Noonmark Mountain, Finishing Up, Changing our Leave Date

Location: Peru, NY (High 60, Low 52)

We’ve had one busy and full last week here in the Adirondacks. In fact, today is the first day that we’ve stayed put at home doing nothing. Well, doing nothing except watching people pull out in the rain. We were planning to leave today as well, but the weather forecast changed our mind. The only downside of not leaving today will be having to take a two hour ride to my doctor’s appointment tomorrow.

The highlight of our week was taking one more hike, up Noonmark Mountain. It was a 5 mile roundtrip hike, up about 2100 feet to the summit of the mountain.

 

 

It was a challenging hike, which basically went UP the whole way with very few level areas. It felt really good to power through and make it to the top!

 

 

I wish the pictures of the views from the mountaintop could do justice to the wide expanse that you see when you start to get above the treeline. When I see the vista spread out in front of me, all I can say is WOW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I felt good while hiking up, although I was disappointed to notice in the pictures that I have definitely gained some weight this summer. The combination of eating out and slacking off on our running has taken its toll.

 

Speaking of eating out, we did have a couple more outings with my mother and stepfather. It’s been fun, but now that our month here is coming to an end, so have the restaurant outings! Time to get myself back on track.

I made a good start this past week by running four miles on three different mornings this week. That was my best week for exercising in quite a while. I am determined to keep it up!!

On Tuesday, we’ll be packing up and heading to that campground that we scouted out in May. Looking forward to having a new view.

Grandkid Weekend and Trip to the Movies

Location: Peru, NY (High 79, Low 60)

Every summer, trips to MA have always been on our to-do list, as that is where the grandkids live. But this past weekend was our last trip to MA for this purpose.

We left Friday morning to start our trip, with the first leg taking us back to Catskill to bring the kids home after their trip to Grandma’s for the week.

 

After spending the night at my sister’s house, we headed out bright and early for the second leg of our trip to Marlborough, MA.

 

We had a good time cheering on Schaun in his t-ball game, and then we went over for a last look at their emptying out apartment.

 

It’s easy to drive a car around when there isn’t any furniture left.

 

 

Saturday night was Schaun’s hip hop concert. A dancer in the making to be sure!

 

And that was followed by a sleepover in Papa and Grammy’s hotel room.

Lots of fun to watch tv from your bed!

 

One quick day, and then it was time to see them off on their new adventure – life in Ohio. We are excited that they are moving as there are campgrounds close to their new home and there will be lots more opportunities for quality time with our little guys. In fact, it’s on our agenda for the month of August.

Today Harry and I went with my mother and stepdad to see Jurassic World. Wow! Loved it. And we even saw it in 3D, which we don’t usually do. I think it was the best of all of the Jurassic movies, easily. And I loved all the references back to the original Jurassic Park. If you like a good action flick, I recommend that you check it. out.

Whirlwind Week of Fun

Location: Peru, NY (High 72, Low 45)

It has been one fast and fun week around here. It started last weekend when Harry and I drove back to Catskill to pick up my sister’s kids and bring them to my mother’s (AKA Grandma’s house) for the week.

Since then we’ve packed in a ton of fun activities. We were lucky to have only one rainy day, and we spent it playing Mexican Train dominoes.

 

 

We enjoyed a miniature golf outing one day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was my favorite day. We took a drive over to Lake Placid to the John Brown Farm State Historic Site.

It is the farm and gravesite location of abolitionist John Brown. There are informational placards around, and the farm building itself also is a good representation of what it was like to live in the 1800s.

This historic site is also the location of four geocaches. So after we finished looking at the site and buildings, we spent a couple hours tracking down the four caches. This was our trickiest find.

 

Our fourth and final cache was found under this tree. It was called High Peaks View cache and lived up to its name.

 

Geocaching selfie!

 

 

Last night we finished up our week attending a showing of the new movie Inside Out at the movie theater in town. This picture may give you an impression of this small town in the Adirondacks. Yes that is the whole theater.

 

Waiting for the movie to start!

 

 

This morning Harry and I will head over to my mother’s to pick up the kids and then south to bring them home. We will then be heading on to MA for the weekend. More fun ahead!

Other Than Hiking

Location: Peru, NY (High 72, Low 57)

Definitely one of my favorite activities when we are up here in the Adirondack region is hiking. We have gotten in two great hikes so far. But when we’ve not been hiking, we have still been busy with lots going on around here.

Last Sunday we went on our first bike ride since we arrived. It’s one that we have done several times before and one of our favorites as it goes right along Lake Champlain.

 

We combined two of our favorite things by stopping at a local eatery for our first michigan hot dogs of the year. (A michigan is like a chili dog but without the beans. The sauce is spicy and finely ground, and usually served with mustard and onions “buried”.) I think we worked our michigans off on our 21 mile bike ride.

The local news has been primarily topped with stories about the inmates escaping from the prison in Dannemora. Dannemora is about 20 miles from where we are in Peru. The terrain up here is pretty rough unless you’re on a trail so I would not be surprised if they did not get very far. From what we heard this morning I think they feel like they are closing in on them. Everyone around here will be glad when they are back in custody.

Harry has also been busy getting my mother and stepfather set up with their new tv. (This picture was taken last week as he is still a little stiff and not up to sitting on the floor at the moment.) Harry is much better though and hopes to soon be back to his normal self.

Yesterday we enjoyed a trip to a brewery in Saranac Lake. (You may have heard of it before as during the winter it is often featured on the weather map as the coldest spot in the US.)

 

We sat on the rooftop deck and had a great view of McKenzie Mountain off in the distance.

 

That’s one of the great things about going places around here with my mother as she knows the name of just about every mountain peak you might see. We looked it up and it definitely does not sound like one we want to do. For the experienced hiker only and I do not consider myself to be in that category. So for this one the views will remain from the ground up.

 

I was not sure how Harry was going to get this piled up nacho into his mouth but he managed!

 

We’ve sure managed to pack a lot into our first two weeks here. Two more fun weeks to go!

Hurricane Mountain Hike

Location: Peru, NY (High 77, Low 58)

When we made plans to come up to the Adirondacks for a month this year, I was really hoping that we would get a chance to do a bit more hiking, and we’re off to a good start.

Yesterday’s plan was a 3 mile hike up Hurricane Mountain. Unfortunately, Harry’s back was giving him issues. It happens periodically and is one of those things where it just means a few days of taking it easy until it corrects itself. So he decided to stay put. I left him set up at my mother’s house with all of his technological devices to keep him company.

My mother and I drove down to town to meet her hiking buddies and then we traveled the short distance to the Hurricane Mountain trailhead.

 

 

 

The sign says 2.6 miles to the summit, but there is a new trail as of last year which is a bit longer. Three miles and 2000 ft up.

 

 

There has been a lot of rain so we had the sounds of rushing water for most of the hike. Only one tricky water crossing though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lunch at the summit under a fire tower. There was a 360 degree view. Wow. So beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view of the fire tower at the top as we started back down…

 

 

 

 

Another great hike!

Cascade Mountain Hike

Location: Peru, NY (High 76, Low 42)

Yesterday dawned bright and beautiful, and was a perfect day for our planned activity – a hike to the top of Cascade Mountain.

 

We drove to the trailhead which was a quick 15 minutes or so away from my mother’s house.

 

 

We were lucky to find a parking spot in the parking area. This picture is from the end of the day. The cars had overflowed to the side of the road.

 

 

Cascade Mountain is one of the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks, which means that it is over 4000 feet altitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the trailhead the 2.2 mile long trail climbs about 2000 feet to the summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was one point before we actually got to the summit where we had a preview of what we were going to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we were moving on – heading toward the top which is visible here over the top of the trees.

 

 

 

This was the start of the most challenging part – yes that is the way up!

 

 

 

It was a bit scary to look back the way I had come but I tried not to think about it!

 

 

Those paint marks on the stone mark the way to go. This was the hardest part.

 

 

 

 

The views were so beautiful. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling good that I faced my fear and persevered to the top!

 

I tried out the panorama function on my phone…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then it was time to start back down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry, my mother and I…

 

It was a great day and a great hike!