Official member of the 40 something club...

Painful, but true. I don't feel older........ah, maybe it will hit me tomorrow. My parents now have 6 of their 7 children in their 40's. Oh Lordy! What's the world coming to??!!

This was an uneventful birthday---and I mean that in a good way. My wonderful husband came home this morning with a dozen red roses [insert long aaaaaawwww here] AND on Christmas morning, he surprised me with an early birthday gift:
Altas Elektra 9 series kit. Mine are the ones with the purple "E"! He went to EMS in Placid and couldn't pass on this sweet deal. And here are roses :) ....he's a keeper!!

And not to be out done, Sue gave me 21 ounces of purple and yellow personalized M&Ms...Happy 40th Birthday Honeybutter. That's her nickname for me since I have been caught redhanded eating SueBee Honeybutter right out of the container on more than one occasion.....man, that is good stuff!

The best surprise I got today was a little card left on my dresser at some wee-hour this morning...from the sneaky elves that live below me, Elizabeth and Patrick. It's a cute little card telling me that "I will never be old to them". I will treasure it always and will make sure it finds its way to the fireproof safety box, cuz this one is a keeper too!

Algonquin...is was brut-iful!

That's a new word I made up. It's a combination of brutal and beautiful. I successfully* completed my first wintery type hike in wintery type weather with wintery type gear. Unfortunately, it's late fall here in the Adirondacks, so this does not count as a winter hike...oh well. It was good practice, right?!

[successfully*--as defined by me means that I made it to the intended summit and back to the parking lot without the assistance of a helicopter, Ranger, sled dogs, etc. ]

Brian and I met up with Chip and Siobhan at the Adk Loj a little before 8:00am. We repacked our bags for easy access to necessary gear and made that all important last potty break in a heated restroom. By 8:30, we were set and ready to go. Shortly after the first intersection, we strapped on the snowshoes (I don't have my own snowshoes yet so C&S let me borrow a spare pair--thanks guys!). I've never worn snowshoes in my life, let alone hiked a total of six miles in them so this was truly monumental, LOL!

It was probably 10 to 12 degrees the majority of the hike, so the tube to my camelback froze. My Propel was getting icy but still drinkable. I spent the better part of this section huffing and puffing, trying really hard not to hold up everyone else. We stopped the junction of Wright & Algonquin to take a lunch break. I was so hungry!!!! I managed to wolf down my tuna salad, a few slices of French bread and cheddar cheese and a Twix bar that didn't freeze because I had it in an inside pocket. Of course, as soon as we stopped I started to get cold...really cold. A hiker who was taking his lunch break at the same spot said it was pretty windy at the top and that we might need goggles and face masks.....Oh good Lord, what have I gotten myself into?

At this point, it was .9 of a mile to the summit. I kept chugging away, taking my little "be still my beating heart" breaks---oh, every 20 feet. As soon as we got out of the treeline, I felt the wind! Brian and I stopped behind a rock,oops, I mean erratic to put on the goggles and adjust the balaclavas. It was a slow go for me at this point since my feet were extremely cold and had been since the lunch break. After a little encouragement, I made to the summit. The wind was whipping---someone estimated it was blowing 20+ miles and hour and the temp was maybe 0. We had our picture taken on the rock with the survey marker. I didn't want to spend too much time up there but I finally decided to do something about my felt. Brian helped me out of the snowshoes and boots. I ended up having to put some hot hand packs in my boots hoping they would eventually work. We started down, slow but sure. I could not wait to get back in the treeline---relative warmth and comfort, LOL!

The funnest part of the hike (....fun? goggles, whipping wind, possible frostbite, sore thighs...) was the glissading: sliding down the steep sections on your fanny with your feet up. I know Brian has done this before, but I had not). Anyhoo, we took a well deserved break at the same junction...only 3 miles back to the car..woohoo! I did ok and was keeping up until the last .9 of a mile. My hip/leg/groin muscles were beginning to ache so it was slow going. It was after 4pm so I had to get it together and get out before it got dark(er). Brian and I made it to the parking lot a few minutes before 5pm, dropped our gear at the car and walked to the Loj for some hot chocolate and Siobhan's pumpkin bread. Yay! I did it.

I went to bed last night really sore and when I woke up this morning, I didn't feel too bad. Both of my big toes still feel weird--a little numb really. My neck is achy from the weight of the pack, but other than that, I'm feeling ok. There's hope for me yet!

Bear cans and sunsets

What do they have in common? You'll see.

Traditionally, the couple celebrating their 15th anniversary receives gifts of crystal....in the form of, I don't know, wine glasses maybe, a vase, a bowl, a chandelier. This year, instead of crystal, MIL & FIL gave the gift of ABS plastic...in the form of a bear can. Very practical in my book! Now, when we want to do an over-night in the woods, we don't have to wait for the Loj to open in order to rent one. Little things like this make me very happy! Now, our bear can will not be filled with dehydrated food if we can help it. It will carry a nice assortment of combos, carmel corn rice cakes, ramen noodles, fun size candy bars....

On to sunsets....the kids looked out the front window yesterday just as it was starting to get dark---at 4:30?! One of them yelled out, "Oh wow--look at the sky! It's pink!" Holy smokes, it was pink! I grabbed the camera and ran down to the dock so I could get an unobstructed picture of the pink sunset. Just gorgeous and the lake was like glass. By this time, pink was mixing with orange, yellow and a purplish haze from the clouds. Anyhoo, it was pretty and little things like this make me happy too...and it was free.

Happy Anniversary...

to us...Happy Anniversary to us....ok, I'll stop singing now b/c if you've ever heard me sing, you would ask, er, beg me to stop! Anyhoo, today is our 15th anniversary! Woohoo! We took a pre-anniversary hike yesterday with our friend, Pam, on the Tongue Mountain Range.

We planned on doing a "flat" 10 mile loop--more like a walk. Then, they toyed with the idea of doing the 13 mile loop--but they didn't think we'd be out before dark. So, they decided on this hike out to First Peak and then a leisurely bushwhack back to the Blue Trail. By "they"--I mean Brian and Pam. They actually didn't ask my opinion nor did we officially vote on the change of plans [insert evil laughing smiley here].

We started around 9:30-ish at the Clay Meadow Trailhead. There was something for everyone on this first section of the trail--dry spots, muddy spots, rocky spots, snow and ice. I wanted to try out the microspikes so I put them on, only to have to take them off after 50 feet. Oh well, atleast they worked. We made it to Fifth Peak a little after 11am and had a quick lunch--met up with a hunter--packed up and proceded to the next peak. Some sections on the way down were very steep, while some other sections were icy--THANKS PAM (just busting on ya!!) We made it to French Point Mountain but didn't stay very long. On to First Peak! I'm not sure what time we got there, but we had another snack break/potty break and photo op. The views were gorgeous since the sun finally came out! We followed the trail for a bit and then started to bushwhack in a north-westerly direction. It wasn't as bad as I thought or had anticipated, except for the spot where we had to go down this very thin strip of ledge on our fannies--which, looking back, wasn't really that bad. Anyhoo, after a while we picked up the Blue Trail (yay!) and headed out. We made it back to the car about 4:15 after 10 miles, give or take a tenth. Surprisingly, I was not sore this morning...at all!

I'm glad we did this hike b/c I really need the conditioning. Thanks Pam!

Thanksgiving Day Hike...

I was invited to go hiking with the "boys" on their annual Thanksgiving Day hike this year. Trailmaster Brian decided to check out the Three Sisters (a group of three mountains, I think all less than 2,000 ft---on the old Hickory Hill ski area property). We followed a brook and a snow mobile trail and then we had to bushwhack to the summit. Bushwhacking is not my favorite thing to do on a hike, but this wasn't too bad. In reality, it was pretty easy since all I had to do was follow Chad's big feet in the snow :). We met up with a hunter near the summit and he confirmed that we were on Bald Mountain. The actual summit was covered in trees so we went down a little on the other side to the ledges. I stayed in the tree line because it was getting windy and I was getting cold from not moving. After a few minutes, we moved to a different spot that Paul found. We could see the road going up to camp and the golf course. Anyhoo, the sun came out so we were able to get some nice pics. I'm not sure how far we hiked--maybe a hair under 4 miles round trip. We made good time coming down---I'm not sure about their feet, but mine stayed warm and dry. An all-around good hike. Two thumbs up! Of course, the alternative title for this post could have been "You break trail and I'll break wind".