Amos and Donkey

I had to get up and go this morning because I planned on hiking 15 miles (and if I plan, I do). I still took some time to enjoy the view at my campground and the calmness of Long Lake as I drove past on my way to my first stop at Blue Mountain Trail. I saw a pair of hiking sticks someone left at the trailhead so I grabbed them. Thank goodness I did because I don’t think I touched dirt the entire trail.
The beginning was full of small rocks that I stumbled over and as it got progressively steeper, those small rocks turned into huge boulders that were slick from the rain. I bounded up them with no thought to getting back down. I was winded and sick of looking up and seeing more looming rocks when I finally came across a family that said it was only 10 minutes further. The dad and daughter had sleep pants on, all were wearing tennis shoes and they didn’t have any water. This is a steep, dangerous, 4 miles round trip so I’m not quite sure what this Dad was thinking. Anyway I forgot about them and concentrated on getting to the top. I finally made it and the views were awesome. The summit was forested but once I climbed the tower then Blue Mountain Lake spread before me. I rested a while and grabbed a granola bar and then decided to head back down. Thank goodness I had my hiking sticks. It was so dang slippery and dangerous on the way down that, after falling a few times, I decided to just slide on my butt. Once I got past the big rocks I don’t think my feet touched the ground because I was using my hiking sticks like crutches. I would plant both the sticks and swing myself forward and got a pretty good rhythm going. I got going so fast that I caught up to the family I had passed on the way up. They didn’t feel the need to move over and let me pass so I was stuck behind them. They obviously don’t follow trail etiquette.
I jumped in my car and headed over to Castle Rock. The only reason I wanted to hike this mountain was because the trail description said there were caves on top. It was so worth it. The hike was moderately easy and there was a spur trail down to the shores of Blue Mountain Lake that was really pretty. I had passed an older gentleman on that trail and then I passed him again on the way to the caves. I of course climbed right in and started following the caves and he must have thought that I knew where I was going because he started following me only to realize that that probably is not a good idea. I heard him turn back around and continued exploring the caves. By the time I had worked myself up and around I lost sight of the trail. I heard people talking so I figured I was near the top so I kept going up and found the trail once again. After scrambling over more rocks and pulling myself up on tree limbs I made it to the top. Castle Rock does not have a fire tower but it was probably the best vista of the whole trip. There was a group of old ladies on top and I asked them to take my picture. They happily obliged and I asked if I could take a picture of them. A few said of course and scrambled out on the rocks but this one woman was hesitant. Her friends yelled at her enough and when she handed the camera to me she muttered “of course they never listen to me”. They took off and I enjoyed the views for a while longer. The map I had showed a loop trail so I took off trying to find it. It wasn’t readily apparent so I headed down this other trail thinking it was it. When I got back to the caves I realized two things: 1) this is the same trail I came up on and 2) it looked new because I had bushwhacked up through caves, eliminating the last quarter mile of it. I encountered the women again and they were mad because their friends weren’t waiting for them to catch up. They tried to convince me to tell their friends that they had fallen when I caught up with them. Yeah right. I also encountered the old man who I thought had fallen off the mountain earlier when I led him astray. He stopped me and asked if I had left a hat up top because there was one hanging on a tree branch (I hadn’t). The last people I encountered on the way down was a family with 2 little boys who had started at the trailhead at the same time as me but obviously were moving way slow. They asked me how much further and I said “not too much but it gets a little sketchy at the top”. Well that was the wrong thing to say. The mother's eyes bugged out and I thought she was going to grab her children and run back down the mountain. I assured her that I had taken a more circuitous route to the top and that it really wasn’t that bad. I was so hungry when I got back to the car but the hardest hike was ahead of me so I drove over to Indian Lake gnawing on my hunk of cheddar, interspersed with handfuls of Wheat Thins. I didn’t realize how remote this last trail was. I ended up on a dirt road (par for the course for my road trips) and made it to the Wakely Mountain Trail head. There was a father/son team getting out of their car too so I rushed over to the trail register and took off, not wanting to be behind them the whole way. I briefly saw a sign for a missing dog and a missing hiker in the trail register box but didn’t pay much attention (which should have been my first clue). Wakely Mountain is one of the most difficult hikes I’ve ever done. The only reason I hiked it was because it is the site of the tallest fire tower in the ADK’s. It lulls you into complacency with the first two miles on a relatively flat old road bed. I did it in 45 minutes. But from that point on the trail basically goes up a rock strew mountain. The son from the parking lot (Amos) readily passed me without missing a beat. I heard the father (Donkey) coming up later and stepped aside to let him passed. He stopped and asked if I was okay. Nobody has ever asked me that before so I must have looked hard up. I said Donkey told me a story about hiking in Switzerland. The moral was “go slow and take deep breaths” (apparently an elderly Swiss woman in her Sunday best had beaten him up a mountain with that motto). Usually my MO is to charge upward until I can’t function anymore and then take a break and continue the same pattern. I decided to try his way and it kind of worked. I kept looking up and wondering when the heck I was going to reach the top. It took me about an hour and a half to go that last mile. Ughh. The father and son were already there casually enjoying a snack. He offered me a peach but I was too busy gasping and sucking water down. I strode over to the tower because I knew if I stopped moving I wouldn’t get going again for a while. Halfway up, Amos yells “watch out its swaying!” Not funny Amos. I was a bit perplexed because every other fire tower I had been to had some primitive form of safety precaution. Not the tallest in the ADK’s. Nope this one was just a shell of metal with a few thin pieces of metal as cross supports. At the top this ladder loomed ahead of me, leading into the tower. I drew the line there. I contented myself with taking pictures from the platform below the ladder. Amos decided he wanted to come up to so he squeezed past me and climbed right up the ladder. I carefully made my way down and Donkey looked at me and said “how about that peach now?” I gratefully accepted and it was the best peach I ever ate. Amos had made his way back down at that point and I was asking for directions home. Apparently the route I had planned on taking was 30 miles of dirt road. It was already 3:30 and I needed to be getting home so I’m glad I found out about that before I struck off into oblivion. Amos and Donkey apparently got around a lot in the ADK’s and informed me that this was one of the hardest hikes in the park. I told them I had also done Blue Mountain and Castle Rock and they asked “this weekend?” and I said “No, this morning”. I then said I had to get going and Donkey jokes “Why? Don't you have a few more mountains to climb before heading home?”. Oh Donkey. I hobbled down the trail and it was just as bad going down. I used my hiking sticks as crutches. Every time I stepped down I could feel the jolting in my knees. Oh the pain. I finally made it back to the parking lot and Amos and Donkey ended up right behind me. I bid them a good day and headed for home. Sounds like the end right? Nope as the final insult to my weekend I was driving through Utica and all of a sudden a couch cushion flies out from the car in front of me and before I could even do anything I barrel right over it. I have no clue where it came from since I couldn’t see a couch or cushions on any vehicle ahead of me. I made it home by 9:30 and collapsed into bed. Whew! So much for a relaxing Labor Day weekend.