Feeding the AddiKtion

“Well the first step to recovery form addiction is to admit that you have a problem. Hi, my name is lumberzac and I'm addicted to camping and hiking in the Adirondack Park. Well today I feel off the wagon. This morning I jumped in the car and headed north to Wilmington to hike Whiteface and Esther Mountains.

The trail started off flat and well used. At about .75 miles the trail grade steadily increased until I reached the top of Marble Mountain at 2.2 mi. At Marble Mountain the trail leveled off for about 100 yards or so before the grade increased again. At about 1.4 mi. I reached Lookout Mountain. At Lookout Mountain the first glimpses of the summit of Whiteface could be seen through the trees. The trail leveled again after Lookout Mountain. At about .25 mi. from Lookout I came across a large cairn that marked the herd path to Esther. I continued toward Whiteface. The trail stayed fairly level for about .4 mi. after the cairn. The trail steepened once again. I continued about another half mile until the trail met with the Whiteface Memorial Highway. Once I left the road again the trail became basically a ridge walk along open rock to the summit. When I reached the summit I was greeted by about 40 to 50 people who took the lazy way up by driving to the summit. In addition to the tourists that seemed to be occupied by taking each other's pictures next to the summit sign after the initial shock of my presence, was a mountain steward. The steward asked, " What trail did you take?" I told him the Wilmington Trail. He then asked, "How long did it take you?" I told him 2 hours 20 minutes to hike the 5.3 miles up. He responded, "man that's fast. I don't think I could hike down that fast. You must be in good shape." I rather enjoyed the complement. After walking around the summit for a while, taking pictures, I headed back down the trail to hike Esther.

The heard path to Esther was very easy to follow. So much that I began to think I was on the wrong trail. The terrain was easy going and before too long I reached the summit. I was greeted on the summit by two groups of three. One group was standing at the high point of the summit with food spread all over the place. Someone spoke up and said, "It's a Party. We have someone who has completed his 46." So I stood around on the summit for a while shooting the breeze. I was offered a shot of Vodka that I couldn't decline. One of the groups decided to hike out. I stayed on the summit still swapping stories. An elderly fellow the appeared on the summit. It turned out he was 71 years old and still hiking mountains. I hope I still am at that age. The second group of three decided to hike out. I took a few snap shots and left. I caught up with the group of three about half way back to the Wilmington Trail. We then hike hiked together to the main trail where we went our separate ways. (Congratulations Tim on your 46). I then hike back to my car and drove home.
Total distance - 12.2 miles
Total gain - about 4410 feet”

“Nope, you sound fine to me!”

“

This should fix it”

“Ah', all better now.... Whats the deal with the Times Nude Roman type face?”

“No, he is NOT fine! He sucks because he can just "jump in the car" to hike in the Adirondacks, while it's a journey for the rest of us. just kidding, sort of.

Nice report and pics zak, but you still suck. ;o)”

“Anyone who lives that close to the Dacks is.... is...

pretty damn lucky!”

“I suppose it would cheese everyone off if I mentioned that I live only 10 minutes from the blue line. :o)>”

“Good pictures dude it looks like you have backpacking heaven by you I wish I could say that.


8)”

“Zac,

When you go back to finish the Santanoni Range (U.S. Thanksgiving?), I'd like to tag along. I've tried these three four times, summer and winter, and never found the herd path.

These are my last three for the 46. Artex, Tea et al. might be interested.”

“Peak bagger!”

“I've been called worse... much worse.”

“gremlin,
I’m not sure if I’ll be returning to the Santanoni Range this year. I definitely know it won’t be hiking from Oct. 18 through Dec. 7, because this is deer season and I’ll be hunting almost every weekend. I’ll be hiking the Northville Placid Trail from Aug. 29 through Sept. 7. That leaves only 5 weekends left for backpacking. I know one of those weekends I am going to reserve for trout fishing, probable the last weekend in Sept. I’m also hoping to hike the Great Range one of those weekends (going in from Keene Valley going over Roster Comb all the way over to Marcy). Most likely I won’t be able to get back over to the Santanonis until next spring. Sorry to disappoint. If you’re still going to go during Thanksgiving try looking at this web site,
Adirondack
Journey
This site has some pretty good info on it. I can also send you some maps and GPS waypoints for the area if you need them. If you want to go in early Oct. I would be happy to go.”