Cascade Mountain: Frankie's First High Peak

Cascade

4,098 feet  |  ranked 36/46 in height  | 2nd peak climbed (repeat)

Last year at Labor Day weekend we rented a big house in Keene Valley with Jason and Susie and their girls.  The house had a huge wrap-around deck with views of Giant Mountain.  Frankie immediately began asking to hike it: "I want to climb Gigantic."  Giant as a stand-alone (without Rocky Peak Ridge) is generally accepted as one of the easier of the Adirondack High Peaks.  However, it is still about 6 miles round trip with more than 3,000 feet elevation gain.  Since Frankie was four at the time, and hadn't yet climbed any High Peaks, we deferred.  I told him I wanted him to climb Cascade Mountain first, and if he liked that, we would consider taking him up Giant.  And he did not forget... he's still talking about "Gigantic."  So this year at Labor Day weekend, we rented a little house in Keene with views of Cascade Mountain.  And Frankie climbed his first High Peak!

North Country Trail: Spruce Pond to Jones Hill

This summer has been hot.  Not just regular old summer hot, but really freaking ungodly hot.  HOT hot.  I've mentioned this before (broken record alert!), but heat is not my friend.  I am immeasurably thrilled that the forecast for later this week and into the weekend is for significantly cooler weather.  But between appointments and birthday parties and non-compatible travel, it has been far too long since I'd been out hiking, and I just couldn't wait another week to get in the woods.  Since I knew temperatures were going to exceed 90 degrees today, I wanted a shorter hike, so we went with Option 3 from the hiking menu I made Frankie a few weeks ago.

North Country Trail: Shackham Road to Tinker Falls

On a lark, I wrote up a "hiking menu" last night after Frankie went to bed.  I included some brief descriptive information about four different sections of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT) and showed it to him in the morning.  While he ate breakfast, he read through the menu and announced he wanted to do hike number 2.  This was welcome news!  All the options were of interest to me, of course, or I wouldn't have included them.  However, I was most looking forward to this one, even though we hiked the adjacent section of trail last week.  Options 1 and 4 follow the abandoned Lehigh Valley Railroad, and as a result, are quite flat.  They are also located in a more developed landscape, closer to roads and houses and such.  Option 3 is a lovely hike that is also adjacent to last weeks hike (on the other side); Frankie and I did it last summer and will certainly repeat it at some point.  Morgan Hill State Forest, especially, and the abutting Labrador Hollow Unique Area, has a remote rugged aspect that really appeals to me, and Option 2 was all new territory for me.

North Country Trail: Tinker Falls & Jones Hill

Bolstered by our successful mini-adventure at Clark Reservation on Wednesday, I was finally ready excited to head out for a summer hike in Central New York.  I gave Frankie the choice of a few different sections of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT), showing him maps and pictures from previous hikes.  He decided he wanted to go to Tinker Falls, which is part of Labrador Hollow Unique Area, then hike up to the hang glider launch pad on Jones Hill.  Last year when we hiked here, we took the service road up to Jones Hill, but this year we stuck to the blue-blazed NCT the whole way up and down.  The NCT does follow a short section of the service road, but the majority of the hike is on a narrow single-track in the woods.  It was so charming, I question why we ever went the other way!

Clark in July

This was my very first hike since returning from Scotland three weeks ago, an inexcusable lapse that has lead, I am ashamed to say, to no small amount of moping on my part.  I have been extremely discouraged by the horrendous heat and humidity, and compared to the cool perfection of the Scottish climate, it has seemed even more unpleasant than normal.  The day we flew home there was a 40+ degree temperature differential from morning in St. Andrews to evening in Syracuse.  Then, just when I promised myself I'd get out that weekend, no matter what the weather and enjoy myself (dammit!), I was dispatched to western New York for three days of invasive plant surveys.  Field work means very long days, even when it's 90 degrees, so after arriving home late Friday, I was feeling more like crawling into a dark cave than heading back out into the beastly weather.

East Lomond Circuit, Falkland, Scotland

With our vacation rapidly winding down, this was to be our last hike in Scotland.  I was a little worried when Erwin developed cold symptoms yesterday, and more so when he was slow to rise this morning.  However, he finally emerged and managed to pull himself together.  He stuffed his backpack full of tissues and we set out for Falkland, a 35-minute drive from our rental in St. Andrews.  We arrived in time for lunch at the Covenanter, a charming little inn across from the Bruce Fountain and Falkland Parish Church, right in the center of town.  It began raining as we finished our meal, so after settling up, we paused in the empty bar to pull on our rain gear.

Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye

Since we are leaving Skye tomorrow to drive to St. Andrew's, I had hoped to do another big hike today.  However, Erwin confessed he was stressed about the long drive, due to some car trouble we'd had on the drive from Edinburgh, and was hoping today could be mellower, more laidback.  So we lollygagged around in Portree a bit in the morning, enjoying another delicious breakfast at the cozy Cafe Arriba and poking into some shops before setting out for the Fairy Glen, which had been on our radar all along as a place we wanted to visit.  I am so glad we didn't miss out!