Tuesday, August 31, 2010

An Average Day in the Woods

Last week we were on vacation.  We were in the Adirondack mountains in NY, a place I love more than anywhere in the world.  It's beautiful.  There are mountains and lakes and trees and all kinds of good nature.

The weather wasn't perfect to say the least while we were up there.  But the weather was decent for a hike.  Ryan and I love to hike and be in the woods.  Every year we end up doing the same hike, which is crazy because the Adirondacks are full of all kinds of different hikes with different views.

This time we decided to go up Pillsbury Mountain instead of our normal hike.  It's 1.6 miles to the top and classified as moderately difficult.  We figured not a problem. 

We grabbed our friend Todd and off we went.  We quickly discovered 3 things.  1 - Moderately difficult meant pretty much straight up.   2 - We were not in shape.  3 - Lots of rain in the previous days meant lots of slippery rocks.

But we pressed on.  We stopped a lot and enjoyed the different mushrooms (to look at not ingest) and even found a geocache.  We figured we would get to the top and see this gorgeous view.  That's what the Adirondacks are about.

After what seems like forever we got to the top and this is what we saw...


An abandoned cabin in a clearing with trees blocking the view.  But there was also this...



A fire tower 9 flights high with rickety platforms and sketchy chicken wire that got shorter the higher you went up to hold you in.  Oh and dark skies that were obviously going to produce rain.

I am not afraid of heights but Ryan is.  So I went first and quickly climbed to the top carrying my camera and my phone in my hand.  I planned on tweeting from the top because I am that nerd.  I made it up there and then looked down.  It was really high.  And the wind was gushing.  And it was cold.  And it was raining.  And it was super scary. Like I almost peed my pants scary.

After getting to the 8th level, Ryan quickly ran down.  He then started yelling at me to get down and something about a gust of wind taking me right off of the tower.  But I had to get pictures.  So here's my best shaky attempt at a view....


I can't imagine how much better this would have looked on a clear day.  But it was raining and I was pretty sure that I couldn't hold my phone, my camera and the 2 foot chicken wire fence at the same time.

I quickly shoved my camera and phone in my bra and inched my way down.  What took me 3 minutes to climb took me 15 minutes to descend.  I did stop at about level 4 to get a self portrait...


Nice hair.  And my eyes are watering like crazy.  And then we were happy to be on the ground....


And by the time we cautiously descended the steep climb back to the car we were exhausted and ready for a hot shower...

Well, everyone but this guy...


Way to go Tucker the Wonder Pug!  What other 11 year old pug could have made it up that mountain and still have a spring in his step at the bottom.

3 comments:

  1. when we were at the beach this weekend we climbed to the top of the Bald Head Lighthouse. Except my pregnant belly couldn't fit through the opening to the observation deck. All that climbing for nothing. At least you got an awesome picture!!

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  2. Wow - that was an adventure for sure. We did Pillsbury this summer when we were at Camp Of The Woods. It was a harder hike than we had anticipated too. Eric carried Jonah in the pack and I was so nervous he was going to slip.

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  3. Oooh, I love an adventure story!

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