Adirondack Adventure (2008 Trip #1)

We're back! It was a WONDERFUL time! As the song says, we went camping, we climbed a mountain, we ran (occasionally when the downward slope was too steep to try to fight), jumped often off rocks and such (as a passer-by called it "creative rock hopping" to try not to get your feet too wet and muddy) and I guess we didn't really play. I didn't bring any games with me, so I guess that's the one part of the song we didn't accomplish.
The weather was gorgeous, we found a pretty decent camp site, we didn't get eaten by bear, and the view at the top of the peak was incredible! Since we got back last night, I didn't have the opportunity to upload the pictures and bring them in to work - but they will be coming soon! I would say that the two things we could have done without were the black flies (being swatted in picture above) and the crazy blisters I got from wearing not yet broken-in sneakers (see below). Lesson learned!!Our journey began Friday afternoon around 4:30pm. We stopped at Ralph's the local pizza place to grab a couple slices and a beverage and headed on our way. Traffic wasn't too bad - a little thick in Syracuse. We took a new way thanks to the suggestions of Mike and Justyn and got a very nice scenic route through Old Forge, Inlet, Raquette Lake, and Long Lake. We stopped in Long Lake for some ice cream. I got this amazing ice cream (i want to see if I can find it here) called Mocha Me Crazy. It was mocha ice cream with chocolate chips and brownie chunks...mmmm good!! We arrived in our parking lot around 10:15pm. We then did a little re-arranging in the car, put the seats down and camped out in Andy's CRV. It was actually rather comfortable.

We awoke Saturday morning at approximately 5:15am to a man standing outside the car (Andy's windows are tinted so he couldn't tell we were sleeping inside) saying, "UB - the sticker says UB! They must be from the Buffalo area!" He had parked on the opposite side of the parking lot, so clearly curiosity got the best of him!! Well, with that we were awake. So we got up, put Andy's car back in order, got our gear all together and headed out around 6:15am. It was a 3 hour hike in just to get to our camp site. It was a pretty hike following a creek almost the whole way. It also was a rather wet hike - not because of rain but because of muddy trails and walking up mini streams at times. We arrived to our camp site, set up our tent, left one of the packs there, downsized the other pack to have only what we needed for climbing the peak, and headed on our merry way. It was about a 2.5 hour hike up Panther Peak. Despite the scattered thunderstorm forecast, we experienced no rain, nice temperature and a great view at the top. It was rather windy at the top, but that is expected. We got a funny picture of the wind blowing my hair! This was the first peak I've done where I didn't need to put on long sleeves as I got closer to the top - the weather was simply phenomenal!

We stayed on the top, enjoying the view and the sun for about 30 minutes and then proceeded to make the trip back to camp. We arrived at camp around 6:30ish, made our mac and cheese, cleaned up (which included putting all our food and nice smelling belongings such as toothpaste and deodorant in our bear pack) and did the only thing there is to do when the black flies are horrible - got in our tent and went to sleep - it was about 8:30pm :)

We both didn't sleep very well that night - partially because the ground wasn't that comfortable, partially because it was slightly warm, partially because my blisters were killing me, and partially because this teeny dribble of water that ran through our site was RIDICULOUSLY loud - so we awoke about 9am the next day.
We packed up, ate breakfast, and headed out around 11am. We got back to the car just before 2pm. Didn't see a single person on our hike out, and our car was the only one in the lot. Unusual for a nice weekend. We enjoyed the scenic route back through all the cute Adirondack towns. We stopped in Inlet for some veggie pizza from Screaming Eagle - amazing as always. Took me right back to all those years of going there on vacation. A great way to end our time in the Adirondacks.

It was SO nice to sleep in our own bed last night. It was nice to see Rilee too although she didn't seem too excited to see us. We missed being in nature, but appreciated air conditioning and a mattress. It was also INCREDIBLE to shower - I was SO dirty. And I didn't even mind coming home to sulfur water :)