ADK 2012

 When Bob invited me on his, now annual, winter trip to the Adirondacks, I was in. We started from the Garden in Keene Valley and hiked into Grace camp. We had a nice large group, Bob, Chris, Scott, Jamie, Topher, Craig, Sean, and myself.

Our Home for 3 days.

We settled in and tried to prepare for a long day on Wdenesday.

There was no shortage of beverages for the trip.

We started nice and early for a planned 3 summit day. First up was Gothics, this was the hardest ascent of the day. 

Scott using the cable on the rock face, which was covered in ice.

The weather was very mild for this time of year, temps in the 30's in the woods and 20's above treeline with very little wind.

 Topher did great for his first trip.

We did have a couple of minor mishaps. We stopped at a trail junction to fuel up and get ready for the summit. Jamie went off first, only problem was he took the wrong trail. We didn't reallize it until we were half way up. He was across the valley on the wrong mountain. Luckilly Bob made sure we all had whistles and knew how to signal each other.

 We re-grouped and started towards Armstrong. A couple of guys took the lead and broke trail. Here was our second issue. We were hiking along, then the next thing we noticed is, we were ended up back at the same spot. We missed the trail marker and did a balloon string. After some searching and map checking we found the trail and were off again.

 

 Next up was Upper Wolf Jaw. This would be our last summit, before a long descent back to Grace Camp.



 I was happy to head back. My ankles were killing me, not sure why, but I think it was my boots. Even though they never bothered me before.

 Jamie decided to take what he called a snow shower.

There was no scimping on the food. I think Craig carried in half of a cow.

After a successful trip, we spent much of the night celebrating and playing cards. the fact that we did our planned loop, and no one got hurt, was all the reason we needed.

 The next morning we polished off the last of our food, and packed up for the hike out. After a stop at the Noon Mark Diner we headed home.

Thanks to Bob for putting this trip together, and thanks to Steve for letting me borrow his sled, without which I couldn't have carried in the amount beer I did.

Cheers,

Buddy