Family ADK 2017

Abigail’s school calendar lined up so that we got a nice 4 day weekend the beginning of March to continue our annual family winter ADK trip.

I had to be in Boston for most of the week (arrived Sunday night), so I had to get everything packed the weekend before then meet Jen and the girls in Albany on the way up Thursday night.

Going into it the forecast was something like mid twenties on Friday, single digits on Saturday and mid twenties again on Sunday. Because of the extreme cold, we planned to hike Friday and Sunday, then see a movie (the kids first in the theater) on Saturday in Lake Placid.

Friday’s hike was along the North Boquet river (same trail Craig and I have been frequenting this winter). Turns out this is (one of) the herd path to climb Dix mountain. The plan was to head in a ways, find a nice spot for a fire, and cook some lunch.

Though you don’t see it here, there was an adequate amount of snow. We had our fire, drank hot chocolate and roasted hot dogs. Afterwards the girls wanted to continue down the trail and further into the woods. We went as far as a creek crossing that we could not make, then headed back.

Saturday was the cold day, so we headed to Lake Placid to see a movie and hang out in town. The movie was Lego Batman. It was actually funnier and more entertaining than I expected.

We also hit a few shops.

Played around a bit.

And had hot chocolate at Starbucks.

BTW, the girls dress themselves. They’re obviously into scarves.

Sunday was the big day. Our plan was to make another attempt on Cascade. You might remember we tried this a few years ago with Lauren in the backpack. Because she wasn’t hiking herself, she nearly froze and we had to turn around. This time we’d all be hiking and hopefully stay warm. Since the day before was so cold, we planned to start later and let things warm up first. I think it was around 1 by the time we started. I was estimating that it would take around 2 hours to get to the top and an hour down (overly optimistic). The temps were in the mid 20’s, no wind, and blue sky.

The trail was complete ice and rock from nearly the beginning. It didn’t take long for everyone to have traction devices on (micro spikes for me, snow shoes for the girls and Mom). Cascade is a fairly moderate climb that can be broken into 3 sections. The bottom is fairly tame with a mix of wet sections and rocks. The middle ascends quite a lot with short (< 50 yrds) bursts of steep ups that continue to be wet and rocky. Of course when I say wet, I mean frozen ice in winter. So yes, my kids were scrambling over rocks and frozen ice in an ascending manner, and this is where Lauren started to get tired. It’s obviously hard work. After the middle rocky/icy steep section(s), you hit the snowier top sections which fill in the gaps between the rocks and cover most of the ice. The going was definitely quicker here, but after everything else still wears on you. Abigail was the Jeep for the day. Nothing slowed her down or made her tired in the slightest.

By the time we got to the snowy sections we were seriously encroaching on our turn around time. I asked a few of the people descending how close we were to the summit, but got answers that made it sound like the top was too far away. Finally I broke the news to the girls that we weren’t going to make it. We’d have to turn around in the interest of time and safety.

They weren’t happy about that especially Abigail. Lauren being the awesome sister that she is offered to let Abigail and I go ahead quickly to try and reach the top. She and Mom would head up as far as they could, then meet us on our descent and we’d all go back down together.

Abigail and I headed off.

It didn’t take long until we reached a tricky section that I knew I’d have to help Lauren and Jen through, so I’d wait or go back and encourage them to hurry up so I could get them through. After two or three sections like this, I realized we were at the near top and we’d all actually make it together.

The summit of Cascade is bear rock for a few hundred yards. Literally you come out of the trees and ascend the bare rock pile to reach the summit. Jen started with us, but quickly realized that climbing the pile wasn’t her kind of thing. The girls and I headed on.

The photo looks way steeper than it is. It was only a quick scramble and we were at the top.

At 4pm we made it to the top. Took us 3 hours, but this is only half the journey. We still had to get down.

The snowy portion at the top was again easier and fun. The steep icy/rocky section in the middle not so much.

Lauren was obviously more tired and struggling more with the ice and rocks. I tried helping her. Jen tried helping her, etc. Finally she and I got in a good rhythm where she walked behind me holding my outstretched arms behind myself and me holding hers. Her head was against my butt and under my packpack. It was working perfectly, yet I knew there were issues if we fell.

Then we fell.

The issue was having her head under my backpack. If I fell, she’d have no time to stand up and get clear. Instead my backpack would carry her down to the ice, which it did.

She started crying immediately, so I knew there was no concussion. But it was a head wound, so I knew it would bleed tremendously. I could see that the cut wasn’t big, so I didn’t have to worry about stitches. Instead I only worried about keeping the blood out of her eye and off her coat. She wasn’t as appreciative. Abigail wasn’t either. The amount of blood freaked her out and she started crying too.

People descending looked concerned and asked if we needed help, but we were good. The blood finally quit enough to head down, but within a few steps Lauren wasn’t having it. She said her head hurt too much, so I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. Luckily we were within a mile of the car and past the steep descents. Where it got sketchy, I’d put her down and make her walk herself before picking her up again and continuing. We finished in the dark and had to use our headlamps for a brief time.

Took us 2 hours to get down. Five hours to do the entire trip.

As I carried Lauren I explained to her the fall wasn’t that big of a deal and it certainly didn’t take away from her accomplishment of getting to the top. She could have just as likely crashed her bike or fell out of a tree at home and gotten a similar injury. The fact that we couldn’t easily go inside and lay on the couch made it slightly more difficult to treat, but we were prepared and handled it just as successfully.

Within an hour they were drinking hot chocolate and moving on.

That night we went to a new place for dinner.

The ambiance was nice, but food was only so-so.

Overall another good trip. Looking forward to our first summer trip planned this year.

– b