In honor of National Teachers Day May 5th...

and yes, I realize it's still April (at least for a few more hours). I made this last week instead of waiting until the last possible minute....like 9:55pm Monday night...

I decorated this little gift box for Patrick's teacher for National Teachers Day. I figured I go for a vintage "feel" on this one.

I had some Daisy D's Vintage Kid paper, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for....and then I remembered I had an old, old, old primer-type reader with a 1958 copyright date. Perfect--until I realized someone (my brother!) had taken a black marker and scribbled on several pages. Luckily, I found this image on page 94. Unfortunately, the teacher and the boy in the yellow shirt did not have complete legs, so I had to get creative.I ended up using some Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug Lil' Suzie paper for the sides and the reverse side for the background on the top, Karen Foster Writing Paper, Heidi Swapp tape (red border), AC rub-ons, MM oval bookplate, Technique Tuesday date stamp, Staz-on, Pearl corner accent sticker are from Michael's, the medium scalloped box came from Wal-Mart.I filled the box with Smarties and will have Patrick bring it to school on Tuesday. Hope she likes it!

A Walk in the Park...

My longest one to date..not sure if it was 14.4 or 15 miles. All I know is that it went on and on and on, LOL! We left the house Saturday morning (4/18) at 5:40am and pulled into the Hiker's Parking area at 6:57am. We scooted up the Lake Road past the Ausable Club clubhouse and signed in. Brian snapped this picture of two young deer nibbling on something just outside the AMR cabin. Anyhoo, we headed up the Lake Road for a bit...maybe 2.5 miles of flat road walking until we got to the turn off for the trail to Nippletop.

We stopped at the Flume on Gill Brook--this would have made a nice picture except for that dang tree that got in the way.
Brian stopped some pretty little ferns--I mean, they were tiny! And, the rest of the plant was covered in snow and ice. It was funny to see this burst of lush greenery out of the snow.Elk Pass. This would be the last time I smiled for a while. Brian said this was going to get ugly and stay ugly for about 1.5 miles. And this time I believed him. Wowza. We didn't talk a lot on this stretch...no, not because I was mad at him for taking me up this trail. I had all I could do to keep up! Halfway up, I noticed a branch sticking out of a pine tree that looked like an ice axe. Weird. It must have been the thin air, LOL!
Indian Head from Elk Pass. Brian has a better pic from his Colvin Range hike from 2 years ago. It's still pretty neat to see.We (me and the gnome) made it to the junction about 11:50. Only .2 of a mile between me and High Peak #12.
There "she" is: Nippletop. This is looking at it from the bump. It only took about 5 minutes to get there, it just looked farther away. I could see the yellow disk from where I was standing.
Officially on #12

We had a quick lunch and rest break and then headed back to the junction. I think--don't quote me--that's Colvin and/or Blake in the background and the Great Range behind that, in the clouds.

A little trail humor! Notice the P's....
The trail over to Dial was nice, kind of rolling over the ridge. Halfway there, we passed a man and a boy (teen-aged). The man said it was steep in a few spots, but not difficult. Yay. Actually, it wasn't very steep for very long in the spot he was talking about. We thought we wouldn't see anyone else on the trail, but we passed three big burly guys just before Dial. This was the view from the "big rock" on Dial.
Yay! #13 The weather was getting squirrely at this point. We watched the clouds swirl and float on through for a few minutes. So long Dial! We're headed out!

We continued on to Bear Den as it started to spinkle--then turned into rain--and decided to put on ponchos. We looked like a couple of hunchbacks. From Bear Den to the Lake Road via the Leach Trail, it was 2.5 miles of rockiness, snow, ice, mud and wet leaves. Oh, I was so glad to see the road. I asked Brian to walk ahead and drive the truck in, but he wouldn't do it. Can't hurt to ask. We'll be back on a drier day to visit Colvin and Blake.

Colden--We're golden!

See the little white pointy thing in the center of the picture (next to the greenish-brown pointy thing)...that's Mount Colden...and that's where we went on Monday. Siobhan signed us in shortly after 8am and away we went. This is the view from Marcy Dam...only four miles away (from here).

We kept a good pace and arrived at Lake Arnold [also pronounced Lake Alllllnold] by 11am . We stopped for a quick lunch and potty break (I know, you really didn't need to know that). Tradition has it that when you pass the Lake on your way out, you get to say "I'lllllllll be back". Only 1.4 miles to the summit. Yay!

Ok, in this photo, we are on false summit #1, headed to false summit #2 and then to the official summit of Colden (white area above my head). Time to breakout the Easter M&Ms! Yummy.

Yay..I did it! I bagged #11 and coincidentally, the 11th highest High Peak--strange but true. This was an exceptional hike---not a cloud in the sky, perfect views of Marcy and Algonquin.
Here is our group shot with Mount Marcy in the background...(l to r) Eric, Chip, Siobhan, Me and Brian. This picture was taken by Jorge, who happened to be right behind us as we headed to the summit. Jorge is originally from El Salvador, currently lives in Ottawa and was visiting the Adirondacks on Monday. Muchas gracias Jorge!

Me and my personal trail master with Algonquin to the right.
This is me. This is me on Mount Colden. This is me on Mount Colden freezing my butt off.
Here we are eating and sunning ourselves on the rocks. It was gorgeous, but it was blustery too. To Chip and Siobhan: if you're reading this, please, please, please DO NOT OFFER MY HUSBAND HARD BOILED EGGS AGAIN...I have to ride home with him....thank you :) !

Ok, party's over...let's go!
Parting shot--we stopped at a rather large lean-to near Marcy Dam. It was huge! Wow--I can't wait to come back and claim it this summer. Poor Eric, he just had to sit down and rest. I think he felt pretty spent at this point. Luckily we only had 2.1 more miles to go to the truck.
Like I said, this was an awesome hike in many ways---not as bad as I anticipated (even after 12 miles)...and I noticed that my calves didn't burn. I still worked up a good sweat though. I'm looking forward to coming back to snag that lean-to and seeing Colden without snow this summer.

Wolfjaws Part 1

Woohoo! I love Spring--err--Winter hiking. Just a couple notes on our hike to the Wolf Jaws on Sunday. I signed us in around 7:20am--the parking lot had all of 5 cars--not a busy day, I guess. After making our final adjustments....Brian [insert evil and winking smiley here], we set off to the WolfJaws. Weather-wise, it was in the high 20's to lo 30's, cloudy with a light snow . Brian wanted to take the SouthSide Trail, over Johns Brook and up the slide---atleast that was the plan. Unfortunately, when we got to the Brook, there really was no safe place to cross---the water was just too high and too fast. So we lost about 45 minutes and ended up backtracking.

This is me in front of an old growth pine tree on the SouthSide Trail. Brian said it reminded him of the Grandmother Tree in the Pack Forest. If MacGuyver had brought some nylon rope, we could have figured out the diameter right there. Or he could have fashioned a measuring tape using twigs and pine needles. Totally possible. He can make just about anything!

Back to Yellow Trail....we followed it to the next sign-in box near the Interior Outpost (below). We're about 3.1 miles so far.

Thanks to this lovely bridge, we were able to cross Johns Brook and forge ahead.

View from the bridge
Not too far from the bridge--the fun begins! The hike to the lean-to was uneventful. This section had a gradual rocky incline, not too bad. Did a little rock-hopping and side stepping to avoid the mud. We crossed a little brook and encountered more snow than rocks and mud on the way to the lean-to. I figured it would be better to each lunch at the lean-to than to try to eat at the WolfJaws junction--wise choice. After a quick break of PBJ sun chips and hot chocolate, we met one of the two guys staying at the lean-to. He said it was pretty icy up there and there were some *technical* spots. Great. He made it to the summit, but his buddy didn't b/c he didn't have snowshoes or crampons. And he tried to snowboard down in some lower spots. All we had were microspikes and snowshoes.

Ok, so we made it to the Wolfjaw Notch. We were within a half mile of the summit to Lower Wolf Jaw and since it was closer, we did that one. That was the longest half mile I've ever been on! Holy Smokes it was icy and steep. I fell about 10 times, slipped, lost my grip and needed the assistance of an outstretched trekking pole more than once. I really had to worked for this one. After a few curse words, I made it to the summit. Yay! My 10th High Peak. There was no view to be had. We were in the clouds. Me and my guy---Mr. Black Balaclava and Mrs. Brown Beanie

I didn't want to spend too much time at the top because I knew it was going to be a nasty ride down to the junction.
I had to go down backwards several times so as not to break essential limbs (on my body, not the trees). I kept repeating what Peggy said going down Phelps "the trees are your friends, use them". I made a lot of friends on Sunday! I was actually wishing we had brought our crampons at this point. Note to self: the next time I'm near the WolfJaws, even on a 90 degree in August, I am going to bring my crampons!

The hike out and down the rest of the way again, was uneventful. And that's a good thing. I was never so happy to see the good ol' bootsucking mud on the trail back to the Garden. We stopped to feed a chippie, but he was playing shy--that's where this oopsy pic came from.

So I only got to go up Lower Wolf Jaw. That's ok, I'll be back to do Upper Wolf Jaw another day (hopefully with crampons). This adventure took us about 9 hours and 11.7 miles round-trip miles (including our backtracking, lunch and pit stops).

Crane Mountain

We ended our March hiking on Crane Mtn. in Johnsburg. Brian climbed it many many moons ago, but it was all new to me. I found it to be very rocky and steep and a little treacherous in some spots because it the ice, mostly in the woods. I found this accurate topo map on-line (should have book marked it!) with corresponding letters to mark the different features. "A" is the trailhead--there is parking, but the road was too slushy and icy to take that chance (even with 4WD) so we parked about .4 of a mile down the road.This is right around point "B" (give or take) aka Ankle Breaker Alley! This was rocky section where we crossed the run-off a few times. Very pretty and very rugged--the trick was trying to find and stay on dry rock.
This was a melting piece of ice over some leaves. As it melted, it looked like a delicate spider-web. Brian spotted that with his eagle eyes. I would have walked right by it.Point "C", I think was the intersection for the Pond trail and the Summit trail. Up to this point, we had only hiked .7 of a mile. We decided to go to the summit and then take the loop down and around to the pond. It was another equally challenging .7 mile of a mile to the summit. This was the first ladder. Not bad, maybe about 6 or 7 rungs. Not very imposing.

This was the second ladder. You know you've arrived (at the summit) when you see this bad boy. It was probably 20 feet high and offered a nice little foothold to the left. I went up first, got my feet set and hoisted myself up and over some rocks....and tried not to look down, LOL. Shortly after that, we reached the summit, had lunch and took a few pictures.
Point "D"--this is my mountain man on one of the overlooks enjoying the calm and solitude....and chocolate.

Facing west, just about ready to head back towards the trees Point "E" and follow the trail down to the pond Point "G". The rest of the hike was uneventful, although it was just as steep going down (minus the ladders). We crossed a small slide and brook which was neat...the rest of it was rocky and snowy, definitely a good place for microspikes. We ended up taking the longer loop and found ourselves at Point "H", a natural stonebridge just before Putnam Brook. Brian went down to investigate. Supposedly, you can go down and walk thru it in the summer when the water is low. we'll see about that. We walked out on the the old access road Point "I" back to the truck.

The round trip was about 5.1 miles. The whole thing including lunch and pictures took about 4.5 hours. I ended up with 29.8 miles this month--not bad but Brian still has about a million miles more than me. Crazy boy.

Three New Winter 46-rs!!

Chip, Siobhan and Brian finished their Winter 46 quest on Saturday, March 21st on Phelps Mountain. What a spectacular day...it couldn't have been any more gorgeous! The weather was perfect for this last winter hike---must have been that 50 cent rain poncho I had in my pack that kept the nasty weather away...kind of like hiker's garlic. We left the parking lot around 9am and made it to the summit in 2 hours and 45 minutes---awesome by my slow standards, LOL!.

Here are me and Uncle Paul navigating an icy section...poor guy didn't have any microspikes or stabilicers...but he made it with falling or slipping or sliding. What balance!Peggy waving "hello" with Siobhan's dad, Matt, in the back. We are so close to the summit, we can almost taste it.

The newest Winter 46-r's---with a custom made 2-of-a-kind road sign---bragging rights!
Here's Brian manning the grill. Not only did he have to haul the new Coleman stove up to the summit in his pack, but he got to cook lunch too! We had a fabulous feast of hot dogs and chili sauce, deli salads, strawberries, cheese, crackers, gingerbread men, beer, wine, and champagne

Our group shot (from L to R) Rich-Peggy's s/o, Matt-Siobhan's dad, Peggy, Siobhan, Chip, Paul, Brian and Me.

This was my second time up Phelp's and I have to say I enjoyed it better than the first. Truly an awesome way to spend the day with friends! Congrats guys and girl :) !