Backpacking Adventure #2 (and much more!)

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As Ben and I prepare to enter Boston tomorrow, I feel a great sense of relief as well as a great sense of foreboding. I am ready to be done with this transient lifestyle, but the pressures of what's to come--of staying afloat as individuals and as a couple--are daunting. This past week, during a particularly hard day of backpacking (more on that later), Ben had to be by my side every step of the way even though I was being slow and ornery. After the worst was over and I began to smile again, Ben looking at me and said, "The way I helped you today, that's what I need you to do for me in Boston." It's going to be a lot of adjustment for us, but I'm so grateful to have someone to lean (and to lean on me) as we jump into this sea of people.

This last week has been eventful as ever. We stayed in Buffalo, NY, with friends of the Pittsburgh relatives, and made a point of visiting Niagara Falls (the American Falls). It was suggested that we do the Cave of the Winds while we're there, so we decided to check it out. The attraction wasn't so much a cave as an elevator that takes you down to a short tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, you are given a poncho and released onto a series of outdoor walkways that take you just feet away from the base of the falls. So cool. The water shoes they gave me were too small and I soon couldn't see anything because of the mist on my glasses, but it was thoroughly enjoyable, nonetheless. Afterward, Ben and I dried off by walking around and sitting on the lawn above Horseshoe Falls. It was pleasant until we witnessed a swimming duck get sucked over the edge of the falls. We left soon after that.

Our next stop was the Adirondacks for Backpacking Adventure #2. We decided to stay about 30 minutes NW of our entry point the night before we went in, because I knew there was a larger town and we figured cell/internet service would be nice to have. Turns out, that larger town was Lake Placid, where the Winter Olympics were held in 1932 and 1980. There is still an Olympic Training center there, as well. It appears that tourism is a year-round thing in Lake Placid, though, as Main Street was hopping at dinner time. After an adventure to the pharmacy (to get Neosporin for those nymph tick bites from the last entry), we landed at Lake Placid Pub and Brewery for supper, which Ben and I HIGHLY recommend. What really made Lake Placid special, though, was that Ben actually said he'd be interested in returning some day. For a touristy place with a lot of people, that says a LOT about the atmosphere and the location.

Backpacking Adventure #2 taught us a lot of valuable lessons about ourselves and the world of backpacking:


• Old magazine articles that recommend using an unmarked trail should not be trusted. Always choose the marked trails. (Don't worry, we didn't get very far before we discovered this lesson.)
• When you're hiking up a mountain, and 9 out of 10 people passing you say, "Wow! Full packs? Those look heavy!" and then show off their little backpacks, you DON'T keep going. You turn around, set up camp, and then do a day trip. (We learned this one the hard way--we didn't turn back.)
• When a professional trail guide tells you that your Keens were a "gutsy choice" for this trail, you know you've made a terrible mistake.
• Mountain slides are FAR more terrifying than playground slides. They are steeper, have more loose gravel, and don't take well to the extra 50 lbs. pack you're carrying.
• Back-country backpacking trails are not made for people with short legs. Believe it or not, tall forest ranger who maintains the trails, I cannot reach those handholds, or straddle that ditch, or jump to that rock, or climb over that log, because I have legs that are significantly shorter than your own. It took me 11 hours with help to do about 6 miles of your trail. If I were alone, you'd be giving me and my pack a piggyback ride out by now. And I guarantee that I weigh more than a 50 lbs. pack.



All that said, the views were amazing, and I do feel proud for surviving Mount Macomb with a full pack. Those eleven hours were so exhausting, though, that we decided to head out the next day and not do the other peaks in the area. There are 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks--1 down, 45 to go! :-) We're now entered MA, and are slowly making our way across. We stayed at DAR State Forest our first night (GREAT state park), then at Wells State Park (average, but nice). The big excitement has been that my tick bites (remember those from OH?) have gotten itchier and at DAR State Forest they got so bad that I'd wake up to one foot scratching the other! Needless to say, the next morning they were swollen and unhappy, so we went to Urgent Care and I'm now taking antibiotics and waiting for a bloodtest. In the meantime, emails, calls, and Facebook are all alive with Boston news, so we've decided to stay a little more connected until we get to Boston tomorrow. All the best, and we'll be in touch again, soon!

Much Love,

Lynn

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