xcrament

I have only THREE friends who I would consider going on this trip with. And its the Three I have been doing it with for close to 10 years. We spent the last few days in the Adirondack Wilderness area near Lake Placid, New York. We are not strangers to the area and make a good attempt to visit annually if not more than that. It was the first time however for my youngest boy Harley and Brian’s boy Hawkeye. For me it made the trip that much better and though he could barely keep his head up after our days activities I am sure he enjoyed it. We arrived at the trail head Friday morning around 3 a.m. to a light rain. Using headlamps we hiked in a mile or so and set up camp. Bedding down around 4:30 it seemed only an hour went by till i was woken by downpour and my small one man survival tent taking on water. Pissed and totally soaked after breakfast we took off on a 7 mile trek to the summit of Mt Dix.

(stolen from Brett’s Blog) 3:30 a.m and a rain/snow mix. off we go. Harleys reflective leash looks cool

 

our camp was on the edge of Round Pond

Harley would run ahead. then stop just to make sure i was coming. every 20 ft. without fail.

Meet Hawkeye. He rules

Hawkeye does not care for water obstacles

take 5 at Boquet Lean-To

This dog is part coyote. He is a thief and a scavenger

Hardly as innocent as he looks

Crossed Blogs

5 miles in till we first get a look at our snow covered destination. All the rain we had overnight was snow at higher elevations.

Story of this hike include that the last few miles are basically vertical and start at the base of some rock slides

First snowball toss of the season

Def further and steeper than it looks

First yellow snow of the season

I think this is where i told Brian we were “almost there” but i had no idea and was def wrong

still on the right path

almost there

High winds, blowing snow and bright sun…coulda used some Thermonuclear Protection

Windchill factor was prob in the teens on the summit of Dix. elevation 4785 ft.

Note the blood on Harleys front paw leaking all over Bretts stuff

This tired little hiker was looking for anything soft to lay on. Little did we know we still had 5 miles left back to camp

Tired? still got 2 miles to go

baby Deer pose

Tired?

follow his lead

 

One man tent, one sleeping bag. it was an oven in that lil thing. Guess who was the first one in and last to leave…

8′x3′x2′=home sweet home

Round Pond is nicer to wake up next to when the sun is shining

Parking lot watch dogs

Next part of our adventure was was to hit the open water. Neither dog had ever been on a boat, let alone a 16′ canoe. wasnt really sure how well it would go over.

we had one curious sailor on our boat

Sit where you feel safe

This happens to be the moment when we shoulda gone the other way i think. All blame was placed on the guy who gave us the map. He obviously has no idea where we were going since he only grew up on the lake.

MAN DOWN…This lil sailor was over the sight seeing at this point

Reclaiming my land legs on the Dock in Saranac Lake

Another Fall in the Adirondacks…many more to come