We are too busy dancing to get knocked off our feet…The best people in life are free.

Brrrr…it’s really cold, but I’m trying to smile and look super not cold for this picture.

After a not-so-successful innaugural Meet Up hiking event and some friends, scared by the early morning rain and projected snow, flaked on me for a hiking trip this weekend, I signed up last minute for a Meet Up hike to climb Big Slide Mountain. The Meet Up site allows members to RSVP for events, share a profile (the hiking groups generally prompt questions about hiking experience and goals), facilitate conversation pre-event, and share pictures after the event. So naturally, I creeped on the people going on the trip. In my defense, traveling two hours up north with random strangers is not the most settling of thoughts, but when I arrived at the designated Park and Ride meeting spot and met Stephanie, the event host, and her two young kids who she was passing off to her ex-husband for the weekend, I felt better. We met with five or so other hikers, divided up into three cars, and picked up a few more hikers an hour or so north in Lake George.

The Garden parking lot filled up before we arrived around 10:30AM, so after a bit of shuffling around in and abandoning of cars in different parking lots to accommodate everyone’s post-hike plans, we eventually caught the $5 shuttle bus from Marcy Field to the trail head. Expecting sunset at 6:30PM and knowing that things get darker in the woods much sooner, we anticipated that we had more than enough time to get to the summit and back down in light to catch the last return shuttle at 6PM.

The group we had gathered was a unique one. With the event reminding us that this hike was meant for “experienced hikers only” and the expected snow, it is easy to imagine the type of person that this trip recruited. As a beginning hiker (which I like to follow quickly with a “…but I’m in decent shape!” before I get written off), I wasn’t sure what the pace would be like. Stephanie reminded us of hiking etiquette, the most important rules of which are that when you come with a group, you leave as a group and that the faster hikers are supposed to wait for the entire group to catch up whenever reaching a trail sign. We started off pretty slowly, a couple of hikers moving at a slower clip and eventually, the group of eleven separated into three groups-the quicker group with Richard, Jeff, Paul, and little ole me that was determined to make it to the summit and back before sunset, a group not too far behind us, and a group that trailed pretty far back. With the cold weather in the 30s (which only got colder the farther up we went), it was easy to warm up once you got into a rhythm, but within a minute of stopping, it would become unbearably cold. At first, we were considerate to stop to let the groups behind us catch up, but we quickly realized that if we kept at their pace we might never make it to the top and we would freeze our butts off if we kept waiting for them at undesignated points. So, someone in the group made a decision that 2:30PM would be our turnaround cut off time; if we didn’t make it to the summit before then, we would turn around wherever we were so that we wouldn’t be caught in the woods in the dark. We hauled it to the top (forgoing hiking etiquette, believing that the groups behind us would likely turn around earlier), and made it at 2:27PM.

Unfortunately the view was not much to see with all of the fog (I’d like to return to do the hike again when it is clearer out!), so after a quick lunch break we began to make the trip back down. I didn’t find the climb up Big Slide to be particularly challenging compared to the other High Peaks I’ve completed, although I might have been distracted by the beautiful scenery of the juxtaposed fall foliage and snow. Coming back down, however, was another story. The ladders we had climbed up were challenging to come down from with their twists and turns and not being able to see where I was going. I was more cautious on the immense rock faces that seemed to be covered with ice. The temperature had dropped so things were freezing over everywhere. I had purchased some cheap crampons on Amazon that Jeff (outdoorsman extraordinaire) had told me were really more like microspikes, and thus, appropriate for our conditions, but unfortunately, they were too large and kept slipping off my feet, so I had to take them off. I think I would have been more confident in my steps with them, but hopefully I will have the appropriate size crampons for my boots if I ever go hiking in icy conditions again. On the rock faces, I had to slide on my butt for fear of falling, something my non-waterproof running clothes did not appreciate (waterproof clothing will be another thing to look into if I do another icy hike again!). Richard literally saved me so many times, making sure I was okay with some particularly difficult spots and offering me his spare pair of dry mittens when my thin running gloves got wet and froze. By the last mile and a half or so, I was miserably cold and undeniably wet from head to toe, although happy to be enjoying the company of my new hiking friends, including the slower group we had bumped back into and rejoined.

We finally made it back at 5:50PM, just in time to catch the last shuttle back to our cars at the Marcy Field parking lot. Stephanie and I walked to the Noonmark Diner while Richard and Paul went to pick up the others who would miss the shuttle and whole motley crew group of us, cold, wet, muddy, and most importantly happy enjoyed a well deserved meal and some cups of coffee and hot chocolate to warm up.

I have really enjoyed hiking lately but will make sure I have the appropriate equipment if I continue to do more late fall/winter hiking. I think my experience would have been more enjoyable with a heavier jacket, some waterproof hiking pants, and a pair of waterproof gloves, but I was happy to have spent the day with such a fun, vibrant group of people who love to spend time outdoors.

I know places we won’t be found.

My family was never an “outdoorsy” one. Our vacations were spent gorging our faces on cruise ships and dragging our feet through famous museums and landmarks in Europe, not camping in National Parks or swimming at the lake, like a lot of my friends’ families did. At the time, I don’t think I ever realized or truly appreciated how incredible it was to visit these places on most people’s bucket lists (thanks, Dad and Mom!), but I also think I am only just beginning to realize my love for being outdoors. Don’t get me wrong: I would not describe myself as outdoorsy. I have met people who would love nothing more than to permanently live out of a tent and seem to thrive off of going showerless for days on end. I am not one of those. Rather, I think my love for endurance sports has driven me to lovingly encourage my body to try what my mind initially tells me is impossible.

The 46 Adirondack High Peaks are a big deal in these upstate New York parts. I’ve met people of all ages, shapes, and sizes brag about their adventures climbing up these mountains, originally thought to all be over 4,000 feet in elevation. If they can do it, I can do it, I thought. I had to see what all this hoopla was about.

As a non-outdoorsy person, I hadn’t a clue of how to even approach my first High Peak. I had been on a few hikes in the past, usually (and thankfully) with friends who are much more direction savvy than I. My best friend from home, Wendy, had gone on hikes with a group from Meet Up at home in Maryland, and I found a group that was going to tackle Santanoni and Panther mountains on a Saturday after an exam.

Unfortunately, after waking up at 4:30AM on a Saturday to get to Lake Placid by 7AM, another girl from the group, Aubrey, and I learned that the address for the event that was listed online and that we had gone to was incorrect. There was no service where we were (and throughout much of the area for that matter, which is both somewhat simultaneously troublesome and kind of liberating), so after a headache-inducing hot mess that involved me running out of gas 25 miles from the nearest gas station, we retreated an hour south to Lake George to do a short hike to a random gazebo and then Buck Mountain. As it turned out, the hike was shorter than we were expecting for the day, but awesome. However, it was still not as cool as my new friend who I quickly bonded with, perhaps because she’s just a really great person or perhaps exacerbated by the fact that my survival and ability to get out of the middle of nowhere Adirondacks depended on her driving me to find gas. Aubrey had frequented the Lake George and Catskill hiking scene, had completed seven High Peaks beginning earlier that summer, and is an aspiring 46er. And if that wasn’t convincing enough that she was legit, she also had hiking boots and super cool zip off hiking pants that reminded me of these great pants I wore in the fifth grade and skillfully zipped off to shorts during PE class.

Aubrey and me on top of Buck Mountain (elevation 2,448 ft) in Lake George last weekend.

She must have thought I was an okay human being, too, because she let me tag along on another hike she had planned with her friend the following week. Which was great because I had just bought hiking boots of my own that I was dying to try out! Her friend ended up canceling because he was sick, but we were still able to spend last Friday climbing Giant Mountain and Rocky Peak Ridge, my first two High Peaks (and Aubrey’s 8th and 9th)!

The day went by quickly as we each took turns leading and talked almost non-stop about school, work, family, relationships, fitness, and how great it was to be moving our bodies at that present moment. The 3.6 mile hike to Giant started off pretty strenuously, but the great thing about hiking, I learned, is that you can go at whatever pace you want and stop as frequently and as long as you need to, too. At first I felt like it was quitting, but I think that was just my competitive runner’s mentality being silly. We settled into a groove and cruised right along until maybe a mile from the top when things started to get literally rocky. It became a mental game to figure out how to traverse up the massive, steep rocks (so different from the dirt trails we had followed up to Buck Mountain and for the earlier part of our hike that day), which trees were stable to lean on for balance, and how to avoid the slippery sections that might turn into an unintentional Slip and Slide. It was fun to watch how Aubrey approached each obstacle and even more fun to mimic her steps or choose to try my own way. I loved how the trees opened up with each step we took until eventually all we could see above us was the perfect blue sky and around us was the undeniably beautiful Adirondack mountains.

At the top of Giant Mountain (elevation 4,627 ft), my first High Peak!

Can you tell I love my selfies?!

After a break for pictures (I find it hilarious that there is cell service at the top of the mountains, but not really anywhere else), lunch, and to catch our breath, we continued on to Rocky Peak. We had run into a couple on our way up who had warned us that the hike would become “rugged.” LOL What does that even mean?! I thought. We quickly descended on the rocky, root-filled, muddy, slippery way down Giant, laughing when we fell on our butts and preemptively whining about how insane it was going to be to climb back up it, and then climbed up a relatively easy and extremely enjoyable Rocky Peak. And boy, was it worth it: the 360 degree views from the top were just incredible, to the point where I just stood and stared in awe. And sat and stared in awe. And walked around and stared in awe. The pictures just cannot do the mountains justice.

Awesome pic Aubrey took at the top of Rocky Peak Ridge (elevation 4,420 ft), my second my favorite High Peak so far. 😀

I could not and still cannot wrap my head around how we can so quickly come down a mountain and come back up it only to see what we descended in its full glory from the other side. On the way down Giant, we encouraged hikers still making their way up that they were close and marveled at how we didn’t realize how difficult it was coming up the mountain earlier that day so many hours before. On the way down my knees started to ache, my legs shook, and the blisters on the back of my feet from my rookie mistake of wearing short socks with my ankle high hiking boots I was still wearing it were crying. I hoped for flat sections so my joints could have a break, but they were so few and far between I couldn’t believe we had so easily climbed up the other side earlier that morning.

Rocks. Everywhere!

I’m not sure I have the time or the true passion to want to complete all of the High Peaks, but more hiking is definitely something I would like to continue to pursue. And with so many great hikes only a couple hours north and south of Albany, I hope to get a few more good ones in before the cold really sets in again!

Chapel Pond chilling after our hike.