Early in May we took a trip to the Adirondacks for my birthday. I turned 35 in case you’re wondering. I had grand intentions of finishing this and posting it weeks ago but I have been a strange combination of busy and lazy. (This picture is of my friend Leslie and me. It’s from around 1990 on Wright Peak)

Photos from our Spring 09 Adirondack Trip>>
We drove up to the High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid as soon as I got out of work on a Wednesday and got there around 10:30. We did a few k turns before we figured out which building we were supposed to check in to. I was relying on the gps & laptop more than my eyes. The room was really really really nice. I felt like I won the lottery getting it for about $40 a night.
We didn’t get up super early Thursday morning. Eventually we wandered out to get some coffee. It was drizzly but but nice. We still hadn’t decided what to hike and the weather seemed to suggest something not-a-mountain. We ended up hiking to Rocky Falls from the Adirondack Loj. Unfortunately I left my camera in my car so I didn’t get any photos. There were TONS of wildflowers and birds along the trail. The trail was easy, the falls were impressive, & it was neat to be hiking at a time of year without leaves on the trees. Everything has a much different character in that light.
While we were out on the trail I got a twitter message from @HighPeaksResort saying they might be able to extend our reservation for the whole weekend but reception was mostly nonexistent and I’m bad at direct messaging from my phone so I couldn’t sort it out until we got back to the hotel. It turned out we could stay but we had to switch rooms. “Oh the horror… we had to switch to a lakeside room… at the same rate.” So, it was like I won the lottery twice.
We ended up switching rooms that night because I wanted to get up early to hike to Wright Peak on my birthday.
The theater in Lake Placid was showing Star Trek that night, the day before it was supposed to open so we decided to go if there wasn’t a huge line. There were only about 10 people there so we went, loved it, and I spent the rest of the night making shooting sounds. Pew pew.
Friday morning we headed back to the Loj to hike Wright. Both days when we parked at the loj there were only 5 or 6 other cars there. It was so weird. I’ve never been there before and not had the lot be packed. When I was planning this hike initially I thought ‘hey maybe if we still have energy we can do Algonquin too’. (I kind of don’t want to admit that now because Wright really kicked my butt. I had an even more insane plan earlier that Brian talked me out of. I’m not going to confess it right now because I can only take so much honest self evaluation in one sitting.)
I have climbed Wright many times–but not since I was 17, which was a very long time ago now. I think of it as my favorite mountain. It still is, but it’s not my favorite trail. We’ve been avoiding the core of the High Peaks for a long time. There are usually so many people and there are so many other great places to hike, but I missed my mountain. It seemed like my birthday was a perfect day to do it.
The trail was almost entirely rock hopping with some scrambling and there were some stretches of ice covered trail. Bad decision 2 was wearing my spare hiking boots, which were dry and very waterproof but I had forgotten how much they hurt my feet. We got to the top in about 3.5 hours which wasn’t bad time for me. I’m very slow. The clouds were looking ominous so we didn’t stay long but It was as great as I remembered it up there. It took another whole 3.5 hours to hobble back to the loj. I was exhausted.
We didn’t really even have the energy necessary to go sit in a restaurant after that. We each ordered pizza from the 3 Bears across the street and sat by the lake, watched the clouds float by and drank some beers. I don’t totally remember falling asleep that night but I think it was pretty early. I was happy that I was still able to move when I woke up the next day.
We had breakfast at Charlies the next day. Somehow I mentioned to the waitress that we hadn’t decided what to hike that day but we were defeated by our previous adventure. She kept coming over with good ideas for us. We ended up attempting to climb Pitchoff mountain. The part of the trail that we did was great. There were wildflowers everywhere and no rock hopping. It started raining pretty hard when we got to some very steep sections of rock and decided that it would be best to try the hike another time. Things were getting pretty slippery.
We hung out in the room for the afternoon and read and watched thunderstorms roll across mirror lake. Eventually we were forced to find food. I needed spaghetti. We ended up going to some place called Jimmy’s 21 because they served pasta and they were close by. There was a really pretty view but the food was not transcendent for the price. I wish that Lake Placid had a really good Indian place. Somewhere you can get a mind numbingly hot curry. Of course, it has to taste good too.
After dinner we walked around Mirror Lake. We didn’t mean to go the whole way we were just walking and then we realized it would be further to turn around than to keep going. When we were almost back to our hotel I heard someone yell my name. I was semi-confused, being the slow thinker that I am. It was TourPro, who comments on this blog frequently providing helpful bike fixing tips and other info. It was his blog that actually tipped me off about the great hotel deal. It was weird/cool to meet someone in person that I’ve known only through the web. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of anything amazingly witty to say and we forgot to take a picture.
Always had a rule about avoiding the Adirondacks until July because I’d heard that the blackflies will skeletonize you in under 15 minutes. I have decided that is wrong. We didn’t see any blackflies (though I was prepared and still would have had fun if we did) and there were very few people up there. I may make this an annual birthday weekend trip if I can afford it.
I give this weekend getaway 5 stars out of 5. I would give it 6 if I had been able to follow any of my hikes with spicy vindaloo and/or strongbow on tap.