Ho Ho Ho

Day 1 in the Adirondacks found us driving by "Santa's Workshop" in Wilmington, NY on our way to Catamount Mountain (photo above) for a hike. This hike has been on our list of "to do's" for a year or two and its 3.6 mile round trip distance seemed like a good warmup for the week. The ADK Trail Guide book said there would be some rock scrambling, a chimney, but the views of Whiteface mountain and the high peaks were stunning from the rocky summit. Sounded great!

We registered at the trail head and started our way into the woods. Nice level trail through the trees and then we started to climb. We crossed a small brook that was flowing briskly from last night's rainfall.

The trail continued to climb and become more and more rocky. During a break, Abby noticed a "lady slipper" on the side of the trail. We looked closer and there were several of them. These wildflowers are a cousin of the orchid and are very beautiful and delicate.

The trail kept climbing and the views from the various outcrops of rocks were indeed spectacular.

Remember the bit about the Chimney? Well, we managed to get there after several scrambles and managed to coax Denise up the gap. Once though, we still were faced with a significant rock face to climb before we reached the summit. We decided that enough was enough. Denise is not real keen on open rock climbs and I was thinking that the views from here were great already and the climb down would be challenging enough. Besides, we have a race to run sunday!

Denise said they they would wait if I wanted to go on to the summit. I left my pack with the girls, took the camera, and proceeded to the summit. After some very challenging scrambles, I managed to reach the summit, the south summit that is. There was still .3 miles left to go to the actual summit with more open rocks and climbs ahead. Good choice to stop where we did because I don't think that Abby's arms/legs were long enought to climb up one face. I had to be creative myself to get this far...

I snapped a picture and started back down.

The photo is of Gina and I climbing down the Chimney. Oh yeah, Santa would not have made it through the top part! We had to remove our packs to squeeze through the narrow gap!

We made it back down the mountain and to the car, all in one piece. The girls would butt-slide down the rock faces, make the return trip much faster! We stopped at the A&W in Wilmington for ice cream and spotted this snapping turtle along-side the road on our way back to the cabin!


Below is a picture of our home for the next week!



We will hate to leave...