Adirondacks

No posts so far this month, but that's not because I was being lame, it's because I was off on vacation near Lake Placid!  I went with my brother and Maura, and we stayed at a cabin with no wifi, so no blogging.  It was really nice!  The cabin was on Saranac Lake, there were kayaks, a deck for swimming (which I did every day but one), a hammock, a fire pit, and access to hiking and climbing! I climbed two mountains, one on my own and one with Andy and Maura, and we went climbing.

The first mountain that I climbed was a 4000 footer - Mt. Cascade.  Andy would not move that morning, so I had to do a short hike. He and Maura rented bikes and I asked for hike recommendations at the bike shop.  It was already after noon, so the woman recommended Cascade.  It was only 2.4 miles each way, but of course I knew that meant it would be killer!  It didn't disappoint.  It was so hot out, the mountain was steep, I didn't really bring enough food (though I was super excited to discover an old Lara bar in my backpack that I didn't realize was there). It pretty much went straight up.  I was so happy to get to the top! The summit was bare rock with an amazing 360 view.  I sat up there for a full 30 minutes before heading down.  The hike down was tough.  I was so tired when I got to my car, I wanted to just crawl in and take a nap.  Brutal.

We went climbing a couple days late at Beer Walls in Keene Valley.  It was actually a bit of a miracle that we found them.  The original people who found the cliffs saw them from a cesna :)  But, we did manage to find them, and there was pretty much no one there!  For most of the time we had the place to ourselves, and then this couple showed up, but of course they were cool.  We did three climbs, and half of a fourth.  The ones that we really did were crack climbs - they were so nice, and pretty hard even though they were rated low.  It took me forever to set up the rope for the first one because the trees were so far back....  In the end we did Seven Ounces, which was the best - we did it first but should have saved it for last, 3.2, and Guinness.  We tried to do 40 oz to freedom, because it was on the same rope as Guinness, but there was nothing to hold onto!

The next day we went for a hike up Haystack Mountain, not the second tallest mountain in the Adirondacks Haystack, but a much shorter one.  It was a 6.6 mile out and back hike.  It's less than 3000 footer, but it plays with your head because you do a lot of downhill on the way in, so you know you have to hike uphill on the way out.  The first half or so of the hike was to the mountain, it was very pretty and mellow, not too much elevation gain (loss), but then of course the mountain itself was pretty uphill.  I was very tired at the top - we sat up top and admired the view, and ate pop tarts (it was vacation, pop tarts are allowed.)  The hike out was tough.  Andy and Maura do a lot of aerobic exercise, and since I stopped crossfit, I don't.  I hope I can get swimming laps soon, I need to build up my stamina!