Southeastern Adirondacks Trip

[hikingandwildex]

I spent a brief amount of time in the Southeastern Adirondacks last weekend. The fall colors were out in full force, as were the massive crowds.

There was heavy traffic going northbound on I-87 between 4-5 AM, with most people presumably heading to the High Peaks region. It's amazing to think that anyone going to the Loj at that ungodly hour wouldn't have been able to find a parking spot, as it was reported that the parking lot was completely full at 5:00!

It wasn't just the High Peaks that got slammed, though. On one short firetower hike (under two miles each way) near Glens Falls, I counted over a hundred people and passed groups of hikers every... single... minute of my hike. I tried counting from 1 to 60 in my head to see if I could even get one measly minute of peace and couldn't. It was a constant stream of hikers parading up and down the mountain unlike anything I have ever experienced in decades of hiking. Not even Cascade on a sunny Saturday morning in the middle of summer was so insanely crowded! Although I did anticipate there being a fair amount of people given various factors (time of day, time of year, the pandemic, etc.) I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near that bad! Honestly, I got more solitude in the middle of Downtown Buffalo at lunch hour when I used to work there.

The highlight of my trip was walking around Great Sacandaga Lake where I actually had some space to spread out and enjoy the pleasing early-autumn scenery. It looked like an ideal place to go paddling sometime.

The rest of my trip didn't go so well. I received minimal sleep due to inconsiderate $#!+#3@d$ making too much noise and also had a kidney stone attack that left me in excruciating pain for a while. Between those experiences and the weather forecast looking unpromising between 9/28 and 10/2, I decided to cut my trip short and make the long drive back to Western New York. I'm hoping that when I return to the 'dacks (probably during the off-season or perhaps after this covid nightmare is finally behind us), I'll have a more enjoyable time like I did in past years.

Now for some photos to hopefully make up for all the complaining I did

[TrailBlaser]

Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing!

[Banjoe]

Lovely pics.

Having spent a fair amount of time in downtown Buffalo, I don't know that your statement means much. I've had more solitude experiences there than many forests. (I do love Buffalo, don't get me wrong.)

In 2019 my wife and I did a 12-hour hike in the northern Presidentials in the Whites. The next morning I got up and had a stomach cramp, within two hours I was in the nearest emergency room getting shots of fentanyl for a kidney stone which passed after a couple hours. The ER people said they diagnose kidney stones by the way people are walking in the door. Couldn't resist this photo which we sent to friends and said it was a result of trying to keep up with her.
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Our friend who conducts rescues in the Whites said he'd never had to rescue anyone with a kidney stone. Missed being his first by 24 hours. While hiking a 4000' mountain the next day, I fell in a well and had to be rescued by Lassie.
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[Tick Magnet]

Originally Posted by Banjoe

I fell in a well and had to be rescued by Lassie.

Ha! Too funny.

Beautiful pictures. You're lucky you got there at peak color. I was out yesterday in the area of your last five pictures and most of the red maple and yellow birch leaves are down due to the rain and wind we had. Still plenty of color, but you nailed it! (Of course, so did several hundred of your close friends )

[Woodly]

Yes, nice photos indeed.

And oh kidney stones...may I never have another.

Wells? That's a deep subject.

[hikingandwildex]

In 2019 my wife and I did a 12-hour hike in the northern Presidentials in the Whites. The next morning I got up and had a stomach cramp, within two hours I was in the nearest emergency room getting shots of fentanyl for a kidney stone which passed after a couple hours.

Yep, that's an unmistakable kidney stone facial expression right there! I would say your experience makes you both lucky and unlucky. Unlucky because you had to experience the hell that is kidney stone pain (a lot of women say it's worse than childbirth and I will take their word for it!) and lucky because you were able to pass it relatively quickly. I similarly had a kidney stone attack on a 2019 hiking trip in New England. The stone didn't want to make its way down my urinary tract so I was left to treat it with ice and Aleve. Two months later, I finally passed it at my workplace of all places.

My worst nightmare is having one of these attacks deep in the wilderness. I make sure to include pain relief pills and chanca piedra in my first aid kit in case I ever find myself in that undesirable scenario.

10-15 years ago, I was riding a Greyhound bus and one of the other passengers remarked to me that it was so empty you could roll a bowling ball right through the middle of Downtown Buffalo. Activity started to pick up in the years leading up to the pandemic, particularly in the "Canalside" area, but thankfully never reached the levels of Times Square or some of the more popular ADK trails nowadays.

Getting back to last weekend's trip, here's my favorite photo which I didn't include in the original post because its dimensions were different than the others.

[rickhart]

Thanks - beautiful photos. I love it when the trails are paved with colorful leaves.