That Time I Hiked A Mountain

This past weekend Erik and I disconnected from the world of technology and work and headed north to the Adirondacks.

Erik was excited for a Jeep show taking place on the way up in Saratoga Springs and I was excited for the wine and fancy cheese in the cooler that had been packed for Saturday night. After just over two hours of driving we reached the Jeep Show, or what was supposed to be a Jeep Show. Actually, we pulled into a Jeep dealership and awkwardly drove around a bit confused. Erik headed inside in hopes that maybe we had the wrong address and maybe this was the address of a sponsor but in actuality the show was Sunday and it was most certainly Saturday. 

So with that we headed up to our campsite early to check in and head for a swim. Our campsite lacked the Adirondack feeling since it was situated directly in front of a swamp. It was barely the afternoon and the mosquito's were out and biting. There was thunder rumbling in the distance and after a long walk to the beach we realized that there were no lifeguards. Thunder = closed beach (surprise, surprise). This is the second camping experience I've had and both times we have had less than stellar neighbors. I referred to our neighbors as tent city (really 4 large tents for 2 couples and 3 small children - two toddlers and a infant. Plus they had a tent for dining, lounging and chopping wood and everything was covered with tarps too). The best part about these neighbors besides their tent city was the fact that they enjoyed playing their music so loudly for everyone to enjoy. My personal favorite was the explicit rap mixed with heavy metal, especially a song whose lyrics consisted almost solely of "die b***h, die." 

We eventually constructed campfire flat bread pizzas for dinner and s'mores and then decided to head out for a walk around the campground to work off some dinner because we were in the beginning stages of a food comatose. About a mile into our walk the distant thunder quickly turned into a complete downpour. We ran back to our tent but by the time we arrived we were completely soaked and ended up just standing in the rain to avoid getting the jeep and our tent soaked too.

You are probably wondering were the photographic evidence of this all is - the camera was in the tent and the inside of the tent got wet...and so did the camera. 

While the majority of our stuff got rather wet thanks to someone (definitely not me) leaving the tent somewhat open we were able to scrounge up some dry clothes for the night. At least we had wine and cheese to make up for the day.

Sunday morning we were up early, to dry off our hiking shoes and clothes because they were soaked, and headed out to a hike we had planned the week before (Crane Mountain). 

After drying off over a vent in the Jeep we had a working camera again!

Fun fact - I have never hiked a mountain before this.

After driving up a steep road we made our way to the start point and started our hike. The path quickly changed from dirt and rocks to full on big rocks. 

This was fun...after I got over the initial I'm going to die panic

Oh and Erik likes to climb rocks but since he had the camera tucked in his bag during his climbs we had to stage his shot elsewhere.

We made sure to stop along the way and follow some of the "herd" paths that lead to some pretty cool views too.

It's hard to get a picture with your faces and the scenery

Finally after climbing a rather large ladder (yeah, not frightening at all) we reached the top of the mountain and were greeted with a very large crowd of people. I guess I never pictured reaching the top of a mountain and seeing a large group of people there too. So instead of awkwardly standing with the crowd we made our way to a quiet ledge overlooking the view and had lunch in the peace and quiet. That was probably one of my favorite lunch spots ever. 

Luckily after lunch the crowds disappeared and we were able to snag a picture from the top.

Downpour - no hairdryer = amazing hair day

And then a man with a baby on his back took this picture because apparently people feel bad for you after watching you try to get the perfect shot, you know trying to get one with a nice ratio of face to scenery view. (We actually didn't even realize he was there watching or else we would have asked). 

Hiking pants are so very flattering.

I was pretty happy with the hike until I realized there was no gondola ride down or anything.

I don't see the rescue plane..."Erik where is plane??"

Fact: I cried on the way down but in all fairness it's because I fell...I would show you the bruise but it's somewhere that is definitely not blog appropriate.

But yeah, the hike down did trashed my legs. I was quite excited when we finally reached the Jeep again but that excitement quickly faded when Erik realized our front brake line had a hole which meant no front brakes. It was a very long drive home.

So the thing about old standard jeeps is that the brake lines are not connected and do not share the same brake fluid reserve which is great because you can limp home on just your back set super cautiously of course. Plus the no cell phone service did not and being on a mountain side did not allow for any calls to AAA. It's times like these I'm glad Erik knows things about cars because I was in a full we are most definitely going to die OMG mode.