The Hike To Mt. Marcy

On Sat, Aug 15th, three friends and I headed up to Lake Placid to get ready for our hike to Mt. Marcy. (for those of you who might not know, Mt. Marcy is the highest of NY State's 46 high peaks--although not necessarily the most difficult).

After checking into our motel, we went to Lake Placid for dinner. I saw this marker on the sidewalk.

This was the view from our restaurant window.

Some flowers in a garden along the sidewalk.

The next morning we arose at 5 am to get ready. We knew the hike would take us a long time, so we wanted to get started as early as possible.

Pretty self-explanatory---the ADK loj at the trail head.

Part of the trail. We thought this would be the most difficult part, but we found out differently later.

A group of kids sitting on the summit.

There was a High Peak Steward at the summit. I found out that each high peak has a steward. Each 5 days they rotate to another high peak and they climb to the summit early in the morning in order to be there to help people, educate them about the mountains and the flora and fauna, and take pictures. Then at the end of the day, they hike back down. Oh My Gosh! She took this photo of us for us.

It took us 7 hours to hike up (counting the hiking time and the rest stops), we spent an hour at the summit. We began back down at 3 pm and arrived at the trail head at 11 pm. (that's not a typo). We were on the trail for 16 hours--pretty embarrassing. Don't ask--the story is too bizarre. (by the way, the trail is 15 miles round trip)

People who hike the 46 high peaks are known as 46ers. After this hike, I'm very happy to be known, now and forevermore, as a 1er. I got my pin and I'm seriously done with the high peaks!