This was my first major mountain hike of the season. Though my brother in law Tony and I did do part of the Taconic Crest Trail in May, which was about 8 miles. It had a killer downhill and I must admit that I whined alot the last half mile. However I did survive it. Then I did the 7 mile trip to Johns Brook Lodge a couple of days after Tony and I hiked. This is a backcountry lodge only accessible by foot. It is the starting spot for many of the Adirondack high peaks, so it is a popular spot to stay. The water of Johns Brook was definitely a force to be reckoned with, so rapid and deep we had to take the high water bridge, what a marvel of archeitecture that was!
But I digress..as usual!!! We decided to do Snow Mt. We could also have chosen Rooster Comb, but we did that as our first last year, so this was a new adventure. Though the weather man predicted rain, we lucked out and had a lovely sunny day to begin our adventure. The trip was planned for three of us, Elly, (our hiking guru who has done all the Adirondack high peaks many times, is a 46er, and has done all the high peaks in the White Mountains many times, as well as Mt. Washington, several times every year!), and Marilyn, (my high school friend and PE teacher), and me, the only uncoordinated, clutz of the group!
Just before we arrived in Keene Valley, Elly had a tree fall on her house, so she had to wait for an insurance adjustor to show him the damage. Since I am the slowest of the group, I told Elly that Marilyn and I would go ahead, and she could catch up with us when she was done. This was a good thing for her because she would get a chance to clean her pipes a little and we would have a good part of the distance done, which we did.
We found we can follow a trail and read the signs, and though there were many junctions, we never got lost once. A very good thing! I even survived these god awful plank bridges that you have to cross to begin the hike..those I detest but I made it..another good thing! Elly caught up with us just as we were about to come to the challenging part of the trail. THE ROCK SCRAMBLE!!! If you hiked with me, you would know the two most hated words to me are, SCRAMBLE and LADDER!!! Elly said it was a small rock scramble, but we differ in our opinion of what is termed small!!! LOL..I am so short that I have to get on my hands and knees to get up things like that...but I brought knee pads for my bad knees and that helped a lot, but I must say it was definitely a lot of work and I was a sorry sight...but to me the most important thing is I made it!!! We had lunch at the top, and had a great view of Rooster Comb. (Rooster Comb has a SCRAMBLE and a LADDER, but I did survive that too last year...LOL.)
For me the downhill is always the worst, I have terrible knees and the strain is pretty bad. I wear braces on both knees and that helps. There were several steep places on the way up that I dreaded the thought of going down, but somewhere I must have gone down those and never noticed..or they just were not as bad as I thought. I am sore, got a couple of blisters, but made it once again..and I am as Happy as a Clam!!! Till next time!!!!
