I was up and exploring at first light. I don’t sleep too well, but even if I did, I like being up early to see what’s going happening in the woods around me. I grabbed my camera and headed for some open meadows and the woods beyond. By the time I returned to camp an hour later, John was stirring. I pulled out the camp stove and made us a breakfast of oatmeal, hot chocolate and pinole bars. John had pulled out every article of clothing he had brought and put it on during the cold night. He’d forgotten his favorite fleece jacket and was cursing his stupidity for oversight.
“You remember everything when we have to carry it 6 miles to our base camp, but the one time you could bring an artic coat because we’d be parked in front of our camp site, you forget warm clothes,” I said.
There were other hikers in the area getting ready for their climbs and as we usually do, got to talking about who was going where. When I mentioned my plans for the day to a hiker who’d done the loop, he said “you’d better get going. That hike will take about 12 hours, so bring your head lamps.”
“Did he say 12 hours? I didn’t sign up for a death march…have you lost your mind?” John said. Actually…I had planned poorly. We were camped over 5 miles from the trail head to the peaks we were climbing and the trail we’d be following went over 3 peaks over 4,000 feet. The trip would have us walking about 20 miles with a total elevation change of around 7,000 feet or an effort comparable to almost three marathons back to back. I knew I could handle it, but was not going to try and finish the last couple of hours in the dark. We had to adapt.
“Let’s just climb Gothics and then come straight back. That should get us here before dark,” I suggested. John leaves the planning to me and if I said it made sense, he pretty much went with it. What can I say…he screwed up…he trusted me.
We made good time over the first 5 miles, walking a trail that gained about 1,100 feet before losing 800 and bringing us to another lodge like the one at Heart Lake called John’s Brook Lodge (JBL). It’s also owned and operated by the ADK, but can only be reached by hiking. We should have stayed in this area for the aggressive climbing I’d planned since it would have taken 10 miles off of our day and made the peaks doable for the time we had. Oh well…
Now the serious climbing began. We’d gain 2,200 feet in about 4 miles with a big part of that coming over a short, steep half-mile stretch. The climbing was on bare, wet rock for that half-mile section and took us over an hour to navigate…something we’d had no way of knowing ahead of time. Trails in the Adirondacks are often like that. Mud, rocks, roots and steep ascents/descents can slow you to a crawl. A topographical map can tell you the grade but not the conditions. It’s safest to plan for the worst and just assume a 2-mile an hour maximum for the entire trail. That has worked most of the time for me…but wouldn’t today.
When we finally reached the final trail split for Gothics in an semi-exhausted state, I again adjusted our plans. We could save about 30 minutes by climbing Saddleback Mt. from this juncture and with the concern we both had for the time the return trip down the section we’d just traversed, decided we’d need every minute to beat the dark. I had head lamps in the day pack, but was uninterested in trying to navigate treacherous trails in the dark…even with their aid.
We made the peak around 2 p.m. or about five and a half hours after we’d left camp. It was dark by seven, which left us about 20 minutes to enjoy the view, eat some much needed calories and begin our return trip. As much as I love to spend time on the peak, I was getting cold quickly. The wind was gusting up to 50 mph and with little to hide behind on a bare peak, my body temperature drops quickly. Since my clothes are soaked through to my skin, that kind of breeze can create a dangerous, hypothermic condition in as little as ten minutes. The skies were a deep blue and speckled with fluffy, white clouds. We had spectacular views of the surrounding peaks, but I took pictures and knew I’d just have to enjoy them later.
The return trip did not prove as difficult as we’d both expected. We moved down relatively quickly, overtaking a group of four women older than me! By the time we hit JBL, we were both starting to stumble from fatigue and my hip was giving me some trouble. John’s back wasn’t much better, so we rested for ten minutes before beginning the final 5 miles of the hike. This can be the most dangerous time of any hike since the accumulated fatigue of 8 hours of climbing and hiking is making each step an adventure. I call it ‘lazy toe’ time, since I find that I’m not picking up my feet quite as high as I need to or think I have and start tripping over small roots and rocks strewn throughout the trail.
We struggled back to camp by 6:30 p.m. having completed about 18 miles of hiking and 4,200 feet of elevation change. My cousin Donnie was waiting for us there. He was spending the night and would join us for a smaller climb the next day. He thoroughly enjoyed watching us struggle out of our gear and slip into the freezing waters of Meadows Brook for an attempt at a clean-up. We both wailed as we entered the icy cold water, but I was caked in mud and stunk from crusted sweat…as did the clothes I would need to wear for tomorrow’s climb…so I slipped in – clothed – to my neck.
We decided to drive the 30 minutes back to the Noonmark Café, since I was too bushed to cook. John was having difficulties walking…if you’ve ever seen folks hobble around after running an ultra-marathon…well…that was him. I downed a burger and fries, then finished John’s fries. I’d burned about 4,500-5,000 calories over the course of the day and was ravenous. I could have gone for a thick, chocolate milkshake, but there was no ice cream store in sight. We made our way back to camp and I spent a couple of hours writing in my journal and studying the maps from the climb we’d done. I’d need to return to this area to climb the three peaks I hadn’t gotten on this trip and didn’t want to make the same error in judgment on my return. John snored while I wrote and it was after midnight before I turned in. It was easily the toughest day I’d ever spent on the trails, but I’d done it well and was proud of my conditioning over the last 6 months.
Hike duration: Nine hours and 18 miles.
Training Heart Rate: 70-160, depending on terrain.
Calories burned during workout: 5,000.
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