLOONS!  You can kind of see them in this picture…


This was also the same weekend of the Adirondack Balloon Festival.  I'm not a huge fan of the balloon festival, the parking is bogus and I feel like once you've seen one hot air balloon up close you've seen them all, but I can't help to always get a little giddy inside when I see them in the air.  Especially so many of them!



Stay tuned for a review of our Adirondack Museum trip!

Hiking Trip: Wright Peak

PICTURE HEAVY POST

So a couple of Saturdays ago I had another hiking adventure that I’m just now getting to posting about!  Go ahead, slap my hand.

This was the first weekend the Eastern High Peaks Region was reopened since Tropical Storm Irene.  There was a lot of damage caused by flooding to this part of the Adirondack Park.  Because there wasn’t a lot of information about the condition of many of the trails we decided to do something within our skill level and what we’ve been working on time wise.  We narrowed it down to Wright Peak.

Facts:
Ranked #16 of 46
Elevation: 4580’
Trail head: From Adirondack Mtn Club (ADK) High Peaks Information Center (HPIC)
Travel time from Glens Falls (with detour through Elizabethtown): ~1.5 hrs

This was the first time that I’ve gotten to visit the ADK’s property in Lake Placid.  You may or may not know, but I am a newer member of the club, I joined back in April.  I haven’t gotten to really participate in any of the club’s outings but I’ve attended some of the lectures and have enjoyed some of the other benefits of being a member.  This property includes the HPIC, the Adirondack Loj (for overnight stays) and campgrounds.  It also provides parking for 200+ cars and access to many trails including access to the popular Van Hovenberg trail which can take you to many of the popular High Peaks, including Wright.  Adirondack Loj Rd was closed after the storm because the main bridge on the road was washed away…it actually stranded 30 visitors of the loj for a few days!  As of our trip, this was the condition of the bridge:



There is a fee to park at the HPIC.  For ADK members it’s $5, for everyone else it’s $10.  There is a discount for parking after 1PM although I forget how much it is.



So a lot of people will combine the trip of Wright Peak with Algonquin, which is the second highest peak of the 46.  We decided NOT to do that for a couple of reasons, 1) we were unsure of what kind of blowdown or other messes we were going to run into 2) we wanted to keep it simple 3) realistically speaking, we are not ready for Algonquin, it’s one of the hardest High Peaks.

We were quite pleased with our decision!  We started off right around 8AM, it was still quite chilly, I thought I saw frost on the grass along Adirondack Loj Rd but I’m thinking it was probably just dew since their first frost warning didn’t actually come out until the weekend after.  The trail starts following blue markers along the Van Hovenberg Trail.  This part of the trail you can tell is really well maintained and has many bridges and man made steps to use along the way.  There was a lot of evidence of blowdown, flooding and general storm mess but I was really impressed with how clear the trail itself was.  The trail was pretty muddy while we were going up, but due to the crowds (it was quite busy) coming down was worse.  I’ve hiked in worse mud, but mud in general is kind of an annoyance to a hiker…well to me anyway.




Bears!  Make noise, don’t run!






Eventually the trail stops following blue markers and switches to yellow markers.  While going along there are several points of crossing small streams, although this could’ve been more frequent because of the amount of water in the area.  There is one definite river crossing, where there was a small waterfall to see!  Beyond this the trail became really rocky, again because of the abundance of water there were a lot of small running streams going down the rocks, but I’m not sure if that would be an occurrence during a dry period.





We reached the peak a little bit before 11:30, about a 3 hour hiking time, which we thought was quite good for us.  There were a lot of people on the trail, which can really cause a lot of stress on my end because I’m a “nervous” hiker.  Since this is the same trail to Algonquin, most people were headed that way so we lost a lot of people at the junction.  Once past the junction for Wright Peak it became more and more steep and eventually became total rock.  There were definitely a couple of points where I really needed to stop and think and get some assistance to climb the rock (I’m a really terrible rock climber).  Something I really need to work on getting over as I continue the journey to being a 46er.  This summit was in an alpine zone so you need to be careful to follow the yellow blazes and stay inside the rocked trail and off of any of the vegetation.



This was difficult and scary for me, it took me a good 2-3 minutes more to get to the official summit than my BFF Alison but we both made it!
Lunch Time!

• Peanut butter and crackers
  
• Apples
  
• Monster Trail Mix
  
• Banana

This wasn’t the best hiking lunch…I didn’t realize I didn’t have bread until the morning when I went to pack, I did however have a pepperoni and cheese stick combo on the way up, but was definitely hungry towards the way down (yes I had more food, but I don’t like stopping to eat on the way down, I’m stubborn like that).



This is the neighboring Algonquin Peak.  It’s so much taller, and so much more steep!  It was kind of neat, you could actually see people going up and some people at the top!  Luckily our peak was SUPER quiet.  I think the entire time we were up there we only saw 4 other groups, made for good lunching, picture taking and resting.  One of us even decided to nap a little bit…




Mt Colden from the summit.  It has many slides on it including a new one created by Irene.



This is Cascade and Porter from Wright.  It’s funny, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to name these peaks but it’s starting to get easier and easier…at least to pick out the ones I’ve done   The smaller pictures don’t really give you the full effect, but you can start to see the leaves changing.  There was a predicted 3% change in the leaves for this weekend, we’re headed into prime “Leaf Peeping” season so our next trip should really have some amazing leaf colors in the pictures.



A view of Heart Lake and you can see Lake Placid in the background…if you look real hard you can see the ski jumps.  The tall peak in the back is Whiteface. Algonquin also had a new slide from Irene, you can see it here in this picture to the left.  Notice it’s not quite as smooth as the others:



People climb and ski these slides VIA bushwacking, I guess they get to name them if they’re the first ones to venture them. Gratuitous summit shots!




The summit was chilly, which was to be expected.  My bangs are dumb looking because of me sweating (prior to getting to the summit).  Premade Chex Mix muddy buddies (or puppy chow as I know it) is not nearly as good as when you make it yourself FYI. In the 60’s Wright Peak was the site of a deadly plane crash.  I’m taking this from memory, but I believe there were 4 individuals who perished.  They flew from the Plattsburgh Air Base (which has since closed) and were doing a practice flight.  We found a sign that directed hikers to a commemorative plaque and to the peak although we weren’t successful in finding the plaque.  We did however find a few remnants from the crash:




Ok so, going down was scary.  I mean, the scariest it’s been of any of our hikes.  So scary that I slid down the summit mostly on my bum…I ruined my favorite pair of hiking pants by doing this (don’t think that tiny hole in my rear is going to stop me from wearing them though)…



Once past this point the trail going down was quite enjoyable.  It did take us longer to get back down, we spent about an hour and half at the summit and didn’t get back to the trail head until 4.  So it took us about a half hour longer to get down, it didn’t feel like it though.  This was by far my most favorite trail to go down, with the exception of sliding down the summit of course. 

We made it back to the trailhead around 4:00 with several other groups.  My big thing after a long hike like this is wiping myself down with baby wipes and I usually like to at the very least change my pants and get out of my hiking shoes and socks.  Of course today I really needed to get out of my pants since I wore a hole in them, haha  After changing and cleaning up we visited the HPIC where I picked up the latest issue of Adirondack Life and we made our way into Lake Placid for dinner!  On the way back home we stopped in Keene to patron a couple of the businesses, although we wanted to go into Keene Valley it seemed that the road was closed.  We were a little nervous to go beyond the sign and into the hamlet.

Since our trip Rt 73 has reopened and so have many other trails.  Our next trip is going to be next weekend where hopefully I’ll get some pictures of the colorful leaves!

Giant Mountain Hiking Trip

Saturday my BFF Alison and I made a trek up our third High Peak.  We initially were going to do it on Sunday, but the DEC issued a warning on Friday urging people to stay out of the backcountry on Sunday and Monday because of Hurricane Irene so we made the wise decision to alter our plans.

We started our day off super early and were on the road by 6:30.  Last year when we did our fall hiking we made going to breakfast a part of the experience, however since it's best to get started as early as possible when hiking for more than say four hours, we've nixed that and made eating AFTER part of our routine.  We did however stop at Dunkin Donuts for some less than stellar hot chocolate.

Giant Mountain is #12 on the list of 46 Adirondack High Peaks and has an elevation of 4627'.  There were several trails of various timings and ascents to choose from, we decided on the trail that led along Roaring Brook  to get a chance to see the "waterfalls".



The main road that we drive on once we get off "The Northway" (I-87) to get to our hiking destinations is considered the "High Peaks Scenic Byway" and several trailheads are scattered along it, including the one we hiked last weekend.  It passes through the towns of Keene and Keene Valley and will eventually take you into Lake Placid.  This trailhead was significantly closer to the highway than we were expecting, so close we actually missed it!  Not a big deal though because we wanted to stop in the Keene Stewarts to use their bathrooms before starting our journey...Priority #1 = empty bladder.

I'd say by the time we got situated and back to the trailhead parking lot, it was about 8.  The lot had a few cars parked in it.  This particular wilderness area has camping spots scattered throughout, people can hike in and set up their tents and camp for free on a first come, first serve basis.  Hiking and camping do not go hand in hand for me, I don't have the gear, nor the desire to hike up a mountain with 25 pounds of camping equipment on my back.  As much as I love both activities, I don't want to combine them!

Anyway, we walked our way into the trail register.  We tend to rush to the register because whoever gets there first gets to sign in.  We decided to just start taking turns, this time it was Alison's turn.

Shout out to my Texas bloggy friends!!!

We took the trail to the bottom of the falls first, we thought that the trail was going to take us THROUGH the falls, but it didn't they were actually a little out of the way.  Either way, we walked to the bottom to find a bunch of rocks and a small bit of water flowing down...a little less than impressive, but a fun detour either way.




We walked back to the junction to actually go up Giant Mountain.  Boy this is steep and quick!  We both had long sleeved shirts on that we quickly peeled off.  This was just about how the trail remained.  At one point we had to cross the brook, which was scary for me...I literally crawled across the rocks.  This trail was enjoyable.  The first half of it is mostly stepping over and around tree roots and not many rocks.  I really struggle with climbing over rocks and rock slabs.  I'm a hiker, NOT a rock climber.  Unfortunately it's pretty common place in the High Peaks so of course once we got past the brook and about an hour in, the trail started getting rocky.  At this point Alison stays a good 30 seconds ahead of me.  She's a "go straight through" kind of person where I'm a "stop and assess to find the safest/easiest route up".

That's right, I'm slow ya'll!

The hike up provided several viewing spots that gave us awesome views of the High Peaks Region and a couple of opportunities for good "stop and eat something" breaks.  The trail was also scattered with wild blueberries, I don't believe in picking and eating off the trails in the park (or off trails in general) so I let them be and just take pictures.  It think it's nice to see a little bit of blue in a sea of green and brown. :)

Once "close to the summit" and I say close in quotes because well, it's not really close, but it's closer to the top than to the bottom, the trail became very rocky with several large slabs that we had to climb up and over.  We also saw stairs!  You don't see many man made trail assisting items on trails, so this was fun to see.

Right around noon we made it to the summit and boy were we glad!  At one point on the trail towards the top it flattens out for a bit, but you can see the top of Giant and it looks so high and so far from where you are.  It's very daunting...

The summit provided awesome valley views and views of the Great Range.  It was EXTREMELY humid that day and you can tell by my sweaty back (attractive, right?) and there was a general haze over the mountains.  I'm still terrible at identifying the mountains and bodies of water, but I can always find good old Whiteface (we'll be tackling you in the next month or so!).

The hike down had challenging points (again, rock slabs...I slide down them thank you very much) but it was pretty easy going for the most part.  We decided against going and checking out the top of the falls as there were people camping in that area although I would like to go back sometime to see them, as well as the washbowl.

I didn't walk away unscaved, I took a beating from a tree limb which has left this lovely bruise on my arm that people keep commenting on.  Hazard of hiking I guess...

Start Time on Trail: ~8 AM
Arrival at summit: ~Noon
Time back to car: ~3:30
Lunch at summit: PB&J (always tastes better when eating it at the top of a mountain), cheeze it crackers, apple
After hike meal: Grilled cheese and homemade french fries from Noonmark Diner

On a side note…

I know you are all probably tired of hearing about Hurricane Irene and although I faired well, my mountains did not.  Flooding has caused a lot of damage to the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks.  The main road I mentioned has since been severely damaged and is currently closed, several mountains have new slides that were carved in from the excessive rain and many buildings and homes were destroyed.  Currently the Eastern High Peaks Region (where we’ve spent the past two weekends) is CLOSED.  Not only is the damage extreme to these areas, but the economic blow they’re about to suffer from not having campers, hikers and other outdoors enthusiasts in the area on Labor Day weekend is devastating.  The Adirondacks is full of a special type of people that can haul ass through any tough situation and this is no different, but it won’t hurt to send more positive vibes their way.  I’m hoping things get cleaned up and we can get back to hiking in this region soon, until then there is well over 5 million other acres to this playground to explore!