Sunny 46

  My friend, Jay invited us on hike into the woods for some good food and companionship. The goal was to hike into Wolf Pond off Blue Ridge Road (in Minerva according to Google Maps) and stay for a few hours while John cooked us some burgers and cheese steaks.  We couldn't resist the offer.  Sunny was in a crazy mood and ready to go! I had to put the leash on his chest hook to avoid being dragged the entire two and a half miles to the lean-to. The hike was very pretty, indeed. The first two thirds of it were gorgeous pines with very little in the way of brush obstructing our view. The trail was mostly dry with only a few soggy pits along the way. All of the actual crossings had extremely well-maintained bridges for crossing.  There were a few ups and downs to the hike, but nothing really major. The later part of the journey felt a bit close as the brush was more overgrown and thicker. Jay brought along Zuko who is Sunny's very good friend. In this photo, you can real...

  With a small backpacking trip coming up, and great weather in the forecast, I felt it was a good idea to get some time in the woods with Quinn.  Although I had already done it earlier in the year as a winter hike with Sunny: and in the summer as part of my buddy's bachelor party: I'd never doneit with Quinn. This would be his third Lake George peak and I figured he'd be okay with the five miles round trip. My original plan was to take the easy path up, using the Lake George Conservancy trail to the Blue Trail and back. My man was in good spirits. The breeze was a little nippy, but we had the gear to handle it. I did forget his gloves at home, but his hockey gloves were in the car and we had an extra pair of socks if needed.  Quinn took his first slug of Adirondack Mountain water. My buddies warned me that such a thing can get dangerously addictive and expensive! I did my best to remain patient as Quinn delighted in throwing rocks and exploring along the way. It is impor...

  A friend of Jay's was coming up from Jersey to do Big Slide and Sunny and I joined them. We'd already done Big Slide last year , but I was super fine with hiking it again and I suspect it won't be the last time.  The weather wasn't going to be great, but it also wasn't going to be crazy. A hike with friends is a great time even without summit views, so I was excited for the opportunity. With craziness at work and just life in general, I hadn't been out to run for a while, so I was a little conerned about my fitness. Fortunately, Big Slide isn't a monster hike. We started up the immediate climb. I was puffing pretty hard, but it was managable. I'd started the hike wearing a synthetic fleece jacket and duff, but I removed those pretty quickly as I was getting overheated. The going was a bit easier after that. As usual, Sunny was in great spirits and pulled me up the mountain. We knew the ceiling would be below the summit thanks to the Mountain Forecast ...