"You know...the 'Miracle on Ice'?"

Saturday, September 10, 2011

We were on the road a little before 8 a.m. for a nine-hour drive to Keene Valley, N.Y. and our camping destination point. I was right on time as I exited Rt. 87 heading into Keene when I came up against a detour sign. I know the roads in this area…because there are only two…and knew that this detour was long and not very promising. We made our way east and north and then back south to Keene only to find that the road and trails to the campsite and peak we were looking to climb had been washed away from the flash floods that had devastated the area from Hurricane Irene. My mind raced for a back-up plan to my carefully prepared itinerary and with deft mental gymnastics, came to a quick conclusion. “Shit…now what are we going to do?” The girls…not terribly concerned…had nothing to offer. “We can camp in another area, but we’ll be next to the car and won’t be able to have a fire. It’s in the High Peaks area where they’re prohibited,” I said as a way of explanation. Hiking in with packs was never high on their bucket list and they readily agreed. Their bigger concern was over the peak we would be climbing and how many miles of hiking would be involved. “Maybe we’ll do Colden. It’s only a few miles,” I said.

“Colden? Yeah…I’d say 7 miles to the peak…14 round trip,” the guy at the Information Center at the Adirondack Loj said…with the girls listening. “That’s not happening. We need something closer, dad,” Heidi said without hesitation. I’d been on Wright Mt. last summer, but it had been raining and foggy and I hadn’t seen a thing so thought maybe we should try that. “Trail map says its about 3.4 miles to the peak,” I said which they agreed was doable.

Evidence of the flooding was visible wherever we went. Apparently, people had been trapped in the Loj for four days as water crested and damaged the bridge on the only road out of the area. Trail bridges had been washed out throughout the region and would make many trips difficult. Ours did not have any major water to cross, so we were good. We went to our campsite and had a spaghetti dinner before driving into Lake Placid so the girls could get a feel for an Olympic town. “You guys ever heard of the ‘Miracle on Ice’?” They looked at me with blank expressions. Why would they know? Though the victory of the USA hockey team over the Soviet Union may rank as one of the biggest events in the history of sports in this country, it happened in 1980…eight years before Heidi was born. They gave me a ‘that’s a nice story, grandpaw’ look and continued to window shop the stores along the main drag of this scenic little town.

We returned to our site and climbed into our tents on a clear but chilly night. I fell asleep quickly but later woke to the sound of four or five coyotes calling to the night.