Header Picture

View From the Trail to Mount Colvin

My Readers

Friday, June 30, 2017

Last Hike – Seymour Mountain! Part 1

When I went through and downloaded pictures from our hike on Wednesday, I was planning to make this just one post. But even picking just a “few” out of the 120+ pictures I took on our 14.5 mile hike, I ended up with 19 pictures for this post so I decided to divide it up into two days.

I’ve mentioned before that Harry and I are working on become “46’ers”. Those are people who have hiked all of the 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks (over 4000' elevation). Last year we were able to do five high peaks in the month we were here, but this year we are only going to be here two weeks. And on top of that, it has rained almost every single day. So this past Wednesday’s hike, Seymour Mountain (4091' elevation), will be our only high peak of the year. That makes seven completed out of the 46 so far. 19437436_10214156815621137_8669289505059432303_n

It was also our earliest hike! The trailhead for Seymour is close to Tupper Lake, which is a little over an hour’s drive away from where we were meeting our hiking friends. And that was about a half hour away from where we are staying. And we were supposed to arrive at the trailhead at 7 am! So our alarm was set for the crazy hour of 3:45 am.

haha You can see that Harry is clearly not awake in this picture. It was taken about 5:30 am.

19554090_10214156820261253_3035875398071599894_n


Maybe a little more awake here at the trailhead as we were packing up to start the hike.


19554050_10214156855622137_6177053904604360178_nAlthough the hike in all is a long one, a little over 7 miles each way, the first five or so mile portion of the hike is relatively flat.


19437273_10214156853142075_6120512642843156144_n

There are several streams to cross.


19437291_10214156845381881_8361299863046207654_n





19437534_10214156885662888_3309161807565399931_n

And lots and lots of MUD.

19554209_10214156891623037_2754615042719533589_n


Luckily our boots are waterproof because we would have had wet feet otherwise.

19248120_10214157175230127_1815826794893544571_n







19511182_10214156973305079_556845646052167843_n



We were making great time for the first five miles – about 25 minute miles.

19511066_10214156988745465_6214167021232767676_n




And then it was time to start climbing!



To be continued…


Tuesday, June 27, 2017

A Hike up Lyon Mountain

Since we are only going to be here two weeks this year, we knew it was going to be a challenge to get some hikes in, especially given the rainy weather we have been having this year so far. So far we have lucked out with two good days. The second one came this past Saturday when we hiked up Lyon Mountain. It’s a bit longer than our first hike at about 3.7 miles one way, and the elevation of the summit is 3830 ft.


19397177_10214105263252360_2950722023507703127_n

The word of the day was WET!  Well, wet and MUDDY! It rained overnight Friday, and even until 5, 6 am it was still raining lightly, so the trail was extremely wet.

19399808_10214105275372663_3345121307456808765_n



For a lot of it, we felt like we were walking through a shallow creek. It was fun though, just muddy.



Harry and Bonnie…

19399540_10214105255452165_3582413899704246221_n




Our whole group on the summit…

19237787_10155433846823948_5854446366778720018_o




19417332_10155433856978948_4358076750548234181_o




Bonnie got another great shot of Harry and me on the summit!


19400162_10214105272452590_5022986618093041079_n

And of course, more gorgeous views. Supposedly you can see Montreal in the distance on a clear day, but it was too hazy this day to see that far.

19451601_10214124412771086_1548203697_o



We still got some great views.


Tomorrow we hope to do our third and final hike for our stay, and our only high peak this year!

Monday, June 26, 2017

Maple Syrup and Lunch Out

19531709_10214124047681959_1471146800_oIf you love maple syrup – the real stuff! – you may know that upstate NY is a great place to get it. We usually buy quarts of maple syrup as we need it, but they sure don’t give it away. So while we are up here this year, one of the things we wanted to do was buy it at the source. So last week we took a drive with my mother and stepfather to a local place that they like that sells maple syrup – in all its forms!

19549704_10214124045921915_131609119_o

It was another rainy day, so it was a good day for doing this kind of activity.

19532565_10214123955439653_1562837508_o


19496518_10214124023521355_1583706735_o






19495890_10214124039561756_567757183_o


They had many variety of maple products, so we had to exercise a little self-control.



19549557_10214123939279249_1592240059_oWe were surprised to find out that it was more cost effective to buy maple syrup. A half gallon of maple syrup here cost roughly the same amount of money as a quart in a grocery store somewhere else.

So we stocked up!


19531870_10214123944639383_606926182_oAfterwards, we headed for lunch to a place called Valcour Brewing Co. The restaurant has an interesting history, as the building it is in is known as the “Old Stone Barracks”. It is the last remaining structure remaining from an Army barracks built in Plattsburgh in 1838.

19495973_10214123941399302_716686299_o

I wanted to get more outside pictures, but it was raining a bit when we went in, and pouring by the time we were coming out, so I couldn’t.

19532631_10214123941039293_601459527_o

Harry got to try one of their dark brewed beers, and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal.

19531735_10214123943599357_2015622069_o






Friday, June 23, 2017

Balanced Rock

19366226_10214083313423628_5976634385196520194_n
So far since we have been up in the Adirondacks,  the weather has been rainy, but yesterday we finally had a gorgeous day and we took advantage of it to enjoy our first hike of the season – up to 19399520_10214083313663634_1996700082633573595_nBalanced Rock. We parked near the trailhead on the road and could see our destination – that bald faced area right in the center of this photo.


19396639_10214083315143671_7653041891748381539_n


19399847_10214083315583682_7328641197561165364_n


And here we go!






19420475_10214083437106720_3376251095883162353_n


Adirondack hikes are very rocky and “boulder-y”. They always involve a lot of climbing.




19396995_10214083320983817_6538709769303697063_n


Although I am not a lover of heights, I don’t usually mind them here. It’s a little bit of a mental thing. I have to just think about which route to take up, or down, and just do it. 19366370_10214083447026968_6589378738774598489_nI can’t think about the fact that I am climbing up “such and such” feet. The only time it really bothers me when it is close to an edge with a wide open vista, but that doesn’t happen very often. Thankfully.



And then of course after climbing up an area, there is often the opportunity for a great shot!


19396779_10214083328183997_8551837742301631050_n


There were several places on the hike where we had great views of the rock slides on Cascade. We did that one a couple years ago. That was actually Harry’s first high peak.






19390560_10155426807928948_8730966796934188145_oOf course the best part is getting to the top. We had to be careful as we walked around because there were some huge crevices. We would go to step over a “crack” and look down to see this huge drop! In this pic Harry is hanging his feet over the edge and there is about a 10 or more ft. drop there. That is why I am hanging on to him!!


19420390_10214083735674184_3987057393628846617_n


Love this pic of me! Being on top of a mountain always makes me feel so alive. Like I’m just celebrating life!

19420380_10214083699593282_6200217023065953375_n


Another of my favorite pictures from this hike!






19402169_10155426808508948_4438521952845352148_oAfter a nice break it was time to head down. Some of the climbing spots on the way up were a bit tricky on the way down. You have to take your time and choose your footing carefully. Our friend Bonnie got this great shot of my mother, Harry and me coming down one of the more challenging spots. Mom is going down and Harry and I are waiting our turn. (Bonnie also took the previous pic of me right before this one.)


19275252_10214083438626758_4269213988518684030_n


And then we were past the climbing spots and into the woodsy walking parts. All in all the hike was a little over 3 miles. A really good distance for our first hike of our visit here. If the weather cooperates we hope to get another hike in tomorrow and then a high peak next week. Fingers crossed!



Monday, June 19, 2017

Weekend in Burlington

When we set up our schedule to be in Peru to visit my mother, we were happy to see that our arrival date coincided with our niece Hannah’s tournament in Burlington, VT. We just had to leave Earlton a day early so we could go over to VT on Saturday.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we were picked up by our ride (AKA my mother and stepfather) and made the short trip to the Cumberland Head ferry. The quickest way to get to VT is to take one of the three ferries in the area. You can go across the bridge but that adds a lot of driving time to the equation.

19369153_10214047527449001_53883779_oThe ferry is a very common way to get across Lake Champlain so they run very frequently, maybe every 15 minutes. We had only parked in the loading area when we could see the next ferry coming in. (You might have a bit more of a wait at the Port Kent ferry because the trip across from there takes almost an hour.)

19359122_10214047524608930_51795242_o

Once we were across, we drove to my sister’s hotel and dropped off Andrew. Then it was off to the soccer fields.



19401129_10214047590370574_1078492075_oI took a lot of pictures, but I will just add this one to show what a gorgeous day it was. We lucked out!

Our niece played extremely well, as did her team. After three very hard fought games, they came away with a win and two ties. If they had won the last game, they would have gone to the championship game, but even so, they had a great weekend to end their season.

As much as the soccer, we enjoyed spending time with my sister and her family. It was a lot of fun to cheer Hannah on, as well as enjoy a lot of quality chatting time. A great weekend!

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Moving North with Company

Yesterday was pull out day from Earlton! Usually we are sorry to leave there, but with everything that happened earlier, it kind of left a bad taste in our mouth, so we 19238666_10214022744029431_1781950168_oweren’t sorry to say goodbye to the place. In fact, I didn’t even take a pullout picture. haha Although that probably had more to do with the fact that it was raining. Again.

Last year, when we headed north to Peru, we were accompanied by our niece Hannah. This year it was her younger brother’s turn to hitch a ride. We are all heading over to Burlington VT this morning where Hannah will be playing in a soccer tournament.

19340124_10214022598745799_1425183390_o

Even though we started out in rain, by the time we got into the Adirondack Park, it was just cloudy. The roads were even drying.

19339950_10214022598385790_343190472_o


Didn’t get too many nice mountain views yesterday though.


19204842_10214022592225636_1090608335_o

Although our departure was in rain, setup was dry. So that worked out ok.


18818178_10214022596585745_1347400560_o


Andrew and I played a few games that I keep here for the infrequent times when we have young company.


19243876_10214022588785550_1057976608_o

Later we took a short walk around the campground.

19349468_10214022587825526_1239991625_o


The gloomy lighting actually made for a pretty picture.


In about an hour we’ll be on the road to Burlington VT!