Phelps

May 19, 2012

When we finished our lunch atop tabletop, we descended and decided to summit Phelps. We began around 3:00. I had done phelps a while ago and was surprised at how much easier it felt this time. I feel so fortunate to have friends who are willing to go into the woods nearly every weekend with me because hiking never feels like a task, it’s just what we do.

The ascent to Phelps was pretty steep but the path is marked and it’s impossible to mess up. At the base, I had decided to run ahead of the boys because they typically beat me to the top and I didn’t want to get left behind this time. The traffic on Phelps was pretty heavy considering that the sun was gorgeous. It was a good time of day to summit because the temperatures were beginning to cool down a bit.

Around 5:00 or 5:30, I summited Phelps and waited for the boys for about 15 minutes. Phelps had a false summit but no plate or sign. There was a perfect spot on a rock where I was able to sun for a bit and have a quick snack.  The view was spectacular. The nice thing about summiting so late was that most people were descending at that time so we had the whole summit to ourselves. Again, It was a perfect day for sprawling out on a rock and sunning.

We returned to our campsite at the dam very hot, sweaty and terribly hungry. We had laughed when packing our food because it seemed like we were definitely overpacking but we ate nearly everything that evening and had a chance to watch some of the sunset over the dam. It was a beautiful, perfect weekend that we finished off with some bouldering at McKenzie ponds and not one, but TWO stops for ice cream.

Tabletop

May 19, 2012

Myself along with my friends Bubba, Josh, and Dave drove in the night before to stay in Lake Placid at my usual spot (the base of Whiteface mountain). It’s one of my favorite places to be because the camping is free, it’s easy to find when you roll in at 1:30 A.M and there’s a great waterfall right nearby.

We were all pretty exhausted from working, driving, dropping Molly dog off at Bubba’s parents’ house and we woke up a lot later than intended. In fact, we started a lot later than we intended to. Sadly, I have absolutely no sense of direction (isn’t that encouraging to hear when a girl is attempting to summit mountains with or without people?). I have been to the loj many times, but got us lost and we ended up at the other end of the park.

We started the Van Hovenberg trail around 11:45 am. I was a little bit nervous because our intention was to hit both Phelps and tabletop and I wasn’t sure if time-wise, we would make it. We hiked into the dam and set up camp. The camping areas were pretty full but there was one last spot, hidden by some brush that we think people were overlooking.

We decided to do tabletop first because it was a herd path and if things were going to get messed up, we wanted to make sure we had time to finish the more difficult endeavor. The weather was incredibly perfect. A little hotter than I would prefer for optimal hiking but the sun felt amazing. With my little daypack it was definitely tolerable. I was really surprised at how minimal the black flies and mosquitoes were. A few weekends ago, we were in the southern adirondacks bouldering at 9 ponds and the black flies were terrible. Though the day was super dry, I did fall in the mud a few times and came out a mess. I love to hike in my Keens because they are even more comfortable than my hiking boots but I was definitely a muddy, dirty, happy little mess. 

We summited Tabletop at about 1:30 PM and ate our lunches and I had my summit glass of wine. As I was warned by friends and those coming down off the mountain, there wasn’t really a view. There was also absolutely no wind.