Sunny 46

We were ready and out the door by 7:30 with my phone full of podcast episodes and Quinn's tablet loaded with Herbie Rides Again and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.

After a short visit with Korra and Zuko, then a McDonald's stop and a Stewart's stop, we were on our way. Favorable road conditions put us at the Loj by 11am. We rented a pair of kid's snowshoes for $15. There's a surprising amount of paperwork to rent snowshoes. 

While I was filling it out, a group of hikers chatted with the ADK clerk about their hike. He asked them where they were going. They said Marcy.  I visibly started and looked up. He asked if they had snowshoes. They said no. He let them know snowshoes were required. They said, well then we do have snowshoes. The conversation went on like that for a bit. Later, I saw them exit the information center wearing snowshoes. 

Heading for Marcy.

At 11am.

Anyways, it took me a few minutes to get Quinn's MSR snowshoes attached. The straps were quite different from other shoes I've worked with. The base was a single piece of hard plastic with two straps over the top of his boots and one around the back. I eventually figured it out.

I had Quinn take point at first. It took him a few minutes to get acclimated to the snowshoes, but after that he was rolling. 

That is until the shoes started collecting snowballs. Quinn had to stop every fifty to a hundred meters or so to kick off the snow against a tree or let me bang them with my trekking pole. This was quite annoying to say the least and I was quite glad to have rented this kind of shoe before buying a pair. These are $80-$100 retail normally while other shoes with the metal frame and stretched fabric are actually the same price or cheaper.

As usual, Quinn had a nice time exploring hidden places and strange things while Sunny and I practiced patience.

It was a beautiful day. The trees were full of heavy, wet snow and they periodically shed their snow with dull thumps as we passed. The fun of the snow and the lack of bugs really gave Quinn the motivation to keep moving. As always, I kept him posted on our progress in a positive but honest way.

The ascent was fairly easy by most ADK standards. Quinn did ask for a status update a few more times, but really had no complaints. For the main climb, I let Sunny loose for a bit. He did a good job keeping to himself and recalling. However, Sunny has been barking a lot when he doesn't get immediate attention.  I'm not sure if there's a way to remedy this behavior.

Quinn made an attempt at the first butt slide of the day on a short downhill portion on the way up. No dice.

As we gained elevation, the air did get colder as suspected, but it was still quite comfortable for us mammals. The big difference here was that the trees here were retaining their snow. It was magical. I don't think Quinn has ever been in conditions like this. I was more impressed than he was if I'm being honest but that's okay.

We were really gaining elevation now. He was kicking butt in the snowshoes despite the unfavorable snowshoeing conditions.

There is a bit of a steep wall to the ultimate summit with ladders. The snow here was packed down almost to ice and it was impossible with snowshoes. I put Quinn's spikes on and he scrambled up with ease. He went up and entertained people while I had a go at it myself. I was about to switch to boots when a couple of hikers came down an alternate way to my right. When they'd descended, Sunny and I picked our way up that way and rejoined Quinn.

The clouds were just starting to skid back overhead when we claimed the summit, but the day was still bright and beautiful. There was almost no wind to speak of and the air was still relatively warm. Quinn asked if we could stay on the summit as long as we want and I said yes. He gave a huzzah to that.

A ski group led by a guide from the Mountaineer was up there enjoying the view when we arrived. They agreed to take a photo of us before they headed down the ski trail.

Thanks to the cheeseburger I bought him, Sunny struck a majestic pose in front of Colden with Marcy looming beyond as well as faraway Basin poking out beyond Haystack.

Sunny had gotten quite a few pets on the way up. He got lots more love on the summit from the many people who came and went while we lounged up there. There were lots of families out on the trail today. We met more than one group from Pennsylvania. I suspect they have a similar Winter break as New York.

The day was absolutely gorgeous and the views were stunning, though photos don't do the variation of light and shadow justice. We had an expansive view from Phelps to the East all the way to Lost Pond Peak and beyond to the West. Obviously the star of the show (as depicted in the picture above) is the MacIntyre range and Colden. Although not depicted in this view, we could actually see the Santanonis which surprised me considering the spotty cloud cover.

In all, we spent about an hour on the summit. Sunny and I snacked and chatted with people. Quinn relaxed and ate his snack, but not for long. Another family with a 6 year old boy found the summit and those two were thick as thieves for a while. We had a long, lovely chat with them for a bit before we all decided it was time to head down. 

During our chat, the family had let me know that the toboggan slide at Lake Placid had closed for the afternoon and would reopen at 7pm. They weren't sure about the speed skating oval, but they thought it was reopening at 4pm. I thanked them for that info and conferred with Wendy via chat. Since Quinn was on vacation, we decided it'd be fine to stay in town for a few hours for activities. I asked Quinn if that sounded fun and he was all for it.

The butt sliding was absolutely choice. The short trail has several spots where you really get some speed. I went first on every slide in case I had to catch Quinn on his way down. Honestly, Quinn has great instincts and really did a great job steering on the way down. There was only one very steep section with a blind curve where I stopped him on the way down. He might have been fine, but better safe than sorry. I let him slide the rest of the half of the slide after that. 

The folks we passed on the way down were tickled pink by the fun the three of us were having. For my part, I was just glad I hadn't decided to take us up this way. Despite being shorter, I think it would have taken us longer to try and scale some of these slippery slides of wet snow.

Quinn was extremely disappointed when the butt sliding was done. He tried to make some more downhill portions work after the main descent, and although his heart was in the right place, it was futile. Still, there was lots to see and enjoy on the way down bottom half of the mountain.

Back at Heart Lake, Quinn got to stand on a frozen lake for the first time. As I said, we got down the mountain in 50 minutes which was a testament to the fun we were having.

As we wandered back to the car, Quinn spotted an arcade and begged to play some games. After a chat with the owner, they let us in with the caveat that Sunny keeps his hands to himself and I'd be responsible if he didn't. I agreed and sent Quinn into the arcade with a bucket full of tokens and a smile on his face.

After the arcade, we moved the car closer to the oval and watched the speed skaters a bit. It was still only just after 5pm and we were both getting quite hungry, so we started walking downtown. 

We didn't make it very far. We noticed that people were out skating on Mirror Lake. Moreover, it was right next to the toboggan chute. Quinn got very excited indeed and we both completely forgot about food and went back for his skates. Quinn had a blast for the next hour or more skating back and forth on the ice talking to other kids and showing off Sunny. I chatted with some grown-ups. I even talked to another couple from Pennsylvania who had ridden the dog sled today which they said was quite the unique experience.

As night was falling, a skid steer with a spinning brush arrived to clean the ice. Quinn announced that he was actually ready to eat now and I agreed. It was 6:20, a full 40 minutes before the toboggan would open. I didn't press the issue. I think we'd both had enough fun and all Quinn could think about was burger and fries.

We stopped at Adirondack Pub. 2 hour wait. We stopped at Big Slide. 2.5 hour wait. We stopped at the Forty Six. 45 minute wait. The latter seemed kind of fancy anyways. It seemed odd to me that everything was so busy on a Monday but Wendy reminded me of the holiday and Winter break which made complete sense. There is a lot of lively activity in Lake Placid on the week of President's day; I highly recommend it for a vacation. 

After a stop at Stewart's for coffee and another burger for Sunny, we were on our way again.

By the time we reached the High Peaks South rest area, Quinn had the 100-yard stare that I often get when I'm tired and hangry.  We both got a snack from the vending machine to tide us over until the Warrensburg McDonald's. We got home deep past bed time which just made Quinn more excited and over-tired. He chatted up Mom about his day while I unloaded the car, then we sent him up to bed.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. I'm glad Wendy helped convince me not to change our plans at all. We had a blast. 

This completes the Lake Placid 9er for Sunny and me. We kind of did the challenge backwards, but that's okay. 

I am so proud of Quinn's endurance and his instincts. He did a great job today. This makes his 2nd peak of the challenge. I definitely can see him using this challenge for the actual intended purpose of gearing you up for bigger adventures. I'm excited about sharing them with him. Perhaps we'll plan another day in Lake Placid before the end of the season and climb up Cobble Hill, then tackle Baxter and Big Crow later in the warmer months.

For my part, I have a hike up Lower Wolfjaw with some of the guys this weekend. I believe Sunny will stay home for that one, but I'll try to get him out on Monday before hockey.