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.
Meghan'sMind 